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| This area provides highlights of the valuable work of the anti-corruption movement, championing a world free of corruption. This month highlights the following stories: |
Africa Education Watch workshop
By Stephane Stassen
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| Transparency International is coordinating a regional project to reduce corruption and ‘resource leakages’ in the primary education sector of seven African countries: Ghana, Madagascar, Morocco, Niger, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Uganda. TI national chapters or contract groups in these countries are engaged in an assessment process to identify the shortcomings and loopholes in the education financing systems that facilitate the development of corrupt practices and mismanagement. |
The project, titled ‘Africa Education Watch’, officially began in July 2007 and will include two phases: an assessment phase (aimed at identifying weak points in the primary education management structures, as well as nature and scope of ‘resource leakages’), followed by an advocacy phase, which will try to bring about the necessary changes to address the problems identified in the first phase.
The first workshop in the Africa Education Watch project was held in Accra, Ghana, on 18-20 October. One of the workshop’s purposes was the finalisation of the polling and survey instruments to be used in this programme for assessing resource leakages and the efficiency of decentralised governance structures in the primary education sector.
Now that the polling and survey instruments have been finalised, the project can move forward and survey local households about the actual services they receive from the primary schools in their countries. This information, provided by the parents, will be matched against information obtained at the school, district and national levels. Not only will this increase data consistency, it will also enable the project to track resources like schoolbooks or free meals for kids. Members and Chairpersons of School Management Committees and Parent-Teacher Associations will also be interviewed throughout the project.
Once the assessment of school services has been carried out, the second phase of the Africa Education Watch programme will involved lobbying governments and education authorities to address problems that will have been identified. In addition to the national advocacy campaigns, a regional campaign will address cross-country issues and engage with international donor agencies to implement specific reforms to prevent the identified shortcomings.
TI publishes new guide to oversight of political finance
By Marta Erquicia
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| A practical guide, titled Citizen’s oversight of political finance – A practical guide about experiences and challenges, was published (in Spanish) in October by Transparency International as a tool for civil society. The guide analyses experiences of citizen’s control concerning political financing in different civil society organisations in Latin America. |
Due to the recently undertaken Crinis project and other programmes on increasing transparency in political finance, the TI network and other allied organisations have accumulated extensive experience in this region.
The guide begins by comparing different experiences and showcasing the various control tools used by different actors to identify best practices, challenges, and learnt lessons as well as potential fields of innovation.
The first chapter of the book lists the different risks of corruption in political finance and the traditional “formulas” often used to confront them. The second chapter analyses – in a comparative perspective – different citizen’s control tools
for political finance. The third chapter describes concrete applications of several tools in different countries.
To access the publication online (in Spanish), please go to: www.transparency.org/content/download/25141/377898/
French version of Global Corruption Report on Judicial Corruption launched in Yaoundé
By David Koschel
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| The French version of the Global Corruption Report, titled Le Rapport Mondial sur la Corruption – La corruption dans les systèmes judiciaires was presented to the public and the media at a launch event in Yaoundé, Cameroun, hosted by TI Cameroon (TI C). Attended by 70 guests, including journalists, representatives of civil society organisations representatives of the Cameroonian anti-corruption commission and embassies, the launch was part of the advocacy work undertaken by TI’s Judicial Advocacy Working Group. |
“Everyone loses when justice is corrupted, in particular the poor, who are forced to pay bribes they cannot afford,” explained Maitre Charles Nguini, President of TI Cameroon. “Fighting judicial corruption means an end to impunity for the corrupt.”
The launch highlighted the general findings of the study and the results of the Global Corruption Barometer – one of TI’s main indices – on questions related to judicial corruption. The key findings include pointing out that a functioning judiciary is essential for a country’s economic development, since legal insecurity shies investors away. The launch also drew attention to the four safeguards for judicial corruption and a diagnostic checklist that civil society can use to monitor judicial corruption.
In the months preceding the launch, TI C has organised seminars with representatives from the judicial sector in order to increase knowledge about the problem of corruption, to make the judiciary more effective in fighting corruption and to identify measures needed to minimise risks of corruption within the judiciary itself. Given the high perception of judicial corruption in Cameroon according to the Global Corruption Barometer 2007, these seminars were of high relevance and interest, addressing judge, magistrates, and lawyers from various regions and representatives from the ministry of justice.
To read press coverage of the launch please see (in French), All Africa, Cameroon Tribune, La Nouvelle Expression, and Le Messager.
To access the complete GCR online in pdf format, please go to: www.transparency.org/publications/gcr