20 DEMOCRATIZATION
“
Stronger
co-ordination
between financial
institutions and anticorruption bodies needs
to be promoted as a
necessary step towards
a more effective fight
against corruption.”
Drago Kos, Chairperson of the
Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s
(OECD) Working Group on
Anti-bribery
Magnus Ohman (r), IFES Senior Political
Finance Adviser and Director of Regional
Europe Office speaking at an event on
financial regulations in politics, while
Keti Maisuradze (c-r), IFES Deputy Chief
of Party of Georgia, Daniel Smilov (c),
Associate Professor at the Political
Science Department of University of Sofia,
Lisa Klein (c-l), Political Finance Specialist,
and Christophe Speckbacher (l), Head of
Section of Council of Europe's Secretariat
of the GRECO listen, in Tbilisi, 18 February
2016. (OSCE/Jacopo Leone)
for regular exchange of experiences.
ODIHR organized a working follow-up
meeting on 28 and 29 September
2016 in Warsaw, initiating a series of
consultations on the establishment of
the proposed Network in 2017.
Advancing transparent political
finance, accountable democratic
institutions
ODIHR reinforced its efforts in 2016
to assist anti-corruption agencies
and regulatory bodies, as well as civil
society, in selected OSCE participating States to fight political corruption.
The innovative and cross-dimensional
“Money in Politics in South-Eastern
Europe” project, implemented jointly by ODIHR and the Office of the
Co-ordinator of OSCE Economic and
Environmental Activities, in co-operation with OSCE Field Operations,
assessed the level of co-operation
among relevant anti-corruption bodies
in the Balkan region, identifying key
challenges and existing gaps in order
to promote more comprehensive and
holistic approaches to effectively fight
corruption.
Practical steps towards improving
political finance regulations in Eastern
and Central Europe were discussed by
over 100 political officials and non-governmental experts from more than 30
countries during the Money in Politics
conference organized by ODIHR
together with a number of other partners in Georgia in early 2016. The
Fourth Political Party Expert Workshop,
organized by ODIHR in Kyiv, Ukraine,
covered related issues, reviewing
international practices in political party
regulation and Ukrainian institutions’
efforts to strengthen their party system and the monitoring of political
party financing.
Furthermore, ODIHR has supported
the development, adoption and
implementation of ethical standards
for Members of Parliament in over
15 participating States and worked
directly with three parliaments
in 2016 alone. The 2012 ODIHR
Background Study: Professional and
Ethical Standards for Parliamentarians
continues to be an important tool,
offering comprehensive analyses of
how to develop and implement codes
of conduct in parliaments.
Enhancing Youth Participation
Since 2014, ODIHR, establishing partnerships with the Folke Bernadotte
Academy, the Central European
School for Public Policy, and the EU,
provided support to young men and
women policy advisors by increasing
their capacities to contribute to building democratic institutions,. In 2016,
ODIHR organized four policy advisors
courses in Eastern Europe and Central
Asia, building the capacity of nearly
100 participants to implement their
responsibilities as advisors shaping
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