U4 Helpdesk Query

U4 helpdesk reply

This question addresses an issue of great importance and complexity, which can only be partially addressed in the context of a traditional helpdesk query. Given further time, the helpdesk team will be happy to elaborate on any aspects the enquirer might be interested in.

The reply to this query is structured as follows: the first part will deal with the role civil society can and should play in the fight against corruption. The second part will discuss the role of donors with regards to the promotion and fostering of civil society anti-corruption initiatives.

Content

• The Role of civil society in fighting corruption
  
• The role of donors
  
• Conclusion and recommendations
• Selected literature
  

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Summary

Civil society is crucial to the success or failure of any anti-corruption programme. Recognised mainly for its ability to hold government to account, it can also be a motor for change and be central in bringing forward reform efforts.

In order to adequately fulfil these functions, civil society and civil society organisations, in particular in contexts where civil society is weak and only emerging, need to receive adequate human and financial support from the international community without, however, being perceived to be dominated by foreign interests.

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The Role of civil society in fighting corruption

Civil society encompasses the sum total of those organisations and networks that lie outside the formal state apparatus. Civil society as a concept thus includes, but is broader than, NGOs.

Civil society organisations gain their legitimacy from promoting the public interest without, however, pursuing personal profit (like the private sector) or positions of political power (like political actors such as parties). Since civil society is typically the major victim of corruption in government, it has a vested interest in addressing it.

Yet at the same time, civil society can also be the reason for failure of anti-corruption efforts to produce tangible results, as illustrated by the concept of the national integrity system, whereby the so-called 'pillars of integrity', i.e. those institutions and organisations that work together to increase integrity in public life, rest on the foundations of society's values, people's acceptance of corruption as a fact of life needs to be addressed first if corruption within a political system is to be curbed in a sustainable fashion.

Civil society as a whole, its attitudes and its values, is thus essential to the fight against corruption.

The role of civil society in the anti-corruption field is basically fourfold:

• Civil society can act as a watchdog on government action
  
• Civil society organisations can be instrumental in educating the public of their rights and duties
  
• Civil society can be a motor for change
  
• Civil society organisations can act as service provider in areas where (corrupt) governments fail to deliver

For the purpose of this query, we are going to focus on the roles of watchdog, education and motor for change only, since the role of civil society organisations as alternative service providers is only a temporary solution and does not contribute to reforming a corrupt political system.

For a more detailed discussion of the national integrity system, as well as an illustration of the integrity pillars, please refer to Chapter 4 in Combating Corruption: The Elements of a National Integrity System (TI Source Book 2000), by Jeremy Pope.

Watchdog function

Civil society is in a unique position to hold government accountable, and to demand and gain access to information held by government and government bodies. This role, which is often performed and brought to perfection by civil society organisations with a special interest in one domain, is particularly important in contexts where ordinary members of the public lack the ability or knowledge to fulfil this function properly. When acting as watchdogs on government (and increasingly private sector) activities, civil society organisations can effectively monitor - and, if necessary, foster a public response to - for example the implementation of government policies and the correct execution of public contracts and the transparency of the political decision-making process.

For example, several Transparency International chapters in Latin American countries (Argentina, Costa Rica and Ecuador) were engaged in the monitoring of party finance and election expenses of candidates, to draw attention to the link between money and politics and the danger of perversion of the democratic decision-making process by opaque funding arrangements and to engage leading politicians in morally binding transparency agreements. Similarly, Transparency International Bulgaria undertook to monitor the privatisation process of Bulgaria's telecommunications company. Their finding and subsequent publication of corruption in the process led to the privatisation process being halted. TI Bulgaria was then officially invited to monitor the bidding and implementation of further national privatisation projects.

For further information on these and other examples, please refer to the Corruption Fighter's Toolkit.

