Institute alternative (IA) with partners from the region started implementation of the new project ”Fostering Grassroots Anti-Corruption Work in Health and Education in the Western Balkans” in July of 2019.
Aim of the project is to foster civil society anti-corruption work in the Western Balkans by supporting collaboration of anti-corruption organisations and grassroots groups which are well grounded in areas of interest for the majority of population – health and education. The initiative will focus on corruption in public procurement because it is a dominant method of spending public funds in most of the countries OSF operates in and the one most prone to corruption.
Specific objectives of this project are to bridge the gap between grassroots organisations active in health and education and professional anti-corruption organisations; to instigate positive competition among anti-corruption institutions in the Western Balkans; to encourage participating partners to exchange knowledge, methodologies, skills, build cross-country support networks, advocate for each other in international forums etc.
In each participating country one national anti-corruption organisation dealing with public procurement was selected, as well as 2 grassroots organisations – one dealing with education and another with health.
In Montenegro, Institute Alternative was selected as a national anti-corruption organisation dealing with public procurement, while Centre for Civic Education (CCE) was selected as grassroot organisation dealing with education and Trade Union of Montenegrin Physicians as grassroot organisation dealing with health.
During the project, the following activities will be implemented:
- Common, easy-to-use methodology to monitor public procurement on key indicators will be developed;
- Research: application of the easy-to-use methodology on the series of the same type of public procurement in all participating countries in the same time span (e.g. one year).
- Drafting a national report by the each country team to be used as a resource for the comparative report;
- Production of comparative report: comparative report will highlight best practices in public procurement monitoring across the region to inform development of context-appropriate country standards;
- Development of advocacy strategies based on findings and formulated policy proposals (national and regional);
- Organisation of the final conference: convening of civil society organisations working on anti-corruption in health and education to share approaches to advocacy and narrative change will be held upon the completion of monitoring and reports drafting.
The initiative will be conducted in 6 Western Balkan countries: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia. OSF Serbia will lead the initiative. The end of the project is planned for the end of the year 2020.
