Transparency International and Accountability
Transparency International (TI) is an international non-governmental organization which is based in Berlin, Germany, and was founded in 1993. Its nonprofit purpose is to take action to combat global corruption and prevent criminal activities arising from corruption. It publishes for example the Global Corruption Barometer and the Corruption Perceptions Index. Transparency International has the legal status of a German registered voluntary association (Eingetragener Verein) and serves as an umbrella organization. Its members have grown from a few individuals to more than 100 national chapters which engage in fighting corruption in their home countries. TI confirmed the dis-accreditation of the national chapter of United States of America in 2017.
Corruption Perceptions Index
This year’s Corruption Perceptions Index highlights that the majority of countries are making little or no progress in ending corruption, while further analysis shows journalists and activists in corrupt countries risking their lives every day in an effort to speak out.
The index, which ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption according to experts and businesspeople, uses a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean. This year, the index found that more than two-thirds of countries score below 50, with an average score of 43. Unfortunately, compared to recent years, this poor performance is nothing new.
This year, New Zealand and Denmark rank highest with scores of 89 and 88 respectively. Syria, South Sudan and Somalia rank lowest with scores of 14, 12 and 9 respectively. The best performing region is Western Europe with an average score of 66. The worst performing regions are Sub-Saharan Africa (average score 32) and Eastern Europe and Central Asia (average score 34).
Transparency International India
Transparency International India (TII) is a leading non political, independent, non-governmental anti-corruption organisation of India. TII has extensive expertise and understanding of issues of corruption in India. From villages in rural India to the corridors of power in Delhi, TII gives voice to the victims and witnesses of corruption. We work in constructive manner in the interest of the country together with Union and State governments, like minded civil society organizations, corporate, academia, media and common citizens. The main aim is to reduce corruption, bribery, create deterrence for abuse of power, promote good governance and the rule of law.
We raise awareness about corruption; advocate legal and policy reforms at national and state levels; design practical tools for institutions, individuals and companies wishing to combat corruption; and act as a leading centre of anti-corruption expertise in India.
Accountability
New development actors like Brazil and China consider their support to fall outside the official aid definitions – and rightly so. But this means that they are not reporting through the formal aid channels. They have not embraced a common standard for tracking development flows that looks at more than just aid or allows data to be updated instantly.
It’s critical to remember that transparency, accountability and anti-corruption are principles that go beyond traditional classifications associated with aid effectiveness – no matter how funders choose to label their assistance to another country.
For those development donors like Germany and the United States that report using the current aid classifications, delays in cross-checking and putting their information online mean that data is not available for the current (or even previous) year.
And while both Germany and the United States have officially endorsed the common standard known as the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI), they have not started implementing it. This is part of the reason why both countries have performed relatively poorly on global aid transparency indices, like the one produced by Publish What You Fund.