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Strategy 2027–2030 · Eastern Congo

Strategy 2027–2030

For peace to hold in eastern Congo, reconstruction must be clean: honest public servants coming back, schools and health centres given back to the people, and public money reaching where it should.

Download the strategy (PDF) Our approach and strategy

Why a new strategy

The Government has launched the restoration of State authority in South Kivu, with Uvira as its pilot city. On 21 September 2026, the Deputy Prime Minister for the Interior opened a three-day community workshop in Uvira on the return of the State to the province. The return of the administration and reconstruction are starting. Now is when it all happens.

  • 1,768

    schools closed in South Kivu because of the fighting: more than 688,000 pupils out of school.

    OCHA, quoted in February 2026

  • 104

    schools occupied by displaced people, and 536 classrooms destroyed in 66 schools.

    Ministry of Education, March 2025

  • Most

    health zones of the province short of medicines, vaccines or nutrition supplies.

    MSF, 2026

  • Uvira

    pilot city for the restoration of State authority; community workshop opened on 21 September 2026.

    Government of the DRC, 2026

The risk: reconstruction without integrity brings war back

After a war, a lot of money arrives quickly, while controls are weak. If posts are bought, if schools that were paid for are never built, if medicines are diverted, people lose trust in the State. That anger feeds the armed groups again.

In schools occupied by displaced families, children cannot go back to class, and the families have nowhere else to go. In areas held by rebel groups, neither the Government nor most partners can fund health centres: they lack everything, and it is citizens who suffer.

What we believe

If the people who come back to serve the State act with integrity, if citizens – pupils, parents, patients, displaced people – can follow and report what is happening, and if every dollar of reconstruction is public and checked, then services come back, trust comes back, and peace holds.

Four areas of work for 2027–2030

1

An honest administration coming back

That the officials who return to serve the State are chosen for their integrity and answer to the people.

  • Propose integrity criteria to the Government and the province for redeploying officials: background checks, asset declarations and a signed code of conduct.
  • Train returning officials in integrity and public service, with our integrity leadership course.
  • Let citizens rate the welcome and the service in public offices with GovCheck, and publish the results.

GovCheck · integrity leadership course

2

Schools rebuilt and given back to children

That every school paid for is really rebuilt, and that children go back to it.

  • Monitor the rebuilding of schools with pupils, parents and teachers using EduCheck: the budget, the contractor, the deadlines and the quality of the work.
  • Advocate, with the authorities and humanitarian actors, for displaced families to be rehoused with dignity before the schools they occupy reopen.
  • Restart Integrity Clubs in reopened schools, starting in Uvira, where our first clubs began in 2017.

EduCheck · Integrity Clubs

3

Health centres that work, everywhere

That health centres receive what is meant for them, including where the State cannot go.

  • Let citizens report, with HealthCheck and anonymously, what their health centre lacks: medicines, staff, water, electricity.
  • Pass these checked needs on to humanitarian actors and donors, to steer aid to the centres that lack everything, including in rebel-held areas.
  • Track medicines and equipment from the supplier to the health centre, so that they are neither diverted nor taxed on the way.

HealthCheck

4

Accountable reconstruction that builds peace

That every dollar of reconstruction, funded by the Government or its partners, is public and checked.

  • Call for the publication of reconstruction budgets, contracts and payments, and follow them project by project.
  • Extend our social alert system against corruption to the east, with trained and protected focal points.
  • Make the voices of displaced people, women, young people and people with disabilities heard in local reconstruction committees, and take their proposals to the Government’s workshops.

Social alert system · UNCAC Tracker

Our principles

  • Do no harm

    We look at every action so that it does not make tensions between communities worse.

  • Protect

    Reports can be anonymous; we publish no data that could put anyone at risk.

  • Include

    Displaced people, women, young people and people with disabilities decide with us.

  • Work with the State

    We support institutions without taking their place, and we stay independent and impartial.

Step by step, where the State returns

  1. 2027

    Uvira, pilot city

    First monitoring of officials, schools and health centres, and a measure of the starting point, with the province and communities.

  2. 2028–2029

    South Kivu

    Fizi and the other territories where the administration returns, building on the lessons from Uvira.

  3. 2030

    North Kivu

    Beni, the next pilot city announced by the Government, then the other areas that reopen.

What we will measure

  • Share of redeployed officials who have signed a code of conduct and filed an asset declaration.
  • Schools rebuilt as planned (budget, deadlines, quality), and pupils back in class.
  • Health centres monitored, needs reported and needs met.
  • Corruption reports received, passed on and dealt with.
  • Reconstruction budgets and contracts made public.

Our numerical targets will be set in 2027 with our partners, after measuring the starting point in Uvira.

What CERC brings

  • Our roots in the east: our first Integrity Clubs began in 2017 in 20 schools in Uvira; with DevelopmentCheck, students monitored 55 schools.
  • 204 Integrity Clubs in South Kivu and Kinshasa, and students trained to monitor public services.
  • A social alert system that has already worked with three public prosecutor’s offices in Kinshasa in 2024.
  • Four citizen monitoring apps: EduCheck, HealthCheck, GovCheck and UNCAC Tracker.
  • Special consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) since 2021.

Since the fall of Bukavu in February 2025, CERC has closed its Bukavu office and works remotely: our apps let us keep monitoring public services where our team cannot go.

Let’s build a peace with integrity, together

Authorities, donors, humanitarian actors and civil society organisations: join us so that the reconstruction of the east serves the people.

Partner with usContact us

Sources