16 February 2010.

Civil society input is wanted to contribute to a one-year research project to document and study cases of citizen participation and nonviolent civic action to fight corruption, and distill general lessons learned and best practices. The focus is on what people–organized together, exerting their collective civic power–are doing to fight corruption as they themselves have discerned it.

This project will fill a gap in knowledge, as many civic action campaigns and movements are not known outside their immediate circles and we cannot learn from their challenges, strategies, tactics, and best practices. Nor can we draw inspiration from the ingenuity, courage and resilience of anti-corruption advocates engaging in nonviolent civic action, who often face intimidation and repression but continue to persevere and make a difference.

If you:

• know of possible cases of civic action campaigns/movements and citizen participation to fight corruption. Corruption may be the sole focus, or it may be linked to other issues, such as state service provision, budgets/spending, poverty, violence, authoritarian rule, organized crime, discrimination, human rights, labor rights, environmental destruction, or other concerns.
• have suggestions of other people, organizations to contact, that could potentially have knowledge about cases or could get the word out about the study.
• can recommend other networks, newsletters, etc., through which she can get word out about the project.
• can suggest any reports, books, or articles you’ve read that refer to nonviolent civic action and citizen participation to fight corruption.

Please note that this announcement is not a call for proposals, papers or researchers. For a project description, click here. This initiative is made possible through a grant from the United States Institute of Peace and support from the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict.

For more information, please contact Shaazka Beyerle.