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Country: Paraguay
Organization: AFOSCI: Apoyo al Fortalecimiento de la Sociedad Civil
Focus of activity - Oversight/Accountability
Year the initative began (yyyy) - 2000
Positioning in the Mosaic of solutions
Description of initiative - What is the main focus (products, services, etc.) of your initiative and how does it contribute to ending corruption? What avenues of corruption are you primarily addressing? What activities does it involve for your organization? Who are your primary beneficiaries and target groups? Due to the fact that Paraguay is one of the most corrupt countries in Latin America we come up with the idea of creating the Citizens Watchdog. We realized that due to the lack of control and oversight corruption is embedded in the culture. For example when someone has a problem we always heard the phrase “I have a friend”. This means that this persons knows somebody that have power and can do something outside the law in order to commit a crime against what we call the “common good”.
In Paraguay we say that we do not have citizens: Why? Because we do not know our rights and responsibilities. When Paraguayans finish high school and university they are not aware of what does it means to be a citizen. They know, in theory, that they are entitled to be citizens but they do not know the practice of being a citizen. The Citizens Watchdog has been created by a small group of honest citizens with the key responsibility of assuming public scrutiny of governments actions. If mechanisms to control are put in place dishonest people will be threaten by being expose to the media because of their actions. Innovation - How does your approach differ from existing programs in the field? Which components of your initiative are particularly novel or unique (e.g. the products and services, the technology used, the delivery or financing mechanism)? Our model makes sure that regular citizens control what is ours. Our Constitution claims that “sovereignty reside in the people”. This means that citizens own state resources. Public officials and bureaucrats should be accountable to the people.
When regular citizens realize that control and oversight is something that benefits everybody they work in coordination to make sure that authorities are accountable. In small communities regular citizens know how public resources and funds are managed, people are also aware about mismanagements. When regular citizens denounce and file a criminal report about a situation that might be linked to corruption people start thinking that there are no risks. Our model is based on the notion that the Citizens Watchdog is an organization that it is being run by very respectable people from small communities that differentiate us from larger anti-corruption organizations. There is no need to have international aid or foreign funding in order to mobilize communities. Since we are being extremely successful, when communities realize that the model is working they want to replicate it and create a new Citizens Watchdog. We are here to support honest and accountable public officials. Delivery Model - How does your initiative reach its target populations? What communications mechanism(s) do you have in place? How do you measure their impact? Regular citizens immediately understand the need to file a case and denounce. The lose the sense of being scared by threats from the corrupt authorities
The mechanisms for communication are the regular citizens themselves. The media (TV and newspapers) provide support and channel the information. We measure out impact using some very straightf0orward information like the number of corrupt elected officials impeached or bureaucrats destitute after a case is resolved. Key Operational Partnerships - What key partnerships have you established to make your model possible or more efficient? Who are your partners (business, social, government, other) and what are their roles? How central are these partnerships for your initiative. The Citizens Watchdog is a citizen sector organization with a legal status. It is completely independent from political parties and bureaucrats. We are totally self-sustainable, for example a very single member of our organization has to pay for their expenses (telephone, etc)
We have partners that help us with our denunciation activities. Their role is to educate regular citizens in order to make sure that they are fully aware of their rights and responsibilities. The also help us to educate people on how to file a case and control local authorities. We also partner with honest public officials that want to bring more transparency to the system. Financial Model - Which mechanisms do you have in place to ensure that your beneficiaries can afford your products or services? Do you have financial schemes or arrangements for low-income and marginalized populations? Everybody can participate. Those who have more resources will contribute with more. We try to reach out to very simple people living in small communities. These people will value their effort and that how we create a sense of commitment. Academic do not want o be involve. People living in small communities who have a simple life are more prone to protest. We see resources coming in different forms when we start a campaign or we hear about a case that needs our attention.
