The Year in Review

PARI has maintained momentum across its core programmes. The growing public concern around corruption, procurement governance, energy access, and municipal accountability offers a clear mandate for PARI’s continued work.

The 2025/26 year began on a new note for the organisation, with Sithembile Mbete coming in proper as PARI’s new Executive Director. The year’s strategy set the tone for work in the programmes to broadly deal with the following questions, being cognisant of the local elections due to follow in 2026:

• How do we make sustainable policy recommendations?
• How do we best interact with municipalities?
• How do we work on public participation?
• How do we hold the state accountable?

Research agendas in each programme reflected these broad strategic areas, with groundbreaking reports, working papers, journal articles, seminars, and policy briefs, public comment and submissions to Parliament, emerging from the programmes.Besides PARI’s usual publications and engagement with the media to input into the broader public dialogue – radio, tv, op-eds – the programmes also ventured into new territories of communication, in an effort to diversify audience engagement and create further accessibility to their work.