October 17-18, 2014 Ramallah, Integrity Action staff joined our partner in Palestine, the Teacher Creativity Centre (TCC), as they trained 32 teachers from 16 schools in Community Integrity Building (CIB).
TCC’s training provides teachers with valuable skills and knowledge, which allows them to find solutions to integrity issues in service delivery. As part of their training teachers were taught to analyse project documents, conduct project site visits to compare the actual project to the documents, conduct beneficiary surveys, verify findings as well as approach stakeholders such as contractors and local government to fix problems.
During the training Integrity Action staff also trained teachers to use DevelopmentCheck.org. This is Integrity Action’s user driven and solution oriented online tool for citizen feedback on the transparency, participation and effectiveness of development projects.
The teachers will soon share what they have learnt with students from the schools where they work. This will ensure that this year 480 Palestinian students are trained in CIB. Then students from each school will monitor a public infrastructure project from within their own community. Teachers and students will then work together with TCC to engage with stakeholders to try and solve any integrity issues they may find.
Students are central to TCC’s implementation of CIB in Palestine. By working with students, TCC is ensuring that young people are placed at the forefront of finding solutions to problems with public services, and ultimately improving the lives of citizens. Since 2010, TCC have trained 1,900 Palestinian students and teachers in partnership with Integrity Action.
TCC also works in partnership with the Palestinian Authority Ministry of Education to bring young people together with government to solve integrity issues in public services. This partnership has allowed TCC to engage with students in hundreds of schools across the West Bank. As a result, TCC has been able to place young people at the forefront of efforts to improve services for citizens in Palestine.
Students from last year captured the attention of the Palestinian Authority Anti Corruption Commission. Due to public interest built up by the students’ monitoring, officials from the Anti Corruption Commission attended public hearings held by certain monitoring groups. Furthermore, acting on official request, a number of groups submitted reports about their findings to the Anti Corruption Commission.
Using what they have learnt from their training with TCC, teachers will work with students from their schools, to continue to ensure citizens are able to find solutions to issues with integrity in public services. Doing so gives citizens the chance to demand what is rightfully theirs and improve lives.