Country: Ugandan based pan-African organisation
Website: www.africafoicentre.org
Social media: Facebook, LinkedIn
Focal Point: Gilbert Sendugwa, Coordinator & Head of Secretariat
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Tel: 0 414 533 554
Mission and vision
AFIC is a pan-African civil society organisation and resource centre that strives to become a reliable, dependable and all-round freedom of information support centre on the African continent.
General description of the CSO work in the anti-corruption area
Citizens’ access to information (ATI) is vital for the promotion of democracy, human rights, rule of law and entrenching transparency and accountability.
Since 2008, AFIC has been raising awareness and promoting the ATI legal standard and framework at regional and national level through comparative research, coordinating regional advocacy, facilitating information-sharing and capacity-building, to empower civil society and citizens to use the ATI laws, open contracting initiatives and anti-corruption mechanisms.
AFIC has engaged national anti-corruption mechanisms and public servants to promote the institutionalisation and the use of ATI in public entities as well as improve investigation methodologies regarding citizen engagement.
Specific description of the CSO work in relation to the UNCAC
AFIC intervention is based on regional and international instruments, mechanisms and standard such as UNCAC, ACHPR, etc. to influence and lobby for their domestication and implementation.
Throughout the continent, AFIC has been raising awareness through training civil society and public servants about national legal framework and State obligations under international and regional frameworks, specifically on ATI and anti-corruption.
In 2016, AFIC conducted a study on anti-corruption agencies in Malawi, Kenya and Uganda assessing and providing recommendations on the implementation of the international standards on anti–corruption and access to information. AFIC also conducted in those three countries, multi-stakeholders dialogues including anti-corruption agencies, public servants and civil society to share knowledge on impacts of ATI in different sectors and communities. Commitments by agencies were expressed to strengthen ATI mechanisms within their respective institutions. AFIC next intervention will focus on the implementation of the recommendations from the study and the commitments expressed.
Specific description of the CSO work in relation to the review mechanism of the UNCAC
AFIC provides trainings as well as coaching and mentorship to civil society organisations in using relevant regional and international mechanisms on ATI and anti-corruption.
AFIC encourages trained CSOs to take part in review processes such as UNCAC either in participating in consultative meetings when there is the opportunity and/or writing parallel report.
In February 2017, AFIC participated in the workshop aiming at creating a Regional Platform to Fast-track the Implementation of the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) in support of the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 16 in Eastern Africa. (see also below) The workshop focused on four thematic areas, and identified actions to strengthen implementation of UNCAC. AFIC will integrate some of these actions in its interventions. It will undertake sensitization/awareness raising programmes and influence governments to improve reporting channels and protection to encourage citizens to report matters of concern.
In addition, AFIC is promoting open contracting initiatives on the continent. AFIC’s working group on Open Contracting has developed its strategy including training of civil society and public servants on open contracting and advocating for the adoption of Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS) by procuring entities and citizens’ engagement in public procurement processes. In 2016, AFIC replicated the Nigerian initiative Budeshi platform, in Malawi, Kenya and Uganda. It conducted a mapping of the Ugandan Government Procurement Portal compliance with OCDS and secured the initiation of the portal alignment to the standard. Furthermore, AFIC is engaging civil society to monitor public contracts in using open data platforms.
If you or someone from your organisation has participated in a workshop on UNCAC and its review mechanism organised by UNODC/ UNCAC Coalition, please indicate who, when and where
One AFIC programme officer participated in a UNODC workshop gathering High-level government representatives from Burundi, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda, together with civil society representatives and development partners, in Nairobi, Kenya from 13 to 17 February 2017 to build and foster partnerships and create a Regional Platform to Fast-track the Implementation of the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) in support of the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 16 in Eastern Africa.