Activity Type: Capacity building

Citizen Action Network for Accountability (CANA)

The Citizen Action Network for Accountability in the Philippines works to improve public services provided in our communities in general and to the poorest and most marginalized in particular.

CANA believes simply that more we ordinary people can understand and engage the government, the more accountable and effective we can all hold it to be.

Latest Work

Citizens force city to improve quality control of public works: A simple story on how citizen action compelled the government to repair a foot bridge previously declared complete yet unusable during rainy days.

Citizens encouraged to monitor government projects, spending: A national broadcast report in Filipino featuring CANA’s views and work in encouraging citizen action to fight corruption and demand for good governance.

Facebook: Citizen Action Net • Twitter: @CitizenActionPH

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Fondos a la Vista

Donations to the third sector are currently scarce in Mexico, as a result, levels of overall investment in the projects supported by civil society are rather low.

At the same time, although organizations are accountable and report to various authorities, society at large does not know about such information, or simply do not have easy access to it.

Fondos a la Vista  has developed a platform to facilitate information about civil society organizations committed to social development and their donors.

The project has as its main objective to promote transparency and accountability in the sector and to promote trust in private donations and organizations.

It also aims to the recognition of the work and commitment of CSOs that already are have good transparency practices in place.

319081_132582570222812_337445412_nFacebook: Fondos a la Vista • Twitter: @FondosalaVista

Strengthening the Role of Rural Associations in Democratic Processes in Georgia (STAGE)

The STAGE project aims to build the capacity of rural associations through improving management structures and staff skills, raising awareness, establishing relationships with the private sector and national-level organisations, which are able to advocate for local development at the central government level. Since November 2006, the project has been working in eight municipalities of Georgia: Borjomi, Akhaltsikhe, Aspindza and Adigeni in Samtskhe-Javakheti and Gardabani, Marneuli, Tetristskaro and Tsalka in Kvemo Kartli. This 30-month project, funded by “Austrian Development Cooperation and Cooperation with Eastern Europe” (ADC) (for more information please visit: www.mfa.at/adc, www.ada.gv.at), is implemented by CARE Oesterreich (Austria) and CARE International in the Caucasus in partnership with three local non-governmental organisations: Georgian Young Lawyers Association (GYLA), Civitas Georgia and Civil Development Agency (CiDA).”

Survive Svanetia

The coalition project lead by “Civitas Georgica” was aimed at development of local communities in Svanetia by supporting establishment of active citizen’s groups, monitoring wood cutting, providing policy recommendations for local governments in Mestia and Lentekhi districts, distributing medicine etc. Target group: local population, CBOs, local councils, doctors, local businessmen

Transparent Poland – Forum

In 2007 47 local governments from the 3 previous project stages were invited to take further their experiences with “Transparent Poland”” (PP) program. This project lasted from March to November 2007. The invited communities were one of the most active and advanced bodies in introducing previous stages of the program. The PP-Forum offered an opportunity to bring together the governments and allow information sharing and exchange of interesting practices. Moreover, strengths and weaknesses of the hitherto approach were pinpointed. The main goal of this engagement supported by external experts was to work out an internal audit scheme for both effectiveness appraisal and evaluation of local governance enhancing mechanisms enacted during the previous stages of the program. Monitoring and assessment of the at-that-time utilized procedures was carried out and policy recommendations were spell out to fine tune the effectiveness of the local governments’ actions.
Another objective of this stage was to create a set of solutions and recommendations that could be later on shared with other self-governments, which did not participate in this project phase. The final goal was to establish a benchmarking group of advanced in implementation of the program activities local governments, which in further years could be utilized as a reference point for other self-governments, which would like to take on some of the program recommendations. This benchmarking group could also share their experiences with and offer advice to other local governments.
At this stage the program enlarged its geographical scope and pilot projects began in other countries of the region (Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia). The project continued in 2008.”

More active civil society – more trust in the work of the local administration

The project aimed to improve the cooperation between the structures of the civil society and the public administration in the Southwest region (NUTS II) in Bulgaria in order to: improve the civil control and monitoring; prevent the corruptive practices; and increase the accountability of the administration. The project included: 1. survey of the public opinion in the region regarding the work, transparency and accountability of the local and regional administrations; 2. realization of educational seminars for representatives of the civil society regarding mechanisms for monitoring, control and prevention of corruption in the administration; 3. realization of round tables with representatives from the civil society sector and the public administration; 5. development of a web site of the initiative.

Assessment of FOIA compliance (2002/2005)

In November 2005 a financing contract was signed for a new project funded by the European Union through Phare program. The project started to be implemented at the end of 2005 and during 2006 we have conducted an evaluation of the respect of transparency laws by public authorities. According to the law each public institution is required to publish an annual report (activity and financial) but the rate of compliance with these procedures reached a feeble 4% of all public bodies (as presented by a quantitative evaluation conducted by the Romanian Government). Following an in-depth research, the project aims to identify best-practice models and to train representatives of the public bodies in how to collect data and to put them together in an annual report which will provide relevant and accurate information to the public.
This project is a follow-up of the advocacy campaign run by SAR in 2000 for the adoption of FOIA. A first assessment of its implementation was carried in 2002 and indicating unsatisfactory compliance with legal provision. For the current project we use the same methodology and sample as in 2002 allowing comparisons.

