Publications

Recent years have witnessed concerns about issues of government effectiveness and accountability, particularly in the delivery of public services. Citizen engagement is increasingly recognized as a method to help improve development program effectiveness. This report reviews the unique initiative to enhance World Bank projects by promoting CSO engagement to demand better governance and offer recommendations for future accountability programming.

The Citizen Action for Results, Transparency and Accountability (CARTA) Program was funded by a US$1.9 million grant from the Japanese Social Development Fund (JSDF). The grant was managed by the World Bank. CARTA started in mid-2011 and will be completed by November 30, 2015 after it was extended by more than one year. The World Bank chose the Partnership for Transparency Fund (PTF) to implement the CARTA Program. The CARTA Program objective was “to enhance the development impact …

This paper is a modest contribution to a main focus of the upcoming 2015 Open Government Partnership (OGP) Global Summit: How principles of open government can support compliance with the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations Post-2015 Agenda. The specific question we address within this broader context is “What lessons do the OGP processes and results offer for development and implementation of national strategies and actions plans for achieving the proposed governance Sustainable Development Goal Number 16 (SDG #16)?

Conditional cash transfer programs (CCTPs) are widely used in the world and are proving effective in generating proven poverty alleviation impacts. However, CCTP achievements are undermined by fraud, errors, and corruption. These integrity risks and international experiences in managing them by using both state and civil society-led efforts have been analyzed in a paper prepared by PTF as part of Guarding the Integrity of the Conditional Cash Transfer Program (CCTP) in the Philippines, implemented by the Concerned Citizens of Abra for Good Government (CCAGG) and funded by the Global Partnership for Social Accountability (GPSA).

The effects of corruption have different, and often disproportionate, impacts on women due to prevailing social and cultural norms that deny political, social and legal gender equality. Poor women in developing countries are especially affected by corruption due to, among other factors, household responsibilities, lack of control over household resources, and socio …

This report summarizes the current findings on citizen engagement instruments and examines whether these interventions have contributed to enhanced health practices and ultimately on improved health outcomes. The publication was produced by PTF Adviser, Judith Edstrom, under USAID’s Leadership, Management, and Governance Project, a USAID-funded program to collaborate with health leaders and policy makers being Implemented by a consortium led by Management Sciences for Health (MSH).

This pilot project of the Barry Metzger Rule of Law Initiative established a regional network of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in Serbia, Croatia, and Bosnia-Herzegovina, and laid the foundation for a long-term initiative to support countries to strengthen the rule of law through judicial reform.

The National Citizen’s Movement for Free Elections (NAMFREL), a local CSO in the Philippines, carried out the “Medicine Monitoring Project” (MMP) in partnership with the Department of Health (DOH). The project first started in 2004 and received funding from PTF in two phases during 2008/2009 and 2010/2011. The first phase served to test the feasibility of the approach which was then – after successful completion – scaled up in a second phase. The project focused on establishing citizen monitoring to control corruption in the delivery of health services, working with hospitals and Centers for Health Development (CHDs) to establish a more transparent and efficient system of procuring and stocking medicines. The project aimed to engage and encourage communities to monitor the delivery of health services and to institutionalize third party monitoring.

Forest Action, a local Nepalese CSO, has successfully engaged communities to tackle the problem of willful mismanagement of forest resources in the Morang District in Nepal. Through its targeted intervention, balancing constructive engagement, awareness raising and capacity building of citizens and community members to meaningfully participate in the management of forestry resources, Forest Action has laid a strong basis to curb corruption in the long run and enable communities to demand transparency, inclusion and accountability from service providers and government authorities regulating the forestry sector

Poor service delivery or no service delivery at all in the area of public health have led a local CSO, SAMUHIK ABHIYAN (SA), to increase citizen awareness and participation in one municipality and two Village Development Committees (VDCs) in the Nuwakot District in Nepal. SA conducted surveys, mobilized the community and installed Corruption Monitoring Committees (CMCs) to increase transparency and hold authorities accountable. Through its actions, SA has successfully implemented the “Combating Corruption through Citizen Participation” project and is currently building on that success conducting a second phase with the objective to further institutionalize citizen oversight, ensuring that the existing government policies and regulations are implemented effectively.

