TAI Weekly

TAI Weekly | Economic Sovereignty in an Age of Opacity

By TAI (Role at TAI)
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TAI Weekly

Dear readers,

One of our watching briefs for 2026 is to see how the Gen Z activism that emerged so effectively last year will evolve. That makes Jide Okeke’s reflections on how youth movements are redefining governance in Africa essential reading. 

One important driver of youth activism has been frustration at corrupt elites, so they may not want to look at the The Economist lead article this week that highlights the dangerous relationship between corruption and censorship. Weakened independent media and accountability mechanisms increasingly benefit corrupt politicians, even in democracies. What might we do about it? The rest of this Weekly offers some ideas from stepping up procurement integrity to exposing corporate ownership to each of us stepping up for a strong independent civil society.

Happy reading!

TAI team

What's New

The “2026 Edelman Trust Barometer” reveals a sobering global trend: 70% of respondents say they are unwilling or hesitant to trust people with different values, problem-solving approaches, or cultural backgrounds. This trust deficit poses fundamental challenges for pluralistic democracy.

John Chukw outlines key do’s and don’ts of supporting investigative journalism, and points out how fixers’ local knowledge, language skills, and cultural insight are often essential to the success of investigative reporting.

Authoritarians are increasingly weaponizing gender issues, deploying what Elin Bjarnegård, Pär Zetterberg call "genderbashing", framing rights as threats to tradition, and "genderwashing", using selective rights discourse to launder repressive policies. Understanding these tactics is crucial for civil society working on democracy and civic space.

Sarah Logan asks whether hopes for green industrialization via mineral processing in Africa can truly be met. The analysis urges close attention to the costs and trade-offs, not just the potential benefits, as countries pursue beneficiation strategies.

In a Center for Global Development piece, Lee Crawfurd and Ian Mitchell argue that the UK should reform, not scrap, the Independent Commission for Aid Impact. While it’s fair to question costs, they note that ICAI’s £4 million budget is just 0.04% of total UK aid and plays a key role in ensuring transparency and accountability.

The Fisheries Transparency Initiative has launched version 2.0 of its FiTI Standard, the first major update since the initial release in April 2017. The updated standard reflects an evolved understanding of what transparency requires in the fisheries sector.

Senior fellows at the Carnegie Endowment outline four trends that supporters of democracy within and outside Africa should track this year. Amid exceptional global volatility, Africa's uneven democratic trajectories present both new opportunities and serious challenges.

The final report of the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts on the murder of Berta Cáceres confirms that violence against women who defend land and water is not isolated. Published by ESCR-Net, the researchers argue these crimes are structural, responding to economic interests, extractivist development models, and complicity between corporations and the state.

Finance Uncovered and OCCRP report on opaque contractors winning large public contracts in Uzbekistan, adding to evidence of procurement integrity challenges across multiple jurisdictions.

A new guide maps how technology is being used both to entrench authoritarian power and to strengthen democratic capacity, offering practical insights for those working at this intersection.

ESSENTIAL LISTENING:

The Tax Justice Network has published Season Two of The Corruption Diaries podcast, anti-corruption veterans in their own words. This season follows a music lover and tour manager with his own record label who unexpectedly became a campaigner, taking on tax dodgers and the British authorities from his garden shed. 

From Our Members

PACKARD FOUNDATION: President Nancy Lindborg worries for democracy around the globe but finds hope in people stepping up to help each other, protect civic space and democratic values. The headline message is that a strong civil society is not a “nice to have,” but foundational for a durable, positive change.

OPEN SOCIETY FOUNDATIONS: Writing in TIME, President Binaifer Nowrojee reflects on the power of resistance amid overzealous immigration enforcement and the lack of accountability for attacks by federal agents. She argues that collective action remains central to defending the promise of democracy in the United States.

MACARTHUR FOUNDATION: Reflects on a year of growing need and mounting challenges driven by funding cuts, policy shifts, and market disruptions in the U.S. and globally. In a new set of Perspectives, its Program Directors share lessons learned from the field during what they describe as an unparalleled year.

ESSENTIAL READING:

Fuller examines women's roles in global movements from Sudan to Nepal, Iran and the United States, documenting how women drive revolutions, why their contributions are erased, and what it takes to turn protest into lasting change.

TOOLS AND TRENDS FOR FUNDERS

Gabrielle Fitzgerald, Founder and CEO of Panorama, analyzes trends driving a shrinking pool of capital available for social impact work. Her analysis helps funders understand the structural forces reshaping the philanthropic landscape.

Grantmakers for Effective Organizations has released a publication, outlining the potential of more effective governance and highlighting promising practices that grantmakers are testing as they explore governance purpose, roles, relationships, and processes.

