Document Library

Reforms to the public distribution system in Chhattisgarh that focused on extending coverage, improving delivery and increasing transparency have led to its remarkable revival. Read more »

In the last decade, good governance has raised to become the main independent variable explaining development. This, in turn, has led to an international anticorruption industry based mostly on institutional exports, such as anticorruption agencies, Ombudsmen,freedom of information laws, and having a legal basis in the United Nations Convention Against Corruption. Read more »

Our PAISA associates from Rajasthan, Ram Ratan and Poonam Chowdhary have written a detailed document on how a survey should be carried out, based on the experiences of the PAISA district and national surveys. Congratulations to both of them. 

Anna Hazare’s hunger strike against corruption in April 2011 attracted disparate intellectual strands from within the Indian middle class. These strands brought complementary skills to the table. The neo-Gandhians conferred legitimacy; India Shining provided energy and finances; and Legal Activists helped navigate the legislative path. Read more »

To help inform governments, civil society and the private sector in developing their OGP commitments, the Transparency and Accountability Initiative (T/A Initiative ) has reached out to leading experts across a wide range of open government fields to gather their input on current best practice and the practical steps that OGP participants and other governments can take to achieve it. 

The result is the first document of its kind to compile the state of the art in transparency, accountability and citizen participation across 15 areas of governance, ranging from broad categories such as access to information, service delivery and budgeting to more specific sectors such as forestry, procurement and climate finance. 

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Each year, 1.6 million children die from diarrheal diseases; unsafe drinking water is a major cause. This paper reviews evidence from randomized trials on domestic water access and quality in developing countries, interpreting the results through a public economics framework. Read more »

India, like many developing nations, has adopted many accountability institutions. One of these is the ombudsman. Originally a Swedish invention, ombudsman’s offices were adopted by many countries over the last 50 years. Recently, the South Indian state of Kerala has instituted an ombudsman’s office. Read more »