1. Campaigning against Post-conflict Corruption - funded by Partnership for Transparency Fund (PTF USA)

2. Partnership for Combating Local-Level Corruption - funded by DanidaHUGOU

3. Empowering Women, Dalits and Indigenous Communities and Enhancing Networks to Strengthen Democratic Development Process - funded by Canadian Cooperation Office, Nepal
 

1. Campaigning against Post-conflict Corruption
With regards to anti-corruption campaigns, World Vision Advocacy Forum (WVAF Nepal) had implemented a project entitled “Campaigning against Post-conflict Corruption” supported by Partnership for Transparency Fund (PTF), USA. The project focused on corruption in post-conflict reconstruction of public infrastructures. The project implemented in Kavrepalanchowk and Chitwan districts in collaboration with WVAF Nepal district partners namely Village Women Welfare Centre (VWWC) from Kavrepalanchowk district and Rural Women Development Center (RWDC) from Chitwan district, Transparency International Nepal Chapter (TI-NC), local authorities and civil society organisations. The project brought a positive change in the attitude of public administration, especially in the area of transparency, effective delivery of public services to the citizens and regarding with the proper utilization of the public funds.

The goal of the project was to establish these two districts as the corruption free districts. The project activities brought significant changes in the relations among the community, the citizens and the local authorities and helped to consolidate democratic norms and values thereby decreasing the level of corruption in local governance.  This  project  was  designed  to  closely  observe  the  link  between  corruption  and  civil conflict while addressing  the corruption  issues  in  the post-conflict settings. The specific project  objectives  were  to:  (a)  increase  peoples'  awareness  about  corruption  at  the  local level by organizing and mobilizing civic  societies  in  the anti-corruption campaigns;  (b) liaise  and  network  with  relevant  local  government  authorities  and  line  agencies  for  a strong  and  explicit  support  in  combating  post-conflict  corruption;  and  (c)  install community  based  monitoring  mechanisms  to  examine  where  and  how  corruption  is actually taking place and initiate actions to limit corruption.

 The project had established District Anti-corruption Network (DAN) for building cooperation among the media, civil society, government, and private sector on anti-corruption activities. The DAN made significant impact on minimizing the probability of corruption in the construction of infrastructure and service delivery in the post-conflict situation. There is strong belief among the people/DAN members that corruption and weak governance can be gradually reduced from such right-based and people-friendly initiatives.

The members' of DAN from government line agencies actively participated in the interactions, trainings, monitoring, regular meetings, public hearings and good governance and anti-corruption campaigns. The project capacitated DAN to collect and process corruption complaints and make local officials responsible duty bearers. The project formed DAN as social capital that helped to generate collective voices and togetherness to pressurize political parties in creating political space for combating corruption in post-conflict situation. DAN is good interface between service providers and beneficiaries. The DAN meetings created a common platform for all stakeholders to meet regularly in one place; share and discuss corruption problems and anti-corruption issues of the district as well. These networks also created opportunities to learn from each others to increase understanding.

The project has contributed in making the local authorities understand the nature of the existing corruption practices in the district particularly in the local institutions through the district corruption perception profiles and case studies. The project made local authorities aware of the increased awareness among the public and the urgent need for accountability and transparency in local governance system/institutions and the need for increasing their efficiency/integrity in service delivery.

The project was found to be successful in many ways. The project organized four public hearings in construction of public infrastructures having sufficient evidence of corruption. Such public hearings made significant impacts on raising local community awareness. It has been observed that the contractor, engineer and concerned authorities are responsible for the corruption in the construction of the infrastructure. Lacks of transparency and accountability have been witnessed during the construction process. With the help of public hearings local administration took disciplinary actions against those involved in the corruption. Hence, public hearings were quite successful to disseminate anti-corruption messages at the local level and breaking the age old practice of impunity.

