We support progress toward open and accountable governance in countries and communities
around the world. We do this by conducting research and generating data, by supporting the
work of country-level reformers, and by influencing global conversations on open governance.
Goals and approach
1. Global Integrity supports progress toward open and accountable governance in countries and
communities around the world. We believe that citizens have the right to shape the rules that
govern their lives. Moreover, when governance is open and citizens are part of the process,
societies are better able to address challenges such as corruption, poor service delivery,
environmental degradation, and persistent poverty. Open and accountable governance is
fundamental to inclusive and sustainable development.
2. Research and practical reform experience yield three key insights on how countries move
toward open governance. First, progress toward more open governance is inherently political.
Reformers challenge the status quo and can expect to be met with opposition. Second, actors
within a given governance context play the primary role in driving governance reform. They are
the actors most likely to have the focus, commitment and deep understanding needed to craft
solutions, build alliances and push through reforms. And third, there is no universal blueprint for
open governance. Countries can learn from others’ experience, but contextual factors mean that
progress will and should take different paths in different places.
3. These insights lead to three corresponding principles, which guide our work. First, given that
progress is inherently political, our approach to supporting progress must be about
understanding and engaging with the politics of governance reform. Second, given the primary
role played by actors within a given governance context, our focus should be on supporting
domestic champions of governance reform. And finally, given that there are no universal
blueprints, our work should support reformers as they try, learn and adapt their way toward
reforms that work in their context.
Workstreams
4. We put these insights and principles into practice through three mutually reinforcing streams of
work:
a. Research and data. We work with a global network of researchers who gather data and
conduct research on countries’ journeys toward more open governance. This allows us
to produce original insights through cross-country comparisons, indicator-based
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assessments, and case studies. We use a combination of qualitative and quantitative
approaches, journalistic inquiry, action research, participatory research, and political
economy analysis. By deploying a diverse methodological toolkit, we are able to
generate high-quality evidence and insights about the implementation and impacts of
open governance policies. Rather than aiming for globally applicable policies and
practices, we orient our research toward the challenges facing reformers in particular
contexts.
b. Country-level engagement. We partner with reformers in selected countries to facilitate
learning and adaptation around opening governance. Depending on the context, our
work involves support to some combination of reform campaigns, policy design
processes, and implementation efforts. Across all contexts, we aim to strengthen
relationships within reform networks and build the political capital that contributes to
success. These engagements pair our research and data with the deep contextual
knowledge of think tanks, civil society organizations, journalists, in-government
reformers, and others. Our approach uses a mix of structured reflections, political
analysis, network mapping, and skill building. More than a mere convener, we aim to be
a trusted collaborator and co-creator of reform strategies, working alongside reformers
as they tackle obstacles, seize opportunities, learn lessons, and win victories.
c. Global advocacy. We aim to influence global conversations around open governance
using insights from our comparative research and country-level engagement. We focus
on key issues, including fiscal governance and money in politics, where policy changes
within institutions like the G20 or the World Bank can lead to better global norms and
practices. Our research and data, including what we learn from country-level work, help
to ground global conversations in the real-world experiences of open governance
reforms. Our global advocacy, in turn, helps to shape the norms and conversations that
create space for progress at the country-level.
5. With these workstreams, we aim to accelerate the learning loop that occurs when a country
moves toward open governance: greater transparency enriches the informational environment
for learning; more participation helps to ensure that learning incorporates citizens’ feedback;
and smarter accountability helps to ensure that learning leads to effective action, driving
progress toward greater openness. By focusing on this loop, we aim to harness the combined
power of openness and learning to drive progress toward more effective governance.
6. Since our Board approved our revised strategy in June, we have been taking forward
discussions with around 70 potential partner organizations. These conversations, many of which
have focused on specific projects, have provided us with a wealth of feedback on our strategy
and generated a wide variety of opportunities for working with partners to implement it.
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Figure 1: What we do and why we do it
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Themes and activities
7. The emerging projects cover a number of themes. Across all workstreams and projects, our
core theme is data, learning and citizen engagement. Our work on this theme aims to shape
policy and practice as regards the role that data, learning, and citizen engagement can play in
supporting progress toward open and effective governance. Our work in this theme includes the
following current and potential activities:

Sector-wide learning: Support for the work and evolution of the Transparency and
Accountability Initiative and the T/A Learn community of practice which it currently leads,
as well as our related engagement with the “Doing Development Differently” community
of practice and various other activities under our global advocacy workstream;

