Financial Transparency Coalition

With all of the talk last week in the transparency community of David Cameron’s historic announcement regarding beneficial ownership, little mention was made of the US Government’s draft set of commitments to the Open Government Partnership (OGP). Porter McConnell, Manager of the Financial Transparency Coalition, was asked by OpentheGovernment.org to provide her views, which have now been published alongside those of other civil society leaders.

In this terrific blog the Economist’s Matthew Valencia looks into the contentious issue of transparency and trusts. What exactly are trusts, why do they exist (100 points if you knew they were developed in the 12th century for Knights leaving for the Crusades) and should they be part of the international push for public registries of beneficial ownership. What do you think?

After 6 years with the European Network on Debt and Development (Eurodad), first as Policy Officer and then as Director, Nuria Molina left the organisation at the end of January, 2012. We took the opportunity to ask her a couple of questions about life, taxes, working for NGOs and the role of women as makers of change.