Monitoring of corruptive practices in the area of municipal property management and public procurement in Bulgarian municipalities

Among the major project issues were deficiencies in the existing secondary legislation, high level of unawareness of the tools for citizen control and allegations of corruption in the municipal property management and public procurement. The project activities resulted in the development and provision of specialized know-how for monitoring corruptive practices and for the identification of the main types of corruptive practices in the area of municipal property management and public procurement at municipal level.

Collective business actions against corruption

The main goal of the project was the establishment of a governance framework for the Bulgarian network of the UN Global Compact in order to strengthen and enhance its role in the country. The project was meant to achieve greater involvement in the initiative on the part of members and partners and provide a platform for dialogue and collective action in line with the latest developments in corporate social responsibility.

Improving Bulgarian local government integrity

The project builds on a similar project being implemented in Romania and is designed to address the issue of local government integrity in ten Bulgarian big and mid-size municipalities. The overriding goal of the project was to formulate and implement local integrity policies designed to institutionalize civic participation in drafting and instituting procedural and administrative safeguards against misuse of position and institutional corruption in the local administration; ensure that both society and local government are stakeholders of the policies. The overall aim of the project was to develop transparency and integrity of local government in Bulgaria, as a pre-requisite for the development of a truly democratic society, which is able to face and solve problems that might otherwise endanger justice, communication and transparent management of local administration.

Facing the administration: Research on the good practices of the Bulgarian administration

The aim of the project was to improve the public perception towards the public administration by identifying and promoting the good practices of the municipal administration. The outputs of the project are: 1. a survey of the good practices in the local public administration; 2. publication of a comprehensive report with precise recommendations based on the findings of the research; 3. realization of six educational seminars for dissemination of the findings within the target groups; 4. media coverage of the project including a national press conference.

National Students Initiative “I Do Not Bribe!”

The project National Students Initiative “I Do Not Bribe!” was launched on 10 December, 2003. The team focused its efforts in 1) the development of the Anticorruption Education web site and 2) The preparation of two corruption-related web-based surveys.

The site was launched on 23 February, 2004 at http://www.VObg.net/.

A year after its launch the web site is already quite popular among its target audience: students, professors, journalists, state and civil organizations related to higher education. The registered daily number of visitors is 400, the weekly is 2,000, while monthly the site is visited by 8,000 people.

In March and April 2004 the project team developed two questionnaires for web-based surveys:

The general public survey conducted through the Anticorruption Education web site aimed to study public perceptions to corruption in higher education.

The specialized surveys were published on the web sites of New Bulgarian University, the Technical University of Gabrovo and Plovdiv University Paisii Hilendarski. They targeted solely the users of these particular web sites and aimed to survey whether the students/professors from these establishments think their university environment is corrupt and to what extent they are prepared to counter corruption practices. A total of 137 people took the three specialized surveys.

On 28 April, 2004 the findings of the general web survey and the three specialized ones were presented at a press conference at the Bulgarian News Agency.

On 18 May, 2004 a round-table discussion was held at the Technical University of Gabrovo.

On 20 May, 2004 a round-table discussion was held at the Plovdiv University Paisii Hilendarski. The discussion brought together students and professors from all institutes of higher education in Plovdiv.

The round-table participants stressed the apathy and indifference characteristic of a large number of university students. The Student Council chairman from the Agricultural University admitted that students rarely referred to the Council for any kind of assistance or problem solving.

On 26 October, 2004 the third round table was held with students and lecturers at the New Bulgarian University. The results from the university specialized survey were announced and the vice rector Mr. Lyudmil Georgiev gave a commentary speech on them.

On 1 December, 2004 the closing project press conference was held at which the week of no corruption at the three partner universities was announced. The project team gave an overview of what was done under the project and to what effects. During the no-corruption academic week the team distributed its publication, the Anticorruption Notebook at the three universities.

The Anticorruption Notebook was intended as a concise but comprehensive collection of all anti-corruption measures, corruption scandals and abuses of the system of higher education in Bulgaria in the last seven years. It is divided into two large sections, the first presenting findings from all previous university corruption surveys, and the second describing several notorious corruption scandals.

 

Source: Bulgarian Anticorruption Portal

Sofia University legal database

The project aimed to a transparent control and management system to oversee and update university regulations and departmental decisions concerning students, administrative and academic staff. By doing so, the project aimed to increase the transparency and accountability of the academic institution and to incorporate practices of good governance. The project was realized in the course of Coalition 2000 and USAID Open Government Initiative Project: “Civil Society Against Corruption”” – Small Grants Program.”

