[Edited on 7 September 2012 to remove an inadvertant reference to internal Steering Committee deliberations, and to correct descriptions of staffing levels.] As the Open Government Partnership enters its second full year as an established international initiative, there’s much to be celebrated. More than 50 governments have signaled their commitment to open government reforms by…
DetailsOn August 14th, the Woodrow Wilson Center hosted a lecture called “Understanding and Responding to Attacks on Civil Society: The Rule of Politics and Law.” Panelist Carl Gershman, President of the National Endowment for Democracy, qualified new Russian legislation as an “attack” on the freedom of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs). I was intrigued to hear…
DetailsGovernor Nikki Haley of South Carolina surprised us yesterday with an unexpected initiative – a comprehensive ethics reform at the state level. The reform includes five elements, as presented on the initiative’s poster: “no incumbent exemptions for election filings, mandatory conflict of interest recusals, one ethics commission for all public officials, total income disclosure, freedom…
DetailsThis post was originally published here on August 22 by Free Times, Columbia, South Carolina's free weekly. UPDATE: Republican House Speaker Bobby Harrell says he wasn’t contacted about Haley’s ethics package. Harrell also said,“The biggest driving force behind the need for ethics reform in our state was brought about by Governor Haley’s own questionable actions.…
DetailsThe state company Electricity of Ghana (ECG)’s then-Managing Director Cephas Gakpo announced in April 2010 that US$430 million would be dedicated to improving electricity distribution within the next six to 18 months. But by the end of 2011, lack of solutions to deal with illegal connections and frequent unannounced power outages continued, culminating in the…
DetailsIt's been a while since we've posted an update on where we are with building out and deploying Indaba, for which we apologize. We've been buried deep in designing and building new features and let our regular updates get away from us. To rectify that, here's a quick update on some major highlights and developments.…
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