Global Integrity
Encyclopedia
Global Integrity is an independent, nonprofit organization
tracking governance and corruption trends around the world using local teams of researchers and journalists to monitor openness and accountability. Global Integrity's reporting has been cited by over 50 newspapers worldwide, and is used by the World Bank
, USAID, Millennium Challenge Corporation
and other donor agencies to evaluate aid priorities. Global Integrity's methodology differs considerably from existing metrics of governance and corruption (such as the Corruption Perceptions Index
or Bribe Payers Index
) by using local experts and transparent source data, rather than perception surveys. Unlike traditional charities, Global Integrity is a hybrid organization
that seeks to generate earned revenue to support its public-interest mission.
, USA
, Global Integrity provides empirically-supported information which analyzes corruption and governance trends. Among other work, it produces the Global Integrity Report: an annual collection of original, in-depth national assessments combining journalistic reporting with nearly 300 “Integrity Indicators” analyzing the institutional framework underpinning countries’ corruption and accountability systems (ranging from electoral practices and media freedom to budget transparency and conflict-of-interest regulations).
Global Integrity’s analytical method is based on the concept of measuring the "opposite of corruption" – that is, the access that citizens and businesses have to a country's government, their ability to monitor its behavior, and their ability to seek redress and advocate for improved governance. The resulting data allows policymakers, private industry, non-governmental organizations and the general public to identify specific strengths and weaknesses in various countries’ governmental institutions.
Global Integrity is an independent, non-partisan organization organized under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code
of the United States. It releases its reports via its website, press releases and public events.
(a Washington, D.C. nonprofit investigative reporting organization) as an attempt to find a new way to investigate and assess corruption around the world and how governments address it. The project published a three-country pilot report in 2001. In August 2002 the Open Society Institute
(a private philanthropic foundation) awarded the Center a $1 million grant, which resulted in a 25-country study released in April 2004. In the summer of 2005, Global Integrity spun off from the Center as a separate organization and formally incorporated as a non-profit corporation. In March 2006, it opened its Washington, D.C. office. In January 2007 Global Integrity released a 43-country study, and a 55-country study in January 2008. In 2007, Global Integrity was recognized by Ashoka: Innovators for the Public
, a network of social entrepreneurs, with an award for innovation in fighting corruption. In 2008, Global Integrity won an award from the Every Human Has Rights campaign for reporting on censorship issues.
, "The Global Integrity Commons".
Global Integrity’s 2004 report – tracking the extent of openness, accountability and governance in 25 countries – took more than two years to produce; its team included approximately 200 researchers, editors, Web designers, social scientists, journalists, methodology experts and peer-review panelists. It was the largest project the Center had undertaken to date.
Local teams of social scientists, journalists and analysts in each country collected and reviewed data for 80 Integrity Indicators, divided over six broad categories. The Integrity Indicators allowed Center researchers to quantify each country's responses into a Public Integrity Index. This was a unique scorecard of governance practice that measured the existence of mechanisms (including laws and institutions) that promote public accountability and limit corruption; the effectiveness of these mechanisms; and the access that citizens have to public information to hold their government accountable. For each country the Report included basic country facts; a corruption timeline chronicling significant corruption-related events over the past 10–15 years; an essay on the culture of that country's corruption by an investigative reporter; and a report (compiled by a social scientist) highlighting the main features of the six main categories tracked by the Integrity Indicators.
Key findings:
In 2006 Global Integrity undertook its second major round of fieldwork, using journalistic reporting and data gathering in 43 countries (including 15 featured in the 2004 report) – primarily large aid recipients and emerging markets
. Global Integrity’s 2006 report followed the same basic framework as the one for 2004. A team of 220 journalists and researchers applied a slightly modified assessment methodology to generate a new Public Integrity Index. Along with the Integrity Indicators, each country report featured country facts, a corruption timeline and a corruption-themed essay written by a journalist.
Key Findings:
Nonprofit organization
Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...
tracking governance and corruption trends around the world using local teams of researchers and journalists to monitor openness and accountability. Global Integrity's reporting has been cited by over 50 newspapers worldwide, and is used by the World Bank
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...
, USAID, Millennium Challenge Corporation
Millennium Challenge Corporation
The Millennium Challenge Corporation is a bilateral United States foreign aid agency created by the George W. Bush administration in 2004, applying a new philosophy towards foreign aid.-Background and formation:...
and other donor agencies to evaluate aid priorities. Global Integrity's methodology differs considerably from existing metrics of governance and corruption (such as the Corruption Perceptions Index
Corruption Perceptions Index
Since 1995, Transparency International publishes the Corruption Perceptions Index annually ranking countries "by their perceived levels of corruption, as determined by expert assessments and opinion surveys." The CPI generally defines corruption as "the misuse of public power for private...
or Bribe Payers Index
Bribe Payers Index
Bribe Payers Index is a measure of how willing a nation appears to comply with demands for corrupt business practices. The first BPI was published by Transparency International on October 26, 1999.-Methodology:...