Strengthening the public confidence in the judiciary by means of promoting an ethics code of the judicial administration officials

The project aimed at introducing mechanisms for internal control over the dissemination of corrupt practices and increasing the authority of the Judiciary. A content-analysis of the publications in the local press was made, focus-groups discussions were organized and civil reception-rooms were opened. The Project experts analyzed the national as well as the international legal system and recommended amendments in the Bulgarian legislation in tune with the international standards. As a final outcome a project for a Code of Conduct for the Judicial Administration Officials was developed and tested along with a training methodology for its popularization and practical introduction.

Georgia Advocacy and Legal Advice Center (G-ALAC)

The goal of the project was to design and establish the Anti-corruption and Legal Advice Center (ALAC), with the following functions:
– to assist citizens in resolving corruption related problems;
– to inform citizens about the available methods to combat the problem of corruption;
– to ensure the effective communication between citizens and state institutions responsible for dealing with those problems;
– to ascertain the sectors in which instances of corruption are most common; and
– to highlight and resolve the legislative and systemic weaknesses that foster corruption.

Promoting Transparency and Accountability in Public Administration

The aim of the project to strengthen transparency and accountability within the civil service through support to implementation of National Anti-corruption Programme by developing a map of corruption using institutional and geographical profile, preparing resource materials for corruption prevention, education and awareness raising. Three major objectives: Development of a map of current hot-spots and the spread of corruption in Lithuania using an institutional and geographical profile; Development of responsive measures for corruption prevention through a consultative process; Awareness raising campaign to present the report contents and proposed preventive measures (such as ethics training), to national and local authorities, the business community, NGOs, academia, and the media.

Citizens’ complaints on judicial inspection: increasing transparency and accountability of the judiciary toward the public

The project aimed at promoting the accountability and transparency of the judiciary through establishing effective ways of handling citizens’ complaints and increasing the involvement of the public in judicial inspections. The project sought to influence improvement of legislation with regard to the access of individuals to the judicial inspection process. In addition, the project was expected to increase information of the public regarding the procedures and ways of following up complaints regarding judges and courts, and in particular the public participation and cooperation during the inspection of judicial cases.

Strengthening the Role of Rural Associations in Democratic Processes in Georgia (STAGE)

The goal of the project was to build the capacity of 16 Rural Associations (RAs) in 8 districts of Georgia (Gardabani, Marneuli, Tetritskaro and Tsalka in Kvemo-Kartli region and Borjomi, Akhaltsikhe, Aspindza and Adigeni in Samtskhe-Javakheti region) by improving RA management structures and staff skills; by raising awareness among major stakeholders (local public, local & central governments); and by establishing communication channels with potential partners (national-level associations, other national level civil society institutions and private sector able to advocate for local development with Central Government).

Promotion of the principles of good governance and increased citizens’ participation in the decision-making process in the Republic of Croatia

The project was primarily aimed at strengthening citizens, local civil society organizations (CSO), neighborhood councils, national minorities’ councils and local officials, at improving the communication between them through education on the principles of good governance and rule of law, as well as on the possibilities of involving in the decision-making processes on local level.

Integrated strategies for natural resource exploitation

The project aimed at:
– creating a virtual information center for monitoring the exploitation of natural resources in Romania;
– developing local civil society representatives’ capacity to actively participate in the development of regional strategies for the exploitation of natural resources;
– raising awareness among local and central authorities in resource rich areas about the necessity to design local sustainable development strategies for the exploitation of natural resources;
– advocating for transparency and accountability of central authorities’ management of natural resources.

Local Civic Groups

From 2000 to 2005 the Batory Foundation carried out a program to develop a network of Local Civic Groups, which were to monitor the exercise of authority by local officials as well as to educate local communities on greater transparency of public life.

The Foundation organized on an annual basis a set of trainings and workshops (9 meetings each lasts 2 days and take place every 4-5 weeks). These leadership trainings intend to prepare local leaders to develop their leadership skills as well as to train them in hard skills, like knowledge of legal regulations and consequences of corruption.

Over the last four years, the programm trained 68 individuals who have established 20 local citizens groups in both small communities and in large urban centers such as Cracow and Warsaw.

The project also provided technical and financial assistance to the Local Civic Group Leaders Association.
A series of advice manuals, practical guides and brochures (e.g..  Notes on Democracy – Citizen’s Anti-Corruption Guide series and Notes for Local Civic Group leaders) have been also developed.

Towards establishing effective partnership: Improving citizen participation in anti-corruption initiatives at the local level

The project aimed at encouraging the establishment of a network of civil society organizations, offering an institutional support to NGOs in the city of Blagoevgrad for improvement of the anti-corruption climate at the local level. The major activity lines include thematic training seminars; developing an Index for measuring the Transparency of the local anti-corruption environment and designing a strategy for its improvement.

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