Harnessing the power of communities against corruption

Ignorance, apathy and disempowerment are recurring drivers of impunity. Social accountability, on its part, aims to empower citizens with information and provide effective channels through which to exercise agency. Authored by Claudia Baez Camargo, Head of Governance Research, this publication guides practitioners towards localising anti-corruption interventions that invite citizen participation in order to make them more effective

Local health governance in Tajikistan: accountability and power relations at the district level

Relationships of power, responsibility and accountability between health systems actors are considered central to health governance. Despite increasing attention to the role of accountability in health governance a gap remains in understanding how local accountability relations function within the health system in Central Asia. This study addresses this gap by exploring local health governance in two districts of Tajikistan using principal-agent theory

Using power and influence analysis to address corruption risks: the case of the Ugandan drug supply chain

Power and influence analysis can be used to assess corruption vulnerabilities in the public sector. This approach helps identify powerful stakeholders that should be engaged to achieve maximum impact for anti-corruption strategies. It also helps reveal informal political networks and relationships that can hamper anti-corruption efforts. Power and influence analysis was applied to the Ugandan public sector drug supply chain and suggested that interventions aimed at reducing corruption risks would need to take into account the influence of informal political power in addition to the formal institutional mandates, and the prevalence of a vast network of patronage networks across the country

Strategic anti-corruption communications: a resource for practitioners

This Working Paper is intended to guide practitioners who are seeking to complement conventional anti-corruption measures by adopting a behavioural communications approach. It aims to connect a typology of anti-corruption messages with behavioural change theories, and discuss their impact. Subsequently, it suggests practical implications for designing anti-corruption communication as part of behaviour change interventions. This includes outlining how to develop a robust Theory of Change as a means to enhance the success of such efforts. The guidance is based on a review of seven key topically pertinent studies that have been recently published

Informal networks and what they mean for anti-corruption practice

Corruption is frequently associated with money alone and the behaviours of a few individual "bad apples" operating in otherwise healthy governance systems. This is too simplistic. As the latest research shows, including research in Tanzania and Uganda on which this Policy Brief is based, corruption is a networked phenomenon. This Policy Brief explains what this means and its implications for anti-corruption practice. When ordinary citizens and business people face problems, like constrained access to public services or an uneven playing field, they invest time, effort and resources in building informal networks. Held together by personal connections and corrupt payments, these informal networks are a problem-solving mechanism. They allow members - such as business people, other citizens and public officials - to pursue a variety of goals. The networks aid in easing access to public services, for example, or helping a business to run smoothly, or securing business opportunities with the government. Informal networks can be leveraged to speed up long and complicated permit processes or exploit weaknesses in formal tender processes to obtain undue access to contracts. When red tape is used by public officials to extort bribes from service users, informal networks can help manage and overcome these demands. In contexts in which these informal networks are widespread, the research shows that conventional anti-corruption measures, such as introducing more regulations, policies and controls, can actually backfire and increase corruption. Breaking this self-reinforcing cycle of networked corruption requires a shift in thinking and approaches: Focusing on networked corruption as opposed to individual corrupt behaviours. Tackling corruption both from the demand and the supply side by addressing inefficiencies and weaknesses in public systems that cause problems for ordinary citizens and business people. This may make it less likely that they will resort to corruption through informal networks to overcome the public service weaknesses. Harnessing informal networks for anti-corruption objectives. This includes leveraging new insights into social norms and networks and establishing Collective Action initiatives to better target the underlying drivers of corruption

Accountability for better healthcare provision: A framework and guidelines to define understand and assess accountability in health systems

Strengthening accountability in public service provision is increasingly recognized as a precondition to improve the performance of the health sector in low-income countries. However, progress in this field has been hampered to a great extent because of empirical difficulties in measuring and assessing accountability. This article provides a clear operational definition of the concept and discusses how and why accountability in public health service provision presents distinct challenges to the institutional capabilities of most developing countries. On the basis of both elements a set of guidelines to empirically assess accountability in health services is offered

Can a Behavioural Approach Help Fight Corruption?

This brief summarises the lessons learned from a systematic literature review that explored the feasibility of adopting a behavioural approach to address petty corruption. The findings point to the importance of developing messages that challenge conventional wisdom about the inevitability of corruption, emphasizing the costs of corruption to the welfare of individuals as well as showcasing examples of successful detection and punishment of crimes of corruption. Accounting for prevailing social norms and beliefs is also key because otherwise anti-corruption interventions may disseminate concepts and promote actions that fail to deliver the desired messages to their intended beneficiaries

Communities against corruption: Assessment framework and methodological toolkit

This practitioners' handbook provides the required tools for contextualising social accountability initiatives aimed at empowering citizens to engage in anti-corruption actions. The material herein contained has been developed through a collaborative effort with UNDP and reflects the findings from academic research conducted in the scope of the ANTICORRP research consortium (anticorrp.eu). The handbook presents an analytical framework through which the critical dimensions involved in developing successful anti-corruption social accountability initiatives are identified. It also includes concrete research tools that may be applied in order to obtain key information about the communities intended to engage in anti-corruption actions and guidelines to aid implementers in designing participatory schemes that best meet the characteristics of the local context

Reducing the social acceptability of wildlife trafficking through behaviour change interventions

Behaviour change interventions aimed at reducing the social acceptability of wildlife trafficking are an important part of efforts to prevent wildlife crime. This policy brief summarises lessons learned about how to develop and frame effective messages in the context of these interventions, based on field work conducted in Uganda. A key first step is to narrowly identify the right target audience . While a general public awareness campaign may have its merits, it may be more effective to focus on those identified as most vulnerable to participating in wildlife trafficking, namely young men, those that live around wildlife trafficking hotspots and those involved in trade. Second, it appears most promising to formulate messages that challenge narrow utilitarian perceptions of wildlife by highlighting the hidden costs of trafficking and its negative impact on the economy and the environment. Messages that focus on legal risks should showcase successes in detection and sanctions, especially in a context in which impunity is perceived to be high. Other messages that seek to challenge the overvalued benefits of engaging in wildlife trafficking in relation to wealth and social status should be carefully nuanced to avoid rejection. Third, how we frame such messages is equally important. The research suggests that appealing to social identity and highlighting personal consequences are the most promising frames to adopt. Overall, practitioners are advised to develop and test messages and approaches that are personal and precise

Social Accountability and its Conceptual Challenges: An analytical framework

Social accountability has become a favored approach among most major multilateral and bilateral donors to develop grass roots mechanisms for democratic governance. In a successful scenario, citizen participation can promote more responsive governments and better provision of basic services by linking users' feedback to the policy design, implementation and monitoring activities typically undertaken by the state. However, there is a lack of agreement about which specific types of social accountability interventions yield the best results and what are the causal pathways that are critical to generate positive changes. This paper presents an analytical framework that identifies the key components that are required to exercise effective direct accountability and provides a blueprint to assess social accountability initiatives