The European Foundation Centre, the European Center for Not-for-profit Law and the Human Security Collective together hosted an interactive policy briefing that asked: Who Owns the Transparency Agenda and To What Purpose? Transparency is becoming a go-to response when it comes to curing society of its multiple ills, whether the goal is ensuring greater accountability and better democratic practice, dealing with corruption, or preventing the financing of terrorism and money laundering. But whose agenda is driving this trend?
This session helped open up the debate around this question and work through multiple perspectives on the issue. It concluded that: ‘Transparency is not an agenda in itself but rather a method through which a multiplicity of society’s ills are being targeted. The effectiveness of the drive to transparency must be nuanced and considered in its application, it should be used as a means to empower not suppress and it should not be falsely categorised as a simple solution.’