2021
annual report
2021
annual
report
TNI envisages an equitable, democratic and peaceful world in which all life may flourish.
Message from the director
Twenty twenty one was a tumultuous year, with crisis compounding crisis. For the Transnational Institute, it began with the coup in Myanmar, where we have a major programme. It ended with the regressive outcome of the climate talks in Glasgow, which effectively gave new licence to fossil fuel companies under cover of ‘net zero’ – and that in the year that recorded the most extreme heat wave and the most mega-disasters ever recorded.
OUR MISSION
TNI’s mission is to serve as a knowledge resource for progressive social movements.
OUR GOALS
TNI’s external goals for 2021–2025 are:
Our internal goals are to remain:
These goals are the outcome of an extensive Strategic Planning process, which took stock of contextual conditions for our work, including assessing the current opportunities and threats for TNI. We sought input from over 300 allies and associates, and held online workshops involving our teams as well as members of our Supervisory Board.
OUR GOALS
TNI’s external goals
for 2021–2025 are:
Construct:
Well-researched proposals meaningfully contribute to an elaboration of viable pathways to transformative change.
Communicate:
Narratives popularising proposals for transformative change prove high impact.
Catalyse:
Strong, united and intersectional social movements constitute a growing counter-power advocating for transformative pathways.
Our internal goals
are to remain:
a relevant and effective think tank for progressive social movements.
an effective, sustainable and caring organisation.
These goals are the outcome of an extensive Strategic Planning process, which took stock of contextual conditions for our work, including assessing the current opportunities and threats for TNI. We sought input from over 300 allies and associates, and held online workshops involving our teams as well as members of our Supervisory Board.
TNI’S 2021 IN NUMBERS
Research output
TNI launched
98
publications, long reads and ‘Myanmar in focus’ articles in 8 languages
Media
TNI’s ideas were mentioned in
152
media stories reaching a conservatively estimated audience of
251 million
TNI’s ideas were covered in: the Washington Post, Al Jazeera, CBS, The Economist, El Espectador, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, The Hindu, AFP, The Daily Mail. We were mentioned by The Guardian and The Independent (UK) several times each.
Podcasts
TNI released
20
podcasts that were listened to 9,620 times in 2021
TNI’s web pages
TNI’s web pages were viewed
2,134,545
times
Social media
TNI’s ideas reached
10 million
people on Twitter. TNI’s most popular tweet (on our Smoking Guns Report) reached at least 455,000 people.
TNI’s YouTube subscribers grew to over
4,000
and our videos were viewed
50,000
times
Webinars
TNI co-hosted
68 webinars
attended or later watched by
26,869
people, many of whom attended more than one webinar
TNI’s most popular webinar (The Great Take Over: How we fight the Davos capture of global governance) was attended or later watched by
6,774 people
from 92 countries
Academic Citations
TNI associates and staff were cited
4,726
times in academic publications
Dialogue with policy makers
TNI was in dialogue with policy makers from
47
countries and
19
international organisations
Newsletter
Subscriptions to TNI’s e-newsletters grew to
30,411
subscribers – 3,440 of whom signed up in 2021
ACHIEVEMENTS IN 2021
In 2021, TNI began the transition to a new five-year strategy, guided by our three overarching goals: be propositional, communicate popularly for high impact, and catalyse stronger social movements. Among our many achievements this year was strengthened collaboration with activists from China, North Africa and Eastern Europe. Another was the consolidation of a new inter-sectoral coalition connecting the dots on how global governance of public policy is increasingly captured by large private companies. In line with our new goals, we invested a lot of energy in developing positive narratives aimed at catalysing a popular movement to reclaim public services, as Covid taught us we must. At the policy level, we contributed to some real breakthroughs regarding drug policy, and have succeeded in delegitimating the Energy Charter Treaty, which makes the energy transition that much more difficult and expensive for states. We had our best year ever in terms of media outreach, with particular attention for our pioneering work on climate, militarism and justice.
In 2021, TNI began the transition to a new five-year strategy, guided by our three overarching goals: be propositional, communicate popularly for high impact, and catalyse stronger social movements. Among our many achievements this year was strengthened collaboration with activists from China, North Africa and Eastern Europe. Another was the consolidation of a new inter-sectoral coalition connecting the dots on how global governance of public policy is increasingly captured by large private companies. In line with our new goals, we invested a lot of energy in developing positive narratives aimed at catalysing a popular movement to reclaim public services, as Covid taught us we must. At the policy level, we contributed to some real breakthroughs regarding drug policy, and have succeeded in delegitimating the Energy Charter Treaty, which makes the energy transition that much more difficult and expensive for states. We had our best year ever in terms of media outreach, with particular attention for our pioneering work on climate, militarism and justice.