Brunswick's newly published Global State of Philanthropy survey explores public attitudes toward billionaire philanthropy across eight markets: China, France, Germany, India, Nigeria, South Africa, the UK, and the United States. Despite declining institutional trust and increased media scrutiny, support for billionaire philanthropy has remained remarkably robust among the public.

The Schott Foundation for Public Education has spearheaded creation of a new benchmark inviting foundations to engage in critical self-reflection about whether they're following through on promises to better support nonprofits. The tool helps identify leaders in sustainable grantmaking and encourages better alignment of practices with equity and systemic change.

ESSENTIAL READING:

"Reparative justice and the colonial continuum: towards a Pan-African Research and Policy Agenda on Climate Reparations" positions climate reparations as a matter of responsibility, repair, and structural transformation rather than aid or charity. Uby Patrick Toussaint and Krishnee Adnarain Appadoo provides foundational framing for ongoing work on climate reparations across research, policy engagement, and movement building.

Focused Topic of the Week

Tax, Opacity, and Power in the Global Economy

Long before today’s international tax debates took shape, Ghana’s first president, Kwame Nkrumah, had already identified the structural problem at their core. Rachel Etter-Phoya argues that capital flight and profit shifting are not recent distortions of the global economy but continuations of colonial accounting practices that survived political independence. From early extraction mechanisms to modern tax havens, the persistence of these systems demonstrates why economic sovereignty has remained elusive for many postcolonial states.

These historical dynamics are now resurfacing in contemporary policy debates. As UN negotiations on international tax cooperation resumed in New York last week, governments discussed the possibility of new global tax instruments under a proposed UN Convention. Ideas on the table include levies on fossil fuel companies for environmental damage and taxes on the ultra-wealthy, signaling a potential shift in how international fiscal rules are conceived and governed.

The stakes of these discussions are made tangible by investigative reporting that exposes how wealth is accumulated and protected under current arrangements. A Bloomberg investigation into the international property empire built by the son of Iran’s supreme leader illustrates how cross-border opacity, financial enablers, and weak disclosure regimes allow politically connected individuals to move and store assets beyond effective scrutiny.

Transparency of corporate structures will be essential to contain such manipulation of the financial system. Open Ownership has released a range of resources aimed at strengthening beneficial ownership disclosure, including a working paper on how land registers can support asset transparency and practical guidance on measuring the impact of beneficial ownership reforms in public procurement. Assessments of existing registers and emerging thinking on a global beneficial ownership register point to transparency as a necessary foundation for effective international tax cooperation.

These strands underscore a central tension in the global political economy: without visibility into ownership and wealth, tax reform and democratic accountability remain fragile. The renewed focus on international tax cooperation suggests growing recognition of this problem, but whether it can overcome the entrenched systems Nkrumah warned about decades ago remains unresolved.

JOBS

CALLS

  • Claim Your Space Fund (Track-2) – Global Focus is accepting applications for coalitions of local civil society organizations working together to enable and defend civic space in countries on the current OECD/DAC list.

  • Apolitical in partnership with the Open Government Partnership offers a free course for public servants on Open Government: How to Be Transparent, Participatory and Accountable.

  • Knight Center For Journalism: Free, on-demand online course on "A better way to cover civic life through listening" for journalists in all regions, offered by the Solutions Journalism Network.

  • New Democracy Fund - Armenia 2026 Call for proposals to support civil society organizations, youth groups, and independent media in Armenia's regions outside Yerevan. Deadline: February 11, 23:59 CET 2026.

  • WINGS Ecosystem Builder Awards (WEBAs) – the first global recognition dedicated to honoring behind-the-scenes leaders in philanthropy infrastructure. Submit nominations by February 16, 2026.

  • SOAS Future Leaders Programme on rethinking anti-corruption strategies.  Apply by February 20, 2026.

  • The call for workshop proposals for the 2026 International Anti-Corruption Conference (IACC) is now open. Under the theme "Igniting the Power of Integrity," the conference will take place in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, from December 1-4, 2026. Professionals, civil society groups, activists, journalists, academics, and practitioners worldwide are invited to submit proposals by February 23, 2026.

  • People Powered Rising Stars Mentorship Program – a free, online mentorship program for people working to strengthen participatory and inclusive democracy. Apply by February 27, 2026.

  • Two ScaleDem open calls are now live through 31 March 2026, offering eligible organizations across Europe and beyond funding, mentorship and peer learning to scale democratic innovations. The Piloting Programme supports bold new ideas with up to €100,000, and the Twinning Programme offers up to €65,500 for mentor–mentee communities adapting proven approaches.

CALENDAR

We’d love to hear from you on how we can further improve TAI Weekly to better serve your needs in program management on the transparency, accountability, improved grantmaking and civic space. Please direct your feedback to [email protected] or

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