Democracy That Delivers

Larry Chan and Daniel Hong from Free World Investment join Eric Hontz, Director of CIPE's Center for Accountable Investment and Catherine Tai, Deputy Regional Director of CIPE's Asia and Pacific team to discuss the considerations of geopolitical risks when investing.

Free World Investment is the first ethical investment strategy dedicated to safeguarding global capital in developed markets from investing into countries with heightened political and country investment risks.

Dr. Patrick Mardini, CEO of the Lebanese Institute for Market Studies (LIMS) joins Marie Principe, Program Officer for CIPE's Middle East and North Africa team to discuss the current status of Lebanon amid the economic crisis and private sector led solutions.

LIMS is a platform for research, collaboration and innovation in economic policy and helps governments and public-sector organizations design and implement market solutions in Lebanon.

Mardini and Principe discuss the causes of the economic situation, the effects on the Lebanon population, how LIMS has been addressing the issue, and more.

Jackline Lidubwi, Project Lead at Internews Kenya, joins Anna Kompanek, Director for CIPE's Global Programs, to talk about inclusion of persons with disabilities, specifically those in developing countries.

Jackline Lidubwi is a multi-award winning disability media activist, media trainer, and journalist with 20 years of experience in disability reporting. She leads the Inclusive Media Project across Sub-Saharan Africa at Internews.

Lidubwi discusses her current project at Internews with Kompanek and its focuses on barriers that persons with disabilities face, advances in technologies and their potential for inclusion, and more.

Anti-corruption lawyer Bill Steinman joins the Anti-Corruption & Governance Center (ACGC) podcast to discuss cases of companies cutting deals with terrorist organizations in dangerous foreign markets. The lively discussion starts with the now infamous Lafarge enforcement action, announced by the U.S. Department of Justice in October 2022. It involves a French multi-national cement firm that pled guilty for "conspiring to provide material support and resources" to both ISIS and Al-Nusra Front in Syria in 2013 and 2014. Listen now to hear the similarities and shocking differences between Lafarge's decision-making and parallel cases in Colombia and the Niger Delta, the rationale behind a zero-tolerance U.S. legal standard for payments made to known terrorists, and how Lafarge executives ended up providing U.S. authorities copies of agreements signed on ISIS letterhead. The podcast is co-hosted by Lola Adekanye, CIPE Program Director for Africa, and Ben Schmidt, Program Officer with ACGC. 

Accountability Lab's HackCorruption team joins the Anti-Corruption & Governance Center podcast to discuss how a series of Tech-For-Good events are building diverse communities of anti-corruption activists in emerging markets. Accountability Lab Global Director of Learning Cheri-Leigh Erasmus, Mexico Country Director Eva Sander, and Global Programs and Partnerships Manager Sara Hoenes describe how their hackathon model has set a new bar for training in anti-corruption, design, marketing, and stakeholder engagement. Listen now to hear how one southern Africa group of five winning teams is seeding the work for an upcoming series of anti-corruption hackathons in Asia and Latin America. The program is being implemented with support from CIPE. The podcast is hosted by Anti-Corruption & Governance Center Director Frank Brown and CIPE Program Officer Ben Schmidt.

Sergiy Tsivkach, CEO of UkraineInvest, joins Eric Hontz, Director of CIPE's Center for Accountable Investment, to learn more about UkraineInvest, specifically during a critical moment in Ukraine's history. UkraineInvest is a government institution providing investors with support such as current information and advice on doing business in Ukraine; identifying optimal investment opportunities, and guiding investors through government agencies at all levels.

Tsivkach and Hontz discuss the recent challenges UkraineInvest has faced, how the international private sector can help Ukraine's private sector, innovations and competition in other sectors, and more.

From Armenia, Shushan Doydoyan, president of the Freedom of Information Center, and Lilya Afrikyan, coordinator for the Prime Minister's Office of Open Government Partnership, join the Anti-Corruption & Governance Center podcast this week to discuss the challenges and successes Armenia is experiencing as it fights to enact beneficial ownership transparency (BOT) reforms. Just after its 2018 revolution, the country’s new government collaborated with civil society to implement a plan to transform existing beneficial ownership records into a comprehensive, digital, and open resource. Listen now to find out how and why the country was among the first to launch this kind of sweeping BOT initiative. This episode is hosted by CIPE’s Luiza Ayvazyan, Program Officer for Armenia on the South Caucasus team.