Effectiveness - What has been the concrete impact of your project to date? How many people have benefited from your program in total? What policies, communities, or institutions have been influenced to make fundamental changes because of your work? 70 Citizens Watchdogs have had positive results since we started with this idea. Mayors, Governors, public officials and others have been impeached or fired. We have already signed an agreement with the President of Paraguay and the Auditor General. The agreement gave expedite the process of investigation of the cases we file.
Scaling up Strategy - What is your priority for the next 3 years and please describe why. Our priority is to make sure that young people understand the rights and responsibilities of being a citizen.
If everyone understands this there is no need for Citizens Watchdogs.
Origin of the Initiative - Tell the personal story that will help people connect to your work. How did the initiative start? Was there a particular individual or event driving the idea? Tell the reader the story behind the innovation. A group of three regular citizens saw how the country was stormed by corruption. We decided to create a Citizen Watchdog in order to fight corruption and make a more transparent society. We funded the first two Watchdogs outside the capital city and finally we were able to create the first Citizen Watchdog in Asuncion.
In 2001 when we sow that the idea was spreading all over Paraguay we created the a network of Citizen Watchdogs with a total of 15 members. Main Obstacles to Scaling Up - List the two (2) main obstacles to scale up your innovation (policy, legal, organizational, people, financial, etc.)? Uno de los desafíos es el aspecto financiero para poder expandir. Ahora ya se conoce a nivel internacional: Argentina, Brasil, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Chile. Queremos hacer una Red a nivel Internacional para juntos poder luchar en toda América Latina. Ya tenemos nombre: RILCCO: RED INTERNACIONAL DE LUCHA CONTRA LA CORRUPCION. Ya tenemos contactos que tienen interés: Sólo nos faltan los medios para movilizarnos.
Los otros problemas son solucionables. Donde exponemos tienen interés, inclusive en Costa Rica y Argentina ya iniciaron. Bolivia ya está por iniciar también. Main Partnership Challenges - What are your major challenges with partnerships? (E.g., identification of partners, implementation of partnerships, relationship management, etc.) Queremos hacer una Red a nivel Internacional para juntos poder luchar en toda América Latina. Ya tenemos nombre: RILCCO: RED INTERNACIONAL DE LUCHA CONTRA LA CORRUPCION. Ya tenemos contactos que tienen interés: Sólo nos faltan los medios para movilizarnos.
Contact Information:
Carlos Bareiro
Director de Proyecto AFOSCI: Apoyo al Fortalecimiento de la Sociedad Civil (ONG) bardour@rieder.net.py Pirizal 2784 c/Gral. Santos CP 1615 Asunción Paraguay Tel: 595-21-312202 Fax: 595-21-312202 Website: N/A Discussions about this entry
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Citizens Watchdogs
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Fostering the creation of local citizen groups that seek out and publicize what they believe are instances of corrupt behavior by public officials is one important means of enhancing citizen voice, which is certainly a good thing. Judging the results of such an initiative by the number of impeached public officials and the number of dismissed civil servants, however, strikes me as problematic. There is a risk that such an initiative could become a vehicle for punishing political opponents, particularly if the justice system (either the courts or administrative tribunals) are not very reliable. This is a risk akin to the persecution of all manner of people in the US during the McCarthy era of the 1950s, just to name one example.
Hello,
My name is Rich Gottbreht from Global Insights and I am one of the entrants in the competition. Our work centers on helping anyone concerned about corruption learn about the subject through my book, our board game and its associated seminars, as well as low cost consulting. To find out more about us please visit our website www.globalinsights.biz. From the home page, you can link to information about us, our products and what people say about our products and services. From the details in the initiative we submitted you should also note that some of the proceeds from our sales will eventually go to a high integrity leadership development foundation. Also, if you are interested, down the road we will be looking for alliances and contacts in every country.
Thanks,
Rich Gottbreht
This seems to be a very positive intiative, but the proposal is too vague. To have the best chances of being considered for an award, the proposal should provide more specifics on the activities, objectives, methodologies, finances, and results. How do the activities increase citizen mobilization against corruption? There simply is not enough information in the proposal to evaluate this.