) by using local experts and transparent source data, rather than perception surveys. Unlike traditional charities, Global Integrity is a hybrid organization
Hybrid organization
A hybrid organization is an organization that mixes elements, value systems and action logics of various sectors of society, i.e. the public sector, the private sector and the voluntary sector...
that seeks to generate earned revenue to support its public-interest mission.
Description
Located in Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, USA
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, Global Integrity provides empirically-supported information which analyzes corruption and governance trends. Among other work, it produces the Global Integrity Report: an annual collection of original, in-depth national assessments combining journalistic reporting with nearly 300 “Integrity Indicators” analyzing the institutional framework underpinning countries’ corruption and accountability systems (ranging from electoral practices and media freedom to budget transparency and conflict-of-interest regulations).
Global Integrity’s analytical method is based on the concept of measuring the "opposite of corruption" – that is, the access that citizens and businesses have to a country's government, their ability to monitor its behavior, and their ability to seek redress and advocate for improved governance. The resulting data allows policymakers, private industry, non-governmental organizations and the general public to identify specific strengths and weaknesses in various countries’ governmental institutions.
Global Integrity is an independent, non-partisan organization organized under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code
Internal Revenue Code
The Internal Revenue Code is the domestic portion of Federal statutory tax law in the United States, published in various volumes of the United States Statutes at Large, and separately as Title 26 of the United States Code...
of the United States. It releases its reports via its website, press releases and public events.
History
Global Integrity began in June 1999 as a project of the Center for Public IntegrityCenter for Public Integrity
The Center for Public Integrity is a nonprofit organization dedicated to producing original, responsible investigative journalism on issues of public concern. The Center is non-partisan and non-advocacy and committed to transparent and comprehensive reporting both in the United States and around...
(a Washington, D.C. nonprofit investigative reporting organization) as an attempt to find a new way to investigate and assess corruption around the world and how governments address it. The project published a three-country pilot report in 2001. In August 2002 the Open Society Institute
Open Society Institute
The Open Society Institute , renamed in 2011 to Open Society Foundations, is a private operating and grantmaking foundation started by George Soros, aimed to shape public policy to promote democratic governance, human rights, and economic, legal, and social reform...
(a private philanthropic foundation) awarded the Center a $1 million grant, which resulted in a 25-country study released in April 2004. In the summer of 2005, Global Integrity spun off from the Center as a separate organization and formally incorporated as a non-profit corporation. In March 2006, it opened its Washington, D.C. office. In January 2007 Global Integrity released a 43-country study, and a 55-country study in January 2008. In 2007, Global Integrity was recognized by Ashoka: Innovators for the Public
Ashoka: Innovators for the Public
Ashoka: Innovators for the Public is a nonprofit organization based in Arlington, VA, supporting the field of social entrepreneurship. Ashoka was founded by Bill Drayton in 1981 to identify and support leading social entrepreneurs through a Social Venture Capital approach with the goal of...
, a network of social entrepreneurs, with an award for innovation in fighting corruption. In 2008, Global Integrity won an award from the Every Human Has Rights campaign for reporting on censorship issues.
Body of work
All of Global Integrity's research (including downloadable source materials) is published at the Global Integrity Report website. Global Integrity also publishes a blogBlog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
, "The Global Integrity Commons".
April 2004
25-nation field test:Global Integrity’s 2004 report – tracking the extent of openness, accountability and governance in 25 countries – took more than two years to produce; its team included approximately 200 researchers, editors, Web designers, social scientists, journalists, methodology experts and peer-review panelists. It was the largest project the Center had undertaken to date.
Local teams of social scientists, journalists and analysts in each country collected and reviewed data for 80 Integrity Indicators, divided over six broad categories. The Integrity Indicators allowed Center researchers to quantify each country's responses into a Public Integrity Index. This was a unique scorecard of governance practice that measured the existence of mechanisms (including laws and institutions) that promote public accountability and limit corruption; the effectiveness of these mechanisms; and the access that citizens have to public information to hold their government accountable. For each country the Report included basic country facts; a corruption timeline chronicling significant corruption-related events over the past 10–15 years; an essay on the culture of that country's corruption by an investigative reporter; and a report (compiled by a social scientist) highlighting the main features of the six main categories tracked by the Integrity Indicators.
Key findings:
- None of the 25 countries featured in the report (including the United States) received a "very strong" ranking – the highest score – on the Public Integrity Index
- 18 countries had no laws to protect whistleblowerWhistleblowerA whistleblower is a person who tells the public or someone in authority about alleged dishonest or illegal activities occurring in a government department, a public or private organization, or a company...
s from recrimination or other negative consequences - In 15 countries, journalists investigating corruption had been imprisoned, physically harmed or killed
- In three countries (GuatemalaGuatemalaGuatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...
