As TAP moves into the beginning of a new phase of work, we on the TAP team have spent some time reflecting on where the transparency field is right now.  It is an exciting time to be working in the areas of governance and anti-corruption.  For practitioners in the field, there have never been so many resources available to monitor the progress towards a more transparent environment in which to do business and provide public services.  Indexes such as the International Budget Partnership's Open Budget Index and the Global Integrity Index are among the growing list of quantitative measures of national-level transparency and corruption available to a public that is increasingly interested in holding policymakers accountable for their actions.  The list of countries with Freedom of Information Acts also continues to grow, providing an additional tool for those seeking to monitor government spending and decisions related to public resource utilization.  And, as technology becomes more accessible to a larger and more diverse fraction of the global population, the utilization of e-procurement and e-governance resources is becoming a more regular practice.

The innovative tools and resources discussed above could not come at a better time.  The need for independent monitors of governance and corruption is indisputable, with allegations of fraud and misuse of power appearing in headlines worldwide.  Politicians in South Africa and Zimbabwe and business leaders in the United States claim corruption headlines today, but no country or sector is free of these problems. 

With the need for monitoring and the tools to hold government leaders available in place, the one remaining question is who will step into the role of independent monitor.  Although this role has been filled by a diverse set of development agents in the past, civil society (and civil society organizations in particular) is poised to take the lead in this activity.  The recent wave of democratization worldwide has opened the door for civil society to have a voice.  Further, the international community has begun to recognize that civil society has a distinct advantage over other independent monitors - members of the public benefit from the public services they are monitoring and constantly observe the efficiency (or lack thereof) with which these services are delivered.

So, this is where we are.  Our aim with the TAP blog is to contribute to the dialogue surrounding three important questions regarding governance and corruption - how can we monitor the actions of leaders, where is corruption still occurring, and what is civil society doing to change the State of Transparency.  From teaching college students to monitor procurement online in the Philippines to watching countries shift from Not Free to Partly Free and Partly Free to Free on the Freedom House map, it is an exciting time to be working in this field.  We look forward to reporting on what TAP and others are seeing and doing in the fight for good governance worldwide.