Impact Assessment of Anti-Corruption Projects in Southeast Europe

This research project, carried out by CPS in partnership with the Soros Foundations Network, aimed to study best practices in the area of anti-corruption policies and projects in four South East European countries, namely Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria and Macedonia. Research covered projects initiated by the Soros Foundations Network and other leading multilateral and bilateral donor agencies as well as national government policies.

The fight against corruption has been a key concern both for the donor community and for national governments in South East Europe since the mid-1990s. The results of initiatives in this field are, however, contested. It is notoriously difficult to measure the prevalence of corruption in a country, and thus to assess whether a given set of anti-corruption measures have succeeded in their goal of reducing the scope or incidence of corruption. The 'Lessons Learned in Anti-Corruption Policy' project thus focused on the evaluation of anti-corruption programming rather than specific projects.

The project had the following specific objectives:

• increased knowledge among the donor community and within national governments on good regional practices in fighting corruption;
• recommendations concerning the make-up of future anti-corruption programs;
• information-sharing and groundwork for successful collaborative efforts between national governments in the region, civil society and international donors.