Donors and practitioners in the transparency and accountability (T/A) sector increasingly understand that there are no ‘magic bullets’ for success and that ‘context matters’. Yet it’s time to move this conversation forward. In a new Think Piece, Florencia Guerzovich, Steven Rosenzweig and Walter Flores highlight several productive avenues for exploration of the issue of context at the local level.
The Think Piece builds on earlier work (here and here) on context for T/A interventions, as well as incorporating insights from the TALEARN community of practice involving donors, practitioners and researchers in the T/A sector (see highlights of our recent TALEARN workshop here). The authors discuss how local organizations learn about the context in which they operate to inform their organizational strategies and help them navigate contextual factors (such as those outlined by this World Bank report). This highlights the importance of local actors and organizations developing their analytical capacities, as well as the need for case studies from specific contexts that can help activists think about their own strategies for change.
