By Kowsar Gowhari
Last
week, Afghanistan Integrity Watch launched an exciting one year research
project. The project is funded by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
and Afghanistan Integrity
Watch is implementing the project in partnership with Transparency
International, a prominent organization dedicated to fighting corruption in the
world. The research project is directed at fighting corruption in Afghanistan
and it will be utilizing what is called the National Integrity System (NIS), an
assessment tool designed and developed by Transparency International. The
system has been successfully employed in seventy cases such as this since the
inception of the organization in the 1990’s.
The National Integrity
System (NIS) explores the principle governance institutions in a country where
research is carried out. When these institutions suffer from the lack of
appropriate regulation and unaccountability, corruption is likely to thrive,
with negative rippling effects on societal goals for equitable growth,
sustainable development and social cohesion. Functioning optimally, the
National Integrity System, will create an environment wherein government
institutions interact and work properly together. Of course this will
carry with it the ability to effectively stamp out corruption as well.
The NIS assessment
evaluates the legal basis and the actual performance of institutions relevant
to the overall anti-corruption system. These institutions – or ‘pillars’
–include the executive, legislature, judiciary, the public sector, the main
public watchdog institutions (e.g. supreme audit institution, law enforcement
agencies), as well as political parties, the media, civil society and
businesses as the primary social forces which are active in the governance
arena (NIS Assessment Toolkit).
In general, the NIS
explores and studies these pillars ( depicted in the following figure),
which contain a number of foundations in terms of political, social, economic
and cultural conditions of the country under research.
NIS then looks at the
relationships among these various pillars focusing on their levels of
integrity, presupposing that a lack of integrity in a single institution would
lead to serious flaws in the entire system. Consequently, the NIS assessment
does not seek to offer an in-depth evaluation of each pillar, but rather puts
emphasis on covering all relevant pillars and at assessing their inter-linkages.
In conducting this
research, the goal of Transparency International and Afghanistan Integrity
Watch is the implementation of NIS in Afghanistan with the aim of strengthening
and enhancing governance in the country. The research will provide TI and
IWA with a comprehensive and up-to-date overview of Afghanistan’s challenges
with regard to corruption. TI and IWA will use this subsequent data to develop
strong advocacy and outreach strategies, define priorities and establish
networks and contacts in the country. This will inevitably contribute to a more
just society overall.
Following is an
introduction to two of IWA’s highly enthusiastic Junior Researchers, Naser
and Nasrat who recently joined the team to work on the above mentioned research
project. We welcome them to the IWA family and wish them an insightful and
enjoyable work experience!
