The CEELI Institute team went to The Gambia and Malaysia this summer in support of our global “Implementation of Anti-Corruption Treaties and Standards” (IMPACTS) project. This project is carried out with our longstanding partner, the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES).
In July, the team, joined by colleagues from the US Federal Judicial Center (FJC) and US District Court of Alaska, traveled to the Gambian capital of Banjul for a series of meetings and exchanges led by our in-country partner, Gambia Participates. The Gambia Participates team has been helping provide support for a nascent Gambian national judicial academy, which is one of the priorities of the IMPACTS program. Key in that effort is the design and implementation of The Gambia’s first judicial ethics curriculum for judges—an essential training course for any new judge. With support from adult- and judicial-education experts from the FJC, a two-day workshop was held for a small working group of judges who had been selected to develop this initial curriculum. Over the next several months, assisted by Gambia Participates and the international IMPACTS team, the judicial working group will design and implement the country’s first standardized training on judicial ethics.
In August, the team traveled to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to meet with our local partner, the Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (IDEAS). During the week-long visit, the IMPACTS team participated in IDEAS-led meetings with the All-Party Parliamentary Group Malaysia (APPGM) on political financing. IDEAS created the APPGM group, one of IMPACTS’ priorities, with 11 civil society organizations and 10 members of the legislature from across the political divide (nine members of the Malaysian Parliament and one senator) to advocate and establish grounds for deliberation on issues regarding political financing. The group has developed a draft of a political financing bill, which will be discussed at the next sitting of Parliament, in October 2022.
To advance another IMPACTS project priority, the team also participated in the Sub-national Summit facilitated by IDEAS, a two-day program providing training and support for young leaders and activists from 13 states to demand accountability in the budget process at the state level. The summit’s training focused on improving young leaders’ and activists’ abilities to communicate their findings to relevant stakeholders and to advocate for policy changes at the state level.
