Over the years, Transparency International’s research has consistently shown that the political sphere is perceived among the most corrupt sectors of society. Political finance, understood as the use of resources for funding political organizations and electoral campaigns is thus generally viewed with suspicion. However, while it is true that large donations can undermine elected office holders’ independence and thus undermine the democratic process, financial resources are at the same time a condition for parties and candidates to build solid political organizations and canvas public support for their policies.

Political finance being both a necessity and a challenge for democracy, transparency and public disclosure of these funds are of the essence to instill confidence in the democratic process by giving voters a complete picture of the candidates’ interests.

Given the importance of this issue, TI has made the fights against political corruption one of its global priorities . TI chapters in Latin America have developed a methodology to measure transparency in political finance and detect weaknesses in legal framework and practices.

The success of this project has lead TI to continuously expand both the methodological and the geographic scope of its existing research and advocacy tools to strengthen the understanding of political corruption and improve ways to measure and counter the impact of money in politics.

Money has always been necessary for political parties and candidates to compete in elections. The purpose of anti-corruption efforts in the area of political finance is not to curtail funding, but rather to ensure that parties are properly funded from sources that are neither corrupt nor potentially corrupting, and are accountable to oversight bodies and the general public for their funding.

It is vital that corruption risks are addressed, given how serious the potential fallout of corrupt exchanges between parties and funders: exposure of underhand dealings to obtain operational and campaign finance gives the impression – in some cases well-founded – that access to the democratic decision-making process can be bought, irrespective of what the public wants. As a result, people lose interest in the political process and lose trust in government. Also crucial is to tackle the abuse of state resources (such as state media, staff time or use of official telephones, vehicles and offices for campaigning) by incumbent parties.

Many tools are available to governments to control money in politics and to prevent political parties from falling into the pockets of their donors. Legislatures can try to curb the need for private funding by passing laws to provide funding or subsidised access to the media. They can also lessen the demand for money by shortening campaign periods or capping expenditures.

A third route – and in fact necessary for the above two approaches to work – is to increase transparency of campaign finance by introducing disclosure requirements, whereby the public is informed of who gave how much to whom, for what purpose and when.

A good set of political finance regulations is, of course, of little use if it is not properly enforced. Effective enforcement requires independent oversight agencies endowed with powers to supervise, investigate and, if required, institute legal proceedings in cases of malpractice. Unfortunately, many governments lack the political will to give teeth to supervisory agencies lest it work to their disadvantage once out of office.

While TI's Standards on Political Finance and Favours outline the minimum benchmarks for transparency and integrity of political financing, a second document, TI's Policy Brief 2/2005 on Political Finance Regulations: Bridging the Enforcement Gap, provides key suggestions for how to ensure that recommendations are effectively enforced.

Regardless of the political finance regime in place in a given country, it is incumbent upon candidates and political parties themselves to ensure that their funding is clean and that information about the money raised and spent is made available. Parties can and must resist the temptation to accept money that binds them to serve interests other than the general public's.

Failure of political institutions as a result of political corruption remains a fundamental problem across many countries in the Asia Pacific region. The findings of the TI Global Corruption Barometer and other governance indicators highlight the perception in Asia Pacific that political parties are one of the institutions most affected by corruption. As many Asian countries are experiencing democracy in transition, opportunities exist to set new standards in political accountability.

TI national chapters in Bangladesh, Indonesia and Nepal are launching a programme on Transparency in Political Financing to help increase public trust in democracy and political parties by promoting transparency and accountability in political party and election campaign financing. The Asia Pacific Transparency in Political Financing programme building on the TI CRINIS project which promotes transparency and accountability in political financing in Latin America.

Corruption in political finance may pose a greater threat to democratic and economic development in Africa than in any other region of the world. As recent events of electoral violence in Kenya, Nigeria and Zimbabwe have demonstrated, the continent faces increasing challenges of political instability, while its emerging democratic institutions remain fragile. Political corruption in the region not only diverts resources for providing basic services for millions of poor and underprivileged, it also erodes public confidence towards their governments which in turn threatens political stability in many of these countries.

The programme furthermore introduces a component aimed at empowering citizens to translate these findings into active advocacy campaigns and monitoring of political processes. Reflecting both its roots in CRINIS and the specific regional aspects, the project aims at establishing a regional benchmark for political finance transparency for political parties and electoral institutions in sub-Saharan Africa.

A first regional workshop was organized in July 2008 in Nairobi, Kenya, bringing together representatives from TI chapters, other civil society groups, electoral management bodies, experts in political finance and regional organizations such as the African Union and the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC). The participants reviewed the CRINIS methodology tested in Latin America and adopted a limited number of changes related to the differing political systems, but also taking into account issues such as the importance of cash or in-kind payments in African economies or the increasing role of mobile telephone technology in both fundraising and campaigning.

TI Chapters in a number of African countries are currently planning to conduct research projects based on this adapted methodology, re-named NURU (meaning ray of light in Swahili) to reflect the changes made to the tool developed in Latin America. In cooperation with the TI Secretariat, the chapters are also planning for a strong regional component, including the relevant regional organizations to set higher standards for transparency in political finance.