GTI is a network of civil society organisations promoting openness in the International Financial Institutions (IFIs), such as the World Bank, the IMF, the European Investment Bank and Regional Development Banks.

The GTI believes the people have a right to information from public institutions and a right to participate in the development policies and projects that affect their lives. In IFI-supported activities, transparency can help promote human rights; reduce corruption; identify potential social, environmental and economic risks and benefits; and avoid damaging communities and sensitive ecosystems.

Public disclosure, when properly implemented and complied with, can help change the rules of the game and create political space for civil society to engage meaningfully with the IFIs. The GTI aims to strengthen IFIs' accountability to the public interest and to expand political space to debate development models. For more information, see www.ifitransparency.org

Idasa’s Economic Governance Programme (EGP) is part of this network. We have set ourselves several objectives for 2010 –

• Continue developing a network of like-minded civil society organisations working in Africa, focusing on the operations of the African Development Bank – the AfDB CSO Forum
• Support the AfDB’s recent initiative to reconstitute the AfDB CSO Committee, to ensure that it becomes a platform for open, sustained dialogue and communication with African CSOs
• Advocate a review of the African Development Bank’s access to information policy so that a revised policy more closely reflects the values and principles contained in the GTI Transparency Charter
• Exploring the expansion of the scope of our work to include other non-state actors playing a significant role in financing development in Africa
• Collaborating with our global partners and continental colleagues to explore the legal accountability of both these types of financial institutions