Who We Work With
Movements
TNI works in support of, and as part of, progressive social movements in developing a relevant and useful research and advocacy agenda. We work with a broad range of organizations including trade unions, organizations of small-scale farmers and fishers, environmental and feminist networks, and numerous issue-specific advocacy groups – both directly and within intersectional coalitions. We help to make links wherever possible and, in so doing, contribute to building powerful transnationally-connected movements for change.
Activist-Scholars
TNI strives to be a useful think tank for social movements. We work with activist-scholars to provide movements with the tools necessary to understand and take on the forces of wealth, power and control; analyses of developments that help movements stay one step ahead; and evidence-based argumentation. Activist-scholars can also serve as influential and visionary public intellectuals, and provide persuasive expertise in engagements with policy-makers and in the media. TNI also sees merit in building new generations of critical and radical intellectuals dedicated to serving the public good, providing a strong body of knowledge on which they can draw and build, and seeing knowledge production itself as a site of struggle.
Policy Makers
From local to international levels, and across the political spectrum, TNI provides civil servants and elected representatives with information and analysis on a wide-range of themes. We do this, for example, through co-convening informal policy dialogues, presentations to parliamentary committees, or side events at UN meetings. Wherever possible we work with allies. We want to ensure a seat at the table for those being advocated for.
Media
TNI works with media to amplify the struggles of movements, to give visibility to progressive innovations, and to provide a critical perspective on the issues of the moment. This includes press outreach, active social media engagement as well as partnerships with progressive media platforms.
BOARD REPORT
FINANCES
TNI is committed to the principles of independence, transparency, and accountability. TNI’s financial reporting was rated 5 stars for ‘excellence’ by the Transparify initiative.
What
we spent our money on
Where
we get our money
For a full breakdown of expenditures per donor see FUNDING AGREEMENTS ACTIVE IN 2021 below.
Income
over the last 4 years
Financial result
The result in 2021 was €83,787, derived mostly from donations, currency gains, consultancies, and rent. Of this, €16,169 had been held in a restricted fund for the ISDS campaign in 2020, which has now been fully spent in 2021. This leaves a net result of €67,618.
The 2021 result is added to TNI’s reserves, which therefore, now stands at €1,334,361. This constitutes 67% of the goal set by the Board of one year’s fixed operational costs or a survival rate of 244 days, as compared to 58% and 212 days at the end of the previous year. The formula used in the Reserves Policy is: liquid reserves/fixed operational costs x 365 days. Liquid reserves are approximately 89% of the amount listed as reserves in our annual accounts, with the remaining 11% requiring the Institute to sell its building.
The ratio of current assets to short-term liabilities remains healthy at 173% (compared to 138% in 2020).
Financial statements
Source: TNI Audited Financial Accounts 2021
TNI STAFF
