GABORONE, Botswana, 8 December, 2021: Today, the Partnership for Transparency (PTF) hosted a training session on stakeholder engagement as part of a week-long Stakeholder Management Course organized by the Commonwealth Africa Anti-Corruption Centre (CAACC). Training participants include representatives of anti-corruption agencies (ACAs) from twelve Commonwealth Africa countries. The course is designed to equip participants with the knowledge and skills to identify, manage relationships with, and monitor and evaluate vested interests in their work with various stakeholders who can help them in their work to counter corruption. PTF’s 8 December session will focus on ACA engagement with civil society organizations (CSOs). This training session—the first joint initiative undertaken as part of a new partnership between PTF and CAACC—will help ACAs move forward to fulfill their anti-corruption mandates at a time when transparency and integrity among duty bearers is more important than ever.
Fighting corruption requires a whole-of-society approach, and all actors have a role to play. While ACA participants in the CAACC program have three to five years of experience in their field, they need the support of civil society, the private sector, non-government organizations, and citizens in their communities to fight corruption. In recognition of this need, the 8 December training, hosted by PTF advisers, aims to bridge the gap between various actors in the anti-corruption space.
The training session began with a presentation by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) on the importance of engaging stakeholders—including civil society—in developing and implementing national anti-corruption strategies. Following a second presentation outlining the benefits of engagement with civil society, and potential paths for ACAs to forge these connections, PTF advisers facilitated a discussion forum in which participants were able to share their experiences of working with CSOs. “Nigeria is a broad country, and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) on its own cannot reach everyone. However, with the help of the civil society we can be everywhere at the same time, because they have the reach,” said John Odey, a participant in the session.
PTF, a Washington, DC-based international nonprofit, has a long history of working directly with CSO partners to implement development projects designed to counter corruption by harnessing the power of citizen engagement. Through twenty years of cooperation, PTF’s civil society counterparts have demonstrated the influence of CSO engagement and their positive impact on development outcomes. This is the key message trainers hoped to convey in their session.
The first training session was well-received. December 9 is International Anti-Corruption Day, when ACAs will be holding events to engage stakeholders—including civil society—in the effort to counter corruption. PTF will return to the CAACC course program on Friday, 10 December 2021 to deliver a training on monitoring and evaluation. Further details will be made available upon completion of the program.
The Partnership for Transparency (PTF) is a nonprofit organization that sets out to advance innovative citizen-led approaches to improve governance, increase transparency, promote the rule of law, and reduce corruption in developing and emerging countries. PTF garners the collective strengths of over 100 international development experts across the world to provide technical assistance, networking services, capacity building, analytical know-how, and strategic funding to local civil societies, empowering them to hold their leaders to account in an effective and sustainable way. PTF has supported over 250 projects run in fifty countries over twenty years.
The Commonwealth Africa Anti-Corruption Centre (CAACC) is a non-profit organization that provides a one-stop-shop resource centre for African anti-corruption agencies. It provides innovative strategies aimed at reducing corruption, thereby leading to improved governance and development outcomes.
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