East Timor villagers listen to a presentation on natural resource revenues and budget transparency by Tiri, an NGO that supports anti-corruption efforts especially in Palestinian Territories, Middle East, Africa and Central Asia. Photo by: Martin Tisne

As Fatah and Hamas struggle for power over the Palestinian Territories, the University of Gaza and the University of Bir-Zeit on the West Bank have joined forces to imagine the makeup of a Palestinian state through the Public Integrity Education Network, a program developed by Tiri, a non-governmental organization headquartered in London.

Through PIEN, Tiri has facilitated a global network of universities and training organizations that provide evidence-based courses on public integrity and reform. Through the Network for Integrity in Reconstruction, Tiri works with NGOs from eight post-war countries as well as major aid agencies to address corruption during post-war reconstruction. Tiri also seeks to raise ethics in the public sector with an interactive DVD-based tool called "integrity@work."

"Corruption itself is the failure of something, it is a movement away from some sort of preferred state of affairs," said PIEN Program Director Nick Duncan in Jerusalem in June. "But this preferred state of affairs was never satisfactorily articulated from my point of view. And so this is the point of integrity in an organization that works on integrity. Integrity is this positive concept and a richer concept actually than that of corruption."

A global movement against corruption began in the late 1980s, and with it came international development projects aimed at reducing corruption. Standards were set in the decade that followed, and in December 2003, the United Nations signed a convention against corruption.

Tiri was formed just two months prior by Fredrik Galtung and Jeremy Pope, two founding members of Transparency International, the global civil society organisation against corruption. Galtung and Pope sought to teach a new generation the skills to foster integrity within institutions.

Key to Tiri's work is to understand the prerequisites of change and to engage in long-term partnerships to facilitate it, according to Duncan, who became interested in anti-corruption work when, after years working for an international software company, he began studying international economics at the University of Essex and development economics at the University of East Anglia in the early 1990s, and eventually founded the Centre for Corruption Research with Frank Ellis.

"Although I am by nature impatient, I do understand when people in this field say that this takes a long time, because it really does," Duncan said. "Unless you are prepared to invest over a long period of time in real partnerships, equal partnerships, with institutions in countries so they can begin to mainstream - really adopt and own - the approaches that they take, [and] to build the sort of society and institution that they feel represents the needs and aspirations of their people, you will get window-dressing. And there is far too much of that in our field."

PIEN's biggest challenge is, as so often, operational costs.

"It is actually quite costly, because you have to have a lot of meetings, you have to have a lot of workshops, you have to build up capacity, build up research within countries," Duncan said. "You have to be able to be able to commit over a long period of time."

By creating a global network of integrity experts, Tiri leaves a real footprint on key research institutions, Duncan said, noting how little information is available on governance in Middle Eastern nations, particularly in Arabic and written by experts from the region.

Duncan's vision: "When a minister comes to make a policy decision they can actually look at cross-country data that was developed from the perspective of the region by local experts."

Although it operates worldwide, Tiri's regional focus is on the Middle East, Africa and Central Asia. Clients range from the Palestinian Central Election Commission and Kuwait's Chamber of Commerce to the European Commission and the United Nations Development Program. Major funding for Tiri comes from the Aga Khan Foundation, Ford Foundation, Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation, Open Society Institute and U.K. Department for International Development. The funds predominantly go to implementation in the field.

Tiri only bids on consultancy contracts that fall straight in its area of interest. Usually, the organization invites partners - especially local ones - to join in its own projects. Rarely, it contracts with outside consultants.

Tiri plans to partner with universities and civil service training organizations to create a certified integrity officer training curriculum. The course would be the first of its kind, according to Duncan. Some governments are already "signing up," he noted, adding that integrity is now generally understood as a concept that can help to strengthen institutions.

"All we can do," Duncan said, "is affect the way decisions are made and actions are taken, and to provide the skills and knowledge that will help in some way to make more informed and hopefully more enlightened decisions."

Fast facts
• Name: Tiri
• Founded: 2003
• Type: Non-governmental organization
• Mission: To "raise standards of integrity in specific institutions by promoting and facilitating a growing network of reform leaders, specialists, and policy practitioners informed by sound and objective evidence."
• CEO: Fredrik Galtung (co-founder with Jeremy Pope)
• Headquarters: London
• Budget: $3 million (2008)
• Employees: 15
• Opportunities: www.tiri.org