ODI Friday Lunchtime Lecture: Can open beneficial data help curb corruption?

Watch a video of the lecture here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raEEWlwfzUA&index=1&list=PL6DDzoHu1cx1ozmghXXCgzwHF8Ln8Tlv8 Each year, over billions of dollars in illicit funds – the fruits of crime, corruption or tax evasion – pass through anonymous shell companies. Their owners remain hidden, escaping accountability and passing the costs of their illicit activities onto communities. How can beneficial ownership data help solve these problems? Why should it be available as open data? And what are the lessons learned from the UK’s first ever open data register of beneficial ownership? In this lecture, Zosia Sztykowski from OpenOwnership will answer the questions and give a sneak peak of the OpenOwnership Register – a platform for global beneficial ownership information being developed by OpenCorporates, Global Witness, Open Contracting Partnership, The B Team, The Web Foundation and Transparency International. About the speaker Zosia Sztykowski is the Project Coordinator for OpenOwnership, a new project to build a open register of global beneficial ownership in the public interest. With a background in cultural analysis and feminist organising, Zosia is dedicated to effecting policy and shifting norms in the interest of a more equal, more open society. Zosia recently graduated with an MSc in cultural sociology from the London School of Economics, where she earned the Hobhouse Memorial Prize for her dissertation research.