Inadequate provisions in the Mongolian regulatory framework defining Conflict of Interest (COI) have led a local CSO, Women for Social Progress (WSP), to advocate for enhanced laws and regulations. WSP has been able to leverage analysis, media involvement, legal action and the best of global and local knowledge to motivate a critical mass of citizens and stakeholders to successfully advocate for better regulation and the enactment of COI legislation.

Based on its assessment that Mongolia’s legal system could substantially benefit from capacity building in the areas of procurement and ethics, Transparency International Mongolia (TIM) set out to implement two highly successful projects building on each other over the course of two years. Building capacity of legal personnel, including judges, clerks, prosecutors, auditors and even law students, TIM has achieved significant success in raising problem awareness and has measurably improved Mongolia’s judicial system. Furthermore, TIM has worked constructively with all actors involved to further enhance the legal framework of a Mongolian Judicial Code of Ethics.

The notorious application of secrecy laws and a deeply engrained culture of not disclosing even basic information to the public has prompted Globe International (GI), a local Mongolian CSO, to pilot a program that empowers citizens to demand greater responsiveness from officials and local governments in two aimags (provinces) in Mongolia. The conviction that informed and empowered citizens can act as powerful change agents – able to demand accountability – was the main driver of GI’s 12-month project “Transparency Campaigning at Local Government to Curb Corruption”. At the policy level the project lobbied for the approval of the Freedom of Information law then pending in Parliament. The project achieved both, greater awareness and empowerment at the local level and contributed to passing the law at the national level.

Weak institutionalization of the Public Council (PC), a domestic accountability institution originally foreseen to guarantee effective participation of civil society in the fight against corruption in Mongolia, has led a local CSO, Globe International (GI), to take action and build a strong coalition of advocates to constructively enhance the conditions of institutionalizing and strengthening the PC, empowering its members and educating the public.

Poor service delivery by local government units in Sri Lanka – attributed to a lack of inclusion and participatory formats – have prompted the Sri Lanka chapter of Transparency International (TISL) to conduct the “Curbing Corruption in Local Government” project, aimed at increasing citizen participation and thereby enabling local governments to produce more directed outputs. The Project has had to cope with a variety of difficulties and is still ongoing – preliminary M&E measures however show that success can be achieved and sustained.

Poor service delivery in the government administered National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) have led a local CSO, SAMBANDH, to increase citizen awareness and participation in the Odisha District of Orissa, India. SAMBANDH conducted surveys, mobilized the community and facilitated the formation of Social Watch Groups (SWG) to increase transparency and elicit authorities to exert greater responsiveness. Through its actions, SA has successfully implemented the “Monitoring Corruption using Rural Call Centres and Social Watch Groups in India” project

Corruption and poor service delivery in the distribution of social safety net entitlements under the Public Distribution System (PDS) in the Mysore District of Karnataka State, has prompted the Swami Vivekananda Youth Movement (SVYM) to increase citizen awareness, empower youth groups and launch a fully fledged Right-to-Information (RTI) campaign to enable communities to demand responsiveness and better service delivery from the Fair Price Shops (FPS) responsible for the PDS entitlement distribution. SVYM has successfully implemented the “Community Movement against Corruption” project and is currently building on that success conducting a second phase with the objective to further institutionalize citizen oversight, particularly Citizen Vigilance Committees ensuring financial, technical, social and institutional sustainability of the results achieved thus far.

Poor service delivery in the government administered National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) have led a local CSO, SAMBANDH, to increase citizen awareness and participation in the Odisha District of Orissa, India. SAMBANDH conducted surveys, mobilized the community and facilitated the formation of Social Watch Groups (SWG) to increase transparency and elicit authorities to exert greater responsiveness. Through its actions, SA has successfully implemented the “Monitoring Corruption using Rural Call Centres and Social Watch Groups in India” project.

Corruption and a lack of transparency in government administered service delivery schemes have led a local CSO, the CUTS Centre for Consumer Action, Research & Training (CUTS CART), to mobilize and educate citizens and citizen organizations to engage in coalition-building and hold the government to a higher standard of accountability. CUTS CART has built the initiative on the success of prior project and has been able to kick-start a process of empowerment which appears to be sustainable and self-reinforcing beyond the completion date of the original project.

