TAI Weekly

TAI Weekly | The Work of Sustaining Civic Agency

By TAI (Role at TAI)
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TAI Weekly

September 8, 2026

Dear readers,

This week we range from digital tools for local governance to tracking authoritarian influence to a moratorium on funder panels, but we start with green industrial policy and the track record of Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia attempting to move up the value chain for battery production. Patience Mususa and Michel Shengo highlight issues of direct state participation and strategic oversight of investment decisions in the mining sector. Check out their recommendations, including building specialised “critical minerals trade diplomacy”. 

Happy reading!

What's New 

The recent disaster in Nepal raises questions about corruption and governance, not just climate change. In the South China Morning Post, Narayan Adhikari examines how building codes were ignored for decades, cronyism and nepotism contributed to manipulated standards, and infrastructure projects were used to secure votes and reward contractors, sand mining went unregulated. He considers how Nepal can strengthen oversight and accountability after the disaster.

The New York Times investigates approximately $1 billion in dark money flowing into the upcoming U.S. midterm elections. The investigation examines how political spending can move through opaque structures and raises questions about transparency and the ability of voters to understand who is financing political activity.

Despite the urgency of the global debt crisis, information about sovereign lending decisions, loan agreements, and conditions often remains outside public scrutiny. In a new policy brief, Transparency International calls on the G20 to strengthen debt transparency, embed anti-corruption safeguards in lending frameworks, and improve domestic oversight of sovereign borrowing and debt management.

How can public finance help address the social and environmental challenges associated with critical minerals? Isabel Munilla , Luke Balleny and Ke Wang look at public finance mechanisms that can incentivize shifts in critical mineral markets and support more responsible supply.

The South Centre has shared detailed comments on the latest draft of the UN Tax Convention currently under negotiation. The submission reinforces Global South perspectives and contributes to discussions over the framework for international tax cooperation.

What does it mean for an accountability initiative to be genuinely youth-led? G-Watch examines education accountability efforts in the Philippines and looks at how young people can shape and lead this work, rather than simply participate in programs designed by others.

The Institute for Strategic Dialogue has developed the “Authoritarian Interference Tracker,” which catalogs state-sponsored interference by Russia, China, and Iran across the EU and North America. The tracker allows users to filter incidents by actor, type, or target country and explore trends, tactics, and connections between entities.

Nearly three-quarters of Chinese outward foreign direct investment is routed through offshore financial centers, according to new Oxford University Press research. Authors Ronen Palan , Ricardo Soares de Oliveira , Yuan Wang , Xinyi Wei say that offshore structures are not simply a way for capital to escape markets and regulation, but “governance infrastructure” embedded in global capitalism.  

A recent Open Government Partnership Local Circle session brought together officials from Bogotá, Colombia, and Kaduna State, Nigeria, to share experiences using artificial intelligence and digital tools to strengthen integrity and accountability at the local level. The session was organized in partnership with the National Democratic Institute. Read the takeaways and watch the recording.

The “Handbook of Research Methods for Corruption Studies,” edited by Michael Johnston, brings together research approaches and methods for studying corruption. The new resource offers material for researchers working to understand corruption across different contexts.

How do communities govern shared resources? Study of lake use in Ethiopia provides new insights on self-governance of the commons and the need to adapt to the influence of urbanization.

From Our Members

PACKARD FOUNDATION: Examines how philanthropy can strengthen democratic values across political differences. In a new analysis, Democracy, Rights, and Governance Program Officer Benjamin Chou reviewed the 2024 tax filings of the 15 largest democracy funders and found an estimated four-to-one funding gap between base building and “majority activation,” or efforts to reinforce democratic values across political differences.

FORD FOUNDATION: Vice President of U.S. Programs Sarita Gupta considers how grassroots worker movements can contribute to a stronger democracy. Her latest #DemocracyReflection looks at the role of worker organizing in building a fairer economic future and strengthening democratic institutions.

HILTON FOUNDATION: Shares new evidence on refugee lens investing, drawing on grantee partner Acumen’s direct investments in 14 refugee-owned or refugee-serving businesses in the Horn of Africa. Between 2022 and 2025, these enterprises impacted nearly 56,000 people and created more than 270 jobs.

ESSENTIAL LISTENING:

The latest episode of the Philanthropisms podcast features TAI's very own Michael Jarvis in a conversation about how global philanthropy may change following the dismantling of USAID. They discuss the emergence of new philanthropic centers in regions including Southeast Asia and the Middle East, shifting relationships between donors and recipients, and whether the current disruption creates an opportunity to rethink long-standing models of aid and development.

