|
>View discussions about this entry País: Brazil
Organization: Transparencia Brasil
Focus of activity - Oversight/Accountability
Year the initative began (yyyy) - 2003
Positioning in the Mosaic of solutions
Description of initiative - What is the main focus (products, services, etc.) of your initiative and how does it contribute to ending corruption? What avenues of corruption are you primarily addressing? What activities does it involve for your organization? Who are your primary beneficiaries and target groups? Providing information and analyses about political financing in Brazil. Understanding who finances whom is a crucial tool to better monitor the behaviour of politicians. Às Claras is a website (www.asclaras.org.br) that uses data informed by candidates to the Brazilian Electoral Tribunal to present them in a structured way. Besides listing all donors for each candidate (and, conversely, all candidates financed by each donor), the tool publishes many different statistical analyses performed over the data, helping to better understand the concentration of financing across states and parties, the "cost" of votes and others. All candidates for all elections since 2002 are included (the edition corresponding to the 2006 general elections is being finished at the time of this writing).
The main target of the initiative are journalists, NGOs and opnion-forming persons in general. It is not aimed at the general Internet public (which, anyway, is limited in Brazil). Innovation - How does your approach differ from existing programs in the field? Which components of your initiative are particularly novel or unique (e.g. the products and services, the technology used, the delivery or financing mechanism)? Às Claras is a pioneering initiative in Brazil. There's no comparison to it. Internationally, only in the US there are tools aimed at the same general purpose, but even then they are not precisely equivalent.
Delivery Model - How does your initiative reach its target populations? What communications mechanism(s) do you have in place? How do you measure their impact? Being a website, Às Claras is its own communications mechanism. Average visits turn around 200 per day (much more during elections). However. the project's impact is not to be measured by the visitiation, but by its use by the target public. Às Claras is the Brazilian press' main independent source of information about political financing.
Key Operational Partnerships - What key partnerships have you established to make your model possible or more efficient? Who are your partners (business, social, government, other) and what are their roles? How central are these partnerships for your initiative. There are no partners.
Financial Model - Which mechanisms do you have in place to ensure that your beneficiaries can afford your products or services? Do you have financial schemes or arrangements for low-income and marginalized populations? Since it is an Internet tool, it is free. However, it is not for the general citizen, who in Brazil has very limited access to the Web.
Effectiveness - What has been the concrete impact of your project to date? How many people have benefited from your program in total? What policies, communities, or institutions have been influenced to make fundamental changes because of your work? It is impossible to objectively measure the project's impact. Certainly the awareness about the links between political financing and decision-making processes has been growing in Brazil, but this has been happening due to a multiplicity of factors. Probably Às Claras contributed to that in some modest measure, but there is no way to actually give a number to it.
Scaling up Strategy - What is your priority for the next 3 years and please describe why. Às Claras reached an essentially stable state. Priorities are being able to finance each election's edition.
Origin of the Initiative - Tell the personal story that will help people connect to your work. How did the initiative start? Was there a particular individual or event driving the idea? Tell the reader the story behind the innovation. The project's original idea was formulated by a former member of Transparencia Brasil, professor Bruno W. Speck, a political scientist working at the University of Campinas. The signee directed the project and perfected it. There is no "personal history" to be told. The drive behind the project was providing information to the public in order to enhance its ability to monitor the State (by the way, this is the main motivation for almost all initiatives created by Transparencia Brasil).
Main Obstacles to Scaling Up - List the two (2) main obstacles to scale up your innovation (policy, legal, organizational, people, financial, etc.)? Not applicable.
Main Partnership Challenges - What are your major challenges with partnerships? (E.g., identification of partners, implementation of partnerships, relationship management, etc.) The project does not depend on partnerships nor are they been sought.
Contact Information:
Claudio Weber Abramo
Executive director Transparencia Brasil (NGO) crwa@transparencia.org.br Rua Francisco Leitão 339 cj 122 ZIP 05414-025 São Paulo (SP) Brazil Brazil Tel: 55 11 3062 3436 Fax: same Website: www.transparencia.org.br Discussions about this entry |
Às Claras [Above the Board]
|
|
Copyright © 2009 Changemakers | Legal & Privacy Policy | Credits
Changemakers is an initiative of Ashoka
|
 A Changemakers Partner
|
A Changemakers Partner
|
|
|
||
Thank for your comment. However, there is some misinformation. Às Claras has nothing to do with Poder Ciudadano's initiative. The latter measured appearences of candidates in TV and tries to extrapolate from there. Às Claras uses data provided by candidates to the electoral authority. Differently from Argentina, in Brazil candidates are required to do that. As for the statistical analyses we provide, I could describe them here but it would much more efficient to actually visit the website and have a look (www.asclaras.org.br). You will see that there's no similarity (and even less inspiration) from Poder Ciudadano's. The initiative is (as mentioned) pioneering, not only in Brazil but elsewhere. There are some previous initiatives in the same general family in the US, but those are also different (the institutional environments are different, so whatever analises are done will considerablu differ). Impact is very hard to directly assess. Às Claras is widely used by the press. Sustainability is quite simple. The thing is essentially settled and data from subsequent elections are imputted with minimal cost.
Hello,
My name is Rich Gottbreht from Global Insights and I am one of the entrants in the competition. Our work centers on helping anyone concerned about corruption learn about the subject through my book, our board game and its associated seminars, as well as low cost consulting. To find out more about us please visit our website www.globalinsights.biz. From the home page, you can link to information about us, our products and what people say about our products and services. From the details in the initiative we submitted you should also note that some of the proceeds from our sales will eventually go to a high integrity leadership development foundation. Also, if you are interested, down the road we will be looking for alliances and contacts in every country.
Thanks,
Rich Gottbreht
This seems to be a sound initiative with precedents elsewhere in the region, such as the campaigns by Poder Ciudadano in Argentina. We need more information on the methodology – is the statistical analysis a comparison of reported expenditures with imputed costs of campaigns? To what extent has this been done before in Brazil? How is it different from the Argentine experience? Lastly, more serious answers to the questions about impact and sustainability would be helpful.