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In a previous post we reported on how Kenyan citizens conducted social audits to oversee the distribution of discretionary funds intended for community projects. This post looks at how citizen engagement in Kenya has helped to improve quality in water provision through citizen watchdogs called Water Action Groups. These are a spinoff of the Citizen…

Each year in Kenya, all 210 members of Parliament get roughly US$1 million each to distribute to community projects as they see fit. Where does the money really go? Citizen groups in Kenya are fighting to find out. Our friends at the International Budget Partnership (IBP) have produced a documentary which highlights the ways in…

We got an inevitably short reply to the post below from Professor Lessig via Twitter, which I’ll repost here mainly as a demonstration of how surreal policy debate feels when done in six word bursts. I wrote on twitter, linking to my critique of his essay “Against Transparency”: “@lessig says the US open gov movement…

Lawrence Lessig, a seemingly reliable advocate for open information, has written a bizarre piece entitled “Against Transparency: The perils of openness in government.” He claims that the US open government movement has grown too powerful and may have gone too far. It goes downhill from there. First, the piece is here: Against Transparency Second: A…

“We Are Global” is a new series on the Commons featuring interviews with Global Integrity’s far flung staff of journalists, researchers and advocates. This series will highlight our colleagues’ work “in the trenches” as they pursue anti-corruption reforms in their communities. What’s the power of one voice? And what’s the power of one voice with…

Corruption’s role in armed conflict and violence has become a key concern for peacebuilding professionals. And yet, the anti-corruption and peacebuilding fields have rarely converged in a systematic way. One effort towards bringing the two communities into an engaged dialogue is the recent publication of a special theme issue of the journal New Routes on…