Wisborn Malaya, Secretary-General of the Zimbabwe Chamber of Informal Economy Associations (ZCIEA) joins Ryan Musser, Program Officer for CIPE's Africa team and Kim Bettcher, Director of CIPE's Policy and Program Learning team to discuss Malaya's experiences and insight into the informal economy in Zimbabwe and around the world. 

Our hosts and guest discuss the similarities between the informal economy in Zimbabwe compared to other informal economies in other countries, Malaya's work with ZCIEA, lessons learned from advocating for the informal economy, and more. 

Kristen Robinson, Head of Advocacy at the Open Contracting Partnership, joins the CIPE Anti-Corruption & Governance Center podcast to discuss what open contracting is, why the world needs it, and how the private sector can benefit and from open contracting reform. A third of the world's taxpayer money is spent on procurement -- a mind-boggling $13 Trillion -- making every citizen a stakeholder. As Robinson shares in the podcast and on a recent blog, there’s a lot of infrastructure required to ensure procurement is done quickly, effectively, and in a transparent and accountable manner. Listen now to hear why digitizing inefficient, paper-based procurement processes isn't enough; how open contracting principles can be a boon to governments and the business community alike; and how small- and medium-sized businesses can advocate for needed open contracting reforms. This episode is hosted by Richard Christel, Anti-Corruption Program Officer at CIPE.

Tricia Yeoh, CEO of the Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (IDEAS), and Virak Ou, Founder of Future Forum, join Catherine Tai, Deputy Regional Director and Kendra Brock, Associate Program Officer, from CIPE's Asia and Pacific team to discuss the role of youth in improving infrastructure transparency and governance. IDEAS and Future Forum run programs with young people that enhance their capacity to evaluate policy and improve transparency, both at the subnational and national level and emphasize the importance of involving youth in policy discussions. This is the second and final part to the Democracy that Deliver's BRI Monitor mini-series.

In this episode, our guests and hosts discuss how their findings related to BRI monitoring, how the youth play a role in information gathering and research, and more.

Interns Camila Cepeda and Tina Dolbaia join their supervisors Morgan King, Associate Program Officer on the Latin America and Caribbean team, and Elizabeth Lenz Jedwab, Program Officer on the Europe and Eurasia team to talk the projects they have been working on and what it is like interning at CIPE. This is the final episode of Democracy that Delivers' "Emerging Leaders" mini-series featuring up-and-coming change-makers.

Our hosts and interns discuss what its like interning for CIPE, how their career goals ties into what they've learned, their capstone projects and what they learned throughout the process, and more.

Free Enterprise and Democracy Network (FEDN) Small Grant awardees Milos Nikolic of Libek in Serbia, Grace Nzou of Niusline Media in Kenya, and Yemi Adamolekun of Enough is Enough in Nigeria speak with Tamari Dzotsenidze, Associate Program Officer for CIPE's Policy and Program Learning team about their projects focused around increasing youth engagement in democracy and civic space.

In this episode, our host and guests discuss the impact of their small grants on democracy in their local community, special considerations when working with youth, and what gives them hope for the future.

Editor’s note: The Free Enterprise and Democracy Network (FEDN) will be hosting the second annual FEDN Conference with the theme “Rallying for Freedom: From Ideals to Engagement.” Register today for more insights from FEDN members!

Thom Townsend, Executive Director of Open Ownership, joins the CIPE Anti-Corruption & Governance Center podcast to talk about the past, present, and future of beneficial ownership transparency. Townsend draws from his organization's experience in over 30 countries unmasking the people who ultimately benefit from often opaque and complex ownership structures. Starting with a historical perspective on the invention of corporations, Townsend shares how modern (and still quite new) beneficial ownership practice requires multi-dimensional strategies. Among them: passing new legislation, setting up collection systems, and establishing new public sources of information. Listen now to hear Townsend's perspectives on the origins of tax havens and the tension between privacy and transparency, as well as learn how persistent barriers to information are complicating current efforts to raise transparency despite renewed global interest in financial and corporate secrecy. The episode is hosted by Richard Christel, Anti-Corruption Program Officer at CIPE.

