Feature storyTowards a law to teach integrity in every school in the country2023–2024Impact stories2021By CERC
CERC gets its proposals into the national anti-corruption strategy
In October 2021, the Ministry of Justice invited CERC as an expert to the Anti-Corruption States-General. Its three proposals – stronger public integrity, technology for transparency and integrity education in schools – were included in the national anti-corruption strategy.
Corruption costs the DRC more than US$15 billion every year, according to the estimate of the Anti-Corruption States-General, and the country scored 18 out of 100 in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index 2020. In late 2021, the government invited civil society to help diagnose the problem and shape a new national strategy. CERC brought to the table what Congolese students and citizens had learned on the ground.
Five days to diagnose corruption
From 19 to 23 October 2021, the Ministry of Justice held the Anti-Corruption States-General, with the support of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), under the Support Project for the Fight against Corruption in the DRC.
The meetings set out to diagnose the root causes and the state of corruption in the country, build consensus on the priority actions and reforms needed for a lasting reduction of corruption, and agree on how their recommendations would be implemented and followed up.
Three proposals from the field
Invited as an expert, CERC spoke on corruption prevention. Its first proposal: strengthen public integrity by giving citizens a role in checking public services. CERC’s own evidence came from Integrity Clubs, where 810 students in 54 clubs got an average of 32% of the problems they reported fixed.
Its second: use technology for transparency and accountability in public services, so that reports from citizens reach the officials who can act, and everyone can see whether problems are fixed.
Its third: introduce an integrity education course in schools, so that every young Congolese learns how corruption works and how to resist it.
CERC also discussed with government officials the transparency of the review of the United Nations Convention against Corruption and the role of civil society in it – a review for which it was writing the civil society report.
Into the national strategy
CERC’s proposals were judged relevant and included in the national anti-corruption strategy.
A few weeks later, from 29 November to 3 December 2021, CERC took part in the workshop of the Agency for the Prevention and Fight against Corruption (APLC) to develop and validate the new national anti-corruption strategy. The APLC built it with state and non-state experts, on the basis of the 2010 strategy and the recommendations of the States-General.
On 9 December 2021, International Anti-Corruption Day, CERC called on every Congolese to play their part.
From strategy to law
CERC kept working to turn its proposals into reality. Integrity Clubs reached 150 secondary schools in South Kivu and Kinshasa, and in April 2024, with the African Parliamentarians’ Network Against Corruption (APNAC DRC), CERC took two bills on Integrity Clubs and integrity education to the National Assembly.
On 28 September 2026, the National Assembly declared admissible the government’s anti-corruption bill, which would give the country its first specific law against corruption – an absence that CERC’s civil society report had shown to hold back the fight against corruption. CERC asks parliamentarians to keep essential safeguards, including whistleblower protection and asset recovery.
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: Who we are.
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