The Transparency and Accountability Program was started in 2006 to build the capacity of civil society to hold their government officials accountable for public resource decisions in education and health. To translate our mission into impact, TAP undertakes a range of activities to Support independent monitoring organizations, to Communicate results and facilitate knowledge sharing, and to Connect organizations and individuals that share a goal of improving development outcomes through better public spending.

Support

The core of TAP is a competitive small Grants Program that enables participating independent monitoring organizations to complete original analytical and advocacy work on a specific topic in public expenditures in their country. This is “learning by doing” to increase IMO capacity, interest, and expertise in social sector budget and implementation issues. We provide technical resources to support completion of the work and an opportunity for the organizations to meet, compare, and comment on each other’s findings and methods.

Communicate

TAP is dedicated to disseminating the work of IMOs and others working in the areas of transparency and good governance. We compile and develop Resources for IMOs interested in undertaking public expenditure analysis and advocacy and for practitioners and academics who want to learn more about the role that civil society can play in improving governance and accountability. These resources include: TAP working papers and publications, research by supported IMOs, presentations and audio from our events, and multimedia tools for practitioners. 

Connect

In all of TAP’s work, we seek to develop bridges between development actors who have similar goals but differing strengths. As part of the work we do, TAP seeks opportunities for to facilitate direct coordination between multilateral organizations such as the World Bank, other donors engaged in similar analytical work, and civil society organizations. For IMOs, we believe that these collaborations will provide access for IMOs to skilled staff, data, and the policy process. In turn, we believe that World Bank and donor staff will discover resources in the IMOs that they had not previously appreciated.