TOOLS AND TRENDS FOR FUNDERS

For years, those in the development sector have acknowledged the problems with storytelling that portrays people as helpless victims. Matt Jackson and Jennie Richmond argue international NGOs must do more than recognize colonial and paternalistic tropes and make real changes to how they tell stories and represent the people they work with.

Vu Le calls for a moratorium on funder panels at conferences, raising questions about how these conversations are structured and whether panels are always the most useful format for funders and the organizations they support.

How is philanthropy affected by polarization, and what role can funders play in responding to it? The presidents of 13 large global foundations came together with leaders from South Africa and Colombia to discuss these questions. Read the ten ideas they came up with, including ways philanthropy can support new models, relationships, and approaches to polarization.

In 2025, nonprofits retained just over 43 percent of their previous year’s donors, continuing a nonprofit sector’s donor retention problem that has persisted despite years of tactical fixes. Writing in Stanford Social Innovation Review, Mark Dabosz argues that the sector needs to look beyond fundraising tactics and consider bigger changes to philanthropy itself. 

ESSENTIAL LISTENING:

Unpack Zambia’s election and “better democracy” under threat in this Bloomberg podcast. Matthew Hill explains how the election became so controversial, and Nicole Beardsworth from the University of the Witwatersrand discusses her group’s analysis of the voting numbers. 

Focused Topic of the Week

Sustaining Genuine Civic Agency

True democratic renewal rarely happens by simply inviting people into a room; it requires transforming episodic engagement into an ongoing, dignified civic habit. Across the governance and accountability ecosystem, we are seeing a necessary shift away from performative consultation toward deep, structured spaces that genuinely redistribute agency. When institutions create legitimate channels for co-decision, communities are not only more likely to engage—they actively build the trust that conventional political channels have eroded.

This deliberate shift is at the heart of the newly released Active Citizens Forum Report, which synthesizes reflections, keynotes, and interactive sessions from the recent two-day gathering. The report explores what it practically takes to move from passive participation to active citizenship, underscoring the vital role of responsive institutions, evidence-informed action, and robust collaboration across government, civil society, researchers, and local communities. Participants noted the promise of initiatives like the BeGov Lab to anchor institutional experimentation, strengthen local capacity, and foster shared learning.

At the same time, institutional willingness must meet thoughtful structural design. In a new essay exploring citizens’ assemblies and participatory decision-making models at the local level in the US. Carolyn J. Lukensmeyer demonstrates that everyday citizens are eager to participate in well-crafted deliberative processes and accept collective outcomes. Yet, reminds us that achieving authentic representation and meaningful accountability is demanding, fragile work.

Finally, participatory processes cannot claim integrity if they replicate existing exclusions through thoughtless communication. A timely policy brief from Accountability Lab, “Language and Dignity: Disability Representation in Official Documents, Media and Social Discourse,” brings this into sharp focus. By examining how institutional and public discourse frames disability, the Lab team illustrate that dignity begins with intentional representation—reminding practitioners and funders alike that who is recognized, and how they are named, dictates who truly holds power in the civic space.

JOBS

CALLS

  • Besa Global is accepting applications for its Social Norms Accelerator, a nine-month hybrid learning opportunity for small teams from government departments, NGOs, and anticorruption commissions. The program builds practical capacity to understand and address social norms as part of broader anticorruption efforts. Deadline: September 9, 2026.

  • The Human Rights Chronicle is accepting contributions from Master's and PhD students, early-career researchers, academics, and practitioners working on human rights issues, particularly those connected to the Middle East and North Africa. Deadline: September 10, 2026.

  • People Powered is accepting applications for two global programmes offering funding and mentorship to democracy changemakers working to strengthen participation and civic engagement worldwide.

  • Democracy Stories Lab, an open call by People Powered, invites creators worldwide to submit short videos, illustrations, or graphics imagining a more democratic future. Selected submissions will receive cash prizes and amplification through People Powered and the Democracy Narratives Alliance networks. Applications open until September 14, 2026.

  • Call for Papers: Fiscal Policy and Sustainable Development in the Global South - LSE International Inequalities Institute and UNU-WIDER. The academic workshop will take place November 6 in London and will explore fiscal policy design, informal employment, ecological and energy transitions, and fiscal digitalization and governance. Deadline: September 20, 2026.

  • NED Grants 2026 - National Endowment for Democracy. Funding is available for NGOs, civil society organizations, independent media, and other nongovernmental organizations working on human rights, democratic institutions, independent media, transparency, civic participation, and related priorities worldwide. Deadline: September 21, 2026.

  •  The European Endowment for Democracy provides rolling funding for local democracy organizations in the Eastern Partnership, Middle East and North Africa, and Western Balkans & Turkey.

  • The Fifth Element invites blog contributions on systems transformation from practitioners and researchers, drawing on both lived experience and analysis across diverse perspectives.

CALENDAR

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