Goals and Strategies for Building “Islands of Integrity”

The implementation of the “Islands of Integrity” workshops for 12 grantees of Civica Mobilitas continues. Participants of the third workshop began preparing the first version of a document that includes goals for strengthening integrity and preventing/limiting corruption, as well as strategies for achieving these goals through systemic changes.

Two conceptual frameworks used during the diagnostic phase were based on the corruption formula, where corruption equals monopoly plus discretion minus transparency and accountability, and a cost-benefit analysis. In the first framework, participants worked on two main goals: limiting monopoly and discretion and improving accountability and transparency. In the second framework, the goal was to increase the benefits of operating with integrity and the losses caused by corruption.

In this context, participants worked in groups and discussed plenarily what strategies might limit monopoly and discretion, the types of controls every organization should have, how to avoid corruption and discretion at higher levels, and who should control those in power.

In the second part, participants discussed what motivates people’s behavior and what would encourage them to work with integrity. They worked in detail on systems that create external and internal motivation, specifically how to create an effective reward and punishment system and how to foster autonomy, mastery, and the improvement of purpose.

Participants will complete the document after returning to their organizations, once they have consulted their colleagues. After this, they will have one more workshop before preparing the strategy and action plan, with which they will implement organizational changes to strengthen integrity and reduce their organizations’ vulnerability to corruption.