Extreme weather events, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and epidemics cause the loss of countless lives and bring disruption to many countries. Governments and humanitarian aid agencies are expected to be at the forefront of preparing for and responding to such disasters.

Waste management is a huge industry at the local, national and international levels. Public services play a key role in dealing especially with waste generated by households. Getting waste management right is essential if we are to achieve a circular economy and the Sustainable Development Goals.

Complex legal frameworks and their weak implementation open up spaces for criminals to profit from illegally managing or trading in waste. The consequences on the environment and human health can be severe. The role of corruption in crimes involving waste is unexplored.

Business integrity is vital to the health of the vibrant economies of the Asia-Pacific region, as well as of the companies based or seeking to do business in the region. Fostering trust and transparency through Collective Action between stakeholders – local businesses, foreign investors, governments, civil society – is key to advancing a strong culture of business integrity, levelling the playing field and solving practical challenges that hold back fair business.

The Basel Institute and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) are partnering in a research project on the potential of community-based participatory approaches for strengthening anti-corruption efforts.

The initiative involves conducting a baseline assessment of context sensitive indicators in the communities targeted by ongoing social accountability initiatives supported by UNDP in the Philippines, Serbia, Ghana and Papua New Guinea.

The Basel Institute has contributed a case study on successful social accountability to Integrity Action and UNDP's initiative to make available a series of knowledge management tools to promote bottom up demand for good governance.

This case study from the Philippines reflects on the results of the application of an assessment methodology to contextualise social accountability that has been developed by the research team at the Institute's Public Governance Division in collaboration with UNDP.

This case study pertains to an assessment conducted by the Basel Institute on Governance, in collaboration with UNDP’s Global Anti-Corruption Initiative (GAIN), of a social accountability monitoring project in the municipality of San Miguel, Bohol in the Philippines.

The aforementioned project, called Bayaniham Undertaking Living in a Healthy and Organised Neighborhood or BULHON sa Panguma (BULHON), involves the monitoring of agricultural subsidies and was developed and implemented by the Government Watch (G-Watch) programme of the Ateneo School of Government in Manila.

This practitioners’ handbook provides the required tools for contextualising social accountability initiatives aimed at empowering citizens to engage in anti-corruption actions. The material herein contained has been developed through a collaborative effort with UNDP and reflects the findings from academic research conducted in the scope of the ANTICORRP research consortium (anticorrp.eu).