CENTRE STAGING GRASSROOTS WOMEN IN THE FIGHT AGAINST CORRUPTION Workshop 4:

1. 2013 United Nations Public Service Forum Day and Awards Ceremony “Transformative e-Government and Innovation: Creating a Better Future for All” CENTRE STAGING GRASSROOTS WOMEN IN THE FIGHT AGAINST CORRUPTION Workshop 4: “Transforming public service delivery to advance gender equality” 26 June 2013; Manama, Bahrain Huairou Commission Sangeetha Purushothaman & Sri Husnaini Sofjan

2. Huairou Commission: Women, Homes & Communities The Huairou Commission is a global network of grassroots women’s organizations, NGOs, academics and professionals that work to build strategic partnerships and linkages between grassroots organizations.

3. Huairou Commission’s Approach to Anti-Corruption TRANSPARENCY & ACCOUNTABILITY INITIATIVE When grassroots women organize at the community level to design and implement anti-corruption strategies, they build gender sensitive governance that leads to improved service delivery, increased access to justice, and decrease levels of corruption and poverty. “Grassroots women define corruption beyond bribery or misuse of power to include poor or absent service delivery, poor governance, as well as physical or sexual abuse.” Seeing Beyond the State: Grassroots Women’s Perspectives on Corruption & Anti-Corruption (HC & UNDP)

4. Participating Countries & Organisations

5. WHAT THE ASSESSMENT WAS ABOUT • How do grassroots women perceive corruption? • How do corrupt practices impact upon the day-to-day realities of grassroots women’s lives? • What specific agencies engage more in corrupt practices in the eyes of grassroots women? • What strategies do grassroots women employ to deal with corruption? What has worked and what has not?

6. KEY FINDINGS • Corruption is pervasive in the lives of grassroots men and women and experienced in a variety of facets of basic service acquisition • Because of the endemic and diverse nature of corruption, women have developed a range of strategies to fight corruption • These women are endowed with the skills to fight localized corruption, but need support in a variety of ways.

7. Grassroots Women Redefine Corruption Broadly speaking, grassroots women agree that corruption is a “misuse of power”. To these women, the concept of “misuse of power” includes a broad range of activities, like poor leadership, non-delivery of public services, and sexual abuse. 76% of women think that corruption has prevented their access to public goods and services. Source: Survey data

8. AREAS WOMEN EXPERIENCE CORRUPTION “Corruption is getting worse and worse every day. Those of us who are poor are affected most. If you want a job in public service, you have to pay. When you want medical treatment, you have to pay. If you seek justice, you have to pay police. So, if your child can’t get a job and you have spent money educating her, what will you do?” Woman from SWID, Uganda • There is almost no area of engagement with the public agencies that escapes the dehumanising and adverse impacts of corruption • Responses included areas not traditionally considered as basic services, such as in business & employment, accessing documents, law enforcement, and property.

9. AGENCIES NAMED BY WOMEN AS CORRUPT “Women at home really suffer. If, for instance you have worked hard and grown some sugarcane, maize or even potatoes, your man will just come from nowhere and sell everything off without your consent and will not even give you the proceeds. Now, if you make a move and report such an act to the police or the councilors, they automatically ask you for some money, which in many cases you cannot give since you do not have it. They then turn to your husband, ask him for some money and eventually silence you.” Focus Group Discussion Uganda

10. GRASSROOTS WOMEN ANTI CORRUPTION STRATEGIES • The Power of Mobilisation • 79% of the women believed that women affiliated with a community group are better able to stand up against corruption • More accountable governance was achieved not just because women participated in and occupied leadership positions in the government but because these women were affiliated to a mobilised constituency of grassroots women. Women's organizations all over the world are developing and employing contextually-relevant, effective strategies to fight corruption.

11. SUPPORT NEEDED • This makes a strong and direct case for their demand for increased funding support to organise women’s groups and build their capacities through access to information, and by forging partnerships and alliances with government, their peer groups and legal experts. • 30% of the women sought financial support to organise groups, launch protests and campaigns and 35% of the women perceived the need for education and information on corruption and legal expertise on ways to fight it.

12. TRANSPARENCY & ACCOUNTABILITY PILOTS Following the launch of the Seeing Beyond the State study findings, the HC began an initiative across 5 countries for grassroots women to improve their access to health, land, water services and documentation. GOAL: Promote good governance and improve women’s access to services by: • Supporting grassroots leaders to organize, design and implement anti-corruption strategies. • Developing a gender-sensitive and grassroots oriented global strategy for creating resilient and sustainable governance practices. • Advocacy Meeting, 2013: SWID (Jinja, Uganda) has mobilized 13 communities around land titling processes and together they are developing a guide describing the steps and costs to acquire a land title.

13. TRANSPARENCY & ACCOUNTABILITY PILOTS

14. TRANSPARENCY & ACCOUNTABILITY PILOT IN NEPAL Regional Focus: LUMANTI (Thankot, Nepal) Lumanti is developing a WASH governance report card to monitor and evaluate corruption related to water and sanitation services. Progress: 11 committees formed to mobilize the community and raise awareness to corruption in service delivery Meetings with local governments to discuss implementation of WASH report card system Unprecedented number of women have expressed interest in learning about the WASH system “ Bringing constructions projects up is not the only way to create lasting changes in the communities. Awareness raising is equally important for women’s empowerment.” -Sama Vajra, LUMANTI, on why awareness is just as important as infrastructure design

15. RECOMMENDATIONS • To ensure that programming and policies are relevant and effective for poor communities and women especially, GRASSROOTS COMMUNITIES MUST BE INVOLVED AT ALL STAGES OF ANTI-CORRUPTION INTERVENTIONs, including design, implementation, and evaluation. • GOVERNMENT has an instrumental role to play in the creation of an enabling environment in the form of policies, legislations, and mechanisms to combat corruption. • INTERNATIONAL AGENCIES should focus on facilitating a supportive environment for women and men to organize around and fight corruption.

16. FOR MORE INFORMATION: • Website:huairou.org/transparency • Report of the UNDP-Huairou Commission’s Needs Assessment “Seeing Beyond the State: Grassroots Women’s Perspectives on Corruption & Anti-Corruption”. • Summary Sheet on the Transparency and Accountability Initiative • Article on the updates of the groups’ progress on the pilots in six countries. • Contact: • Carolina Pinheiro, Coordinator Governance Campaign, Huairou Commission Email: carolina.pinheiro@huairou.org