In the context of the GAP framework, transparency is the provision of accessible and timely information to stakeholders and the opening up of organisational procedures, structures and processes to their assessment.

To be transparent an organisation must be open with its stakeholders about its activities and performance, providing basic information to them on what it is doing and how well it is doing it through financial statements, annual reports and performance evaluations. This is the basic information needed by stakeholders to monitor an organisation’s activities and to hold it to account for its actions, goals and objectives.

However, to be transparent an organisation must do more than disclose standardised information: it also needs to provide stakeholders with the information they require to make informed choices and decisions. In this way transparency is more than just a one way flow of information it is an ongoing dialogue between organisation and stakeholders over information provision.

Transparency also relates more broadly to organisational openness. A transparent organisation is one that opens up its inner workings to stakeholders and their influence. The process through which decisions are made from the operational, to the policy to the strategic levels are open to input from stakeholders.