Regional Conference on Fighting Corruption in Education in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, 24-25 November, Bratislava Alla Bakunts

1. United Nations Development Programme
Empowered lives.
Resilient nations.

2. United Nations Development Programme
UNDP Approach: Why “Bottom Up”?
• High public demand for engagement in AC initiative; lack of
capacity of public agencies to meet such a demand
• None of bilateral and multi-lateral organizations
(WB, USAID, OSCE, CoE) prioritized “demand side” and
participatory processes in their AC assistance schemes and
programmes
• Hence, UNDP focused its support in AC sector on participatory
processes (ACPM, e-interventions, public perception
survey, media programmes, etc.)

3. United Nations Development Programme
UNDP AC Interventions: ACPM
• Anti-Corruption Monitoring Methodology was developed jointly with
the MC, approved by the ACC. A 3-tiered monitoring system that
tracked and evaluated systemic issues, corruption risks and
manifestations of corruption
• For quality control, specific tools were developed: guidelines on
responsibilities for volunteers, norms of ethics, ground rules for
visits
• The monitoring was carried out between April-October 2007, in
10 cities representing all the regions as well as in the capital city,
44 educational institutions in total
• Recommendations for systemic changes were developed and
presented to decision makers. A number of recommendations
were accepted and included in the 2009-2012 AC Strategy

4. United Nations Development Programme
ACPM: Achievements in Retrospect
• High-quality policy level recommendation in AC sector on
education
• Active participation of the groups of concerned citizens -
involving communities in the fight against corruption is one of
the essentials for success. The new 2009-12 AC Strategy, in its
turn, puts much stronger an emphasis on citizen participation in
AC initiatives
• Enhanced capacity of a broader number of players in AC
sector, including citizens, civil society, media, etc.

5. United Nations Development Programme
ACPM: Lessons Learned in Retrospect
• The ACPM focuses on systems and procedures – does not
advance (except marginally) the two other elements of any anti-
corruption strategy: enforcement of laws and public education
• The methodology requires to concentrate on two sectors highly
relevant to our daily lives, while resource constraints prevent
consideration of other – equally relevant – sectors
• By considering all the systems and procedures in education
sector the Task Force was unable to give priority attention to the
most troublesome ones. Also, by looking at the sector in its
entirety, it was difficult to distinguish between AC and
governance

6. United Nations Development Programme
ACPM: More Lessons Learned in
Retrospect
• The work has proved to be long and demanding (to produce
recommendations, to put the changes in practice.) How long it
will take for a citizen to see the difference in service is a matter of
conjecture. The methodology could come to be seen as too slow
and cumbersome to maintain the enthusiasm of the volunteers
the experts and the citizens
• Follow-up activities should be planned early on otherwise there
is a risk of a drop in interest
• The advantages of the ACPM clearly overweigh its drawbacks.
Overtime, the methodology will evolve and modern technologies
could be applied to streamline the process

7. THANK YOU!