This week, Network chair Beth Simone Noveck launched a new initiative from the GovLab, Mexico’s Secretaría de la Función Pública (Secretariat of the Civil Service) and the Inter-American Development Bank aimed at “identify[ing] and implement[ing] innovative approaches for fighting corruption.” The Smarter Crowdsourcing Against Corruption initiative “will convene global experts from a variety of fields, including public administration, data analytics, technology, law enforcement, and business” to the end of surfacing innovative, actionable approaches for addressing corruption in Mexico (and beyond).
In a piece shared on Medium, Noveck introduces the new initiative, looks back on lessons learned from previous Smarter Crowdsourcing projects aimed at helping Quito prepare for the eruption of volcano Cotopaxi and giving four Latin American governments new ideas for addressing the Zika epidemic, respectively. She also describes the Smarter Crowdsourcing methodology that will be put into action to help Mexico fight corruption:
- “First, we break a big problem down into a set of specific, core challenges that need to be addressed.
- Second, we work with our government partners to conduct background research on each challenges and ensure that we understand its root causes and, particularly, how those manifest themselves in each context.
- Third, we solicit the participation of leading experts to address these core challenges. We both put out an open call for volunteers and hand-select the list of guests who can contribute most to helping governments to identify practical solutions.
- Next, we hold online conferences on each challenge to identify potential innovative approaches to solving them.
- Finally, in order to enable implementation of what is learned during the conferences, we complement the online dialogues with research and write up detailed implementation roadmaps in order that our partners can put the best ideas into action quickly.”
The online conferences will address the following six challenges:
- Measuring Corruption and its Costs (June 6)
- Countering Judicial Corruption (June 20)
- Facilitating Citizen Participation in Policymaking (June 27)
- Ensuring Whistleblower Support and Protection (July 11)
- Increasing the Effectiveness of Prosecution ( July 18)
- Tracking and Analyzing Money Flows (July 25)
The partnering organizations are currently soliciting recommendations for expert participants able to provide useful input:
“These six online dialogues will take place during June and July of 2017, with each two-hour dialogue focusing on a specific challenge that stands in the way of improved public integrity. We are soliciting the advice and participation of experts from around the world.
To express your interest or to refer others who may be able to help, please follow this link anticorruption.smartercrowdsourcing.org or email [email protected].”