Inadequate rules and regulations and poor or no government enforcement of these rules within the sector of clinical drug trials in Kerala State, India, have led a local CSO, JANANEETHI, to start investigating the field and research structural flaws that violate human rights and result in poor delivery of public health services. Through its actions, JANANEETHI has successfully engaged authorities to take up the issue and create awareness among stakeholders. Closing loopholes, eliciting an ethics debate and prompting government agencies to enforce and oversee drug trials have rendered JANANEETHI’s intervention highly successful. A second phase of the project is under way.

Corruption and a lack of transparency in government administered health services has led a local CSO, Ayauskam, to mobilize and educate citizens and citizen organizations to engage in coalition-building and hold health service providers to a higher standard of accountability across 10 Panchayats of Khariar block in Nuapada district, Odisha. The project has been successful; sustainability however depends on the continued constructive engagement between community organizations, citizen monitors and service providers, as well as the right balance of public pressure versus collaboration between the different stakeholders. Continued funding for Ayauskam to moderate and balance this important consensus-building process toward achieving sustainable results is a priority.

Citizens’ and communities’ inadequate knowledge about entitlements guaranteed through the government administered National Rural Employment Guarantee Act have prompted a local CBO, the Nava Jeevana Mahila Okkoota (NJMO), to engage with affected communities, raise awareness, provide education and help capacitate and organize the communities to form sustainable labor groups. The objective is to hold the government and service providers accountable while helping citizens benefit from the programs precisely designed to help India’s rural poor. NJMO has successfully established a model that has the potential to be self-perpetuating in the long run, forming labor groups that can transform into member-financed independent unions afterwards. The project has been successfully implemented and a second phase is currently underway.

Corruption in India is rampant and especially harmful where the effects of embezzlement, extortion and bribery affect the poorest. Following a report that 75% of the funds budgeted for the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) had been shifted into officials’ pockets, VICALP, a local CSO, set out to affect change. VICALP implemented the “Reducing the opportunities for corruption in NREGA in 12 Panchayats of Mohana block of Gajapati district, Odisha” project, using capacity building exercises to empower communities and capacitate citizens to monitor how social safety net provisions were implemented by the authorities. Prompting authorities to be more transparent and accountable in accordance with the rules and regulations that should govern the delivery of social services were an effective way to achieve better service delivery and ensure citizens’ rights to the entitlements as stipulated in NREGA.

Paraspara Trust (PT), a local CSO in Karnataka, India, has successfully implemented the project: “Addressing Corruption in the Public Distribution System (PDS) by Citizen Groups – a pilot project in Bangalore”. The project empowered citizens to ensure corruption-free service delivery of social safety net entitlements as set forth by the law. The project was a success; the incentives for citizens to follow the project objectives and methodology should be self-perpetuating in the long run. However the challenge of sustainability remains.

Transparency International Moldova (TIM) implemented a project, contributing to the implementation of the National Anti-Corruption Strategy (NAS) of Moldova, monitoring the associated annual action plan for 2011.

Improving governance at the local level through increased transparency, voice and better service delivery was the objective of a joint project between the Centre for Democratic Transition (CDT), a national NGO based in Podgorica, Montenegro, and the Kotor municipality, Montenegro.

The Moldovan Community Association ‘Soarta’ (SOARTA) implemented a citizen-led anticorruption project in the Soroca District in NorthEast Moldova, aimed at curbing corruption in 12 secondary schools, promoting ethical conduct and institutional reforms during examinations. The project focused on High school graduation exams that serve for students’ registration in university and was successful in bringing varied stakeholders together, offering a viable route for increased integrity to combat corruption and enhance the quality of education system outcomes in Moldova.

To tackle Ghana’s backlog in guaranteeing universal primary education, the Government, in 2005, decided to abolish the system of school fees previously in place to finance basic schools. Instead, it established a system of capitation grants, a yearly allocation per student per school, geared toward transparently funding all classroom activities, including providing for salaries and administrative costs. Yet, the administration in charge continued to badly manage and weakly control the funds alotted, leading to substantial waste of public resources and substandard education outcomes.

