Involving citizens in governance leads to high levels of social trust, which has been linked to reduced corruption in many countries. The involvement of citizens can help to reduce corruption simply by participating in the governance activities of their locality, region or nation but also as part of targeted anti-corruption strategies such as the work of anti-corruption authorities. An anti-corruption authority (ACA) has a symbiotic relationship with citizens because it is set up to protect their interests and at the same time must depend on them for its effectiveness. This relationship, combined with the independence they have, uniquely places ACAs to promote the involvement of citizens in governance activities both in their own work and in governance generally. This course explains the relationship between the main concepts that underpin initiatives to involve citizens – voice, accountability, transparency, trust – and those used in anti-corruption – corruption, prevention. At a practical level, it exposes learners to examples of information, consultation and participation initiatives that have been used in anti-corruption strategies and demonstrates how the methodology of a citizen engagement strategy could be applied to achieve anti-corruption objectives.
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