In many ways, 2011 was our most successful year to date. PTF approved 42 new grants totaling $1.5 million, by far the highest in our history.

At the end of 2011 there were 58 projects under implementation in 25 countries valued at more than $2.8 million. The year saw an upgrading of our internal systems with the help of a grant from the Overlook International Foundation (OIF) designed to bolster our core functions. The OIF grant enabled Kathleen White (COO) and Colby Pacheco (Program Officer) to fully commit their time to PTF work. Additionally, our part-time team of Laura Tashjian, Usha Venkatachallam, Michelle Sahlhoff and Johannes Tonn have brought a blend of youth and energy to the organization. 2011 saw the upgrades across the board for PTF’s systems, from new financial and program management tools to a sleek new look to the PTF website.

Total Amount of Grants

Total Number of Projects

PTF also made large strides in developing our information base and knowledge sharing efforts. The November 2011 workshop we hosted in Jaipur, was by all accounts a major success. Our organization carried out independent project completion assessments on 22 projects, more than half of all projects completed in 2010, and produced our first major publication: Stimulating the Demand for Good Governance.

In June 2011, the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) commissioned a independent mid-term evaluation of PTF’s program. Among the highlights of the report’s findings was the analysis of PTF’s business model, concluding that it fills a vital space in the development community and commending our organization’s effectiveness, efficiency, and impact.

…and 2012 Goals and Challenges

A major challenge in 2012 will be to replace the World Bank Development Grant Facility (DGF) grant and the DfID Governance and Transparency Fund (GTF) grant, both of which come to an end in early 2013. Our immediate goal is to raise $1.7 million by the end of 2012 and at least $ 7 million over the next three years.

Stimulating the Demand for Good Governance

In the year ahead we will have an opportunity to assess the longe-term impact of the PTF approach and develop new ways to connect partners and grant recipients. In April, we will be carrying out an assessment of the Fondo Regional para la Promocion de la Transparencia (FONTRA) initiative, a program supported by PTF, the Inter-American Development Bank and private sector firms to promote transparency and accountability in South America. The initiative encompassed more than 20 projects in Argentina alone over a 3 year period. PTF is also planning a sector-oriented workshop on education and procurement in Eastern Europe and a Kenya workshop focusing on monitoring block grants within the landscape of the country’s new constitution. An evaluation of more than 20 PTF funded projects at all levels of the education sector – primary, secondary and University – is currently underway. We are also excited to pilot a program monitoring medicine distribution programs carried out by the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria in Africa; a project that could ensure that life saving medicines and bed nets reach vulnerable communities in Africa.

In its early years, PTF demonstrated the value of civil society monitoring in fighting corruption and improving public services at the grassroots level. More than 85% of the projects we have supported have achieved their objectives. The approach has worked. Beginning in 2009, the Citizens Against Corruption Program in South Asia has demonstrated the impact of focused civil society interventions. We have helped over 80,000 poor households and 400,000 individuals in India receive the food and “job cards” to which they are entitled under government programs. It is now time to scale up this effort to touch millions of people and influence policy and administrative reform, something increasingly demanded by India citizens. The world’s largest democracy has reached an important point in its modern history. Seeking to deepen and broaden our scope of projects in India is one of PTF’s most pressing goals for 2012.

Learning and Sharing (© to come)

A major conclusion from participants was that citizen-led anti-corruption programs worked best while collaborating with partner organizations and constructively engaging policy makers and other public sector entities. Causes picked up by media also proved to gain added impact. 31 case studies were submitted by the diverse array of participants which were then presented and discussed at the workshop. Evidence of impactful results were noted to be achieved through such strategies as: accessing and using information to monitor performance and demand accountability; forming citizen monitoring groups, building their capacity and taking collective action; constructive engagement with authorities; third party monitoring, evidence collection, and data evaluation used to demand accountability and responsiveness of government officials. A major constraint highlighted by all CSOs was the scarcity of domestic and foreign donor funding for anti-corruption work.

