The meaning of transparency is to see through. Therefore, transparency in government means that citizens must be able to "see through" its workings, to know exactly what happens when state officials transact public business. However, a government that is not transparent is prone to corruption and undue influence because there is no public oversight of decision-making on their behalf.
To protect and uphold transparency in government, there must be a variety of laws at all levels of government mandating that their businesses must be conducted in open meetings to which the public has access. In addition, they should have laws ensuring public access to government documents and records. They need to be implemented vigorously for transparency to work.
Transparency is a way of protecting fairness and ensuring the common good. When citizens know what their government is up to, they have a better chance of ensuring that decisions treat everyone equally and protect the common conditions that are important to everyone's welfare.
As the Carter Center puts it, “democracy depends on a knowledgeable citizenry whose access to a range of information enables them to participate more fully in public life, help determine priorities for public spending, receive equal access to justice, and to hold their public officials accountable. Inadequate public access to information allows corruption to flourish, and back room deals to determine spending in the interests of the few rather than many.” There are serious economic consequences for not having transparency in nation building in a democracy.
Impact on the marketplace
Marketplaces have long provided a central place where people come together, exchange goods and services, and establish relationships that create a sense of community, enabling new models of commerce with efficiencies of scale that vastly broadened the availability of products and services to consumers. They also provided new possibilities for creating transparency, accountability and trust within a marketplace. We invest in for-profit marketplaces that can level the playing field for individuals in emerging markets or developed countries, improving access to economic opportunity, information, and valuable goods and services.
Fostering greater choice, transparency and accountability in marketplaces provide access to products and services that enhance the quality of life for themselves and others.
Impact on entrepreneurship
Ambitious entrepreneurs and their businesses are economic engines of wealthy countries, providing an essential source of new jobs, innovation and economic growth. Transparency in government enables dynamic entrepreneurs to access financial resources necessary to start and grow their businesses. Transparency people with a groundbreaking idea or business plan face resistance, resulting in an inhospitable environment for entrepreneurship.
Supporting the services industry for emerging market ventures sparks greater confidence among mainstream investors, improve the capacity for sustainable business development and help to build the infrastructure that allows more entrepreneurs to emerge and prosper.
Helping high-growth entrepreneurs in emerging economies bring their ideas to market, create new jobs and reduce poverty. It also demonstrates the power of entrepreneurship to trigger wider social benefits, by stimulating economies and delivering products nd services that improve the lives of millions of poor people.
Impact on media, markets and transparency
Media, markets, and government can be powerful mechanisms for people to improve their lives. Yet to be effective, they must be transparent and accountable to the people they benefit.
Technology promotes transparency, accountability and trust across media, markets and government. Technology platforms connect individuals with shared interests, encourage people to engage on critical issues, and increase access to credible information to enable more informed decision-making.
Impact on property rights
Property rights are the keys to economic security, identity and wealth creation. Physical property is a fundamental form of capital, and formal rights to that property bring benefits to the people that hold them as well as the societies that can secure them. For the individual, formal rights enhance social status and political influence, facilitate access to financial services as well as water and electricity and provide both the ability and incentive to invest in one’s property to create economic value. Societies that enforce these rights via transparency benefit from greater economic growth and political stability, as they encourage investment, promote the rule of law, and give people a stake in the future.
Increased ownership of land and property for all people, encourage transparency and flexibility in property ownership, and develop legal education for property rights.
Impact on access to capital
When there are people trapped in a cycle of poverty, because they lack access to the financial services that would allow them to secure a loan and invest in their future. Microfinance addresses this problem by enabling people who are unserved by conventional financial service providers to gain a small line of credit, savings account or insurance policy.
Transparency in the microfinance industry accelerates its growth and extends the benefits of financial services to the people who need them. It will foster greater competition in the market and create economies of scale that both drive down costs and improve financial services for the poor.
When people have access to financial services, they can stabilize their sources of income, build up assets and plan for the future. These activities will set off greater economic growth in emerging markets and contribute to the revitalization of impoverished communities.
Impact on public sector
People look to government institutions or agencies to work on their behalf and provide oversight on matters that significantly impact their quality of life. A government is incumbent upon fulfilling this role most effectively when its activities are open and transparent to citizens. With visibility into government actions and spending, people are more likely to participate in the political process and hold government officials accountable for their actions. When citizens engage in the issues that affect them, they can help to ensure that power and public funds are used wisely and are representative of their interests.
Open access to information and transparent systems will increase the public's knowledge of government activities and lead to a more informed and engaged citizenry that holds its officials accountable. More accountability will ensure appropriate influence and integrity in the political process, and bolster the effectiveness of representative government as a force for improving people’s lives.
State governance
For all the above reasons, it is critically important to enhance the indiscriminate disclosure of information by the government. Increased transparency of a government would enhance citizenry participation, thereby strengthening state governance by means of the people's voice, and thus creating a righteous circle. Even if specific interest groups, acting as major shareholders, manage to solve the problem of information asymmetry with the government through monitoring government activities, it would not necessarily benefit the general public. This makes it all the more important to improve government transparency so as to enable citizens to provide governance to their government in a more direct and meaningful manner. Such greater participation by citizens would also help foil collusions between the government and specific interest groups.
Increasing government transparency could be the breakthrough that eventually brings about a dynamic change in the government and shaping of a nation. When a government makes sufficient information disclosure and cost-benefit relationships become clearer in the eyes of citizens, the government - which bears accountability to the public - would have no choice but implement policies focusing on the needs of citizens, as recipients of public goods and services. This would mean a return by government officials to their original role as an agent commissioned by citizens, literally becoming the real civil servants that their job title describes. Enhanced information disclosure would make it difficult for a government to resort to makeshift policies, such as implementing forbearance measures while postponing hard decisions on certain issues. In other words, there would be greater possibility of a change of political regime and more competition among parties.
For any government it requires enormous political courage to deliver transparency and to uphold its principles. Such undertaking lead to the deepening of people's trust in the incumbent government and thus are beneficial to it. Improving government transparency is the only available weapon for breaking the ongoing impasse and restoring people's confidence in viable economic development that is designed to bring benefits to all its citizenry.
(The writer is a Management and Economic Development Consultant and former Senior Policy Analyst, Ministry of Trade and Economic Development Govt. of British
Columbia). |
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