MANAGEMENT TEAM
Fiona Dove (Executive Director)
Pietje Vervest & Ernestien Jensema (Programmes)
Denis Burke (Communications)
John Kerseboom (Personnel)
COMMUNICATIONS
Denis Burke (Coordinator)
Melissa Koutouzis (Communications Officer)
Mercedes Camps (Spanish translator, USA)
Shaun Matsheza (Podcasts/writer)
Hilde van der Pas (Dutch press liaison/social media)
Jorrit Stoker (Webmaster)
COMMUNITY-BUILDERS
Nick Buxton (Knowledge Hub Coordinator, USA)
Jess Graham (Fundraiser)
Niels Jongerius (Netherlands)
OFFICE & ADMINISTRATION
Misrak Alayu (Front Office)
Katja Gertman (Bookkeeping Assistant)
Albi Janssen (Network Engineer)
John Kerseboom (Personnel)
Stephanie Olinga-Shannon (Evaluation)
Sebastian Stellingwerf (ICT)
Susane Senz (ICT)
PROGRAMME DIRECTORS
Martin Jelsma (Drugs & Democracy)
Pietje Vervest (Economic Justice)
PROGRAMME COORDINATORS
Brid Brennan (Corporate Power)
Ernestien Jensema (Drugs & Democracy)
Satoko Kishimoto (Public Alternatives)
Niamh Ni Bhriain (War & Pacification)
Cecilia Olivet (Trade & Investment)
PROGRAMME STAFF
Tom Blickman
Daniel Chavez
Sylvia Kay
Pien Metaal
Katie Sandwell
Lavinia Steinfort
Sol Trumbo Vila
PROGRAMME ASSOCIATES
Arun Kundnani (UK/USA)
Bettina Müller (Germany)
Carsten Pederson (Denmark)
Dania Putri (Morocco)
Gonzalo Berrón (Brazil)
Hamza Hamouchene (UK)
Jenny Franco (Netherlands)
Lucía Barcéna (Spain)
Luciana Ghiotto (Argentina)
Monica Vargas (Spain)
Sofia Scasserra (Argentina)
Zoe Brent (Spain)
INTERNS
Alhafiz Atsari (Indonesia)
Alice Pomfret (UK)
Brian Dane (USA)
Bruno Palombini Gastal (Spain)
Daniel Boston (USA)
Ghiwane Boumediene (France)
Jelto Makris (Germany)
Louisa Valentin (Germany)
VOLUNTEERS
Juliana Senna (Programme assistant)
Mustaffa Habashi (Handyman)
Nicholas Santiago Martinez Rivera (Researcher)
Susan Medeiros (Front Office)
ASSOCIATES
Achin Vanaik (India)
Anthony Barnett (UK)
Ben Hayes (UK)
Boris Kagarlitsky (Russia)
David Bewley-Taylor (UK)
David Fig (South Africa)
David Sogge (Netherlands)
Edgardo Lander (Venezuela)
Francesco Martone (Italy)
Harris Gleckman (USA)
Helen Lackner (UK)
Hermann von Hatzfeldt (Germany)
Howard Wachtel (USA)
James Early (USA)
Jochen Hippler (Germany)
Joel Rocamora (Philippines)
John Cavanagh (USA)
Jun Borras (Philippines)
Hilary Wainwright (UK)
Kamil Mahdi (Iraq/UK)
Kees Biekart (Netherlands)
Lyda Fernanda Forero Torres (Colombia)
Manuel Pérez-Rocha (Mexico/USA)
Marcos Arruda (Brazil)
Mariano Aguirre (Argentina/Norway)
Myriam Vander Stichele (Netherlands)
Peter Weiss (USA)
Phyllis Bennis (USA)
Ricardo Vargas (Colombia)
Roger van Zwanenburg (UK)
Sebastián Torres (Uruguay)
Tom Reifer (USA)
Walden Bello (Philippines)
TNI COLLABORATIONS IN 2021
TNI would like to thank all those individuals who cooperated with us in 2021. Your time, labour and expertise has been much appreciated. Apologies in advance to anyone who was inadvertently omitted. There are many, in Myanmar particularly, who cannot be named for reasons of safety but know that we thank you too.
Africa
Algeria
- Malia Bouattia
Burkina Faso
- Koumbou Boly Barry
Cameroon
- Achille Mbembe
Egypt
- Hossam el-Hamalawy
- Mostafa Bassiouny
- Saker El Nour
Ethiopia
- Solomon Ayele Dersso
Ghana
- Dzifa Torvikey
Kenya
- David Ngige
- Rahma Hassan
Mali
- Almamy Sylla
Morocco
- Abdelatif Adebibe
- Ali Amouzai
- Ali Aznague
- Charif Adardak
- Jawad Moustakbal
- Meriam Mabrouk
- Omar Aziki
- Shadia El Brahimi
Mozambique
- Dipti Bhatnagar
