How We Started
CERC was founded in April 2017 in South Kivu to answer three questions about integrity, public services and peace – and young people have been at the heart of the answer ever since.
- 2017 founded in Uvira and Bukavu
- 22 milestones since then
- 204 Integrity Clubs today
Founded in April 2017
CERC was founded in April 2017 to find answers to the following questions:
How can communities obtain better services using integrity?
How can we teach integrity to equip the next generation of leaders to say no to corruption?
How can integrity be a sustainable response to conflict and instability in eastern Congo?
We have begun to address these challenging questions by focusing our attention on research and investment in education and training for young people, helping them develop the skills to hold their leaders accountable, cultivating a new generation of ethical leaders, and combat inefficient and corrupt public services and infrastructure projects in their communities.
By 2022, we have reached 3,060 young people through our investment in education and training. They are now joining forces to monitor vital projects and services in their communities and working with their leaders to solve the problems they identify through community monitoring.
These young people are creating and implementing solutions to ensure access to and cleanliness of drinking water, access to and safety of schools, education for children at risk of exclusion, and waste separation in urban areas. It can be demonstrated that their work has benefited over a million lives in our coverage areas.
CERC’s impact model is not a traditional charity model. We build strong partnerships with young people, communities, civil society organisations and donors. We advocate to unlock funding and political will at the highest level, while innovating to deliver and scale inclusive solutions that focus on the most marginalised.
Our milestones
From a first survey on corruption in South Kivu to the EduCheck and HealthCheck apps: the milestones of CERC since 2017.
2017
- April 2017
CERC is founded
Set up to answer one question: how can communities get better public services by using integrity? Today CERC has offices in 3 provinces of the DRC.
- May 2017
What We Are Learning
CERC’s first survey of citizens across South Kivu: 70.1% think corruption can be eliminated or reduced, yet “thank you” gifts to teachers and doctors are still tolerated and few people are ready to report corruption.
- September 2017
Partnership with Integrity Action
Start of Students Acting for Honesty, Integrity and Equality (SHINE), funded by NORAD and Sida through Integrity Action: between 2017 and 2020, 810 students in 54 Integrity Clubs were trained and helped fix an average of 32% of the problems they reported.
- November 2017
CERC team trained in Community Integrity Building in Tanzania
The team learned the method behind the Integrity Clubs: citizens monitor public services and projects, report the problems they find and work with officials to fix them.
- 2017
Integrity Clubs in Schools
Student-led spaces where young people learn integrity and monitor their school’s services with the DevelopmentCheck tool.
- December 2017
30 teachers and principals trained by CERC in Community Integrity Building
Teachers and principals coach the students and help their schools act on the problems the clubs report.
2018
- January 2018
Integrity Clubs in Schools
Students start monitoring classrooms, toilets, drinking water and teacher attendance, and advocate with school officials for solutions.
- February 2018
300 students trained as community monitors
152 girls and 148 boys monitor the infrastructure and education services of 20 secondary schools, worth over US$1 million, and help resolve 22% of the problems they identify in 2018.
- June 2018
6 civil society organisations trained in Community Integrity Building
At the Integrity Exchange Workshop in Bukavu, 13 people from 6 local organisations and 2 Ministry of Education representatives analyse the causes of corruption and receive full Community Integrity Building training – to show, across South Kivu, the impact of integrity education and community monitoring.
- 2018
The Integrity Builders on community radio
A weekly radio magazine in Swahili and French, aired on 2 community radio stations across Uvira, reaches about 2,000 households; CERC’s legal advice centre receives 193 complaints.
- September 2018
Integrity Clubs in Schools
The model reaches 50 schools in South Kivu; in 2020, education officials agree to roll out Integrity Clubs across the province.
2019
- February–March 2019
202 teachers, principals and club leaders from 35 schools trained in Uvira and Luvungi
70 teachers, 35 principals and 97 club leaders trained in Community Integrity Building and DevelopmentCheck; by the end of 2019, 55 Integrity Clubs operate in Uvira and Bukavu.
2020
- June 2020
Partnership with Accountability Lab
Under the Building Integrity in DRC programme, funded by the US Department of State (INL), CERC supports civil society and youth-led initiatives to strengthen integrity and reduce corruption.
- November 2020
CERC becomes a member of the UNCAC Coalition
CERC joins the global civil society network on the UN Convention against Corruption, which in 2021 commissions CERC to assess how the DRC implements it.
2021
- April 2021
Our Projects
Research on corruption in education with 54 senior education officials and surveys in 41 schools, then Integrity Clubs in 150 schools in Kinshasa and South Kivu, and an agreement with the South Kivu education authorities to extend them.
- October 2021
Partnership with IREX and USAID to implement Youth Excel in the DRC, alongside Search for Common Ground
CERC supports a network of 10 youth-led organisations in Kinshasa researching how to include marginalised young people in education and work; their findings are presented at a Data Summit in August 2022.
2022
- March 2022
UNCAC Implementation Monitoring
Based on interviews with state and non-state actors, the report assesses prevention (Chapter II) and asset recovery (Chapter V) and makes recommendations to the Congolese government.
- March 2022
Launch of EduCheck, CERC’s first web and mobile app
Students report on teacher attendance, school fees, water, sanitation and equipment, giving education officials reliable, real-time data from each school. By 2022, 3,060 students in 204 schools had been trained as monitors.
- May 2022
Integrity Clubs in Schools
Integrity Clubs reach the capital: Kinshasa students join those of South Kivu in monitoring their schools and advocating for better education services.
2023
- January–February 2023
Five youth micro-enterprises launched in Kinshasa
Through Youth Excel, CERC supports 9 youth organisations in a joint Quick Impact Project: 45 unemployed and underrepresented young people, trained in trades and entrepreneurship, set up five micro-enterprises – dairy and bakery products, two computer centres and a tailoring workshop.
2024
- April 2024
Rule of Law and Access to Justice
A social alert system against corruption in the courts of Kinshasa, then university anti-corruption clubs and journalism with young people.
2026
- October 2026
Launch of HealthCheck
The EduCheck approach comes to health: citizens monitor their health centre – quality of care, medicines, fees and hygiene.
