Global Reporting Initiative has created a framework for corporations to report information on the economic, social and environmental impact of their day-to-day activities. GRI provides standards of reporting and thousands of companies are producing ‘sustainability reports’ on the basis of their guidelines.
corporate sector
Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative is a multilateral, multi-stakeholder initiative to bring more transparency into extractive industries such as oil, mining and gas. The initiative recognizes that natural resources belong to people and the public revenue raised from them should reach the people. The focus of the initiative has been on ensuring that companies disclose tax payments and governments do the same in terms of taxes they receive from companies.
XBRL stands for eXtensible Business Reporting Language. It is a set of standards for reporting financial and business information in a way that machines can read the reports, compare and analyze them easily. It presents a set of standardized vocabulary so that similar information can be presented using similar language by different companies. Recognizing that one standard set of concepts may not cover every possible situation, the system allows national regulators and even individual companies to create terms that are useful for their unique situations (this ability to eXtend the vocabulary is represented “X” of XBRL). A short video introducing […]
XBRL for private sector transparency
Discusses laws for disclosure of information from the private sector for specific goals that the authors call "targeted transparency". Discuss how such disclosures can be effective.
Full disclosure: The perils and promise of transparency
The book discusses different ways in which access to information laws are being undermined around the world.
Blacked out: Government secrecy in the Information Age
LittleSis is a free database detailing the connections between powerful people and organizations. The name is a play on ‘big brother’ which stands for the monitoring of common people by the powerful. Little Sis does the opposite by monitoring those in positions of power. This is a project of Public Accountability Initiative and it tracks key relationships among politicians, business leaders, lobbyists, financiers, and their affiliated institutions. It helps answer questions such as: “Who do the wealthiest Americans donate their money to? Where did White House officials work before they were appointed? Which lobbyists are married to politicians, and who do they lobby for?” […]