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Tiri's approach to making integrity work draws on a vast range of experiences. The problems we confront - corruption, accountability, integrity in government and business - are dynamic and highly resilient. They are socially and culturally contingent. They are also adaptive and responsive to the slightest opportunity. The challenge of reform is therefore not just to catch up with this negative innovation curve. It must be to overtake it and render it irrelevant.
Tiri's experiences show very clearly that sustainable change and a transformation of the equilibrium that breaks the vicious cycle and moves organisations towards building positive incentives have far greater chances of succeeding where these focus on existing institutions and ensure that continuing endeavours are not institutionalised around - nor dependent upon - any one organisation. Tiri's tools for effective and lasting transformations build on the existing resources found within organisations. Only once the reform potential of an organisation has been exhausted - without an increase in financial resources and without a change in laws or regulation - are other options explored.
Tiri's methodology is based on a four-pronged approach, with synergies and partnerships between the four levels. Tiri's approach is essentially catalytic and, to the extent possible, minimalist. Our mission
Tiri and its partners commit to working collectively and individually to raise integrity standards everywhere, in both public and private institutions, in the belief that by so doing successfully we will assist processes of sustainable development and the reduction of poverty.
Third generation reform challenges
There have been three distinct phases in the global movement against corruption, starting from the end of the 1980s when mass mobilisations in countries as diverse as The Philippines, Bangladesh, China, Brazil and Venezuela demonstrated that many people throughout the world are no longer prepared to tolerate corrupt leaders.
First, there was a decade-long phase of awareness-raising and of 'breaking the taboo'. By the end of the 1990s this phase had largely been completed. Development agencies, international governmental organisations and many governments were no longer in denial and most governments were now expected to address corruption, openly and systematically, in their funded programmes.
The second phase was one of standard setting and convention-making. Starting in the mid-1990s with the Inter-American Convention Against Corruption and the development of the OECD Convention Against Corruption, this stage culminated in the signing of the UN Convention Against Corruption in Mexico in December 2003. Comparatively few people were involved in the first two phases.
The third phase, much the most difficult and by far the most challenging, is that of implementation and enforcement of standards. Literally thousands of people and hundreds of organisations all around the globe, both in and out of government, will be needed to secure this objective.
A number of governments and businesses have embarked on this third phase and without exception they are finding the path an extremely difficult one. The answers are proving to be elusive. Reforms are being attempted in the face of myriad challenges. The situation in each country - and for different business sectors - is to a greater or lesser degree unique, and off the shelf solutions have yet to be developed. For most there will be a very steep learning curve.
Tiri was designed as a response to this third and latest phase. Incorporated at the end of 2003, it works with partners in a growing global network of specialists, academics, institutions and organisations. It shares high levels of expertise and insight, based on access to, and participation in, the latest and most promising anti-corruption strategies.
Tiri was founded by two of the founding members of Transparency International (TI), the Berlin based NGO with sections in numerous countries. Jeremy Pope was TI's founding managing director, and Fredrik Galtung its head of research. The pair were the creators of much of TI's intellectual property and its initial strategic approaches.
With the encouragement and support of others who share the same convictions, Tiri was created out of the recognition that the time for awareness raising and general advocacy of the need for reform has now moved on to the determined reduction and control of corruption by the application of practical knowledge and skills. The time has arrived for the fostering of a broad-based, global movement against corruption - and for integrity in both business and government - with the high degree of professionalism needed to address the coming challenges of reform.
Tiri's programmes were developed to work with and through local organisation and reform leaders, which include partnerships with Universities, chief judges, African media groups, electoral commissioners, grassroots NGOs, civil service training institutes, justice sector institutions, UN agencies, and independent foundations.
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