Strategy evaluation 2022–2026

AuthorsCERC’s monitoring, evaluation and learning team

The report was prepared by CERC’s monitoring, evaluation and learning team, with the executive management and the finance team.

The opinions, conclusions and recommendations in this report are those of the evaluation team. They do not necessarily reflect the views of the donors and partners that funded the projects evaluated.

AcknowledgementsThank you

CERC thanks the students, teachers, head teachers and parents of the Integrity Clubs of South Kivu and Kinshasa, the students of the university clubs and the focal points of the social alert system, as well as its partners:

• The Global Partnership for Education and Oxfam IBIS, through Education Out Loud
• USAID, through IREX, and Search for Common Ground
• The European Union and Belgian cooperation (DGD), through RCN Justice & Démocratie
• DigitalOcean
• The African Parliamentarians’ Network Against Corruption (APNAC DRC) and the Congolese Association for Access to Justice (ACAJ)
• The education authorities of South Kivu and Kinshasa, our partner universities in Kinshasa, and DWAC, which audited the Education Out Loud project

CERCCentre de Recherche sur l’Anti-Corruption

CERC is a registered non-governmental organisation (NGO) (Registration number: F.92/42579) and given Legal Personality by the Ministry of Justice: JUST/SG/20/21311/2021. CERC holds Special Consultative Status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) since 2021.

info@cerc.cd · www.cerc.cd

LicenceCC BY-NC-ND 4.0

This work is licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International. To view a copy of this licence, visit creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

CitationHow to cite this report

CERC (2026). Evaluation of CERC’s 2022–2026 strategy: Promoting accountability and inclusion in education and health services, January 2022 – December 2025. Centre de Recherche sur l’Anti-Corruption, Kinshasa. https://cerc.cd/en/strategy-evaluation-2022-2026/

Cover photo: 138 head teachers and 278 teachers trained in integrity in Kinshasa and Bukavu, 2022. CERC.

Background. CERC’s 2022–2026 sector strategy, Promoting accountability and inclusion in education and health services, revised in January 2022 and extended to the end of 2026, aimed for more inclusive youth engagement in improving public services in Kinshasa and South Kivu. Its operational plan set annual targets up to 2026.

Implementation amid crises. The December 2023 elections, the war in the East – with the fall of Goma in January 2025 and of Bukavu in February 2025 – and the closure of USAID in 2025 upended implementation. CERC closed its Bukavu and Kinshasa offices and has worked remotely since 2025.

Why this report. The evaluation aims to prove and improve: to account for the first four years of the strategy, from January 2022 to December 2025, to review the recommendations of the 2022 evaluation, and to inform the 2027–2030 strategy. The year 2026, still under way, is not evaluated.

Methodology. The evaluation, an internal one, is anchored in the six OECD-DAC criteria, organised in three pillars: the strategy and its plan (pillar 1), the effectiveness and efficiency of our programmes, through four case studies (pillar 2), and the value, impact and sustainability of our work (pillar 3). It rests on a review of our reports, our accounts and the archives of our website; it includes no new interviews.

Overall performance. A first year that beats its targets, then three years of decline: the end of education funding in mid-2024, the closure of USAID and the fall of Bukavu in 2025. The gains – Integrity Clubs, a bill, an alert system in the justice sector, our apps – need a stronger financial model.

Pillar 1: the strategy and its plan. Accountability in education remains an acute need, and the strategy answered it with students themselves, in close contact with the authorities, MPs and partners. But the health component, once again, was not funded, and the plan repeated the structure and some of the targets of 2017 without checking them against the funds secured.

Pillar 2: our programmes. Students Acting created 204 Integrity Clubs, trained 2,250 students, 138 head teachers and 278 teachers, and fixed 33% of reported problems, for about US$190 per student. Youth Excel brought together 10 youth organisations in Kinshasa; REPLIC set up a social alert system in three courts; our four apps kept citizen monitoring going remotely.

Pillar 3: value, impact and sustainability. Integrity Clubs entered an agreement with the education authorities and a bill. But 83% of funds came from a single donor: after June 2024, funds fell to US$19,295, then to in-kind support in 2025. Six of the ten 2022 recommendations were not implemented.

What should change. Set the 2027–2030 targets from the funds secured, diversify donors, build a reserve, catch up on the 2024 and 2025 audits, and build a model of remote work and focal points that holds in the East.

Overall conclusion. A strategy that carried Integrity Clubs all the way to the law, without giving CERC the means to last. The 2027–2030 strategy must apply the lessons of 2022 and 2026 from its first year.