Our previous experiences also show that both the local authorities and local people are responsible for stimulating corruption to some extent. The project has sensitized local authorities, private sector, and civil society on corruption issues and its negative impact in the economic development. The increased public awareness has contributed on identifying corruption cases. The combination of monitoring and advocacy was found to be instrumental in combating corruption and thereby bringing the culprits into the justice.

The project made positive impacts in enhancing knowledge and understanding on importance of anti-corruption issues. The project also helped to sensitize women, Dalits, Adivasi Janjatis, youths on anti-corruption issues and build self-confidence, motivation and encouragement among them on the need to fight corruption. The project capacitated local community leaders by increasing their knowledge and understanding about good governance and transparency. Read Independent Project Assessment Report

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2. Partnership for Combating Local-Level Corruption
The "Partnership for Combating Local level Corruption Project" was implemented from December 01, 2007 to December 31, 2008 following a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed between DanidaHUGOU and World Vision Advocacy Forum (WVAF Nepal). The development objective of the project was: To establish accountable and transparent local governance systems by strengthening civil society organisations dedicated to fight corruption. The three immediate objectives of the project were: (1) to increase public awareness against the vices of corruption, (2) to strengthen accountability and transparency of local governance institutions and (3) to engage civil society in the monitoring of corruption cases, including post-conflict corruption cases.

The project was based on the partnership and synergy approach. The project was implemented by a consortium of six CSOs, headed by the national level CSO WVAF Nepal and five local partner CSOs from Jumla, Kalikot, Dailakh, Jajarkot and Achham of Mid - and Far - Western Regions of Nepal. The project had adopted a participatory, inclusive and right based approach from designing to implementation of the project. During designing of the project, one day national workshop was organized with all district level partners with necessary information to do need based planning.

The project districts have been selected because the targeted five districts are at the bottom of poverty index in Nepal and are situated in the most remote areas in Nepal where the presence of central government is rarely felt and people are deprived of public services and governance. It is generally believed that the impact of corruption is much more serious in the remote and rural areas simply because rural people have less access to and limited choice over the delivery of public services. In rural areas, the government is often the single agency supplying public services like health services, education, drinking water, electricity, transport, and communication facilities. Poor people do not have a choice over the delivery of public services. Corruption in the delivery of these services directly affects the poor, vulnerable and marginalised people.
 
The project utilized both advocacy and monitoring tools to combat local-level corruption. While advocacy helped to bring into limelight the different aspects of local-level corruption then monitoring component helped to engage and empower community in fighting corruption. The knowledge and skills on anti-corruption are imparted to the local stakeholders while thorough monitoring components has enabled them to work as watchdogs and vigilance centers.

As its core methodology, the project established District Anti-corruption Network (DAN) in each district. The purpose of DAN is to building cooperation among the media, civil society, government, and private sector on combating local level corruption and promoting effective service delivery. The formation of DAN has made significant impact on minimizing the weak governance in service delivery. The DAN members including representatives from the government line agencies actively participated in the interactions, trainings, monitoring, regular meetings, good governance campaigns etc.

There were 11 activities under 4 outputs which the project has successfully accomplished within the allocated budget and within stipulated time in spite of uncertain political situation, absence of elected representatives at the local governance initially, remoteness of the project districts and erratic transportation and interrupted communication links. Major achievements of the project include:

• National and local level corruption issues  widely covered and disseminated through the publication of 4800 copies of quarterly magazines and  broadcasting of weekly radio programmes

• In total more than 50 public complaints against corruption and bribery received in the DANs and discussed and forwarded to concerned agencies for appropriate actions against them.

• Publication/placement of citizen charters in local institutions monitored by DAN of all the five project districts and non publishing local institutions pressurized to publish the same through DAN meeting and accordingly citizen charters published in many local institutions.

• Through decision taken in the DAN meeting local institutions asked to make pubic their annual development plans, budgets and information as well as asked to conduct public auditing /hearing.

• Copies of Red Book distributed among the DAN members in Jajarkot and Kalikot and general public made aware of the annual planning and annual development budget of all the five programme districts (as stated in the Red Book (published by the National Planning Commission for the fiscal year 2064/65) through the weekly radio programme.

