A guest blog by Elisabeth Danon, Legal Analyst, OECD Anti-Corruption Division.

How can governments in South East Europe partner with the vibrant business sector and civil society to help combat corruption?

OECD experts and practitioners shared some novel ideas on this question at a two-day webinar on Collective Action – Building Alliances Against Corruption in South East Europe on 16 and 17 September.

Since the early 1990s, with the ever-increasing prospect of integration into the European Union, the countries of the Western Balkans and Turkey have taken important steps to develop and strengthen their anti-corruption systems. Progress has been slow, however, and the implementation of laws and policies lags far behind what is envisaged on paper.

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.

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).