The place of transparency in the development of urban social capital
Transparent urban thinkers, which try to design invisible aspect of the city with transparency, can enhance accountability by ensuring that urban policies are carried out with the best interests of all groups of urban dwellers in mind.
Through transparency, the intentions and methods for implementation and evaluation of public goods as well as services will be shared to all.
Transparency can help convent trust between civic realm and local government and improve the responsiveness of urban authorities. By promoting better access to information, transparency improves the accountability of all actors to development goals and each other.
Transparency creates openness between managers and the employees and this creates trust and leads to a successful organization. Transparency is an ongoing process that brings ongoing results. It brings greater levels of employee engagement and support. As a matter of fact, Transparency is a highly valued principle by almost everyone. There's great value associated with the honesty, exposure and even vulnerability that results from an attitude, person or product that is 100% transparent.
Leading with transparency helps ensure that both employee expectations and employer expectations are appropriately set and fulfilled. With clear, open, and frequent communication, employees are less likely to make false assumptions about their jobs or their organizations.
Transparent governance means that government officials act openly, with citizens' knowledge of the decisions the officials are making. Controlling corruption is only possible when government, citizens, and the private sector cooperate to ensure transparency.
Moreover, bureaucratic transparency is a perceptual quality that occurs when several consecutive bureaucratic procedures are politically connected. Transparent Bureaucracy reduction initiatives often have the primary aim of easing business operations to foster growth and competition, but evidence shows that they can also have an impact on reducing the opportunities for bureaucratic corruption.
Furthermore, The Corporate Transparency Act requires certain business entities (each defined as a “reporting company”) to file, in the absence of an exemption, information on their “beneficial owners” with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) of the U.S. Department of Treasury (“Treasury”).
Nowadays, we find that transparency can indeed generate legitimacy, and also is considered a human right by some urban theorists. Because, transparency and access to information are essential components of a rights-based social protection system.
In particular, transparency and access to information are crucial in ensuring access and participation, and can contribute to reducing or preventing corruption, clientelism and inefficiency.
Here are three ways to achieve greater financial transparency while still keeping your sensitive financial data secure:
- Know Where You Stand;
- Align Your Team;
- Always Be Prepared.
As a final point, transparency is a skill you develop on your own, from within. Transparency is the ability to see (and manage) the relationship between yourself, the organization you serve, and the people in it. Successful leaders know their strengths and weakness.
The primary benefit of transparency in business is that it produces trust and goodwill while safeguarding the firm's reputation among investors, partners, employees, customers, and other stakeholders. Other benefits of transparency in urbanity do bode increasing citizens’ morale.
Amir Foad Mohseni
Deputy Secretary General of
Asian Mayors Forum