Islands of Integrity – Black Sea Countries Join Hands to Fight Corruption

KUTAISI. 26 June 2017 – Anti-corruption practitioners and representatives of local governments, civil society and international organizations from Georgia, Moldova, Turkey and Ukraine are taking part in the second Regional Meeting of the Anti-Corruption Professionals Network at the Black Sea on June 26, 2017, in Kutaisi, Georgia.

The municipality of Kutaisi is the first local governance entity in Georgia to implement the methodology of “Islands of Integrity” which is a tool for public leaders and managers to identify and change public policies and organizational systems prone to corruption.

The goal of the meeting is to strengthen and expand the existing network and exchange experience in applying the methodology in the municipalities of Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine, Turkey and other CEE/SEE countries. Participants of the conference share the experience of implementing anti-corruption policies in their home countries. They also discuss further ways of multiplying the methodology “Islands of Integrity” in the Black Sea Region.

The 1st Regional Meeting of the Anti-Corruption Professionals Network took place in October 2016, in Chișinău, Republic of Moldova, as part of the 8th edition of the Black Sea NGO Forum during which the AntiCorruption Professionals Network was officially launched. The second conference in Georgia is part of the follow-up activities of the 9th edition of the Black Sea NGO Forum organised by the Romanian Non-Governmental Development Organisations’s Platform – FOND, with the financial support of the European Commission, the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in partnership with UNDP Regional Centre for Europe and Central Asia and Civil Society Organisations’ Partnership for Development Effectiveness – CPDE.