- Erika Mendes
- Natacha Bruna
Niger
- Rhoumour Ahmet Tchilouta
Nigeria
- Baba Aye
South Africa
- Boaventure Monjane
- Brian Ashley
- Dominic Brown
- Greek Zweni
- Michael Kwet
- Naseegh Jaffer
- Patrick Bond
- Refiloe Joala
- Ruth Hall
- Sandra van Niekerk
- Thomas Mnguni
Senegal
- Hakima Abbas
- Ndongo Samba Sylla
Sudan
- Muzan Alneel
- Sara Abbas
Tanzania
- Olivia Costa
Tunisia
- Chafik Benrouine
- Ghassen Ben Khelifa
- Layla Riahi
- Ouiem Chettaoui
- Maha Ben Gadha
- Sana El Kadhi
- Sofian Philip Naceur
Uganda
- Faith Lumonya
Western Sahara
- Jalihenna Mohamed
- Mahmoud Lemaadel
Asia-Oceania
Australia
- Philip Alston
China
- Au*
- Crystal L*
- Lin*
- Kevin*
- May*
- Yan Hairong
*Aliases
India
- Amithaba Sarkar
- Ameya Bokil
- Anita Gurumurthy
- Anuradha Chenoy
- Ashish Kothari
- Avaneendra Khare
- Benny Kuruvilla
- Binita Kakati
- Jayati Ghosh
- Kangki Megu
- Nikita Sovanane
- Parminder Jeet Singh
- Pramod Singh
- Romesh Bhattacharji
- Srujana Bej
- Sulakshana Nandi
- Vaishali Janarthanan
- Vijayan MJ
Indonesia
- Arie Kurniawaty
- Marthin Hadiwinata
- Rachmi Hertanti
Malaysia
- Charles Santiago
New Zealand
- Tuari Potiki
Pakistan
- Afrasib Khattak
- Farooq Tariq
Philippines
- Joseph Purugganan
- Joshua M. Makalintal
- Teresa Encarnacion Tadem
Taiwan
- Brian Hoe
Thailand
- Shalmali Guttal
South Korea
- Sun Kim
Americas
Antigua and Barbuda
- Franklin Lennox Francis/Ras Frank I
Argentina
- Andrea P. Sosa Varrotti
- Carolina Martínez Elebi
- Delphine Ortega-Espès
- Karina Batthyany
- Mercedes D’Alessandro
- Nicolás Arata
Bolivia
- Aldo Orellana López
- Freddy Condo Riveros
- Jesús Sanez
- Marcela Olivera
- Patricia Chulver
- Rose Marie Achá
Brazil
- Léo Heller
- Leticia Paranhos Menna de Oliveira
- Lucia Ortiz
- Manoela Roland
- Tchenna Maso
Canada
- Aparna Sundar
- Arthur Bull
- Benoit Gomis
- Harsha Walia
- Leilani Farha
- Manfred Elfstrom
- Naomi Klein
- Naureen Shameem
- Simon Dalby
- Susan Spronk
- Tamara Lorincz
Chile
- Carolina Pérez Dattari
- Magdalena Sepúlveda
- Paloma Olivares
- Paula Poblete
- Richardo Nunez
- Soledad Varela
- Verónica Vilches
Colombia
- Ana Maria Suarez-Franco
- Javier Márquez
Costa Rica
- Vernor Munoz
Ecuador
- Pablo Fajardo
Jamaica
- Vicki Hanson
Mexico
- Carol Hernandez Rodriguez
- Diana Quiroz
- Diana Siller
- Isadora Hastings
- Refugio Choreño Gómez
- Saul Vicente
- Yaoci Pardo
St. Vincent & The Grenadines
- Jerrol Thompson
- Saboto Ceasar
- Spirit Junior Cottle
United States
- Alan McPherson
- Annie Schattuck
- Arun Kundnani
- Ben Tarnoff
- Darren Byler
- Dong Yige
- Dov Baum
- Eli Friedman
- Evan Clayburg
- Elizabeth Niarhos
- Geoffrey Boyce
- Ho-Fung Hung
- Jaron Browne
- Joel Andreas
- Johanna Bozuwa
- John Feffer
- John Treat
- John Walsh
- Kali Akuno
- Karen Rignall
- Khury Petersen-Smith
- Laura Flanders
- Lorah Steichen
- Mabrouka M’barek
- Mary Taylor
- Meena Jagganath
- Miriam Ticktin
- Mizue Aizeki
- Nicholas Guarnaccia
- Olufemi Taiwo
- Patrick Barrett
- Peter Ramand
- Philip McMichael
- Ralf Ruckus
- Rebecca Karl
- Sandy Shan
- Sean Sweeney
- Srujana Bej
- Tobita Chow
- Todd Miller
- Tom Kruze
- Yangyang Cheng
- Ying Chen
Uruguay
- Alberto Villareal
- Alvara Queiruga
- Danilo Urrea
- Karin Nansen
- Martin Drago
Europe
Austria
- Martin Konecny
Belgium
- Alice Rosaline
- Alisha Sesum
- Astrid Bouchedor
- Azza Chamkhi
- Catherine Woollard
- Eric Vanhaute
- Felix Brender-Wang
- Jessie Renshaw
- Julie Carlier
