UNDP Social Innovation Initiative awards 6 anti-corruption projects in Asia-Pacific
Six Asia-Pacific projects received awards in a competition organized as part of the launch of UNDP’s Social Innovation Initiative on anti-corruption for development.
The projects from Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, and China were chosen from among proposals submitted by UNDP country offices and partner non-government organizations from 14 countries.The announcement came at the close of a Regional Dialogue on Transparency, Accountability and Voices against Corruption, 12-13 June in Bangkok, hosted by UNDP Asia-Pacific Regional Centre, with the support of the Global Anti-corruption Initiative.
The awardees are:
Pakistan - Citizens’ Information and Accountability Forum
This initiative will launch a Citizens’ Information and Accountability Forum in Punjab, one of two local governments in Pakistan that passed Right to Information (RTI) laws. The Forum is a citizens-led group that will review district development plans and budgets in order to promote government accountability and transparency.
The Forum will submit RTI requests to gain access to all relevant public documents and hold government officials accountable at public hearings it will organize. It will conduct monthly meetings and site inspections to check the progress of publicly funded projects and raise any issues with the appropriate government authority.
In the long run, the Forum intends to mainstream participatory development planning at the district level. With UNDP Pakistan as lead organizer, the Forum will have representatives of youth, women rights organizations, minority groups, bar associations, traders association, farmers association, teachers association, NGOs, community based organizations, university faculty, and press clubs. UNDP also will partner with the Punjab district government, particularly its Information Commission, to ensure its ownership of the initiative.
Philippines - Citizen Empowerment Hubs
To be set up in three strategic areas, Citizen Empowerment Hubs will address a major challenge in the Philippines: disaster management. Natural disasters here are now more frequent and severe. Most affected are local communities, especially their most vulnerable groups -- women and children.
The initiative will pilot the Hubs in building the capacity of grassroots women to map and monitor service delivery, with a distinct focus on local response to disasters. Key to the initiative is increasing partnerships between grassroots women and local authorities so that women become more visible in local decision-making, including budget planning, for disaster risk reduction.
Implementing partners are (lead) Government Watch (G-Watch) of the Ateneo School of Government; Damayan ng Maralitang Pilipinong Api (national federation of 217 grassroots organizations); the Huairou Commission; Department of the Interior and Local Government, Government of the Philippines; and, the United Nations Development Programme.
Thailand - Anti-corruption Cafés in Universities
This initiative will expand “Refuse To Be Corrupt”, a social enterprise of the UNDP-led Thai Youth Anti-Corruption Network (TYACN). The enterprise is part of a broader strategy to influence youth attitudes to corruption and is a joint project with True Coffee, the largest locally owned chain of coffee shops in Thailand.
TYACN will scale-up “Refuse To Be Corrupt” cafés in Khon Kaen University and Ubon Ratchathani University. Each café will give college students a space and a command centre where young people can sit down and discuss issues, share their views with peers, organize multi-media events, and map out plans to tackle corruption in their universities and the wider communities.
The World Economic Forum recognized “Refuse To Be Corrupt” as a Creative For Good best practice that presented an inspiring and effective public education campaign to instil social change.
China - Innovation Laboratory for Youth Participation
The Innovation Laboratory for Youth Participation in anti-corruption will promote youth engagement in corruption prevention.
Among
the initial activities is a national student design competition on
innovative anti-corruption plans to curb the spread of corruption in the
higher education sector, with technical advice from UNDP. Winning plans
will be piloted in selected member universities of the China Integrity
Education Network (CIEN).
The proposed initiative scales up a UNDP project that currently supports a nationwide integrity innovation competition among 10 member universities of the CIEN, in consultation with the Beijing Education Commission and the Guangdong Education Department. The scale-up doubles the number of participating universities to 20.
This initiative will pilot-test a prototype Corruption Tracking Tool to help address the high prevalence of corruption in Indonesia’s extractive industries. The Tool is a user-friendly handbook to help local governments track stages vulnerable to corruption in both the processing of mining permits and the implementation of mining concessions.
The Tool will identify the capacities and resources needed to reduce corruption strategically. It also will pinpoint the potential benefits to local governments and stakeholders once a corruption problem is resolved.
Intended for piloting in two local governments, the Tool will be developed by UNDP Indonesia in close partnership with the two pilot local governments, the Corruption Eradication Commission, the National Development Planning Agency, and the Ministry of Energy Mineral Resources.
Vietnam – Strengthening People Supervisions for Anti-corruption
The initiative will strengthen the role and participation of civil society organizations in anti-corruption work in Vietnam. It will focus on two groups: local people’s supervision boards and, news media practitioners.
For the people’s supervision boards, the initiative aims to improve their knowledge on inspection law, the anti-corruption law and related government policies; train them on policy monitoring, monitoring and handling of complaints; and, provide them practical tools (such as handbooks and checklists) to do inspection work.
News media practitioners will benefit from training for investigative journalists on anti-corruption laws and investigation skills, and the regular sharing of updated information on corruption and anti-corruption activities.
Partners in the initiative are UNDP Vietnam, the Government Inspectorate of Vietnam, and civil society groups.