A training course in social accountability and fighting corruption concludes

The Pal-Think for Strategic Studies institution concluded the first training course in “Social accountability and fighting corruption” within the project “Strengthening the democratic and civic values of the youth” funded by the Canadian government, which continued over 3 days, with the participation of dozens of Palestinian university students and communal activists in the hall of the Laterna restaurant in Gaza.

The training course was opened by Mr Omar Shaban, director of Pal-Think for Strategic Studies, and he touched on the role of the Pal-Think institution in bringing forth Palestinian youth and making them aware of their effective role through the activities and events the institution carries out — making clear that the goal of this training course is increasing the youth's awareness of the communal and democratic values, helping to make the youth sector more influential in Palestinian society, honing them in knowledge of the concepts of fighting corruption and the mechanisms of confronting it, endowing them with the skills necessary for confronting corruption, and enabling them to conduct communal-accountability campaigns to confront the destructive effects of corruption on society's different structures and frameworks.

In his turn, the legal researcher Bakr al-Turkmani focused on acquainting the participants with the most effective instruments and mechanisms of communal accountability, and stimulating the youth to exercise their right in the process of oversight and accountability in order to improve the level of the services presented to the Palestinian citizens, through clarifying the ways of accountability and the forms of corruption and fraud in the societies and systems. He pointed out that the youth are the first and successful instrument of change in all the societies that look toward bringing about the positive change and the development and elevation of society.

Meanwhile the rights researcher Talal Abu Rokba pointed out that social accountability rests on affirming the accountability relations between the citizens and the state, and putting them into effect. Social accountability points to a wide range of procedures and mechanisms, going beyond the limits of voting, that the citizens can use in holding the state to account, in addition to the procedures and measures taken by the government, civil society, the media, and the other active communal parties to encourage or ease these efforts.

He affirmed the importance of communal accountability in its being the cornerstone of good and democratic public administration, and its capacity to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of development through improving the presentation of services and the drawing of public policies, in addition to empowerment through widening the frames of work, civic participation, and freedom of choices.

The young participants in the course recommended the necessity of focusing on such subjects, since they contribute to the process of developing communal accountability, valuing the efforts expended by Pal-Think to strengthen the youth's role in society and increase their knowledge of their rights, which contributes to building a society resting on good governance.

It is recalled that the training was announced during the month of November 2017 and more than 200 enrolment applications for the training were received; thereupon the institution chose the participants according to the priority of registration and the specialisation around which the training's subject centres. This project comes with funding from the Canadian government and continues for six months; it includes ten educational lectures and radio episodes on the issues of democracy and political development in Palestinian society, in addition to three training courses in subjects related to fighting corruption and strengthening the instruments of societal accountability and transparency in Palestinian society — as Pal-Think has worked on bringing in scientific and specialised competences in this field for the training during the project's period.

Note: the designations used and the material presented in this item do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Government of Canada.