- Leila Chaibi
- Laetitia Sedou
- Marie Musch
- Mary Ann Manahan
- Martin Pigeon
- Olivier Hoedeman
- Pierre Marion
- Sara Matthieu
- Xiomara Villa
Croatia
- Mladen Domazet
- Vedran Horvat
Czech Republic
- Kristina Andělová
- Ondrêj Slacálek
- Tereza McLaughlin Váňová
- Luba Kobova
Denmark
- Kenneth Haar
- Mads Barbesgaard
- Rahma Hassan
- Sien Kavak
France
- Charlène Jouanneau
- David Gabriel
- David Bodinier
- Deborah Eade
- Hongqiao Liu
- Juliette Renaud
- Leïla Chaibi
- Leila Minano
- Olivier Petitjean
- Paul Nicholson
- Thibault Josse
- Véronique Rioufol
Germany
- Caroline Breidenbach
- Fabian Flues
- Hannah Neumann
- Janina Hirth
- Jose Miguel Calatayud
- Katja Girr
- Kristof Nagy
- Magdalena Taube
- Markus Rhein
- Nico Schmidt
- Paula Gioia
- Pia Eberhardt
- Philip Seufert
- Saker El Nour
- Sara Abbas
- Sofia Monsalve
Georgia
- Lela Rekhviashvili
- Nino Khelaia
Greece
- Apostolis Fotiadis
- Christos Giovanopoulos
- Dimos Ispikoudis
Hungary
- Agnes Gagyi
- Eszter Kováts
- Imre Szucs
- Kristóf Nagy
- Linda Szabó
- Logan Strenchock
- Tamás Gerőcs
- Zoltán Ginelli
Ireland
- Donal Mac Fhearraigh
- Fleachta Phelan
- Peadar KiNG
- Siobhan Airey
Italy
- Delphine Ortega-Espes
- Elena Ghizzo
- Antonio Tricarico
- Nora McKeon
- Rosa Pavanelli
- Joseph Burbidge
- Danila Deans
- Lucia Pradella
- Leone Hadavi
Moldova
- Vitalie Sprinceana
Netherlands
- Alberto Alonso Fradejas
- Aleksi Hupli
- Analía Penchaszadeh
- Amod Shah
- Annette Kouwenhoven
- Barbara van Male
- Bas Coenegracht
- Cristóbal Kay
- Frans Bieckmann
- Guido Jelsma
- Jan Douwe van der Ploeg
- Jille Belisario
- Jilles Mast
- Jurjen van De Bergh
- Karen Paalman
- Kirstie Crail
- Laura Basu
- Linda Corbijn
- Lorraine Smith
- Luca Hopman
- Mariana Gkliati
- Marie-Sol Reindl
- Mark Akkerman
- Miriyam Aouragh
- Natalia Rebollo Corral
- Ralf Brandenstein
- Rene Roemersma
- Wendela De Vries
Poland
- Andrzej W. Nowak
Romania
- Adela Hincu
- Attila Szocs
- Maria Cernat
- Veda Popovici
Russia
- Oleg Jouravlev
Serbia
- Aleksandar Matković
- Vladimir Simovic
Spain
- Adoración Guamán
- Carlos Díaz
- Diana Riba
- Ekaterina Zepnova
- Erick Gonzalo Palomares Rodríguez
- Erika Martinez
- Eva Garcia Chueca
- Felip Daza Sierra
- Gema Gómez Anaya
- Giulia Campisi
- Jordi Calvo Rufanges
- Laura Roth
- Miguel Urban
- Nora Miralles
- Nuria del Viso
- Oriol Puig
- Paloma Chen
- Paul Nicholson
- Pere Brunet
- Tània Corrons
Sweden
- Amr Khairy
Switzerland
- Emilie Ferreira
- Lynn Fries
Ukraine
- Anastasia Riabchuk
- Volodymyr Ischchenko
- Yuliya Yurchenko
United Kingdom
- Adam Hanieh
- Ala’a Shehabi
- Alfredo Saad Filho
- Ann Fordham
- Andrew Cumbers
- Andrew Feinstein
- Andrew Metheven
- Andy Rutherford
- Anne Alexander
- Aoife Nolan
- Azfar Shafi
- Ben Tippet
- Benoît Gomis
- Bertie Russell
- Chris Jones
- Cindy Schaller
- Dave Bewley-Taylor
- Dottie Guerrero
- Emilie McSwiggan
- Giulia Simula
- Hamza Lakhal
- Harry Hayball
- Ian Scoones
- Isabel Hilton
- James Angel
- Jane Kilpatrick
- Joanna Allan
- John McDonnell
- Jon Cracknel
- Laleh Khalili
- Laura Stegemann
- Lee Jones
- Linsey Cottrell
- Lucia Pradella
- Marie Nougier
- Martin Smith
- Miriyam Aouragh
- Meriam Madrouk
- Paul Rogers
- Rafeef Ziadah
- Steve Tibbet
- Stuart Parkinson
- Tania Martinez
West Asia
Bahrain
- Ala’a Shehabi
Iran
- Marya Rahmanian
Iraq
- Zahra Ali
Israel
- Alys Samson Estapé
Lebanon
- Fourate Chahal
Turkey
- Irmak Ertor
- Joris Leverink