IFES: Oversight—Toolkit for Political Finance Institutions

While most discussions about how to increase transparency and control over the role of money in political and electoral processes emphasize the importance of implementation, there are very few resources available to support this work in practice. That is why we have created this toolkit for political finance oversight institutions.

Oversight—Toolkit for Political Finance Institutions has been created to assist public institutions with a mandate to enforce regulations on political party and/or campaign finance. It aims to assist oversight institutions on all continents and in all situations in implementing their mandate. The issues covered vary from strategic and operational planning to key activities such as advisory services, control of received financial reports, handling issues of noncompliance, and the development of procedures.

Public institutions are the primary intended audience for this toolkit. It will also be of great utility to civil society activists and organizations focused on anti-corruption and providing oversight of the implementation of political finance regulations, as well as to legislators, journalists, and others. Our aspiration is for this toolkit to evolve based on your input and on future developments, with further information being added over time.

This toolkit has been designed to allow the user to focus in on whatever area is of greatest interest, but also to be an integrated resource that can guide political finance oversight institutions across all their work and the implementation of their mandate.

Oversight has been developed by Lisa Klein and Barbara Jouan-Stonestreet, leading political finance experts with operational experience of working with political finance oversight institutions in Europe and the United States, together with IFES Senior Political Finance Adviser and Director, Regional Europe Office Magnus Ohman. In addition, over 30 experts and implementers from over 15 countries contributed by writing sections, providing case studies, or undertaking reviews of drafts during the development of this toolkit (see our grateful acknowledgments). The involvement of experts from a wide range of countries has greatly added nuance to the information in the toolkit and to its applicability in many contexts.