“There are several NGOs in Hungary fighting against corruption, but they need support to do their work more efficiently,” explains Sandor Léderer, director of K-Monitor.
Since its foundation in 2007, the organisation has been at the forefront of fighting corruption in Hungary, and with €134 200 in support from Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, K-monitor is now helping other civil society organisations in the country do the same.
Workshops
“One of the most important activities that we carry out as part of this project is the series of workshops that we organise for NGOs,” Léderer explains.
So far, six workshops have taken place, covering issues ranging from what kind of corruption-relevant data is publicly available and how to access it, to how to dig out data from a large excel spreadsheet and how to set up an interactive map using geo-tagging.
“We want our workshops to be as hands-on as possible, and cover topics that will be useful in the day-to-day work of the organisations that we work with,” the NGO director says, adding that they always try to tailor their workshops to meet the needs of the participants.
Data sharing
Many of the activities carried out by the project are in one way or another connected to data. K-Monitor not only aims to help the NGOs involved in the project gain a better understanding of what corruption-relevant data is available and how to best use it. K-monitor also encourages them to share their knowledge. This is important according to Léderer .
“One of the problems with the situation as it is today is that NGOs and others who are doing anti-corruption work in Hungary don’t have the capacity or standardised systems for sharing their findings. This makes it difficult to get an overview of what information is actually out there, which in turn can hamper the work of combating corruption. Therefore, we also use our workshops to encourage the participants to share whatever information they may have.”
Wider effects
In addition to making Hungarian NGOs better equipped to fight corruption, Sandor Léderer and the rest of K-Monitor are hoping that their efforts will have a positive impact in terms of supporting civil society at large in Hungary.
“We are hoping that the data that is made available through this project will be useful for NGOs working in other policy areas as well, and that this will help strengthen Hungarian civil society as a whole”, he explains.