Five stars in transparency: CIDOB obtains Transparify’s highest rating
In its first year in the index, CIDOB ranks among the 67 most transparent think tanks in the world
In 2018, CIDOB, along with 67 institutions worldwide, has been recognized by Transparify as a “highly transparent” institution with five stars, being the only Spanish center in the ranking. Transparify promotes transparency and integrity in policy research and advocacy worldwide, assessing the transparency of think tanks as a way of advancing good practices, prestige, and social recognition in the sector. This year, the report has tracked 93 centers in 24 countries around the world, including Amnesty International (United Kingdom), Bruegel (Belgium), Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik - SWP (Germany) or the Clingendael Institute (Netherlands), in CIDOB’s same category.
This recognition is the result of recent years’ efforts, in which CIDOB has made a strong commitment to increase its transparency, key to the reputation of think tanks, as acknowledged by the director Jordi Bacaria: “Independence in research is entirely linked to transparency. A think tank must establish strategic goals for complying with transparency that go beyond even what is established by legal regulations. In addition to the legal requirements for transparency and accountability, the CIDOB Foundation has designed a strategy of publishing all the updated information on its website in order to achieve the highest levels of public recognition and corporate prestige for its research, publication, activities and dissemination of opinion, as well as its transparency”.
Transparify rates the extent to which think tanks publicly disclose through their websites where their funding comes from. A majority of the think tanks rated (over 200 in 2017) are either not transparent or do not get a five or four stars rate. However, since 2013, the number of institutions with the highest rating has grown from 12 to 67, showing a trend towards greater transparency worldwide that the comparative index of Transparify has contributed to increase.
>> The full Transparify report is available here: How Has Think Tank Transparency Evolved in 2018