• Public hearings based on public complaints conducted by DAN to reduce financial irregularities related to District Education Office and District Health Office in Achham and Land Revenue office, Agricultural Development Bank and Women Development Office in Kalikot and NGO in Jumla.

• In total more than 50 cases of corruption reported in the DANs (from all the five working districts) and forwarded to the concerned office/s for appropriate and timely action.

• Post-conflict corruption cases monitored by the DAN of each project district and 500 copies of compiled district level conflict and Post-conflict corruption profiles produced.

• Similarly 5 Post-conflict corruption case studies of the five project districts prepared and 500 copies of the same published and widely distributed.  

• Public perception survey on conflict and post conflict corruption conducted in each of the five working districts.

• Case study on a major problem conducted in each of the five project districts.

• Expansion of district anti corruption networks at the Illaka and VDC Level.

• Number of public complaints received and processed by DAN

• Conduction of public hearing by the DAN of Kalikot, Jumla and Achham.More than 150 CSO members including local authorities trained on anti-corruption activities through providing TOT on anti corruption, training on good governance, transparency and public auditing and conducting district level and regional workshops on conflict and post conflict corruption issues.

• 193 number of youths mobilised to fight corruption through the conduction of 5 district level inter secondary and higher secondary schools essay writing and elocution competitions.

• Number of youths mobilised to fight corruption through the formation of Radio Listener’s Clubs in each project districts.

• More than 50 public complaints against corruption reported in the DAN (from all the five working districts) and forwarded by DAN to the concerned office/s for appropriate and timely action.

• National and local level corruption issues covered widely through the publication and distribution of quarterly magazines and broadcasting of weekly radio programmes.

• Public perception survey conducted to identify post-conflict corruption-prone areas of each of the five working districts.

• District level corruption profiles of each of the five working districts produced.

• 1 regional and 5 district level workshops (1 in each district) on conflict and post conflict corruption issues organised and corruption prone areas identified with specific reference to district corruption profiles.

• 5 District Anti-corruption Networks (DANs) established and functional in each of the five working districts.

• More than 50 public complaints processed by DAN by forwarding to the concerned offices and putting pressure on concerned authorities to take necessary actions.

• One case study on a major corruption problem conducted in each of the project district and 500 copies of the same published in a book form.

• 5 case studies (one in each district) on corruption problems conducted. Summary of the case studies published in the quarterly magazines and 500 copies of the case study along with the district profiles published.

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3. Empowering Women, Dalits and Indigenous Communities and Enhancing Networks to Strengthen Democratic Development Process

The "Empowering Women, Dalits and Indigenous Communities and Enhancing Networks to Strengthen Democratic Development Process" project was being implemented from March 2007 to August 2008 supported by the Canadian Cooperation Office-Nepal (CCO-Nepal). The objectives of the project were: (1) Encourage marginalized groups, women, Dalits (so-called untouchable caste communities), and Adivasi Janjatis (indigenous people) to participate actively and meaningfully in every aspect of civic and political life of the community, (2) Increase capacity of local leaders and politicians to contribute for recruitment of women, Dalits, and Adivasi Janjatis in formal politics, and (3) Support civil society organizations to influence government and party policies for inclusion of the issues of marginalized communities.

The project covered a variety of strategies focusing on involvement of local partners throughout the project. It put emphasis on importance of District Level Alliance for Democracy (DAD) and Illaka level Alliance (IAD) as local structure as well as social capital and through which strategies to be chosen on local realities (attitudes, history, governance systems, and power structures).

This project was being implemented by a consortium of 5 NGOs led by Gramin Mahila Srijanshil Pariwar, Sindhupalchowk. As a technical support organization, WVAF Nepal was responsible for the development of media messages on Constituent Assembly (CA) elections and sensitization and educating voters on election processes through 48 weekly radio episodes broadcasted by local FM radios stations.

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