21 April 2026 – Written by Yusuf Ayubi, Integrity Watch
Communities affected by corruption rarely lack the will to push back. What they lack are the tools, the structures, and the confidence to act. For two decades, Integrity Watch has worked to change that. Its newly published Community-Based Monitoring (CBM) Handbook is the culmination of that effort: a practical, field-tested guide for any organization that wants to put accountability into the hands of the people most affected by its absence.
About Integrity Watch
Integrity Watch is an international NGO dedicated to combating corruption and empowering citizens to hold decision-makers accountable. Born out of Integrity Watch Afghanistan (IWA), which was founded in 2005 in one of the world’s most challenging governance environments, Integrity Watch has spent nearly twenty years developing and scaling community-based accountability approaches across multiple sectors. It was incorporated in Canada in 2021 as a sister organization, with a mission to bring its hard-won expertise to fragile and conflict-affected contexts around the world.
The organization promotes integrity, accountability, and social inclusion. It works with local communities, civil society organizations, public officials, and private sector actors, supporting communities in running CBM programs to improve services and foster social trust. Today, Integrity Watch is building partnerships with grassroots organizations in low and lower-middle income countries to support participatory, sustainable development practices.
What is community-based monitoring, and why does it matter?
Community-Based Monitoring is a participatory approach to accountability. It places citizens, including those who are often marginalized and ignored, at the center of monitoring public services and holding duty bearers responsible for the quality and transparency of those services. In its most participatory form, CBM allows communities to choose what service or project to monitor and actively engages local people in reviewing findings, advocating for improvements, and solving problems together.
This approach is directly relevant to the implementation of the UN Convention against Corruption (UNCAC). Article 13 of the Convention calls on State Parties to promote the active participation of civil society and individuals in the prevention of and the fight against corruption. That includes fostering transparency and public access to information, as well as creating conditions for people to report corruption without fear. CBM operationalizes exactly these commitments at the community level, transforming abstract legal obligations into concrete civic action.
In fragile and conflict-affected contexts, top-down monitoring often falls short. State institutions may lack credibility, corruption may be deeply entrenched, and local communities may have little trust in official oversight mechanisms. CBM directly confronts these realities. By engaging citizens as volunteer monitors who report findings to their own communities and to relevant authorities, CBM builds trust, improves services, and creates a culture of accountability from the ground up.
A handbook shaped by experience
The CBM Handbook was developed by Integrity Watch drawing on nearly two decades of on-the-ground learning in Afghanistan and beyond. It is not a theoretical document. Every chapter reflects real decisions, real challenges, and real results from communities that have used CBM to improve schools, health centers, infrastructure projects, trial courts, and extractive industries.
The handbook was shaped, and edited by a team of practitioners and researchers, including Yusuf Ayubi, who designed and implemented CBM programs in Afghanistan and now works to support organizations in the Global South, and Shaazka Beyerle, a senior fellow and author whose work on non-violent civic action has shaped the global accountability field. Their combined expertise gives the handbook both analytical depth and practical grounding.
What the handbook covers
The handbook is organized to take readers from theory to implementation. It opens with a clear explanation of what CBM is and why it is needed, including an honest account of its limitations. It then walks readers through ten essential steps for implementing CBM, personnel structures, community engagement strategies, data collection, reporting, and advocacy mechanisms.
One of the handbook’s most valuable contributions is its attention to context. It acknowledges that not all communities will engage with the same intensity, that certain groups such as women and people with disabilities may face barriers to participation, and that pushback from local authorities is a real risk. Rather than glossing over these challenges, the handbook offers concrete strategies for addressing them.
The handbook is complemented by five sector-specific toolkits covering health, education, infrastructure, trial courts, and extractives. Together, they provide organizations with everything they need to design and run a CBM program in their local context.
Who can use it
The CBM Handbook is designed for a wide range of users. Civil society organizations and NGOs looking to initiate or strengthen accountability programs will find it an indispensable operational guide. Practitioners already working in governance and anti-corruption will gain new frameworks and practical tools. Academics and students studying participatory development, social accountability, or fragile states will find it a rich resource grounded in two decades of real-world evidence. And any individual or institution looking to establish community-led accountability models in complex, high-risk environments will discover in this handbook a trusted companion.
Importantly, the handbook is written in accessible language. It avoids unnecessary jargon and is structured to be used alongside the sector-specific toolkits, making it as useful to a field coordinator in a provincial office as to a program director planning a new initiative.
An invitation to engage
At a time when civic space is shrinking in many parts of the world and anti-corruption efforts risk becoming top-heavy and disconnected from the communities they aim to serve, the CBM Handbook offers a different path. It is a roadmap for meaningful citizen participation in governance, grounded in the conviction that communities not only deserve accountability but are fully capable of driving it.
Integrity Watch invites NGOs, civil society organizations, government bodies, and all those committed to transparent and accountable governance to explore the handbook and consider how CBM can strengthen their work.
Access the CBM Handbook and accompanying toolkits through the Integrity Watch website.