Organisation of the report. Chapter 1 presents the methodology, its questions, pillars, sources and limits. Chapter 2 presents the findings, pillar by pillar, the follow-up of the 2022 recommendations and a synthesis against the DAC criteria. Chapter 3 presents the recommendations, lessons and suggestions in a table, with their category and criticality. The annexes complete the report.

The evaluation follows an approach anchored in the six OECD-DAC criteria, attentive to the context of war in the East and to the abrupt end of international funding in 2025. It treats CERC as one actor among others in a system: schools, education authorities, Parliament, the justice sector, donors and civil society.

1.1Evaluation questions and pillars

Table 1: evaluation questions, pillars and weights

1.2Instruments and expanded questions

Table 2: expanded questions and instruments

1.3Sources, data management and ethical safeguards

The evaluation rests on the documents in table 3 and on our accounts published on the “Financial accountability” page. Amounts are in US dollars; those of 2022 and 2023 for the Education Out Loud project are audited. No personal data was collected. Data follow quality principles inspired by Integrity Action’s PICTURE principles: precise, inclusive, credible, triangulated, usable, results-focused and ethically collected.

Table 3: main sources of the evaluation

1.4Conflict sensitivity and “do no harm”

In areas of the East under the control of armed groups, publishing the name of a monitor, a focal point or a school can put people in danger. The evaluation names neither the people nor the schools concerned by reports, and publishes no data from our apps that could identify a user.

1.5Limitations and risks

Table 4: risks and limitations of the evaluation

2.1.1Relevance: an acute need, an answer with students

The year-zero consultations, with 534 young people and 89 teachers and head teachers, shaped Students Acting: students chose what they wanted to monitor. The 2022 and 2023 workshops, with 96 and then 97 officials and policymakers, confirmed the demand for integrity education, up to a bill. In 2024 and 2025, CERC extended citizen monitoring to justice and public services with its apps – sound adaptations that prepare the 2027–2030 strategy.

Two limits: the health component, as in 2017, was not funded – 250 active CODESA were planned for 2025, none were; and the 2022 plan repeats the structure and some of the targets of the 2017 plan – a growing budget, fellowships, blogs – without taking account of the evaluation that found them too far from resources.

Rating: satisfactory. A sound diagnosis and useful adaptations; unrealistic targets, a second time.

2.1.2Coherence: strong partnerships

The Global Partnership for Education, through Education Out Loud and Oxfam IBIS, funded a project that supported the DRC’s education sector strategy. Education authorities signed agreements with 150 head teachers, with the province of South Kivu and for clubs in all secondary schools of South Kivu and Kinshasa. APNAC DRC carried a bill with CERC; RCN Justice & Démocratie, the anti-corruption component of the EU-funded justice reform; ACAJ, civil society training. As in 2017–2021, the annual reports present activities rather than the plan’s targets.

Rating: satisfactory. Strong external coherence; internal monitoring still separate from the plan.

2.1.3The plan’s targets and the results

Table 5 compares the operational plan’s forecasts for 2022 to 2025 with the results achieved.

Table 5: plan forecasts and results, 2022–2025

Overall: 1 of 25 targets met, 10 partly met, 9 not met and 5 not measured. The 2026 forecasts are not evaluated.

2.2.1Summary of findings

Four case studies (annex 2) cover education, youth, justice and our apps. From 2022 to 2025, CERC received US$516,493 and spent US$529,512, using the 2022 balance: 55% on programme activities, 21% on staff, 9% on rent and running costs, 7% on direct project support, 4% on administration, 2.5% on travel and 1% on fees and audit.

Table 6: funds received and spent, by year

2023 spending uses the 2022 balance of the Education Out Loud project (US$88,771).

2.2.2Students Acting: 204 Integrity Clubs, from the school to the law

Funded by the Global Partnership for Education through Education Out Loud and Oxfam IBIS, from January 2022 to June 2024, in 6 communes of South Kivu and 6 communes of Kinshasa, Students Acting for Accountability and Quality of Education created 204 Integrity Clubs in 2022 and trained 2,250 students aged 14 to 19 to monitor education services, with 2,250 integrity education manuals and monitoring guides. 138 head teachers and 278 teachers from 150 schools were trained; students’ advocacy fixed 33% of the problems identified.

In 2023, 150 partner schools were bound by agreements – 90 in Bukavu, 60 in Kinshasa –, 97 policymakers were brought together and a bill was prepared with APNAC DRC. The project had US$430,928, fully spent and audited for 2022 and 2023: about US$190 per student trained, including training, manuals and advocacy. After June 2024, no funding took over.

2.2.3Youth Excel: youth organisations in Kinshasa

Funded by USAID through IREX, with technical support from Search for Common Ground, Youth Excel – Youth Represent DRC brought together 10 youth-led or youth-serving organisations in Kinshasa, engaged 9 of them in a joint project, supported 45 unemployed young people towards reintegration and trained 63 leaders from 9 organisations. The project received US$97,528 from 2021 to 2023; the 2022 overspend of US$1,935 was covered by the final 2023 instalment.

