Inequality is increasing to the detriment of economic and social rights, and NGOs have been spending enormous amounts of energy campaigning on inequality and trying to get it on the global policy agenda. Historically, NGOs are most effective when they can point directly to abuses involving bodily harm and obvious injustice—images of malnourished children immediately come to mind. NGOs have a tougher time, however, getting inequality-related issues on the technical policy agenda and into the engine rooms of economic redistribution.
The Panama Papers leak, however, shines a light on a major source of increasing global inequality and is a prime opportunity for NGOs to get more traction on the issue. The leak provides information on 11.5 million files, exposing the tax avoidance or illicit practices of 12 current world leaders and a range of politicians and celebrities in the developed and developing worlds. But how can NGOs make the most of this opportunity? One key way to create pressure is to have a benchmark that compares countries against a common standard on an issue.
Our research suggests that there are two routes for NGOs to use benchmarks. One goes with the flow, the other against it. The first tactic is to join forces with the policy machine by playing up an existing normative position. In this way, NGOs can fight inequality by creating an alliance with authorities and corporations on the need to extend reform. Corruption is a good example. In 1995 Transparency International (TI) launched the Corruptions Perceptions Index (CPI) to lessen the impact of corruption on development outcomes. The CPI was launched in an environment of increased attention on reforming polities in the post-Cold War period and was emboldened by ready support from multinational firms, powerful states and international organizations that had a pre-existing interest in reducing corruption.
