Overall objective: 
The third phase of AMAN’s strategic plan 2008-2009 aims to build the capacity of AMAN as the Palestinian house of expertise on the issues of integrity, transparency and accountability.

Specific objectives:
During this phase, AMAN will concentrate on achieving the following specific objectives:

1) Revise the Palestinian legal framework to ensure its compliance with international and regional anti-corruption conventions and treaties:

This component will include the preparation of all necessary drafts of anti-corruption laws, by-laws and regulations.

2) Upgrade the capabilities of Palestinian public institutions to incorporate integrity, transparency, and accountability mechanisms in their financial and administrative systems:

This component will mainly aim at raising the capacity of the public institutions in the OPT in devising proper implementation mechanisms for incorporating transparency and accountability as impeded systems in their institutional entity, administrative and financial systems and regulations. Some of the targeted beneficiaries will include civil society organizations in general, the Higher Judiciary Council, the Financial and Administrative Control Bureau, Land Deeds Authority, Water Authority, in addition to the complaints and financial units in public sector institutions. AMAN will also work on reviewing the laws and regulations related to combating corruption and the government policies concerning vital issues.

3) Provide information about the magnitude of corruption in the Palestinian society is made available by AMAN’s resource center:

One of the major obstacles facing reform in the OPT has been the lack of information about the dynamics and real magnitude of corruption within various sectors of the Palestinian society. In addition to this and based on the assumption that enhancing the civil societies’ watchdog capability depends on sufficient information, one of the main specific objectives of phase III of AMAN’s program during 2008-2009 is to ensure an improved, timely and objective flow of information about public issues to all stakeholders in addition to developing corruption index and annual corruption report. It is true that a lot of progress has already been made in this regard, but work is still needed to provide continuous and updates information, based on systematic approach.

AMAN intends to develop its capacity in this regard to enable the coalition to provide relevant information to all stakeholders as well on the local and regional as well as on the international levels.

4) Enhance the capacity of CSOs in devising and implementing anti-corruption strategies:

AMAN already started working on this component in 2006, in partnership with the Konrad-Adenauer-Foundation, and continued throughout 2007 mainly due to the high importance of this issue as one of the priorities in its 2008-2009 program. The objective is to contribute to enhancing the ability of NGOs in the OPT to devise strategies and implement anti-corruption activities that mainly concentrate on raising the general public’s awareness about corruption, its various forms, and possible means and methods to combat it.  The objective will be achieved by implementing two phases:

Phase one: a number of training seminars (eight in total) will be delivered to a total number of 100 NGOs in the WB and Gaza.

Phase two: outsourcing of awareness raising campaigns to NGOs and CBOs.

5) Enhance AMAN’s institutional, organizational and operational capacities:

Based on the recommendations of the Ernest and Young’s assessment, AMAN will continue to upgrade its institutional and programmatic capacity by developing its administrative and financial systems, performance indicators system, risk analysis plan, and human resources capacity. AMAN will also focus on increasing its staff’s participation in the strategic planning and evaluation processes. A lot of emphasis will be placed on periodic staff meetings to ensure the flow of information between different program components and units, and to solve problems or deviations emerging during the implementation process. Furthermore, AMAN will carry on the development of its administrative and financial systems and operational procedures, which was started in 2007. AMAN’s infrastructure will also be developed by introducing a new layout that ensures a good physical environment for its staff. Special attention will be given to the layout of the resource center and meeting hall. As per new employment, a public relations and fundraising officer, a resident researcher and an accountant will be recruited. These occupants will without doubt add value to the capacity of the existing staff. On the other hand, the expansion of AMAN’s members by recruiting new community activists and the election of a new Board of Directors during 2008 will unquestionably improve the implementation of the ITA principles in AMAN.