Municipal Governance/Philippines: Global Integrity has published a new data set assessing governance and anti-corruption measures at the local level in the Philippines, the Philippines Local Governance Transparency and Accountability Indicators. The indicators include a total of 205 specific questions that were scored by local researchers through a combination of intensive desk research and hundreds of original interviews with local stakeholders. These indicators are spread over six categories representing various aspects of transparency and accountability in local governance.
One finding is a significantly large “implementation gap” the areas of citizen access to certain public information (e.g., procurement records), input in budget allocations and decision-making as well as the effectiveness of the audit agency.
United States: “Many state and local government websites recently made strides in boosting transparency,” according to open government watchdog Sunshine Review, which issued grades for 1,014 government websites, assessing a range of criteria measuring the availability of information. “While there’s much room for improvement, many localities increased their grades from previous years. More than 200 earned “A” grades last year, more than double the 2011 total.”
OGP/Africa: A report on a conference for civil society organizations (CSOs) from the five Open Government Partnership (OGP) countries in Africa (Ghana, Liberia, Kenya, Tanzania and South Africa. A report of proceedings is available here Report of OGP Africa VC
Open Government Contest: The Knight News Challenge on open government will run from Feb. 12 to March 18. “It’s an opportunity to win part of the $5 million we’ll use this year to support innovative projects.” The also says, “One of our goals for the News Challenge is to involve more people in the use of technology to solve community problems.”
The challenge will open on Feb. 12 with an “inspiration” phase where anyone – journalists, state and local officials, citizens, community foundations, schools, others – can share problems they’d like to see solved and success stories they’d like to see accelerated. We hope they’ll continue to participate with their comments as applicants start submitting project entries on Feb. 19. We’ll announce the winners in June.
We’ll have more details when we launch on Feb. 12 and will also hold open office hours at 1:00 p.m. ET on Thursday, Feb. 7. Stay tuned to @knightfdn and #newschallenge for more details.
World Bank: A post on TrustLaw by Stella Dawson about a World Bank discussion of anti-corruption strategy also touching on “the potential for new technologies, combined with citizen activism, to change the dynamics of anti-corruption efforts.” Sanjay Pradhan, vice president of the bank’s research arm, the World Bank Institute addressed this topic:
Technology is by no means the solution, because dumping budget documents online when few people know how to decipher them is transparency in name only, he warned. But if World Bank and government programmes build into their design ways for citizens to monitor and report back on the outcomes, accountability can be increased and opportunities for corruption greatly curtailed, he said.
Nepal: The latest issue of Free Expression, the newsletter of the Freedom Forum.
E-Government: “This United Nations E-Government Survey 2012 finds that many have put in place e-government initiatives and information and communication technologies applications for the people to further enhance public sector efficiencies and streamline governance systems to support sustainable development.”
Filed under: What's New