Strengthening and empower civil society, mass media, youths to promote accountability and hold the government more accountable to the public and actively engaged citizens exercising fight against corruption for positive change in service delivery

Project name	Strengthening and empower civil society, mass media, youths to promote accountability and hold the government more accountable to the public and actively engaged citizens exercising fight against corruption for positive change in service delivery
Project Code	GA-004
Donor	USAID-MSI-AMANT Project
Email	AMANAT.Grants@msiworldwide.com
Project Type	Accountability and Anti-Corruption
Start Date	February 10, 2019
End Date	February 09, 2020
Project Manager	Ramin Khanzahdah
Email	Ramin@wise.org.af
Contact Number	798404545
Project Goal	The intervention is to work across five interdependent areas including, 1- Civil Society Organizations, 2-Media Organizations, 3-talented civil society activists, 4- university students 5- and community leaders. Establishing itself to be a movement against corruption.
Project Impact	Lack of transparency and accountability within the government departments were very poor and before this project in 14 government offices that were the most services delivery entities in Herat, did not transparently provide to citizens. The new growth generation that is recently joined into the work environment in national NGOs, mass media, and fresh graduated from University students do not have any information about corruption and they have not skilled regarding advocacy. After the award of this project, and the start of project activities. The project has given utmost importance to improve the knowledge level of women and men regarding the harms of corruption, how to fight against corruption. In this context, the knowledge of corruption helped them to advocate for their right. As a result, about 90% of the conducted anti-corruption training and advocacy campaigns increased the knowledge of beneficiaries mostly network member on the mode of transmission of democracy in the society and the advocacy activities amplified the target community’s voice in many citizens. According to the overall feedback and interview we had from the project beneficiaries, they confirmed that through conduction of capacity building programs, participation in the advocacy process within 14 governmental entities, their capacities were increased and these projects were very useful for enabling them to foster respect for their rights and dignity, combat corruption and to stop these harmful practices in all areas of life and especially in government to promote awareness for society and contributions, women and men, for mitigation of corruption through advocacy. Therefore, this has indicated the lasting impact on beneficiaries that now they became trained and understood the harm of corruption and their fundamental role to play in bringing a new culture of integrity to all levels of the society. The project’s impact on the organization itself is the strengthened communication between all stakeholders based on group interactions and structured interpersonal communication to move beyond the message through face-to-face interaction, dialogues, and critical reflection. However, as a whole, the project’s impact and results are assessed across three areas of intended interventions, building the capacity of community members, other trainees, and beneficiaries who were participated in the anti-corruption awareness campaigns as the quality of information and effective training conducted in the most proper method. In many ways, the impact of this project on the WISE Organization context was positive, enabled the organization for the creation of strong social networks, while engaging citizens in public affairs, and increased access to information and better service delivery to citizens. Advocacy for gender equality to improve the transparency and accountability in government, and created an opportunity for women to influence participation to have a role in the fight against corruption.