7.2 Tactical cooperation: project oversight

CSO participation in project implementation at the tactical level can limit the risks of diversion and fraud, especially in fragile and conflict environments. Citizen involvement in project monitoring and delivery can help rebuild societal trust and linkages where conflict has tipped the equilibrium toward distrust and frayed the relationships; it can also help the recipient communities feel that they have a stake in the developments that directly affect them. CSOs can also be important sources of information on wrongdoing: in 2014, the World Bank calculated that 69% of the signals it received about possible wrongdoing and corruption in its projects came from external stakeholders, including contractors, host government officials and civil society organisations.

Examples

Case Study: Making the system work: security assistance to Ukraine, 2014-2017

Volunteer organisations and logistics chains in Ukraine

During the 2014 war in Ukraine, widespread reports of corruption in the Ukrainian armed forces prompted donors to resort to unorthodox methods of distributing the materiel they were providing. The Canadian government, for example, delivered its donations to frontline troops through a network of volunteer organisations, which effectively supplanted the Ukrainian army’s logistics chain.

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Case Study: Afghanistan: Corruption and the making of warlords

Citizen monitoring in Afghanistan

In Afghanistan, citizen monitoring has improved the outcomes of development projects in the education sector, empowered local communities to demand that government institutions respect their obligations, and built links between the communities and the elites in the Afghan government. Integrity Watch Afghanistan, an anti-corruption organisation, has also trained community representatives to monitor projects funded and implemented by US forces, including roads, bridges and ANDSF facilities.

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Key Personnel

J4
J5
J8
J9
Command Group