Action for Transparency (A4T) is a project that fights corruption and mismanagement of government funds by putting the power to change in the hands of citizens. We empower citizens and public servants to act on corruption experienced in their everyday lives through monitoring of government expenditure in the Education and Health Sectors in Kenya.
In Kenya, the A4T project is implemented through the partnership between Transparency International Kenya (TI-Kenya) and Fojo Media Institute (Fojo) with support from the Embassy of Sweden in Kenya.
TI-Kenya is an autonomous national chapter in the Transparency International global movement and is a not-for-profit organization with established networks and offices in Kenya. TI-Kenya focus on institutional strengthening, policy and legislative engagement and citizen empowerment in the fight against corruption with the aim of developing a transparent, accountable and corruption free society.
Fojo supports independent, professional media and freedom of expression in Sweden and internationally. Fojo is the leading media development institute in Sweden and is a dialogue partner to Sida and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs on media development issues. Over the years, Fojo has built capacity for 50,000 journalists from more than 100 countries.
The project was first implemented in Embakasi area of Nairobi County in Kenya in its’ pilot phase, but has since been scaled up to cover the entire Nairobi County in the two sectors of focus, Education and Health.
Additionally, with support from Uraia under their project on “Promoting Social Accountability for Improved Health Service Delivery” A4T is supporting Uraia’s County Implementing Partners on “Use of ICT for Social Accountability in Health” in 11 other counties namely: Nakuru, Baringo, Elgeyo Marakwet, Isiolo, Garissa, Machakos, Nyeri, Mombasa, Kisumu, Busia and Bungoma Counties.
The Education and Health sectors remain, arguably as the key service delivery public sectors that touch on the core of every citizen’s rights. A4T therefore focused on these two sectors in order to prevent corruption from affected citizens’ most important rights.
The immediate target beneficiaries for the project include: public servants (headteachers, healthcare workers), community leaders (members of Boards of Management at schools and Health Facility Management Committees), mainstream and community journalists, civil society activists, youth and women empowerment groups, parents and patient associations, religious groupings, social justice techies and the general public using public schools and health centres in their various capacities as direct or indirect beneficiaries.
You can download the A4T mobile App for FREE for smart phones on Play Store and AppStore for android and apple phones respectively.
The app provides financial data of budget allocation for all public primary schools in Nairobi County and targeted health centres in Nairobi and other counties. Members of the public can use the information to monitor any leakage/suspected mismanagement of funds and report ANONYMOUSLY on the report sections on the app or the A4T website.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION ON HOW TO DOWNLOAD THE A4T MOBILE APP
A4T has a team of dedicated staff who will offer advice on the report made on the App and either refer you to the appropriate authorities, require you to provide additional information for assistance or come up with other strategies to expose the issue needing the attention of duty bearers including sending investigative journalists to get more information and publish the story to expose the corruption issue.
Action for Transparency DOES NOT investigate or prosecute individuals suspected of corruption but works closely with other oversight institutions including the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission, the Commission on Administrative Justice, Kenya National Commission on Human Rights among other government departments at County and National Level to address issues highlighted by the public.
Through the Transparency International Kenya - Advocacy and Legal Advisory Centres (ALACs), reports not within the Education and Health sectors are also addressed to assists victims of corruption and develop advocacy strategies exposing corruption.
Once you report a case, the app gives a pop-up notification of a tracking code. Note down this code and then use it to track progress made on your case. Once the project team has made progress on your case, they will update with the new information and you will receive a notification within the app. You can also call a TOLL FREE NUMBER 0800720721 to make a follow up on your case.
The app allows you to report anonymously without giving any personal details that could identify you. We are committed to ensuring the privacy of any information posted on the app and our privacy policy guides all correspondence made through the app. In addition, the App has been encrypted to ensure your privacy is protected from obtrusion or other interference to expose your identity.
The app provides for anonymity while reporting and we as Action for Transparency are committed to ensuring anonymity at all time. Therefore, the identity of the person reporting remains anonymous even to the Action for transparency team, and in no way therefore are the details going to be public to anyone. Further to that, the Constitution guarantees the people of Kenya the right to information and the right to be engaged in public participation including in holding duty bearers accountable.
All reports made have to be verified by the A4T team and no report is made public or acted upon without verification with other stakeholders including headteachers, health workers, members of the Boards of Management at the schools, members of the Health Facility Management Committees, parents, community members or sub-county and county officials or other informants including investigative journalists depending on the nature of the report.
Corruption cases with verifiable information are submitted to the investigative authorities i.e. EACC, CAJ or National Police Service for investigations and further action as may be necessary.
Key Constitutional safeguards to your participation in the A4T project:
. Every person has the right—to the highest attainable standard of health, which includes the right to health care services, including reproductive health care;
. Every child has the right to free and compulsory basic education;
. Every citizen has the right of access to—information held by the State which includes budgetary information at public primary schools and health centres;
. Public participation is one of the national values and principles of governance in addition to being one of the objectives for the adoption of the devolved system of governance.
. The Constitution further provides for public participation as one of the principles of public finance in addition to responsible financial management and clear fiscal reporting.
The project makes use of a set of social accountability tools and methodologies to empower citizen monitoring of public funds in the Education and Health Sectors. Among the methods used under the project include:
- Institutional based Public Expenditure Tracking Surveys (PETS) - to collect quantitative data on budgeting, allocation, disbursement and utilization of funds at public primary schools and health centres covered under the project.
- Social Audits – as qualitative studies focusing on getting feedback from beneficiaries of public services in the Education and Health Sectors on the accessibility, affordability, quality and value for money on the services offered by the public institutions.
- Information Communication and Technology (ICT) platforms – to disseminate information from the PETS and social audit studies as well as provide a platform for feedback and reporting of complaints by the public on our various platforms including: the A4T mobile App, Action For Transparency Website, Social Media platforms on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
- Media engagements – empowering journalists through trainings and media forums on investigative journalism and reporting on accountability issues in Education and Health among other topics to improve their effectiveness in informing the public and as advocacy tools.
- Public Outreach and Awareness/Trainings – where citizens are made aware of their rights use of the A4T tools for monitoring government expenditure at the schools and facilities covered. The public trainings also focus on training citizens on: good governance; public finance management (budgeting and auditing processes), and social accountability.