As the workshop demonstrated, citizen engagement works, though context matters. Despite there not existing a one-size-fits all approach to fighting corruption, the lessons of others are invaluable in tailoring to specific needs in order to make PTF projects and partnerships stronger than ever.

Corruption Billboard

PTF advisers are working hard in Africa . In Kenya, PTF is working with partner agency ACT! to support 5 projects in Kenya. In West Africa, PTF projects have focused on education while in Uganda, active projects are attempting to quell leakages in the disbursement of anti-malarial medicines, monitoring schools at the village level, tracking abuses in the agriculture sector and supporting the national anti-corruption court.

In Eastern Europe & the Former Soviet Union, PTF advisers are building country programs in Serbia and Moldova, while continuing to improve grassroots actions to reduce corruption in education and government procurement. We currently have 14 active anti-corruption projects in the region.

PTF has increasingly focused on two countries in East Asia, Mongolia and the Philippines, two countries where PTF has seen anti-corruption activities grow by leaps and bounds, creating major impacts. In the Philippines especially, we have built a longer-term relationship which has allowed for scaling up. We currently fund 6 projects in the region.

Anti-corruption March

In South Asia PTF has straightened its long-standing partnerships with the Public Affairs Center (PAC) in Bangalore, pushing to move grassroots actions up the policy ladder to have an impact on administrative decisions. Additionally, the CARTA program in Nepal and Bangladesh will kick off in the coming months and we expect to see at least 7 projects monitoring World Bank financed projects in the two countries.

In Latin America, Argentina remains the largest country of focus. After implementing the FONTRA program, PTF is now in the process of performing an impact review to assess and strengthen our country program.

For completion reports and independent evaluations of our projects, visit the various regional pages of our Where We Work section.

Through a close collaboration with local partners, the Monusher Jonno Foundation in Bangladesh and Helvetas in Nepal, CARTA will engage in three operational components:

1. Small Grant Facility for Civil Society Engagement:
   Under this component, local partners in consultation with PTF will select CSOs to provide short term grants for engaging citizens in activities associated with monitoring the implementation of World Bank-financed projects.  Grant sizes may range from up $25,000 up to $150,000 depending on the proposed scope and complexity of the sub-project. The grants will mainly support (a) third party tracking of project process and results, (b) promotion of potential beneficiaries’ access to information, (c) strengthened citizen capacity to respond to emerging issues/concerns, and (d) increased citizen ability to improve projects’ outcomes by making project implementation agencies more responsive.
2. On-the-Job Capacity Building:
   The objective of this component is to build the capacity of CSOs to interact with the government agencies in constructive ways through action learning and sharing lessons of experience among other CSOs.  A crucial dimension of this component involves a dynamic partnership between PTF advisers and local CSOs from the project design phase through implementation.
3. Learning & Knowledge Sharing:
   This component aims at building a significant body of knowledge and good practice in the demand for good governance. Accordingly, a series of eight workshops of three days each will be conducted over the life of the program, to exchange views and experiences among CSOs, government agencies and donor agencies. Two workshops will be country-specific for Bangladesh and Nepal; three will be sector-specific, and three will be region-wide and cross-cutting, focusing on experiences around constructive engagement with government and development actors and enhancing future approaches for demand for good governance initiatives.

How it will work?
Through a collaborative decision making process, World Bank country offices, Task Team Leaders, and government implementing agencies will select up to 25 ongoing World Bank financed projects deemed most appropriate for civil society monitoring initiatives. Once projects are selected, PTF, local partners along with World Bank country offices will agree on which activities will be monitored and release a Request for Concept Note for local CSO’s to indicate how they would carry out their monitoring plan. The CSO’s with the strongest Concept Note will be invited to prepare full proposals.  The winner will be chosen mainly by local partners in consultation with PTF and proceed to carry out their implementation plan, which will typically last 12-18 months.  PTF and local partners will provide any technical assistance and capacity building to selected CSO to strengthen governance and accountability tools locally and improve project outcomes.

