Transparency for better democracy.

I'm going to start with a bit of common sense, well more like a statement of the obvious!
You can't have an informed debate without the information! Sound unbiased evidence should be the foundation of debate. policy formulation and the cornerstone of a stable democratic society. It is not always as easy however, to find and maintain credible data, as has been the case with some climate change research.

Recently there have been some encouraging signs in respect of CSR reporting and some governments are starting to require better reporting (CO2 in the UK for instance), however there is still a long way to go and verification and auditing procedures need to be properly monitored and enforced. to a common standard

But without this we are vulnerable to corruption and the hijacking of democracy by secretive lobby groups who thrive in the grey area's created, where good information and sound data are thin on the ground.

It's good to see that this issue is getting a better and more organised profile, it will help shareholders to ask better questions of their board and enable NGO's and pro-democracy groups to focus on organisations with the poorest record.

A report has just been published that measures the transparency of the top corporations , I hope that you find this interesting and that it makes your life just that little more democratic.

http://www.transparency.org/news/feature/shining-a-light-on-the-worlds-biggest-companies