| Tool | An illustrative list of red flags is provided to help WSI participants identify and respond to WSI-specific hazards relating to organizations unduly dominating a policymaking process, or otherwise capturing public resources or institutions for private benefit. |
| Related Key Activities | Assess likelihood of capture risks and establish mechanisms for monitoring and oversight. |
| Purpose | Help to scan an initiative to avoid capture risks:
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| Possible Users | WSI initiators, funders, watch dogs, and other interested parties, WSI participants, and affected stakeholders. |
| Level of Effort | Scanning by individual participants of red flags to a participatory analysis. |
| WSI Phase | 2: Formalization. |
A red flag is a warning of a possible hazard. “Capture” can be understood to occur when discretionary decision-making or policy processes become systematically distorted or biased in favor of some interests over others due to structured imbalances in power and influence.
Captured legal frameworks, regulatory agencies, and policy processes serve vested interests but with the power, permanence, and legitimacy associated with government. The resulting effects are therefore quickly established in a given system and may be difficult to revoke.
The four steps laid out below provide an outline for a participatory approach to address capture risks in a WSI.
