In many countries, corruption is one of the main obstacles on the path to sustainable social and economic development. A recent global survey by Transparency International (TI) identified corruption as a significant public concern in SEE and curbing corruption has become a high priority for many of the region’s national and local governments.
To address the concerns about the effects of corruption on the health of city and municipal governments and the shared aspirations of mayors and other municipal leaders from SEE countries for making municipal governments more transparent and accountable and, ultimately, better performers, UPP launched the Urban Governance and Anticorruption Capacity Building initiative in February 2012. Local governments from seven SEE countries applied for the program “Cities without Corruption–Cities with a Future” organized under the UPP by the World Bank. The Program enabled local governments to participate in an innovative process to improve the quality of municipal services, to enhance the efficiency, transparency, accountability, and integrity of public service delivery, and to strengthen citizens’ trust.
This participatory process starts by assessing vulnerabilities to corruption in local governments as measured by its level of dysfunction and seeks to enhance collaborative governance by engaging Mayors and their teams in coalition building to improve accountability, transparency, and the efficiency of local government, and ultimately improve trust of citizens–the very foundations of sustainable urban development.
The participatory process, which is conducted by the local governments, follows a strategic planning methodology, moving from diagnosis to solutions formulation and implementation. The process involves city leaders, managers and staff, as well as external stakeholders, who diagnose their organizations’ vulnerability to corruption analytically, and with the support of skilled anticorruption practitioners.
Integrity Building initiative aims to go beyond compliance-based mechanisms and
(i) Empower public leaders to both act and build integrity in their organizations together with others;
(ii) Increase the individual integrity competence of public leaders and contribute to the leadership that meets the expectations of the employees, clients and citizens in a fast changing environment;
(iii) Build a culture of integrity in local governments.
Since 2012, ten municipalities in the SEE region have applied this methodology with 13 new municipalities ready to join the Program.
The second phase of UPP introduced the Integrity Leadership Training Program (ILTP). ILTP aims at empowering leaders to both act and build integrity in their organizations together with others. The purpose of such a training program is to increase the individual integrity competence of public leaders and contribute to the leadership that meets the expectations of the employees, clients and citizens in a fast changing environment.