A group of young Fijians are developing innovative social media contents and expressive arts to raise public awareness about corruption and bribery.

The Youth for Integrity Network, the youth wing of the CLCT Integrity Fiji, a Fijian civil society organization (CSO), has recently launched its Youth Act Project supported by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Grace Konrote, the Youth Coordinator for the Youth for Integrity Network said, “Our Youth Act Project aims to raise awareness about corruption and bribery. We are doing this through e-expressive arts, such as songs, creative videos, posters, etc. on the theme of anti-corruption. The project focuses on improved public information on the topic of procurement. We are collaborating with the Fiji Procurement Office (FPO).”

Integrity Fiji and its youth network is one of the four CSOs which were successfully selected to receive grants from UNDP’s project, Strengthening Anti-corruption, Transparency and Accountability in Pacific Island Countries (Pacific Anti-Corruption project) funded by the UK government. The other grantees include Aspire Network Fiji, the Fiji Council of Social Services (FCOSS), and Hearts of Hope, Solomon Islands.

Elsie Pickering, a member of the Youth for Integrity Network explained that the Youth Act Project was officially called “Design & Capacity Building on Public Advocacy: Open Data and Public Information on Ethical Procurement Processes Public Accountability in Government Processes.”

The members of the Youth for Integrity Network have been engaging in learning programmes to develop their conceptual knowledge and technical skills to undertake the project. They have recently completed two workshops.

Pickering said, “The first workshop was very important for us to learn the conceptual framework, based on which youth members would develop films, songs, and posters on clean procurements in Government.”

Pickering explained that from her research, she noted that Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 16 includes targets that focus on reducing corruption, developing transparent institutions and ensuring public access to information, saying “those are key to enabling the achievement of all of the SDGs.”  

“Corruption poses a serious threat to the achievement of all other goals. Corruption is also a major threat for the enjoyment of civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights. It corrodes the rule of law, undermines public service provisions, weakens democratic institutions and sets back sustainable development efforts,” said Pickering.

Youth leader, Qalo Lesinawai said that the programmes were very empowering. "The workshop was an excellent opportunity for our youth leaders to be familiarized with the international commitments that Fiji is part of, especially the relevant articles of the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) and SDGs,” he added.

Youth Co-ordinator Grace Konrote noted that the Fijian Government spends over FJ$3 billion on purchasing goods and services and FPO publish the information about the processes on its online portal. 

Youth members observed that the language used in the FPO portal is highly technical and may not be fully understood and accessed by the public. To address this issue, creative social media/expressive arts will play a role in unpacking the procurement information and bringing it closer to the ordinary citizens.

The focus of the Youth Act Project is in line with one of the goals of the Integrity Fiji which is to “promote the integrity of fairness and public confidence in the procurement process.”

The members also learned the technical skills to produce videos from a professional video editor during the second workshop from 17 – 19 December. Their own video production has commenced, aiming at high quality and effective messaging on clean procurements to the public.

Contact information:
Joseph Veramu, Integrity Fiji; email: joseph.veramu@gmail.com
Tomoko Kashiwazaki, UNDP Pacific Office in Fiji; email: tomoko.kashiwazaki@undp.org