CARTA is a pilot project for a unique monitoring model that may provide donors and development agencies more specific and real-time information on the impact of their projects.  CARTA develops a foundation for “constructive engagement” between government implementing agencies, the World Bank and local partners that is important for ensuring that project results effectively meet the needs of intended beneficiaries.  The information gathered by CSO monitoring schemes create an opportunity to make more informed decisions during project implementation, which may improve project effectiveness.  Lastly, through engaging local CSOs in capacity building and project monitoring, CARTA aims to strengthen local ownership of project outcomes, reduce the propensity of corruption and increase overall citizen engagement in their community.

For more information see webpage of local partners:

Helvatas Swiss Intercooperation – Nepal
Manusher Jonno Foundation – Bangladesh

There are ongoing efforts to fight this corruption by creating transparency in NREGA’s functioning, especially in the fund disbursement process. It is in this area that I recently came across a great example of appropriate technology seen in the photo below (image courtesy: The Hindu):

NREGA Report on Wall

This is the “Transparency Wall” in Ranga Reddy village in Andhra Pradesh, India. The Hindu reports that the writing on the wall contains names of workers, how many days they have worked, and how much they have earned. (see Tool of exclusion)

Various technologies such as SMS and websites are utilized to collect and share information about work completed and funds distributed. However, due to poor connectivity and high cost, they are not directly accessible to the rural poor that the NREGA is supposed to serve.

The wall on the other hand fully serves its purpose of transparency and accountability. It gets the information to a wide segment of the population, foiling abuses of the system. For instance, if someone who is not eligible for the scheme is receiving payments, it is now on a wall for everyone in the local community to see and take preventive steps. It also puts the officialdom on notice about paying out these funds in a timely manner. With an at-a-glance-report of how much was disbursed and when, the writing on the wall removes the power that a bureaucrat could wield over the rural poor with misinformation about when funding was received and who got paid.

Simple. Elegant. Beautiful. Those are the words that come to mind when you behold this writing on the wall. Three words that are also the hallmark of appropriate technology.

cross posted on Appropriate IT

After reviewing the day’s lively email correspondence from East Africa civil society organizations ranging from progress on tracking anti malaria drug distribution, to the match up of school construction project expenditures with the resulting bricks and mortar, to the status of cases before a national anti-corruption court, and reviewing a stack of potential new projects, I thought about how different this was from my former career and how this had all started.

Two years ago my wife and I moved to Washington, DC after a stint in Memphis, TN where I was a vice president of International Paper, at that time the world’s largest forest products company. At International Paper, I had run the Hammermill Paper Business – 2500 employees, five paper mills and the industry’s preeminent brand, and been a VP of Strategic Planning for a large sector of the company. Now, as an adviser with PTF, I was working at the grassroots level with small CSOs in Africa with annual operating budgets often times well under $100,000, and at most a handful of employees on hand; everyone passionate about increasing transparency and reducing corruption.

It began when we moved to DC and I reconnected with an old school friend, a World Banker, who introduced me to PTF. It was time for PTF to update its strategic plan and I offered to guide the process. Several months later, after helping to set a new course that would grow the organization, increase its impact, and build its internal capacity, I was hooked on the work PTF was doing. I was invited to join PTF’s Africa program and began my work guiding CSOs focused on improving the lives of the poor by working to reduce corruption. The work is stimulating; we do good things, get to work with passionate people all over the world and make a difference in the quality of life for the poor, and have the support of an outstanding group of associates.

One of the really exciting things about PTF is the potential to take grass roots projects that are effective and scale them up. I am particularly interested in a projects that reduce corruption in the health sector. Medicines targeted for free clinics are commonly stolen from the supply chain and end up in the private market. Poor patients show up at the clinics, find that the drugs are not available, and are either asked to purchase the “free” drugs from private clinics, or do without. We are tracking anti malaria medicines, working with Anti-Corruption Coalition of Uganda (ACCU) at the grass roots level and with Uganda Law Society (ULS) for those situations that merit attention by the Uganda Anti-Corruption Court. If the project achieves its goals we hope to replicate it broadly and use the results to influence health care policy.

