As I said, there are two forms of transparency that we like to talk about at E4D: reactive and proactive.
Proactive is the moment we're in right now, when we can create structures that will allow this to function in a transparent way. This can include publicly releasing a mandate and a strategic plan. When we create councils, we can also create mandates for the councils so that they are then accountable to those procedures and outcomes. We also have things like instituting sustainable mechanisms, funding and training for people who are on councils like this. These will all impact transparency in a proactive manner.
Reactively, I look at things like annual reports, strategic plans, who's involved in those meetings and who creates the strategic plan for the capstone and the public release of all of these things. My organization has done a variety of research on transparency practices in the federal and provincial governments. Overall, what we're seeing is that the evidence often isn't shown in the creation of policies.
Going forward, the more we can be transparent about what those missions are and the evidence that was used to create them, the more trust we'll generate with both the research community and the public.