From Armenia, Shushan Doydoyan, president of the Freedom of Information Center, and Lilya Afrikyan, coordinator for the Prime Minister's Office of Open Government Partnership, join the Anti-Corruption & Governance Center podcast this week to discuss the challenges and successes Armenia is experiencing as it fights to enact beneficial ownership transparency (BOT) reforms. Just after its 2018 revolution, the country’s new government collaborated with civil society to implement a plan to transform existing beneficial ownership records into a comprehensive, digital, and open resource. Listen now to find out how and why the country was among the first to launch this kind of sweeping BOT initiative. This episode is hosted by CIPE’s Luiza Ayvazyan, Program Officer for Armenia on the South Caucasus team.

Wisborn Malaya, Secretary-General of the Zimbabwe Chamber of Informal Economy Associations (ZCIEA) joins Ryan Musser, Program Officer for CIPE's Africa team and Kim Bettcher, Director of CIPE's Policy and Program Learning team to discuss Malaya's experiences and insight into the informal economy in Zimbabwe and around the world. 

Our hosts and guest discuss the similarities between the informal economy in Zimbabwe compared to other informal economies in other countries, Malaya's work with ZCIEA, lessons learned from advocating for the informal economy, and more. 

Kristen Robinson, Head of Advocacy at the Open Contracting Partnership, joins the CIPE Anti-Corruption & Governance Center podcast to discuss what open contracting is, why the world needs it, and how the private sector can benefit and from open contracting reform. A third of the world's taxpayer money is spent on procurement -- a mind-boggling $13 Trillion -- making every citizen a stakeholder. As Robinson shares in the podcast and on a recent blog, there’s a lot of infrastructure required to ensure procurement is done quickly, effectively, and in a transparent and accountable manner. Listen now to hear why digitizing inefficient, paper-based procurement processes isn't enough; how open contracting principles can be a boon to governments and the business community alike; and how small- and medium-sized businesses can advocate for needed open contracting reforms. This episode is hosted by Richard Christel, Anti-Corruption Program Officer at CIPE.