As a key implementing partner of the Global Alliance for Trade Facilitation, CIPE is leading major reforms in Asia, Africa, and Latin America to democratize trade and make it more accessible to everyone. Among the many recent Alliance-supported projects: a recent landmark arrangement between eleven Latin American countries that is expected to significantly reduce the cost of international trade for companies with Authorised Economic Operator (AEO) certification. CIPE Executive Director Andrew Wilson and CIPE’s Head of Trade Programs Aurelio Garcia talk with BASF Customs and Foreign Trade Manager Fernando Wins about the impact of the groundbreaking agreement in a new Democracy that Delivers podcast.

Editor’s Note: The Global Alliance for Trade Facilitation is a public-private partnership led jointly by CIPE, the International Chamber of Commerce, and the World Economic Forum, in cooperation with Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ). The Alliance is among the finalists for this year’s P3 Impact Award issued jointly by the U.S. State Department’s Office of Global Partnerships, Concordia, and the University of Virginia Darden School Institute for Business in Society. The winner will be announced at Concordia’s 12^th Annual Summit in mid-September.

Paul Barker, Executive Director of the Insititute for National Affairs and Victor Andres "Dindo" Manhit, Founder and President of Stratbase ADRi, join Catherine Tai and Kendra Brock on CIPE's Asia and Pacific team to discuss BRI investments in Papua New Guinea and the Philippines.

In this episode, our guests and hosts discuss the role that infrastructure investments play in elections and why transparency is critical to ensuring a democratic process, using the recent Papa New Guinea and the Philippines elections as examples. 

Relevant Links:

BRI Monitor Website

Insititute for National Affairs

Stratbase ADR Institute 

Grzegorz Makowski, former Public Integrity Forum Director and current Ideas Forum expert at the Batory Foundation, joins to talk about procurement processes, international dialogue, and integrity in the latest episode of the Anti-Corruption & Governance Center podcast. Makowski draws from his experience examining the logging and rail industries, to discuss how small, positive changesin transparency can have a cascading effect in countering corruption. He also offers insight into the roles that civil societies and non-profits can play in forming “integrity pacts.” Anna Kompanek, Director of Global Programs at CIPE, hosts the episode. 

Relevant Links:

The Integrity Pact. A Civil Society Monitoring of Public Projects, An Overview of the Investment and the Pilot Project

The Integrity Pact - or Citizens in Tenders

The Integrity Pact. A Civil Society Monitoring of Public Projects, Designing an Integrity Pact and the Contractor Selection

Extreme Participation: Citizens' Involvement in Public Procurement Decisions. The Example of Piloting Integrity Pacts in the European Union

Gregory Poling, Senior Fellow and Director at Center for Strategic and International Studies  (CSIS), and Charles Dunst, associate at The Asia Group and fellow at CSIS, join Jennifer Anderson, Senior Program Officer for CIPE's Asia and Pacific Team to discuss the implications of Cambodia's foreign policy as Cambodia hosts the 55th ASEAN Foreign Minister's meeting.

In this episode, our guests and host discuss the various events that lead to where Cambodia is today, as well as how Cambodia's open media and civil society environment is slowly beginning to close off. They also highlight China's involvement in Cambodia, Cambodian's want for positive relations with the United States, and how the United States can engage with Cambodia given it's involvement in ASEAN. 

Relevant Links:

Pariah or Partner? Clarifying the U.S. Approach to Cambodia

On Dangerous Ground: America's Century in the South China Sea

Dr. Francisco Magno, Professor of Political science at De La Salle University in Manila, joins Jennifer Anderson and Anna Baldonado from CIPE's Asia and Pacific Team on this final episode in our Philippines elections series. They discuss the new administration's agenda, rule of law, corruption and more.

Relevant Links:
Beyond the Crisis: A Strategic Agenda for the Next President