The Princeton paper cites the PTF funded G-Watch implemented textbook procurement program in the Philippines. It notes that “Groups such as Government Watch, the National Citizens Movement for Free Elections, and even the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts mobilized thousands of volunteers to help track textbook deliveries to public schools.” And goes on to describe how the Coca-Cola Company used its delivery trucks to transport textbooks to schools in far-flung areas of the country. The report indicates that by 2005, textbook prices had fallen by 50%, binding and printing quality had improved, and volunteer observers reported 95% error-free deliveries.

The World Bank’s Changing Norms is Key to Fighting Everyday Corruption by Sabina Panth cites two PTF funded projects and includes 2-3 page case studies of each. One case study refers to a vehicle monitoring project by ECOLINK in the Philippines and finds that the misuse of government-issued vehicles has been completely eradicated in the area covered by the project. Additionally the ombudsman for the city of Oroquieta has committed to take action against 50 high-ranking government officials who have been alleged to have illegally used government vehicles for private purposes. A second Case study refers to a PTF funded project in Uganda implemented by the National Foundation for Democracy and Human Rights in Uganda (NAFODU). It found that a radio call-in program and constructive engagement with police authorities increased awareness of corruption and led to a rise in number of official complaints & grievances filed. Additional findings pointed to evidence of wider spread disciplinary actions taken against errant officers and subsequent improved behavior of police officials in their daily engagement with villagers.

I’ve been asked from time to time why I became interested in the issue of corruption. Having worked at the World Bank, I was aware of the corrosive effect that corruption has on economies and the real harm it does to the legitimacy of institutions and governments. But it was still rather abstract. I was never offered a bribe in my 30 years at the Bank, and only twice was I asked to pay a bribe (once to put my suitcase on an airplane and once to get a visa at a chaotic border crossing).

Dan with Moses and Wife in Western Kenya

But then fifteen years ago I got an urgent message from my friend Moses in Kenya. His father was very ill and the doctor at the local public hospital was refusing to treat him unless he paid a fee.  It was not a large fee, maybe $200, but by the standards of Moses and his family, it was enormous. I wired the money, the father was treated and recovered, and when I visited him the following year he told me with tears in his eyes that I had saved his life.  In conversation later, Moses said this was common practice, not only among doctors, but teachers, clerks, local chiefs, police. He had started a primary school on his farm and one day the “inspectors” from the nearby town came and declared that the mud and wattle buildings did not meet code, but he could be forgiven by paying a small fine. My friend Moses is a small farmer with four acres of land. Analytical evidence suggests that poor people like Moses spend up to 5% of their income on bribes, almost twice as much as the non-poor.  It is a fact and a way of life, and he cannot do anything alone to fix it.

I have a great fondness for Kenya, in part because I was a Peace Corps Volunteer there in the 1960s and the experience convinced me to work on development.  I visit Kenya every two years to meet with students in a scholarship program I established a decade ago. They always inspire me. They cite corruption as the principal evil in their society, and they are determined to do something about it. I’ve always felt that Kenya is a middle income country behaving like a low income country because of corruption.  Anything is possible if all citizens just played by the rules.

It is for my friend Moses, his wife and ten children and everyone like him trying to get by that I have worked so happily with the Partnership for Transparency Fund for eleven years.

By:Vinay Bhargava, Chief Technical Adviser for PTF

JAIPUR, INDIA–Government accountability, right to information laws as a more effective tool than bribery, youth groups exposing use of sub standard materials in road construction, pregnant women getting the benefit of hospital services without paying bribes were just a few of the cases and ideas discussed when 38 CSOs from India, Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan, Indonesia, the Philippines, Nepal, and Sri Lanka met in the Jaipur, India during November 28 to December 2, 2011.

This gathering was sponsored by PTF in partnership with CUTS International, Transparency International India, and Public Affairs Centre and organized around the theme of “Engaging Citizens Against Corruption in Asia: Approaches, Results and Lessons”.