Educating the public

Civil society organisations throughout the world also perform important civic education functions. These can aim at making citizens aware of their rights and training them in obtaining what they are legally entitled to. Examples include an initiative by the Lebanese Transparency Association, whereby citizens are given a manual which describes in simple terms the procedures necessary to acquire a construction permit, including the documents, fees and deadlines required as well as the different institutions involved with the aim of making this transaction transparent to the public and thereby reduce the scope for corruption and discretion by public officials. Transparency International Poland successfully launched a citizens' legal help programme, which provides advice to citizens on identifying the institutions to which they should direct their problems and intervenes where normal administrative or court procedures have failed . Furthermore, some civil society organisations, such as ABA CEELI and World Learning, specialise in the provision of civic training and capacity-building, in order to increase the participatory powers of citizens.

Another approach consists in training citizens in ethics-related issues, in order to make corruption less acceptable in society as a whole. For example, in Papua New Guinea, TI's National Chapter successfully launched a training course for secondary school teachers to not only address issues of professional ethics and standards of behaviour expected of teachers, but also to help teachers identify corrupt practices in their work environment and address them appropriately. Other initiatives aim at creating a cultural sensitivity to corruption issues from an early age. Examples of such initiatives can be found in, for example, Italy and Slovakia, where the TI National Chapters have been engaged in the design and implementation of anti-corruption curricula in schools and universities.

Motor for change

Civil society, and in particular civil society organisations, can also be a motor for change in circumstances where government and the private sector have little incentives to change a system which creates spoils and benefits for those in positions of responsibility and power. Civil society is typically the victim of such system, yet it also tends to dispose of those networks needed to address issues of common concern, such as corruption. What is more, evidence suggests that civil society engagement and support are crucial in bringing about lasting change.

In this vein, civil society organisations have successfully run campaigns aiming at raising public awareness of the costs of corruption, and of the need for a change in attitudes in order to bring forward development efforts. They have managed to engage an otherwise passive society in the drive for reform, and educated its members about its rights and duties.

Examples include the successful introduction in 1997 of an annual anti-corruption day in Morocco by Transparency International Morocco, which aims at raising awareness, through a series of events, among citizens, businessmen and members of government of the negative effects of corruption; the creation of an Urban Bribery Index in Kenya, which draws attention to the extent of corruption ordinary citizens are subject to, and which had considerable public repercussions. ; or the much-admired report-card project by the Public Affairs Centre in Bangalore, India, whereby users of public services are asked about their satisfaction with the services and treatment they received, and where the results of these interviews are successfully used to draw attention to potential problems inherent in the public service to both public sector managers and the general public.

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The role of donors

Donors and policy-makers have come to realise in the course of the last 20 years that market forces alone are inadequate to ensure the effective functioning of state institutions, or to create social and economic equity. Even so, civil society organisations in developing countries often face difficulties in securing adequate levels of funding, of developing the skills necessary for the effective fulfilment of their missions, and of successfully getting access to the decision-making process.

The role of donors thus encompasses:

• Consultation and collaboration with civil society in order to achieve common goals.
  
• The provision of civil society organisations with necessary financial means to effectively fulfil their mission
  
• Capacity-building

Consultation and collaboration

Due to the complex nature of the corruption phenomenon, a phenomenon which can take place in all three sectors of society, it is both theoretically and practically impossible for just one of the parties to effectively address the issue of corruption on its own and in isolation from the other two, and it is arguably impossible to tackle the issue effectively without the participation of all three. What is more, the implementation of anti-corruption strategies that are perceived to be 'imposed' from the outside, for example through conditionalities attached to offers of international co-operation, is likely to be undermined by members of government, the private sector and civil society alike.

Experience points towards the need for a coalition of the all three sectors if corruption is to be curbed successfully, and civil society is in a unique position to achieve this. Civil society organisations stemming from within a national and cultural context can identify potential members and build credible coalitions without being perceived to be acting in a cultural imperialist way, or against the national interest, as foreign donors and organisations could easily be. Furthermore, they present the advantage of possessing in-depth knowledge of the respective customs, traditions and societal expectations, which can be invaluable in designing a feasible reform strategy. The recognition of this concept has, for example, been put into practice by NGOs such as Transparency International and its numerous National Chapters, whose non-partisan approach has aided its attempt to forge coalitions against corruption between stakeholders from all sectors of society while at the same time serving donors' interests by preparing the ground for sustainable reforms.

