First Regional Training Session for Non-Governmental Actors on Anti-Corruption Assessments

Organized by: UNDP-POGAR in cooperation with UNDP’s Oslo Governance Centre and UNODC.

The Regional Training Session for Non-Governmental Actors on Anti-Corruption Assessments was successfully organized in Beirut (Lebanon) on 29-30 March 2010. It was attended by a total of 32 participants including practitioners from civil society, academia, the media and the private sector, as well as resource persons including independent experts and representatives from UNDP, UNODC, USAID and the MENA-OECD Investment Programme. The session was highly interactive and rich in content, it provided leading non-governmental actors in the region with a rare opportunity to sit together and share their views and experiences on the challenges of anti-corruption assessments in their own countries. A key challenge is complementing governmental anti-corruption efforts and overcoming the communication gap between non-governmental actors and governments in the Arab region. Another key challenge is bridging the capacity gap within non-governmental organizations in the area of anti-corruption. The UNCAC review mechanism may have put limits on the participation of non-governmental actors; however, it also offers valuable entry points that should not be wasted. At the end of the training session, participants agreed to establish a regional Arab non-governmental group that specializes in anti-corruption assessments, as a regional platform for capacity development in this field.