Despite numerous initiatives and projects that have been implemented to address the corruption challenge, survey respondents in countries of Eastern Europe and the Caucasus region are still among those most likely to report incidence of corruption in public education.

Network of Education Policy Centers (NEPC) and Center for Applied Policy and Integrity (CAPI) joint efforts to investigate corruption risks in education in these geographies and to create the conditions for replicating expertise and locally-led integrity assessments in the region.

As co-leaders of the “Integrity of education systems: training for civil society organisations” project, they will provide a selection of civil society organisations and researchers with training on how to carry out integrity assessments and collect primary evidence on the participation of education stakeholders in integrity violations.

The assessment is based on the INTES methodology and evidence collection tools developed by CAPI within the framework of the OECD Anti-Corruption Network for Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

It helps in discerning how to tackle the corruption challenge by empowering education participants and stakeholders to understand and address their integrity challenges “from within” their education institutions and professional environments.

The project will be implemented through an operational and research partnership between the NEPC and CAPI that will unfold in four phases: training; collection of evidence; analysis and reporting: dissemination of results.

The training will take place in Belgrade, Serbia, on August 26th-29th 2019 and it will be attended by representatives of NEPC networks members from International Institute for Education Policy, Planning and Management (Georgia), Mongolian Education Alliance (Mongolia), Educational Center PRO DIDACTICA (Moldova), and from Foundation Education Initiatives Support (Kirgizstan).  The training will provide a hands-on guidance on how to carry out integrity assessments and collect primary evidence on the participation of education stakeholders in integrity violations, the systemic conditions in which these violations take place and on how to analyse this evidence for policy and/or research purposes.