Throughout the course of the workshop participants exchanged views among themselves and with six invited international experts. Subjects ranged from overcoming political economy constraints to effective use of traditional and social media to obtain impacts. The importance of assessing and scaling up results as well as improving public service delivery and achieving corruption also weighed heavily on the proceedings. Workshop papers, proceedings, and other outputs are available at: https://sites.google.com/a/ptfund.org/sarc

A major conclusion from participants was that citizen-led anti-corruption programs worked best while collaborating with partner organizations and constructively engaging policy makers and other public sector entities. Causes picked up by media also proved to gain added impact. 31 case studies were submitted by the diverse array of participants which were then presented and discussed at the workshop. Evidence of impactful results were noted to be achieved through such strategies as: accessing and using information to monitor performance and demand accountability; forming citizen monitoring groups, building their capacity and taking collective action; constructive engagement with authorities; third party monitoring, evidence collection, and data evaluation used to demand accountability and responsiveness of government officials. A major constraint highlighted by all CSOs was the scarcity of domestic and foreign donor funding for anti-corruption work.

Now let me end by relaying a few things that I have learned in Jaipur: (1) the meaning of ‘rude accountability’ by way of a picture of citizens beating officials to enforce accountability; (2) the power of right to information (RTI) law in light of the fact that an estimated 6-8 million applications have been filed (a Yale University study found that filing a RTI application in India resulted in faster service delivery as efficiently if not more efficiently than paying a bribe, and entrepreneurial parents used RTI to do background checks on criminal record of a prospective ‘suitable boy’); (3) youth in the Philippines that counted bags of cement and other materials used by road contractors then used the information to initiate investigations; (4) and perhaps most inspiring of all, I found that a PTF funded CSO helped pregnant women in Orissa to not only stop paying bribes in hospitals to delivery their babies, but also received their entitled allowances from the government! Well what more can I say- engaging citizens against corruption works. Thank you.

Samburu & Masai Mara, Kenya (cc) CanWeBowlPlease

First, in April 2011, Kenya Gazette Notices dating back to 1906 were digitized and made available online through a partnership between Kenya Law Review and Google Kenya.

Then, in July, Kenya partnered with Google Books to release 60 years of Kenya’s Hansard (the official report of parliamentary proceedings) in an easily accessible and searchable online format.

July also saw the launch of the Kenya Open Data Initiative (KODI) with the goal of making “core government development, demographic, statistical and expenditure data available in a useful digital format for researchers, policymakers, ICT developers and the general public.”

KODI makes available large data sets from the Kenyan government (e.g., census, public expenditure, data from health and education ministries) and the World Bank (e.g., development indicators) in a user-friendly website for the public and data access via APIs for software developers, all developed on the Socrata platform.

These initiatives allow Kenya to take large strides in fulfilling its constitutional promise of access to information as a citizen’s fundamental right. It is now in the hands of community groups and software developers to analyze, visualize, make meaning, create knowledge, trigger civic actions, and enable social change with the available data. If not, open data and access to information will remain empty promises without any social impact.

Kenya has a vibrant technology for social development community (case in point: ushahidi and M-PESA) that is already stepping up to the challenge. It has only been a few months since KODI launched, but there already are a few projects that are using this data in innovative ways for the benefit of the community. A sample:

• Kenya Public Expenditure Portal: Review spending of Constituency Development Funds (CDF) at county level
• Virtual Kenya: Visualization of MPs (Member of Parliament) who are willing/unwilling to pay their taxes
• Msema Kweli: Mobile application to track Community Development Funds (CDF).
• Google Public Data Explorer: Trends in government expenditure for social spending, physical infrastructure, and other spending based on data from Kenya National Bureau of Statistics
• Huduma: Fix my constituency platform for citizens to demand social services from the government.

We will keep an eye (a very-excited-eye to be precise) on developments in this front and bring more news to this blog. Stay tuned!

For More Information:

Kenya Gazette Notices

Kenya Parliament Hansards

Kenya Open Data Initiative (KODI)

Article 35 of Kenya's Constitution

cross posted on Appropriate IT