Our projects

The challenge. Uvira is home to over half a million people between deforested hills and Lake Tanganyika. In heavy rain, the bare slopes hold no water: the Kalimabenge, Mulongwe and Kavimvira rivers overflow. In 2020, dozens died and 15,000 houses were damaged; in 2024, 4,500 houses collapsed and 53 schools flooded; in May 2026, six died, 1,100 displaced. It keeps happening: warnings come too late and the City lacks the data.

The innovation. GovCheck Climate Innovation connects forecasts, residents and the City. Before heavy rain, subscribers get a free SMS alert. Anyone seeing a flood, erosion, a blocked drain or tree cutting reports it by web, SMS or WhatsApp, in their language or by voice; AI summarises, translates and sends it to the right office. Reports draw the hotspot map, and everyone sees who responds and where the adaptation budget goes. AI helps; officials decide.

Expected results. During a 12-month pilot with the City of Uvira and its three Municipalities, we aim (targets to be confirmed) for: 10,000 residents warned at least 12 hours before each heavy rain; 2,000 reports handled, 70% taken in charge within 48 hours; 100 municipal staff and 60 community relays trained. The data will map the neighbourhoods at risk and plan drain cleaning and river-bank protection, before extending the model across the Great Lakes region.

Discover the projectSee the live tool

A civil society assessment of how the DRC implements Chapters II (prevention) and V (asset recovery) of the United Nations Convention against Corruption, with recommendations to the Congolese government. The project is ongoing: CERC advocates with, and works alongside, the government to follow up the implementation of the recommendations.

Results

• Seven CERC staff trained on the UNCAC and its review mechanism (August 2021)
• State and non-state actors met from June to December 2021 to assess the Convention in law and in practice
• The first civil society parallel report on the DRC’s implementation of Chapters II and V, with around 100 recommendations to the government
• Follow-up of the report’s 42 consolidated recommendations with the government; recommendation 26, strengthening CENAREF, implemented as the DRC left the FATF grey list (October 2026)

UNCAC implementation monitoring

With RCN Justice & Démocratie, under the EU-funded Justice Reform Support Programme (PARJ2) and the REPLIC project: a social alert system against corruption in the justice sector in Kinshasa, university anti-corruption clubs and journalism with young people.

Results

• A social alert system run by 9 trained focal points, supported by the prosecutors of Kalamu, Ndjili and Matete; 70 posters with its toll-free number in the courts
• Integrity clubs in 4 universities of Kinshasa, with as many women as men and 30% marginalised or under-represented students
• 61 students diagnosed corruption at university and drew up a joint action plan, including advocacy for a whistleblower protection law (December 2024)

Read the project reportRule of law and access to justice

Integrity Clubs in secondary schools in Kinshasa and South Kivu: students trained to monitor education services with the EduCheck app and to advocate with school authorities for better, fairer schools. The project began with Year Zero (April–December 2021), a preparation phase in which CERC built its capacity and designed the project with its partners; its implementation then ran from February 2022 to August 2023.

Results

• Year Zero (2021): 534 students, 39 principals, 50 teachers, 21 parents’ committees and 12 senior officials consulted to design the project
• 204 Integrity Clubs and 2,250 students in 150 schools; 138 principals and 278 teachers trained (2022)
• A memorandum of understanding with the South Kivu 1 education directorate to set up Integrity Clubs in every secondary school (2022)
• A learning report on what motivates student monitors (2022); 97 policymakers consulted (2023); two bills with APNAC DRC taken to the National Assembly (April 2024)

Read the project reportIntegrity Clubs in schools

Local implementing partner of the global Youth Excel initiative: the project ran from July 2021 to February 2023 (20 months), followed by 10 months of online mentoring by CERC, funded by the project, to December 2023. Two phases. Phase 1 (2021–2022), objective: strengthen youth-led and youth-serving organisations in Kinshasa to generate and use evidence through implementation research on how to include marginalised young people in education and workforce programmes, and to share it with decision-makers. Phase 2 (2023), objective: the socio-economic reintegration of 45 young people with limited access to education, employment and other opportunities of Kinshasa, through income-generating micro-enterprises run by the consortium of 9 ICON organisations.

Results

• Phase 1: an issue-based collaborative network (ICON) of 10 youth-led and youth-serving organisations in Kinshasa, including one LGBTQI-led organisation and two led by people living with disabilities
• Phase 1: 20 young researchers and 6 CERC staff trained in implementation research, gender equality and social inclusion; findings presented at a Data Summit in Kinshasa (August 2022)
• Phase 2: 9 ICON organisations in a consortium – CINA, Congo pour tous, Jeunes Chefs d’État, Jeunialissime, Kin Car Wash, Parlement des jeunes de Kinshasa, ASFG, SJUD and Ujuzi Sustainable Services – with a joint action plan
• Phase 2: 45 young people identified, given psycho-social support and trained in trades and entrepreneurship; 5 economic interest groups (two dairy and bakery micro-enterprises, two computer centres, a tailoring workshop) each received a US$10,000 microgrant, followed by 10 months of online mentoring by CERC, funded by the project, to December 2023

Read the project reportYouth Excel Kinshasa Data Summit: Increasing youth inclusion in education and in workforce development programmes

Support to civil society and youth-led initiatives to strengthen integrity and reduce corruption in the Democratic Republic of the Congo – funded by the US Department of State’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) through Accountability Lab.

Results

• Support to civil society and youth-led initiatives to strengthen integrity and reduce corruption in the DRC (2020)

Institutional integrity building

A Covid-19 vaccine education project supported in kind by Twilio.org: credits for SMS, voice calls and messaging worth US$6,500, used in full in 2020 (2020 audit). Not a cash grant.

Results

• SMS, voice call and messaging credits for Covid-19 vaccine education, used in full in 2020

Funded by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD) and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) through Integrity Action: Integrity Clubs in secondary schools in South Kivu, where students learned about integrity and used the DevelopmentCheck tool to monitor school services and local projects – and helped fix many of the problems they reported.

Results

• Integrity Clubs launched in 20 secondary schools in Uvira (December 2017); 107 trainers trained: 19 principals, 38 teachers and 50 club leaders
• More than 800 students engaged with the management boards of 55 schools in Uvira and Bukavu, using DevelopmentCheck
• An average of 32% of the problems reported by students fixed thanks to their advocacy (2017–2020); 1,780 students in Uvira studying in safer conditions (2018)

Read the project reportIntegrity Clubs in schools