Context and problem
According to Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment (RDNA3), the total cost of reconstruction and recovery in Ukraine is $486 billion over the next decade. In 2024 alone, Ukrainian authorities estimate the country will need around around $15 billion for immediate reconstruction and recovery priorities at both the national and community level. Organizing a transparent and accountable process of managing reconstruction funds is a challenge for the state, which will determine the amount of resources that can be raised, the possibility of economic recovery after the war, and Ukraine’s accession to the EU.
At the same time, municipalities and local governments own most of the affected facilities (civilian and critical infrastructure), as they have received more powers and resources following the decentralization reform. At the local level, they are the ones who decide what to rebuild and what not to rebuild, which projects to submit for funding, manage resources, and most importantly, organize procurement, and thus exercise those powers where there are the greatest corruption risks.
At the same time, corruption scandals are constantly breaking out at the local level. One of the most recent examples is the purchase of timber for construction in Kharkiv region for more than 270 million from fictitious companies. Or another example is the UAH 150 million overpricing in the construction of a water pipeline in Kherson region, which is almost a third of the purchase amount. Or another example – an overestimate of 14 million for the reconstruction of a house in Zaporizhzhia. Or overestimating the cost of rebuilding a school in Zakarpattia by UAH 21 million. We have listed only some of the cases our team found in the most affected eastern and southern regions of Ukraine. These funds could be used to restore several additional facilities. That is why anti-corruption activities, civic monitoring and control at the local level are becoming critical.
At the same time Ukraine has a vibrant civil society, with investigators, journalists and anti-corruption activists at the national level. But at the local level we have a lack of strong activists and investigators. They do not have enough skills, knowledge, and capacity to be influential game changers. In order to effectively prevent and fight corruption, prevent the embezzlement of international aid, reconstruction and public funds, more strong activists and investigators need to be trained and supported.
In addition, regional anti-corruption activists, journalists and investigators do not have a supportive community to share experiences, protect and promote their interests, be properly represented at high-level events, or be involved in public policy making.
What we have already done: Anti-corruption School
That is why we founded the Anti-Corruption School – a powerful community of regional anti-corruption activists, investigators and journalists.
The idea of the community is as follows:
1. A six-day offline intensive course, the Anti-Corruption School, where the best top experts in the field of anti-corruption teach selected participants from all regions of Ukraine.
Participants are selected by a specially created commission in 2 stages – evaluation of applications and interviews (evaluation criteria: experience, motivation, political impartiality, transparency of funding). The target audience is local anti-corruption activists, journalists and investigators. The competition is usually for 10 people per place. The selection process takes into account gender balance and proportional regional representation.
2. The alumni of the Anti-Corruption School become members of the Anti-Corruption School community and get access to the entire infrastructure of the Anti-Corruption School, namely to the following components:
- Help desk and Hub. The component includes the following activities:
- Forming a pool of experts who, at the request of community members, will provide consultations as part of investigations by community members on the following topics: Legal advice and consultancy on use of various investigative methods (OSINT, analysis of procurement estimates, integrity checks of officials ect.) and the use of multiple sources of information during their investigations; Legal assessment of the results of investigations for their reliability and objectivity; Legal advice on the preparation of appeals to the relevant law enforcement and controlling authorities to bring to justice the offenders identified as a result of investigations Assessment of the investigation materials for potential lawsuits from the suspects to protect their honor, dignity and business reputation.
- Mentoring on the subject matter and progress of investigations
- Mentoring to build the organizational capacity of community members, including assistance in establishing new organizations, policy development, fundraising, project development advice, financial management and project management etc.
- Assistance in communicating the results of investigations: Advising on the development of communication and advocacy strategies; Establishing contacts with national media, including columns and blogs; Assisting in the creation of visual materials for products and results of investigations
All Anti-Corruption School alumni and trainers have a common chat in Whatsapp, where they ask for advice and help on a daily basis.
2. Community Building
- Quarterly offline events for active members of the community, which will last 2-3 days and include a training component on topics (for example, the first event was devoted to Security), a networking and community building component, and an experience exchange component
- Infrastructure of School
Our theory of change and the developed Anti-Corruption School Infrastructure is based on our following experience. Our team organized 2 Anti-Corruption Schools, which is unique because it is aimed primarily at anti-corruption activists and investigators in the regions (mostly those worst affected by the war), and provides tools for civic monitoring and control of reconstruction and networking for them with national and regional investigators. Training is conducted by recognized experts: Yuriy Nikolov (Nashi.Groshi), Vitaliy Shabunin (AntAC), Alisa Yurchenko (Bihus.Info), Maksym Savchuk (Schemes), etc.
We selected the participants of the Anti-Corruption School based on the results of a two- stage competition, which was more than 10 people for one place. Thus, there is a high demand among the regional civic activists to enhance its own skills and knowledge in their fight against corruption, public funds monitoring, etc.
As of June 2024 we already have 50 graduates who have joined a powerful community of regional activists and investigators (alumni of the Anti-Corruption School). In addition, participants have already begun to apply the knowledge gained in practice in their investigations and publish them .
What we have already done: Anti-corruption School alumni community
On May 2024 we held our first joint event for the graduates of the 2 schools, and Oleksandra Baklanova held a strategic session for them. The most important priorities were identified by the community members, where the clear emphasis is on community building, networking and the hub (help desk).
On December 2024 we held Intensive “Safety” 3-day offline Intensive on the topic of “Security”, which was a success due to the following factors:
1) We managed to attract top experts as speakers who could best cover the topic of Security, namely:
– Mykhailo Tkach, Journalist of the Year, the most famous investigator in Ukraine who has received numerous threats. He shared with the training participants his exclusive knowledge and his own life hacks, tested in extreme investigative situations. Mykhailo shared such valuable knowledge due to his trust in our community and the closed nature of the event.
– Maksym Savchuk;
– Myroslava Gongadze;
– Masi Nayyem and his colleagues from Miller & Partners Law Firm.
2) the program of the Intensive was designed in such a way that the participants had time to exchange contacts and get to know each speaker personally, which deepened the networking component;
3) the participants received step-by-step instructions on what to do if they are under pressure, contacts of human rights organizations, and learned about various opportunities for assistance in case of pressure from existing support programs for investigators;
4) participants requested additional trainings on legal security, which we were able to implement by organizing 5 online trainings;
5) An additional factor that also contributed to the feeling of increased personal security after the training was the opportunity for participants to post photos from the training on their social networks. This demonstrates a greater level of publicity for each participant and ties to the professional community, including at the national level. This protects against some potential cases of pressure, because then potential perpetrators can see that members of our community will be able to defend themselves, and this case will be covered widely, not just at the local level.
