Resources

This article focuses on the Poverty Eradication Action Plan (PEAP), which is a national development strategy of the Ugandan government that has recently undergone its second revision. The revision process involves government, donors, civil society, the private sector and poor-people. This article offers a description of the mechanisms of the PEAP and poverty trends in Uganda, and introduces two themed articles about monitoring, evaluation and implementation of the PEAP process (by the same authors). The first looks at these issues from a civil society perspective (Isooba); the second form a government perspective (Ssewakiryanga).

This special edition of the æcorruption fighter's toolkit presents a diverse collection of youth education experiences mainly from civil society organisations. The common goal of all of the activities described is to strengthen young people's attitudes and demands for accountability, and ultimately to build trust in the government and public sector. Education is central to preventing corruption even clear laws and regulations and well-designed institutions will not be able to prevent corruption unless citizens actively demand accountability from government and institutions. This publication builds on Transparency International's work and looks at how ethics education can be part of broader efforts to improve governance and reduce corruption. The authors argue that within this framework, children must have an appropriate and conducive learning environment that values integrity. This collection of experiences provides ideas for possible approaches to strengthening young people's attitudes and capacity to resist corruption. Its main purpose is to inspire and encourage civil society, helping generate new ideas for anti-corruption education practitioners.

Around the world a growing crisis of legitimacy characterises the relationship between citizens and the institutions that affect their lives. In both north and south, citizens speak of mounting disillusionment with government, based on concerns about corruption, lack of responsiveness to the needs of the poor and the absence of a sense of connection with elected representatives and bureaucrats. In response to this gap between citizens and their institutions, people are struggling to find new forms of citizenship, participation and accountability.

To be meaningful, arguments for participation and accountability must become grounded in a conception for rights and citizenship which, in a development context, strengthens the status of citizens from one of beneficiaries of development to its rightful and legitimate claimants. While declarations on rights and citizenship are increasingly abundant, the gap between the rhetoric and reality remains large. And, while the principles of the rights-based approach are important, there is much to be understood about what it means, both conceptually and empirically, as well as much to learn about how to put it into practice. New understanding is needed of what it means to re-cast the debates of inclusion, participation and accountability in a rights-based and citizenship-centred mould. This volume, drawn together by a multidisciplinary group of scholars associated with the Theatre for Development Centre at Ahmadu Bello University, helps us to gain such an understanding. Combining multidisciplinary analysis with insightful and creative use of theatre to gain people's own perceptions, these essays offer important insights into the struggles for inclusive citizenship, participation and accountability in the Nigerian context.

The Participatory Approaches Learning Study (PALS) examined the potential for increasing stakeholder participation in DFID country programmes and at DFID's experience of delivering aid through participatory approaches. Its recommendations include proposals on staff development, on ways to make the Project Cycle Management System more flexible and accountable, and on making participation a stronger characteristic of DFID itself. The two-year research project involved separate studies of four of DFID's geographical departments - DFID-India, DFID-Bangladesh, South East Asia Division, and the Western and North Africa Department, which included India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Ghana, Egypt and Nigeria. This report is a synthesis of the main findings and lessons from each of the geographical studies and includes Operational lessons from PALS, Participation and Project Cycle Management, Training Needs and Participation and Institutionalising Participation.