Citizen-generated data: Discussions with Civicus about possible involvement in the
DataShift initiative, with its focus on citizen-generated data, including in relation to
monitoring the Sustainable Development Goals;

Data and engagement (Africa Integrity Indicators): Explorations of how the data
collected through our Africa Integrity Indicators project can be put to better use to
stimulate and support policy dialogue, especially among country-level actors;

Governance assessments: Discussions with AidData and others about how the Global
Integrity Report—and other assessments of governance under our research and data
work—might be designed to maximize their value to country-level learning.
8. A second theme is multi-stakeholder governance initiatives (MSIs), and the Open
Government Partnership in particular. We have three specific angles of interest:
understanding and helping to improve the ways in which such initiatives contribute to open
governance at country level; supporting the learning function within and across multistakeholder initiatives (see more here); and understanding how such initiatives relate to social
movements. Our work on these themes builds on recent and ongoing research supported by the
Transparency and Accountability Initiative on multi-stakeholder governance initiatives, on the
OGP specifically, and on citizens and social movements.
9. In relation to the Open Government Partnership (OGP), our overall aim is to support and
strengthen its learning functions in order to improve its overall effectiveness. Specifically, we are
exploring how we can help countries to design and implement better National Action Plans, and
to incorporate stronger monitoring and learning about commitments made within those Action
Plans. This entails promoting and supporting learning within and across countries, and within
and across thematic areas such as fiscal governance, natural resource governance and access
to information. In addition, we are keen to make stronger connections between OGP and related
agendas and initiatives such as Making All Voices Count, the Global Partnership for Social
Accountability and the “Doing Development Differently” agenda.
10. A third theme focuses on open fiscal governance and a “follow the money” agenda that aims
to improve the ability of citizens to “follow the money”, that is, to track and shape the use of
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public resources. We continue to help coordinate the Follow the Money Network—a network
founded by our Executive Director in 2011—and provide leadership to connect various issues
and organizations in the fiscal governance space. We are actively participating in discussions
about how the G20 and other advocacy moments in 2016, such as the UK Corruption Summit,
might drive progress toward more open fiscal governance. And, in Mexico we are supporting the
development of OGP commitments, including at sub-national level, through a focus on data use
as well as data availability. We plan to expand this work to a wider group of OGP countries.
11. A fourth theme is money, politics, and transparency. Our work under this theme aims to
inform efforts to improve the regulation of campaign finance. Building on our Campaign Finance
Indicators, an assessment of the regulation and practical enforcement of campaign finance in 54
countries (blogposts here and here), this work increasingly extends beyond data collection to
supporting country-level policy dialogues about campaign finance regulation. We are talking
with potential implementing partners about regularly updating the data around electoral cycles
and about working with local partners to use the data to stimulate discussion and inform policy
dialogue about campaign finance regulation. When money rules politics, governance remains
closed. Making the connections between the fiscal governance and money in politics agendas
can play an important role in opening governance.
Capacity challenges and opportunities
12. Global Integrity is well placed to drive this strategy forward. Our strengths include: our
experience in assessing systems of governance; our global network of researchers; our highquality research processes and the rich data that they generate; our focus on policy in practice
as well as on paper; our expertise and experience on money in politics and fiscal governance;
our global perspective; our access to international policy processes; our position at the center of
the open governance community, at the OpenGov Hub, in Washington D.C. and beyond; our
ability to make connections across issues and organizations; and, our proven willingness to
innovate, experiment, and learn.
13. The team is working very well under a new strategy, a revised (still interim) structure, and
improved systems for information sharing and collaborative working. But we are keen to make
new hires in key areas, including communications, learning and advocacy. We are actively
seeking support to enhance our capacity, so that we can effectively implement a strategy that—
with a focus on data, learning, and action to open governance—will make an important
contribution to thinking and practice about citizen-centered governance reform, and to the
nature of governance in countries and communities around the world.
14. Now, we are known for our ability to collect high-quality data about various aspects of
governance. In five years’ time, we want to be known for two things. First, for our ability to
support the efforts of reformers at country level to use data, evidence and stories to drive
progress toward more open and effective governance. And second, for the value we add to the
work of others through our leadership on adaptive learning and open governance. As we move
forward, ambitiously but incrementally, we will practice what we preach, being transparent,
participatory, accountable and open, in everything we do, and learning as we go.
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Figure 2: Theory of Change
****November 2015****
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