Vision & MilestonesTransparency and Accountability InititativeTAITransparency & Accountability Initiative PartnersThe Transparency and Accountability Inititative has partnered with a range of organizations in this capacity building endeavor:REVENUE WATCH INSTITUTEThe Revenue Watch Institute is a non-profit policy institute and grantmaking organization that promotes the effective, transparent and accountable management of oil, gas and mineral resources for the public good. Through capacity building, technical assistance, research, funding and advocacy, we help countries realize the development benefits of their natural resource wealth.GLOBAL INTEGRITYGlobal Integrity seeks to play a catalytic role in promoting accountability and transparency reforms by developing tools that address the needs of the public, private, and civil sectors equally. Our comparative advantage is in developing, testing, and sharing methodologies and technologies for generating cutting edge information that can inform governance reform efforts across those three sectors. We seek to empower local stakeholders – including government, civil society, and the private sector – by providing best-of-breed research and reporting for making more informed decisions about how best to allocate limited financial and political capital. We also aim to encourage others to embrace innovation and experimentation, especially a faster pace of conceiving, piloting, refining, and field testing new approaches to anti-corruption and transparency. We hope to change what we perceive to be an aversion to failure in the anti-corruption community of practice. We view failure as an important part of the learning process that can be used to fuel rapid innovation. In short, we are an innovation lab for the transparency and accountability community.TRANSPARENCY POLICY PROJECTThe Transparency Policy Project seeks to understand and improve disclosure systems that protect the public. It is affiliated with the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. The Project has constructed a framework for assessing the sustainability and effectiveness of systems designed to provide the public with critical information to improve public health and safety, reduce risks to investors, minimize corruption, and improve public services. The Project is directed by Archon Fung, Mary Graham, and David Weil.ASPIRATIONAspiration helps nonprofits and foundations use software tools more effectively and sustainably. We serve as ally, coach, strategist, mentor and facilitator to those trying to make more impactful use of information technology in their social change efforts.Transparency & Accountability Initiative Project SponsorsThe Transparency & Accountability Initiative is supported by a diverse group of eight leading funders in the field that includes private foundations, a leading bilateral donor and NGOs:FordFoundationhttp://www.fordfoundation.org/William & Flora Hewlett Foundationhttp://www.hewlett.org/Hivoshttp://www.hivos.org/International Budget Partnershiphttp://internationalbudget.org/Omidyar Networkhttp://www.omidyar.com/Open Society Foundationshttp://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/Revenue Watchhttp://www.revenuewatch.org/UKAidhttps://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-international-developmentTo maximise the impact and effectiveness of the transparency & accountability movement by helping T/A organisations harness the potential of web and mobile technologies to further their aims.ConnectionsConnect transparency & accountability organisations with tech groups who can teach them to successfully integrate technology in their workTransparency OrganisationsAccountability OrganisationsTech GroupsWe seek to connect transparency & accountability organisations with tech groups who can teach them to successfully integrate technology in their work, through a combination of live events, one-to-one mentoring, and online collaborations.Live Events[Conduct] meetings between transparency/accountability groups and tech groups to thrash out project ideas, broker relationships and share knowledge.Milestone 1Live events: The first of our live events takes place in New York in November 2011. Transparency & accountability groups working in the natural resources sector will meet with tech groups to thrash out project ideas, broker relationships and share knowledge. Additional workshops will follow in 2012 which will focus on different T&A sectors (ie: budget transparency) and/or strategies (ie: direct citizen engagement).MentorshipsPilot small mentoring relationships between natural resource governance and technology groups.Milestone 2Mentorships: Leading up to the first workshop, we are piloting small mentoring relationships between natural resource governance and technology groups. These will serve as blueprints for our mentoring scheme.LearningMap out the natural resource governance and technology ecosystem.Milestone 3Learning: We are mapping out the natural resource governance and technology ecosystem to provide a better understanding of the landscape in which the project is operating.AssessmentImplement an assessment framework to benchmark how participating organizations are applying technology.Milestone 4Assessment: We are implementing a simple assessment framework to benchmark how participating organizations are applying technology in their programmatic work. Our project partners are conducting long term case studies on selected participants’ programs, which will be made public.2013-08-30http://tech.transparency-initiative.org/ta-tech-program/OwenAmburOwen.Ambur@verizon.net