Other than creating coalitions, civil society organisations can also be instrumental in exposing cases of corruption and drawing attention to maladministration, both nationally and internationally, such as, for example, Global Witness. Again, their comparative advantage vis-à-vis the donor or business community lies in the fact that they are not bound by interests other than the public interest, which increases their credibility and acceptability even in politically sensitive environments.

While the role of donors in the above scenario is mainly that of a (indirect) facilitator of exchanges between different parts of society, or the recipient of valuable 'insider' information on the feasibility of reform and policy projects, donors can also be instrumental in helping to create the conditions necessary for civil society to develop. This can be achieved through, for example consultation and negotiation with the national government on the appropriate legal and regulatory framework, including the guarantee by government of the fundamental freedoms such as freedom of expression and assembly, but also, for example, through the promotion of the need for comprehensive access to information laws.

There is also an urgent need for consultation within the donor community to avoid duplication of efforts and unconstructive competition, in terms of both donors' programmes and national civil society organisations. While efforts are currently underway to address this issue such as, for example, the U4, further initiatives are need to ensure the systematic coordination of efforts.

Provision of financial means

Organisations need to dispose of sufficient levels of funding in order to successfully implement their mission, and civil society organisations are no exception to this. Pursuing issues of public interest rather than the generation of profits, civil society organisations, in particular in developing countries, often face serious problems of funding, which necessarily inhibits their effectiveness.

International donors are thus in a good position to financially support those civil society organisations whose goals and way of working they can subscribe to. Experience in the last decade has shown that strict accountability mechanisms and reporting requirements should be applied in both the donor's and the receiving organisation's interest, to ensure the transparent use of funds and to deter less serious organisations from applying in the first place. At the same time, it is important to avoid the impression that a national organisation's actions be dictated by foreign interests, which would greatly undermine its standing in the public regard.

Capacity-building

Given the importance of civil society for the success of anti-corruption efforts, it is of utmost importance that civil society organisations be given the opportunity to develop and evolve, in particular in contexts such as transition countries, where civil society tends to be weak or virtually non-existent. The role of donors in this case can thus be subsumed under the heading of capacity-building, i.e. to facilitate the development of skills and facilities necessary for civil society to fulfil its functions effectively. While the exact content and extent of such efforts will naturally depend on the national context, capacity-building could encompass the facilitation of exchange of experience and expertise among national and international NGOs, training, or the provision of NGOs with those technical means necessary to fulfil their mission effectively.

Most importantly, donors need to help civil society organisations develop mechanisms to guarantee their own integrity and accountability.

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Conclusion and recommendations

In sum, civil society is crucial to the success or failure of any anti-corruption programme. Recognised mainly for its ability to hold government to account, it can also be a motor for change and be central in bringing forward reform efforts.

In order to adequately fulfil these functions, civil society and civil society organisations, in particular in contexts where civil society is weak and only emerging, need to receive adequate human and financial support from the international community without, however, being perceived to be dominated by foreign interests.

On balance, donors appear to have actively supported civil society activities in all four domains. Most if not all of the examples provided in this text were made possible by the provision of funding from donors such as USAID and DfID, to name but a few. The focus of civil society funding was and still is, of course, dependent on the respective strategic plans for regions donors typically have in place.

Recommendations for a donor's strategy for the involvement of civil society in anti-corruption programmes would include:

• To help create an environment conducive to civil society development and participation
  
• Systematic efforts at reinforcing the role of civil society and civil society organisations as key partners in development (as opposed to mere recipients of funds), and vice versa.
  
• The systematic identification of those civil society organisations whose goals and modus operandi are compatible with the donor's requirements
  
• The regular consultation with members of civil society with regards to the appropriateness and effectiveness of the policies pursued
  
• The engagement of civil society or civil society organisations in the execution of policies
  
• The systematic and regular consultation with other donors to avoid duplication and to increase the effectiveness of the national anti-corruption efforts

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Selected literature (from the U4 database)

• On non-governmental insight, participation and control
  
• On awareness raising and education