Public procurement processes are prone to leakages and corrupt practices around the world. While this fact is highlighted regularly and documented by both media outlets as well as civil society, there is seldom a home-grown and consorted effort to tackle the problem out front, civil society and public authorities joining hands.

The Uganda Law Society (ULS) is the National Bar Association of Uganda and is uniquely positioned to advance anti-corruption efforts in Uganda. Its statutory objectives state, ‘[…]to protect and assist the public in Uganda in all matters touching, ancillary or incidental to the law; and to assist the Government and the Courts in all matters affecting legislation and the administration and practice of law in Uganda.’

Decentralization works best when there is a robust legal framework, political will, clearly delineated responsibilities, accountability mechanisms and – most importantly – a shared vision of all actors involved as to how decentralization will contribute to achieving better governance results, improving the lives of ordinary citizens. Corruption impedes or completely prevents decentralization processes to bear any of the envisioned results.

Internally Generated Funds (IGFs) refer to any resources mobilized locally to meet local development objectives and improve the quality of life for citizens in Ghana. The funds derive from different sources, among them, rates, lands, fees and licenses. The collection and management falls within the political responsibility of district assemblies (DA).

This report details the results and lessons of a decade long (2003-2013) Partnership for Transparency Fund (PTF) support to Filipino civil society organizations (CSOs) to fight corruption. It celebrates the successes and reflects on challenges faced as PTF enters a new phase in the Philippines – a regional affiliate called PTF Asia as a foundation headquartered in Manila.

Many governments support publically-funded rural works programs to provide safety nets for the rural poor and to deploy the underused labor productively. It is estimated that developing countries spend over 10 billion dollars a year on such programs aiming to benefit over 100 million poor. Because of their decentralized nature with activities scattered over thousands of often remote work sites and with most potential beneficiaries not used to dealing with government bureaucracies, fraud and corruption are often a major risk in such programs.

Since 2009, PTF has financed eight projects with grants totaling $202,000, for projects operated by 4 CSOs in India designed to reduce corruption in PDS (Public Food Distribution Systems). A number of lessons learned from these projects are drawn out and recommendations for future action are provided.

Transparency International’s Global Corruption Report: Education (2013) reinforces the notion that corruption inhibits social and economic development and may even jeopardize stability of a nation’s education system. Opportunity for corruption exists all along the education continuum. The “roots of corrupt practices lie in a lack of transparency and accountability …

This study focuses on the World Bank’s recent “Governance and Anti-Corruption” (GAC) policies. The report stresses that the Bank’s goal to significantly scale-up its work in the anti-corruption area with civil society organizations (CSOs) has been hampered by: its approaches that first seek host government executive branch consent; poor publicity by the Bank of opportunities for civil society to receive funding; CSO concerns that receiving funds from their governments will undermine their independence; and, “there is an inherent conflict of interest in a CSO accepting funds from a government agency or the World Bank and then engaging in independent monitoring of that same agency in a Bank-financed project.”

This report provides expert advice, case studies and presentations that will help CSOs around the world reach greater impact through their work. It identified ‘constructive engagement with authorities’, ‘innovative use of media’ and ‘political economy analysis’ as some of the most salient challenges to resolve as CSOs take anti-corruption work to the next level.

This report analyzes projects pursued by 14 civil society organizations (CSOs) working in four diverse Indian states in India (Odisha, Karnataka, Rajasthan and Uttarkhand) and covering more than 1000 villages.

INDEPENDENT EVALUATION Evaluation of "Good Governance: Community Mobilization to Combat Corruption" Program DOWNLOAD EVALUATION John Clark, an international development consultant, former civil society activist and adviser to former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, was commissioned by the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID), and by the World Bank to evaluate PTF supported projects supported by our “Citizens Against Corruption” and “Good Governance: Community Mobilization to Combat Corruption” programs. PTF projects are assessed in terms of their effectiveness and impact, their sustainability, their replicability, their innovative approaches, and whether they truly represented value for money. In each area the reports find substantial accomplishments.

