Feature storyCase study: how DigitalOcean’s cloud credits keep citizen monitoring online in the DRCPress releaseBy CERC
After a difficult 2025, CERC works on remotely and keeps its partnerships
The sudden closure of USAID took away CERC’s confirmed funder for 2025–2027, and the fall of Bukavu closed its office there. The team works on remotely.
Kinshasa, October 2026 – 2025 was a difficult year for the Centre de Recherche sur l’Anti-Corruption (CERC). The sudden closure of USAID took away the funder CERC had confirmed for 2025–2027, and the fall of Bukavu forced it to close its office there. Its team now works remotely and continues its partnerships with the Government, international institutions and donors.
A confirmed grant that disappeared
USAID, through its Development Innovation Ventures (DIV), was CERC’s confirmed funder for 2025–2027. After inviting CERC in 2023 to submit a scale-up proposal – validated in 2024, with every due diligence step passed and the contract signed – it had committed US$6.5 million to the project Students Acting for Social Accountability (SASA), to bring Integrity Clubs and EduCheck to every secondary school in four provinces, including South Kivu, North Kivu and Kinshasa. The closure of the agency ended that commitment.
Two offices closed
When Bukavu was taken in February 2025, CERC had to close its Bukavu office. Funding difficulties then forced it to close its Kinshasa office as well.
Citizen monitoring stays online
Where the team can no longer go, CERC’s four apps – EduCheck for schools, HealthCheck for health centres, GovCheck for public services and projects, and UNCAC Tracker for the DRC’s commitments under the UN Convention against Corruption – keep citizen monitoring going. In 2025, DigitalOcean supported CERC with US$2,000 of cloud credits for non-profits, which kept the four apps online. Read more: Case study: how DigitalOcean’s cloud credits keep citizen monitoring online in the DRC.
What comes next
The team works remotely and continues its partnerships with the Government, international institutions and donors. CERC’s Strategy 2027–2030 sets out how it will help rebuild eastern Congo with integrity.
About CERC
The Centre de Recherche sur l’Anti-Corruption (CERC) is a Congolese non-governmental organisation founded in April 2017 in South Kivu. With young people at its heart, CERC works with schools, communities, public institutions and partners to promote transparency, accountability and integrity in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It has held special consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) since 2021. Learn more: Discover CERC.
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