FY 2021 Results: Indo-Pacific Transparency Initiative

IPTI aims to strengthen democratic systems in the Indo-Pacific region by promoting institutional and fiscal integrity, political and electoral system integrity, social attitudes that reinforce democratic systems, informational integrity, and human rights. IPTI's theory of change focuses on five cross-cutting outcomes: institutional and fiscal integrity strengthened, political and electoral system integrity strengthened, social attitudes that reinforce democratic systems, informational integrity strengthened, and human rights strengthened. These outcomes are integrated across all IPTI activities, with a focus on gender equality and social inclusion. In FY 2021, IPTI achieved several key results. In terms of institutional and fiscal integrity, USAID/Philippines' Delivering Effective Government for Competitiveness and Inclusive Growth Activity assisted the Government Procurement Policy Board (GPPB) in launching an online portal to facilitate the timely procurement of COVID-19 related purchases. The portal tracked US $1.37 billion of the 22,179 awarded contracts for COVID-related goods and services. In the area of political and electoral system integrity, USAID/Nepal's Elections and Political Processes Activity, Niti Sambad, trained 506 election officials and reached 267,981 people through community events, civic education, and social media campaigns to better address misinformation, disinformation, and hate speech. These events promoted electoral integrity and the political participation of marginalized groups. IPTI also made progress in strengthening social attitudes that reinforce democratic systems. The USAID/Pacific Islands Strengthening Democratic Governance in the Pacific Islands Activity followed up with alumni of their Leadership Training Schools (LTS) for women. The LTS equipped and inspired participants to take on leadership roles in their communities, with 80 percent of participants developing plans to take on community leadership roles, 62 percent engaging in civil society activities, and 31 percent working on a political campaign. In terms of informational integrity, USAID/Nepal, through Tayar Nepal, supported developing videos, radio public service announcements, and social media content that were used for raising awareness on preparedness and response to seasonal hazards. As a result of USAID's support to build communication and outreach capacity, the Government of Nepal's National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority is increasingly viewed as a reliable resource, with a growing social media presence. Finally, IPTI made significant progress in strengthening human rights. USAID/RDMA launched a national social and behavior change communication campaign to improve the attitudes of Thais toward migrant workers and raise public awareness of migrants' rights. The USAID/RDMA Thailand Combating Trafficking in Persons Activity launched the Doc2Work application in partnership with the USAID Asia CTIP Activity and Mars Petcare. Through the application, migrant workers can access reliable information, in their languages, on regularized migration pathways and receive alerts if they are overcharged for documentation fees. Overall, IPTI's FY 2021 results demonstrate its commitment to strengthening democratic systems in the Indo-Pacific region and promoting human rights, institutional and fiscal integrity, political and electoral system integrity, social attitudes that reinforce democratic systems, and informational integrity.