, MexicoMexicoThe United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
and ZimbabweZimbabweZimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...
), both journalists and judges had been physically harmed in the previous year - 14 countries did not allow their head of state to be prosecuted for corruption
- In seven countries, the top executive-branch officialExecutive (government)Executive branch of Government is the part of government that has sole authority and responsibility for the daily administration of the state bureaucracy. The division of power into separate branches of government is central to the idea of the separation of powers.In many countries, the term...
was not required to file a personal financial- disclosure form revealing their private interests
January 2007
2006 Country Reports:In 2006 Global Integrity undertook its second major round of fieldwork, using journalistic reporting and data gathering in 43 countries (including 15 featured in the 2004 report) – primarily large aid recipients and emerging markets
Emerging markets
Emerging markets are nations with social or business activity in the process of rapid growth and industrialization. Based on data from 2006, there are around 28 emerging markets in the world . The economies of China and India are considered to be the largest...
. Global Integrity’s 2006 report followed the same basic framework as the one for 2004. A team of 220 journalists and researchers applied a slightly modified assessment methodology to generate a new Public Integrity Index. Along with the Integrity Indicators, each country report featured country facts, a corruption timeline and a corruption-themed essay written by a journalist.
Key Findings:
- Political financing was the number-one anti-corruption challenge facing the 2006 group of countries
- Weak legislative accountability threatened to undermine other crucially-needed long-term anti-corruption reforms
- Vietnam, one of Asia's leading emerging markets, was assessed as having the second-weakest overall anti-corruption framework of the group
- Russia appeared to have made little progress in establishing and enforcing effective anti-corruption mechanisms, compared with several other post-Soviet statesPost-Soviet statesThe post-Soviet states, also commonly known as the Former Soviet Union or former Soviet republics, are the 15 independent states that split off from the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in its dissolution in December 1991...
- Promoting effective anti-corruption and good governanceGood governanceGood governance is an indeterminate term used in development literature to describe how public institutions conduct public affairs and manage public resources in order to guarantee the realization of human rights. Governance describes "the process of decision-making and the process by which...
programs in post-conflict Africa requires a long-term commitment - New European Union (EU) membersMember State of the European UnionA member state of the European Union is a state that is party to treaties of the European Union and has thereby undertaken the privileges and obligations that EU membership entails. Unlike membership of an international organisation, being an EU member state places a country under binding laws in...
RomaniaRomaniaRomania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
and BulgariaBulgariaBulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
displayed a moderate gap in overall anti-corruption mechanisms, with Romania exceeding the performance of Bulgaria - Whistleblower protections and weak (or non-existent) access to information mechanisms threaten government accountability in almost every country
Funding
Global Integrity’s fundraising policy is to seek only philanthropic contributions, i.e., those that are altruistically given, in the public interest, without any demand or expectation that Global Integrity’s work will reflect the views or interests of the donor. Global Integrity also generates earned revenue through the sale of publications.| Funders |
|---|
| Ashoka (award prize) |
| Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) |
| Center for International Private Enterprise Center for International Private Enterprise The Center for International Private Enterprise is one of the four core institutes of the National Endowment for Democracy and a non-profit affiliate of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.- About :... (CIPE) |
| Legatum Legatum LEGATUM is a privately owned, international investment organisation, headquartered in Dubai, part of the United Arab Emirates. Legatum's mission is to find ways to generate and allocate the capital and ideas that help people live more prosperous lives.... |
| National Endowment for Democracy National Endowment for Democracy The National Endowment for Democracy, or NED, is a U.S. non-profit organization that was founded in 1983 to promote US-friendly democracy by providing cash grants funded primarily through an annual allocation from the U.S. Congress... |
| UNDP United Nations Development Programme The United Nations Development Programme is the United Nations' global development network. It advocates for change and connects countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people build a better life. UNDP operates in 177 countries, working with nations on their own solutions to... – Oslo Governance Centre |
| Sunrise Foundation |
| Wallace Global Fund |
| The World Bank World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty... |
Management and Staff
| Board of Directors | Advisory Board | Management/Senior Staff |
|---|---|---|
| Nathaniel Heller | Alan Henrikson | Nathaniel Heller (Co-founder, Managing Director) |
| Marianne Camerer | Paromita Goswami | Marianne Camerer (Co-founder, International Director) |
| David Cohen | Charles Lewis | Jonathan Werve (Director of Operations) |
| Mark Davies | Vincent Mai | |
| Barry Herman | Eugene Rotberg | |
| Dale Murphy | ||
| Susan Albrecht | ||
| Melissa Thomas |