Effective consultation processes for beneficial ownership transparency reform

Conclusion

Explaining beneficial ownership reform can be challenging. It is a technically complex area where it is not always immediately obvious how policy or legislative choices will affect the data that is disclosed, and what impact such changes will have on the use of data to achieve policy goals.

Using creative, visual methods to engage all interested parties can be a useful way to cut through some of this complexity, show what will and will not be in scope and what information will be available once published.

It is also important to talk about the reforms from a number of different policy perspectives to engage stakeholders beyond the anti-corruption sphere. Doing so will strengthen anti-corruption measures too, the Anti-Corruption Resource Centre (U4) makes the case for this in its recent publication, “Overcoming the pitfalls of engaging communities in anti-corruption programmes”, stating: “It is often more important to infuse anti-corruption elements into public service delivery projects than to focus on anti-corruption as a singular issue.”[2]

Creating a high-quality open register of beneficial ownership is a public service delivery project with positive impacts for effective governance, markets and public oversight. It is important therefore to approach the delivery of beneficial ownership reforms with a holistic view of the possible impact and value. This will ensure that diverse and representative views are actively sought throughout the process of design and implementation and increase the impact and sustainability of reform.