'What works and why in community-based anti-corruption programs'

What works and why in community-based anti-corruption programsBetween 2003-2005, 53 million textbooks have been tracked through Textbook Count. From theinvolvement of eight civil society organisations in 2003, Textbook Count has grown to involve 34national and local groups in 2005 mobilising thousands of community monitors. And in just a few yearsthe improvements due to Textbook Count are impressive. Procurement periods have been shortened,textbook costs reduced by 40%, delivery errors reduced to an average 5% and the cycle of paymentsreduced from up to three years to 15 month.Key strengths● Textbook Count offers a very simple yet effective monitoring model that could be adapted toother sectors or areas of interest to a community 4 .● The program has very successfully brought government community and business together in ajoint effort to eradicate corruption.● Without relying on an extensive civic education program, this monitoring program has providedordinary citizens with a proactive, positive mechanism to prevent corruption.Key challenges● Textbook Count benefited from the very public support of a senior government authority and agovernment department prepared to engage with a civil society anti-corruption program.● There is now the challenge of institutionalizing the practice as an ongoing monitoringcollaboration between community, government and private business.● Textbook Count has required centralized coordination of volunteer monitors.● Maintaining open communication and cooperation between the three sectors depended on thegood relations and networks that the coordinating organisation had established.While school students and young people have come on board as volunteer monitors, there must befollow-up civic education to make the links to wider corruption issues.Government Watch –an anti-corruption project of the Ateneo School of Government, Philippines3.4 Community programs providing information and adviceservicesThe following community-based anti-corruption programs provide free legal advice and informationservices to citizens who have witnessed or been victims of corruption. They also act as a focal pointfor resources on local corruption issues, available for accessed by citizens, local media, communitygroups and organisations or other interested parties.Both the Advocacy and Legal Advice Centres, known as ALACs, and the Advice and InformationDesks have been established by TI Chapters. ALACs originated in a program undertaken by TIChapters in Romania, Macedonia and Bosnia & Herzegovina in 2004, and have since been launchedby TI Chapters in 16 countries. The Advice and Information Desks are attached to TI-Bangladesh’sCommittee of Concerned Citizens.In regards to offering a public service for advice and information, there are strong similarities betweenthe ALACs and the Advice and Information Desks. Both ALACs and Advice and Information Deskswork within the principle that access to information is key to creating awareness, preventing citizensfrom becoming victims of corruption and preparing citizens to resist corruption. Therefore ALACs andAdvice and Information Desks are not stand alone services, but rather an integral aspect of theadvocacy campaigns and awareness raising activities of their respective TI Chapters. ALACs andAdvice and Information Desks both offer free services, most significantly legal advice on how citizenscan lodge a complaint about corruption. They are both dependent on a mix of volunteer assistance aswell as resources of paid staff. In keeping with Transparency International practice, neither programrepresents clients or ‘takes on’ cases, but rather focuses on providing the support and necessary legaladvice for citizens to follow through their own complaints. The point of divergence is that ALACs are4 G-Watch has begun to adapt the tools of Textbook Count for community monitoring of construction and repairprojects.- 22 -