John Clark, an international development consultant, former civil society activist and adviser to former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, was commissioned by the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID), and by the World Bank to evaluate PTF supported projects supported by our “Citizens Against Corruption” and “Good Governance: Community …

This Case Study Reviews a project implemented by the Partnership & Teaching NGO (P&T) which succeeded in testing, documenting and streamlining the process of extra-budgetary fund collection through stakeholder involvement and better governance procedures and was highly successful in advocating for national adoption of better policies.

This report outlines the proceedings and activities of a two day workshop from November 12 – 14, 2012, convened by PTF together with local Kenyan civil society organization, ACT. The aim of the workshop was to bring together Ugandan and Kenyan CSOs, re-invigorate multi-stakeholder efforts and share perspectives and best practices towards addressing the complex challenge of corruption. The conference featured three different sessions to showcase CSOs’ work in different areas, from experiences working at the community level to curb corruption, to use of technology to fight corruption and efforts to improve the accountability of government institutions.

In Waging War on Corruption: Inside the Movement Fighting the Abuse of Power, Frank Vogl (PTF Vice-Chair), one of the leaders of the worldwide anti-corruption movement, shares a history filled with stories of heroes and victims of corruption. He chronicles the successful campaigns by enormously courageous civil society activists, journalists, and public prosecutors and explains the crucial challenges that now must be confronted. At stake is nothing less than our global security, the reduction of poverty, the stability of our economic and financial systems, and the cause of freedom and democracy.

The media—traditional mass media as well as new technologies—can play a vital role in unveiling corruption, framing corruption as public problem, suggesting solutions, and generally empower citizens to fight corruption. This paper provides an overview of the basic principles of media effects and presents specific techniques involving the media in the fight against corruption.

This Case Study reviews a project implemented by Youth for Social Development (YSD) to survey different corruption issues at the local level in order to map magnitude, prevalence and possible entry points for civil society to hold the government to account and demand corruption-free service delivery. YSD also advocated on behalf of the poor and supported citizen monitors and communities to constructively engage with local officials.

This Case Study analyzes a project implemented by the ‘People’s Rural Education Movement’ (PREM), a local CSO in Odisha State, India, that sought to reduce corruption in three social safety net programs: the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, the Forest Rights Act and the Public Distribution System (food security).

This Case Study reviews a project implemented by the Centre for Advocacy and Research (CFAR), aimed at empowering women to advocate for corruption-free service delivery, giving power to communities to hold the government accountable in five slums in Bangalore City.

This paper provides readers with the basic idea of how demand for good governance (DFGG) strategies, in particular social accountability (SA) strategies, can be employed to help citizens demand greater authority responsiveness and thereby enhance their living conditions.

PRIA Global Partnership has evaluated the performance of PTF projects in India. The report shows a comparative picture of the 12 CAC projects in the states of Karnataka, Kerala and Orissa based on the assessment of their performance at the end of the project period. Most of the projects dealt with issues of corruption in government schemes like Public Distribution System (PDS) …

This paper introduces an analytical framework to consider the overall environment and strategic parameters that underlie a specific instance of corruption so as to logically and specifically tailor their project towards achieving the best impact possible.

CSOs often struggle to balance their vision and declared goals with the necessary financial security to carry out activities as needed over a prolonged period of time. This paper provides a checklist for CSOs to self-evaluate their actions, aspirations and assumptions against common problems encountered and offers entry points to think about sustainability.

The UK’s Department for International Development has released a mid-term review of PTF’s Citizens Against Corruption (CAC) programme, which is supported by DfID’s Governance and Transparency Fund (GTF). The report stated that PTF “is able to point to specific reforms triggered by the projects. This is partly due to the very specific problems targeted and the careful guidance …

This 2008 evaluation by Catherine Gwin & Sylvia Soborio finds that PTF is a highly valuable and effective mechanism for support of small-scale civil society efforts to fight corruption and promote greater transparency and accountability in government. As an international NGO, it is well placed to provide support that is independent of vested political interests and not subject to political …

This report prepared at the request of UNDP by Alexander Shakow suggests that PTF is an extremely valuable and effective instrument for support of small but important anti-corruption projects.