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Country: Venezuela
Organization: Transparencia Venezuela
Focus of activity - Institutional Development
Year the initative began (yyyy) - 2004
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? The Project Municipios Transparentes (transparent municipalities) is a group of programs aimed at strengthening the capacities of the local governments and citizen and community organizations, in matters related to the struggle against corruption. Minimizing the risk of corruption means working in prevention and control over the administration of public officers along with the community.
The centre of the Project is the System of Indicators of Municipal Transparency (SIMT), a group of instruments and procedures that allow us to measure the administration transparency (budget, contracts and permits) of the municipalities. With the SIMT we collect, process and make public a precise diagnosis on the level of compliance with the system norms that would assure a minimum of protection against corruption, according to the law. With this information, municipalities can plan in the short and long term to reduce corruption levels. During three consecutive years we have incremented the number of audited city halls; in 2004 we evaluated 8 municipalities, in 2005 we evaluated 50 and in 2006 69. A second program is the promotion and defense of the right to access public information, advanced by the training of public officers and citizens. The third program is the Transparency Award, granted every year to municipalities that scored the highest results in the SIMT evaluations. The forth program is Expo Transparency 2006 and finally the sixth program is the SIMT website. www.transparenciamunicipal.org.ve will make make easier the processing of the data form the evaluations and will allow free access of results for those who are interested. Another program is a policy initiative, Bill for the Access to Public Information. We are working on a municipal bill that would give us the legal tools to access public information, according to our Constitution. 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)? a. The promotion of transparency and the information collected will minimize the risk of corruption in the Venezuelan municipalities. We don’t call the municipalities with low scores corrupt, since we cannot prove acts of corruption, we just say that they have a higher risk of corruption and we make recommendations to improve. This way public officers don’t become our enemies, but vital allies in our struggle against corruption.
b. Work at the municipal level: in 2004 it was an innovative decision to concentrate our anticorruption efforts at the municipal level looking to strengthen the decision making units where citizens can see a more clear impact act on it. 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? 1. Press release and visits to the media at the end of the evaluations with the results and impact of the measurement, the presentation of results is very welcomed by the media.
2. A detailed report is prepared for each municipality and delivered directly to their majors. 3. Among the most significant activities we have the contacts made with the municipalities and the academia institutions, building alliances to strengthen our work. We call private meetings with mayors and directors from the regions to present the evaluations results and to answer their questions, observations and to discuss the recommendations and other programs (training, etc). 4. Promotion through the website: the results are posted and we send the results to our mailing list. 5. Tours around the country to present the results s from citizen organizations and the media. As well as to listen to suggestions, impacts and how our recommendations are received; promotion exchange and good practices and to get a grasp on the needs of communities and municipalities. 6. Presentation of the Project in different local, regional, national and international forums. Impact: Indicators: 1. Improvement of the scores compared to the past evaluations 2. Number of municipalities that ask to be incorporated or participate in the meetings to review the results. 3. Amount and quality of information, experiences and good practices Exchange between mayors. 4. Value of the Transparency Award 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. 1. the municipalities where we launched the pilot programs in 2004. The majority is committed to achieve transparent municipalities, understanding the impact that it has over the generation of trust and the creation of social value and quality of life.
2. Universities and organizations involved in the applications of measurement instruments. They are in charge of auditing the municipalities and to apply perception surveys, to follow up with the municipalities and to promote the results. 3. the Finish Embassy in 2005 and 2007 and the Norwegian Embassy in 2006 and 2007. These countries have the highest international transparency, governability and quality of life rankings, and make a good reference that challenges us and encourage us to move forward. 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? The Project contemplates the production of different informational materials and comprehensive publications on the methodology and manuals. All of these resources are available in our website and can be downloaded at no cost.
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? : During 2006, Transparencia Venezuela made a leap forward evaluating 69 municipalities from 19 states in the country. This expansion confirmed the importance of the program and its consolidation as a useful and necessary tool for the municipalities.
We have confirmed the impact of several indicators: the improvement of the scores. In 2005 only 14% of the municipalities obtained scores higher than 50/100. In 2006 44% of them obtained more than 50/100. The average store in 2005 was 34/100. In 2006 the average store was 43/100. In general terms municipalities improved, even if they don’t reach a 50/100 score. Municipalities have began to include the issue of transparency in their radar, their programs and their public policies, going from speeches to concrete action.
Scaling up Strategy - What is your priority for the next 3 years and please describe why. Incorporate all 355 Venezuelan municipalities Replicate the methodology in at least one other Latin American country.
Incorporate other processes to the SIMT such as construction permits.
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. In 2002 we needed to change the activities we were developing with the municipalities. Concerned by the gravity of the political situation and the polarization, we sought a way to get together the actors of the two competing parties in a discussion and work that was common to both of them. As a result we created the network of transparent municipalities, integrated by 8 municipalities. These municipalities signed an agreement to work towards transparency. But we wanted to know haw was the corruption, where were the problems, we needed information that didn’t exist. In 2003 with the participation of Transparency International and the study of the measuring instruments, we started working to obtain resources (funding, experts, partners, tools, etc). We didn’t want perceptual data but first hand contrastable information, free from political interests and the mayors will to collaborate.
Main Obstacles to Scaling Up - List the two (2) main obstacles to scale up your innovation (policy, legal, organizational, people, financial, etc.)? Los cambios políticos en Venezuela son un reto constante y un reto a la creatividad y la búsqueda de caminos novedosos que muestren impacto y cambios claramente.
Para la expansión se requiere mayor fortaleza de la organización, más gente capacitada, comprometida, con impulso e interés por lo público. Los recursos siempre es un reto a superar para poder contratar equipo de alto nivel y comprometidos que se mantengan en la organización por años. Esto también tiene que ver con fortalecer y mejorar las alianzas con los centros de coordinación en las regiones (universidades etc.) Main Partnership Challenges - What are your major challenges with partnerships? (E.g., identification of partners, implementation of partnerships, relationship management, etc.) Ya contamos con un modelo de alianza que ha sido mejorada en estos tres años, pero las alianzas requieres mucha atención, seguimiento, dedicación, dar respuestas, poder dar respuesta a solicitudes, dudas, nuestras actividades, etc. Requerimos agregar un profesional al equipo que atienda esta necesidad especialmente.
La otra cosa es contar con un portal mucho más ágil, pero sobre todo con una persona dedicada a atenderlos, alimentarlos, crear foros, charlas, responder, generar información constantemente, que se convierta en una fuente de demanda de actividades para toda la organización. Contact Information:
Merchy De Freitas
Directora Ejecutiva Transparencia Venezuela (NGO) Discussions about this entry
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Municipal Transparency
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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