Network for Integrity in Reconstruction (NIR)

This network of local research and development organisations in 8 conflict/post-war countries - Sierra Leone, Mozambique, Palestine, Lebanon, Bosnia Herzegovina, Kosovo, Afghanistan and East Timor - is sharing experiences, undertaking research, and exchanging information on what Tiri describes as a previously under-researched yet critical issue: corruption and integrity in post-war reconstruction. NIR is based on the idea that "Networks are valuable mechanisms for extending the capacities of the individual activist or organisation. They overcome problems of dispersion, incomplete resourcing and risk in a productive way. Reform minded individuals often find themselves without the support of like-minded people with whom they can advance their particular agenda and can as a result lack suitable knowledge to minimise risks and increase the productivity of their activity."

Research - and dissemination of findings - is the key means of carrying out advocacy as part of this network. Eight local policy centres in Afghanistan, Bosnia Herzegovina, East Timor, Kosovo, Lebanon, Mozambique, Palestine, and Sierra Leone took part in research whose outputs included: a survey mapping the opportunities for corruption presented by the reconstruction process, case studies of integrity reforms and corruption cases from post-war countries, a national integrity system survey mapping the countries' integrity system, opinion surveys and focus groups detailing local experiences, and recommendations for future action. These results are being shared on the NIR page on the Tiri website.

By 2009 NIR aims to be in a position to spin off as an independent NGO network, working collaboratively with but separately from Tiri. NIR's 4 programme areas over the coming 2 years are expected to include:

1. Reconstruction and Aid Monitor (RAM): this will involve selecting a sample of reconstruction projects in the countries where NIR is active, auditing them, and publishing the results in an international database.
2. Reform Agenda Partnership: spurred by the findings of the RAM and based on current research findings, NIR will implement integrity reforms in existing and emerging post-war countries and, in cooperation with northern and southern NGO partners, lead an international and local advocacy campaign for improved transparency and accountability in reconstruction.
3. Rapid Peer Support: enables existing NIR partners to rapidly and effectively mobilise their knowledge and use peer support to the benefit of civil society organisations (CSOs), donors, and governments in a new post-war country.
4. Capacity Development for Reconstruction: equips partners with policy research and monitoring skills to gather information in data-poor and complex environments, expand their skills on accountability monitoring and integrity reform, and learn from each other (in cooperation with universities and think tanks).

Conflict, Rights, Overseas Development Assistance.

According to Tiri, the rationale for focusing on post-war reconstruction settings is two-fold: "First, the opportunity cost of systemic corruption is enormous for the counties concerned and can, among other effects, make a recurrence of conflict more likely, as well as reducing the sustainability and effectiveness of the aid delivery. Second, post-war settings are prone to specific corruption opportunities and call for specific counter-measures and this problem has been largely neglected by aid donor and implementing agencies." Tiri contends that "[t]he time has come for a systematic appraisal of recent post-war reconstruction experience, to draw lessons from this experience, and to implement standards that tackle corruption and the rehabilitation of integrity institutions from the very onset of the reconstruction effort. An informed group of civil society leaders from the affected countries are one essential factor needed to advance and inform such a reform agenda both within their own countries and globally."

Tiri indicates that the NIR reports, published in January 2007, "offer a damning indictment of the sequencing of reforms in post-war countries. Transparency and accountability of aid to its beneficiaries comes last in donor priorities." The organisation holds that "Lack of integrity in reconstruction threatens to push war-torn countries back into open conflict."