Sunday, May 6, 2012

Integrity Watch Afghanistan enters its fifth year of fighting corruption through local communities


Thursday, May 03, 2012: Integrity Watch Afghanistan entered fifth year of its Community Based Monitoring program which started in April 2008. The program is aimed at empowering local communities to monitor infrastructure projects in their localities. On the occasion of completing four successful years of community based monitoring in Afghanistan, Mr. Yama Torabi, Director of Integrity Watch said, “Community Based Monitoring is much more than mere monitoring; it gives people hope that they can do something about corruption. The scope is much larger because it gives people a sense of ownership.”

Community Based Monitoring is the first of its kind in Afghanistan implemented by Integrity Watch. The program has covered a total of 421 construction projects in 29 districts of seven provinces including Bamyan, Badakhshan, Balkh, Herat, Nangerhar, Parwan, and Panjshir. Mr. Mir Ahmad Abid, Director of Economy of Parwan province said that the directorate is faced with a shortage of technical and logistical capacity to monitor construction work which has resulted in low quality of construction projects. “However, the situation is different in areas where community monitoring exists” said Abid.  Abdul Manan, a local monitor who volunteered to monitor a road construction project in Sarak-e-Wazir area of Parwan province evaluated the program as very effective. “It is not a difficult job since I get a lot of technical support from Integrity Watch” said Abdul Manan.

Community Based Monitoring program is a collaboration between local communities and Integrity Watch in which local communities provide volunteers and Integrity Watch provides awareness and technical support to monitor construction projects. The program aims to empower citizens to participate in the lives of their communities, feel ownership of development aid, and combat corruption at the local level. The long term goal is to expand community monitoring to other areas to cover services such as education and health.

Integrity Watch Afghanistan is an Afghan civil society organization committed to increasing transparency, integrity and accountability in Afghanistan through the provision of policy-oriented research, development of training tools, and facilitation of policy dialogue.

For further information, please contact us, at +93(0)785431054 or info@iwaweb.org. Please visit our website at www.iwaweb.org to get more information about Integrity Watch Afghanistan. 

No comments:

Post a Comment