2.2.4REPLIC: citizen monitoring in the justice sector

With RCN Justice & Démocratie, as part of the justice reform funded by the European Union and Belgium, CERC set up a social alert system in Kinshasa in 2024: 9 focal points, a toll-free number and 70 posters in the Kalamu, Ndjili and Matete courts. The youth anti-corruption project incubator brought together 61 students from 4 universities, and a training was held with ACAJ. The US$19,295 received was fully spent, but these accounts were not audited.

2.2.5Our apps: holding on remotely

In 2023, CERC developed GovCheck to monitor infrastructure projects; with EduCheck, HealthCheck and UNCAC Tracker, our four apps cover education, health, administration and public services, and the implementation of the UNCAC. After the fall of Bukavu and the closure of our offices in 2025, they kept citizen monitoring going remotely, online thanks to DigitalOcean’s hosting credits (US$2,000 in kind).

Rating: moderately unsatisfactory (effectiveness); satisfactory (efficiency). Real results in 2022–2023 and funds used for what they were meant for; most forecasts out of reach afterwards, and audits to catch up.

2.3.1Impact: from the school to the law

In 2022, students’ advocacy fixed 33% of the problems identified in their schools. The 2022 agreement, approved by the provincial education directorate of South Kivu, provides for Integrity Clubs in all secondary schools of South Kivu and Kinshasa. With APNAC DRC, CERC filed two bills in 2022, then carried to the National Assembly in 2024 a bill that writes the clubs and integrity education into the school curriculum. In the justice sector, the social alert system gives citizens of three Kinshasa courts a toll-free number and a network of focal points. No independent evaluation, however, has measured the clubs’ effect on students and schools.

Rating: moderately satisfactory. Real institutional impact; impact on services still little measured.

2.3.2Sustainability: one donor, then almost nothing

The Global Partnership for Education provided 83% of funds from 2022 to 2025. After the project ended, in June 2024, funds fell to US$19,295 in 2024 and to US$2,000 of in-kind support in 2025. USAID (DIV) had committed US$6.5 million to Students Acting for Social Accountability (SASA) 2025–2027, in four provinces: the closure of USAID cancelled it. The fall of Bukavu closed our Bukavu office, and the lack of funds our Kinshasa office. What remains does not depend on a project: the agreements and the bill, the trained teachers and head teachers, our partnerships and our four apps.

Rating: unsatisfactory. The institutional gains remain; the organisation still needs consolidating.

2.3.3What CERC did with the 2022 recommendations

Table 7 reviews the ten recommendations of the evaluation of the 2017–2021 strategy, published on 7 March 2022.

Table 7: follow-up of the 2022 recommendations

One recommendation implemented, three partly, six not implemented.

Table 8: assessment against the six OECD-DAC criteria

Scale: highly satisfactory, satisfactory, moderately satisfactory, moderately unsatisfactory, unsatisfactory (annex 7).

The recommendations address the end of the strategy in 2026 and the 2027–2030 strategy. Like the whole evaluation, they aim to prove and improve. Each is classed by category – start, stop, continue, grow, consider – and by criticality.

Table 9: recommendations, lessons and suggestions

Annex 1Evaluation requirements

• Assess the implementation of the 2022–2026 strategy from January 2022 to December 2025, against the six OECD-DAC criteria.
• Compare each forecast of the plan for 2022–2025 with the results, and the funds planned with the funds received.
• Review the recommendations of the 2022 evaluation.
• Make recommendations for 2026 and for the 2027–2030 strategy; publish the report online and in PDF, in French and English.

Annex 2The choice of case studies

Annex 3The team and its roles

Annex 4The work plan

Annex 5Documents reviewed

Sector strategy and operational plan 2022–2026; evaluation of the 2017–2021 strategy (March 2022); annual reports 2022 and 2023–2024; the reports of Students Acting for Accountability and Quality of Education (2022–2024), Youth Excel (2022) and REPLIC (2024); quadrennial report to ECOSOC (2021–2024); DWAC audit report (2022); our “Financial accountability” page; CERC website articles, 2022–2025.

Annex 6Funds received by donor, 2022–2025

Annex 7The rating scales

• Highly satisfactory: expectations exceeded.
• Satisfactory: expectations mostly met.
• Moderately satisfactory: real results, with notable gaps.
• Moderately unsatisfactory: major gaps outweigh the results.
• Unsatisfactory: expectations not met.

Each forecast of the plan is classed as met, partly met (real results, but below the forecast), not met or not measured (no data).