2013 was an extremely challenging year for Transparency Maldives, yet in many ways, a successful year in terms of promoting transparency, fighting corruption and institutional growth. We were often in the spotlight as the only national election domestic observer group in a highly politicized and polarized environment, following the contentious transfer of power in February 2012. Some of the challenges TM faced include security issues, including death threats, threats of dissolutions from authorities; and balancing public expectations of TM.
Despite the challenges, in 2013, we successfully advocated for passage of an international best-practices Access to Information Act, established and trained a network of over 400 volunteers across Maldives and abroad, including Singapore, India, Sri Lanka and the UK. We also conducted the Maldives’ first ever systematic elections observation, helped 38 victims and witnesses of corruption to stand up against corruption and commenced work on a campaign to increase grassroots demand for access to information.
We grew our staff number from 15 in 2012 to 22 2013, launched three publications, including the Pre-Election Assessment Presidential Elections 2013, Global Corruption Barometer 2013, An Assessment of the Climate Finances and conducted studies for an access to information baseline survey and the state of democracy study.
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Annual Report 2013