Communities Addressing Corruption in Timor-Leste

The Centre for Peace and Democracy (CEPAD) is a Timorese NGO that promotes peace-building and democratic consolidation in Timorese communities. A major pillar of its work is in the prevention of corruption.

To contribute to their work in the prevention of corruption, CEPAD engaged Bridging Peoples to develop a training-of-trainers package to be delivered to local communities across Timor-Leste, to help community members to understand and address corruption, collusion and nepotism. Bridging Peoples worked closely with the CEPAD team in developing materials and presenting complex legal concepts that were clear and simple for community members to understand (including those who are illiterate). To help with this, the team used Communications for Development (C4D) approaches to help contextualise the materials for illiterate people, conducting research and testing the materials multiple times to ensure ease of use among community members.

Because of this project’s success, relevant sections have been used and adopted by other NGOs and donors to use in their citizen education manuals, including German donor agency GIZ. CEPAD network of focal points across the country continue to deliver this training to community members.

This project was conducted in 2015.

“We were delighted to partner with the Bridging Peoples on the development of our Corruption Training Manual, which is now being used as a key activity for CEPAD. The Bridging Peoples’ team provided a depth of methodological experience and great ideas, creating a collaborative and engaging atmosphere from the beginning. The assistance provided remains an invaluable resource and we truly appreciated all that the team contributed to this very successful project.”

João Boavida, Executive Director