Regional Anti-corruption Initiative (RAI), in cooperation with United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Anti-Corruption Network of OECD, is organizing a regional conference on “Corruption-Free Cities of the Future”, on 7 – 8 December 2017, in Tirana, Albania, which is hosted by the Government of Albania. RAI is represented by Chairperson, Mr Davor Dubravica and Head of Secretariat, Mr Vladan Joksimović.

The regional conference provides an opportunity to exchange experiences about achievements and challenges in preventing corruption at the local level, including by cities, regions and other sub-national levels of public administration. The discussion will enable the identification of examples of successful tools and good practices, and will contribute to the development of regional recommendations on this subject. UNDP presented a draft Toolkit on Corruption-Free Cities, incorporating real time visualization of the conference discussions, to provide local administrations, as well as donors and civil society organizations a set of practical tools to design and implement integrity plans at the local level. The proceedings of the regional conference will be reflected in a Thematic Study that will be prepared by the OECD/ACN.

Specifically, the regional conference will pursue the following objectives to:

●   Create awareness on SDGs, specifically on SDG16 with the focus on the role of local governments and anti-corruption;
●  Provide a forum for the key stakeholders responsible for the design and implementation of anti-corruption and integrity initiatives at the local level;
●  Highlight the existing anti-corruption tools and methodologies available for municipalities and local governments to assess and measure sector specific corruption risks and vulnerabilities;
●  Facilitate contacts and exchange between “Islands of Integrity” Network (cases of positive deviance at the local level), willing mayors and local practitioners able to facilitate anti-corruption work at the local level.
●   Contribute to the development of the regional thematic study with recommendations on the integrity at the local level.

The regional conference brought together around 80 participants from selected country representatives from Eastern Europe and the OECD members that are in charge of prevention of corruption at the local level, including practitioners from the central government bodies and local level officials responsible for integrity and corruption prevention at the level of cities and regions, academics and civil society organizations engaged in promoting of integrity and prevention of corruption at the local level.

Photo Gallery

Final Agenda can be found here.

7 December 2017

RAI Secretariat