The Regional Anti-Corruption Initiative (RAI) is committed to building strong, sustainable partnerships to drive impactful anti-corruption efforts across Southeast Europe. In our mission to foster transparency, accountability, and integrity, we engage a wide spectrum of stakeholders, including government bodies, civil society organizations, think tanks, academia, media, regional and international organizations.
Working closely with diverse partners allows us to catalyze regional dialogue, exchange knowledge, and implement best practices that address the unique challenges facing this dynamic region. Together with our partners, RAI undertakes coordinated actions, advancing a comprehensive network for meaningful discussions, knowledge-sharing, and practical solutions.
Through our active participation in various networks, we continuously exchange experiences, promote good practices, and share lessons learned. These partnerships fuel our commitment to support and serve those who have entrusted us with their confidence, reinforcing our role as the primary focal point for anti-corruption cooperation in Southeast Europe.
Our collaborative efforts are based on facilitating coordination among member states and fostering interactions with international partners. Through these networks, RAI enables the dissemination of best practices, aligning efforts to combat corruption and enhance good governance in Southeast Europe.
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime
For over a decade, RAI and the UNODC have collaborated on impactful initiatives, including the Regional Anti-Corruption and Illicit Finance Roadmap (ACIF) for the Western Balkans and the Southeast Europe: Together Against Corruption Regional Programme. The UNODC contributes to global peace and security, sustainable development and human rights by helping to make the world safer from drugs, crime, corruption and terrorism.
RAI has been an observer in EPAC since November 2016. The EPAC AND EACN are independent forums for practitioners, united in the common goal of preventing and combating corruption. They recognize the importance of safeguarding the independence of both police oversight bodies and anti-corruption authorities in accordance with fundamental principles of national legal systems.
Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and its Anti-Corruption Network (ACN)
RAI has been partnering with the OECD-ACN for Eastern Europe and Central Asia for years and has been a contributor to OECD’s Competitiveness Outlook and active participant of the Collective Action Community in the region. Additionally, before transfer of Secretariat of the SPAI to the region in 2003, the Council of Europe (CoE) and OECD performed SPAI’s Secretariat functions in close co-ordination with the Office of the Special Coordinator of the Stability Pact.
International Anti-corruption Academy (IACA)
RAI and IACA signed a MoU in 2021 for the purpose of jointly fostering the prevention of and the fight against corruption and developing cooperation and fostering capacity and institution-building programmes in the anti-corruption field. IACA delivers and facilitates anti-corruption education and training for professionals and practitioners from all sectors. It provides research and platforms for dialogue and networking, which bring together field specialists and for the development of grounded, sustainable strategies and guidelines.
Network of Corruption Prevention Authorities (NCPA)
RAI became a partner of NCPA in 2021. NCPA is a respectable international platform launched in 2018 dedicated to the exchange of information and sharing good practices among the anti-corruption authorities from the various regions around the world.
RAI is a member of the EU Network Against Corruption and regularly provides inputs to thematic workshops. The EU network against corruption is meant as an umbrella forum for all stakeholders in the EU to exchange good practices, opportunities, ideas and plans for further work. The network is inclusive, bringing in also independent civil society organisations, based on the strong belief that sharing different perspectives leads to better results and a more effective anticorruption policy.
Balkan Asset Management Inter-Agency Network (BAMIN)
RAI became an Associate member of BAMIN in 2024. As an Associate Member of BAMIN, RAI extended the collaboration with other asset management practitioners in the region to enhance their efforts in combating corruption and managing criminal assets. BAMIN is an informal network of practitioners, working operationally within Asset Management Offices or within the institution or department mandated to deal with the management and disposal of criminal assets both within their jurisdiction and on international cases. Its founding Members include Western Balkans jurisdictions, but the Network is open to observers and associate members from all over the world.
Regional Cooperation Council (RCC)
RAI and RCC signed the MoU in 2018 that established framework for mutual cooperation that will build on strengths of each organization with a goal to support developments and to boost cooperation in the region in line with European Union integration process. RCC is an all-inclusive, regionally owned and led cooperation framework. The RCC works to develop and maintain a political climate of dialogue, reconciliation, tolerance and openness towards cooperation, with a view to enabling the implementation of regional programmes aimed at economic and social development to the benefit of the people in the region.
Central European Initiative (CEI)
RAI and the CEI signed MoU in 2022. CEI is a regional intergovernmental forum which gathers 17 Member States in Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe. It supports a united Europe with shared values embracing all countries, regions, peoples and citizens. The CEI operates in a flexible and demand-driven manner to promote cooperation at institutional level through its Governmental, Parliamentary, Economic and Local Dimensions as well as through strategic partnerships.
Regional School for Public Administration (ReSPA)
RAI and the ReSPA signed the MoU on mutual cooperation in 2017. Recognizing the importance to strengthen the cooperation in the areas of common interest and the need to boost regional cooperation, the organizations agreed to cooperate particularly in the area of public administration reform and anti-corruption improvements in the light of the European Integration. ReSPA mission is to support the creation of transparent, accountable and professional public administration institutions that provide efficient services to the benefit citizens and businesses. It acts as a regional hub aiming to take forward Western Balkans WB in the area of Public Administration Reform (PAR).
Integrative Internal Security Governance (IISG)
RAI became member of the IISG in 2022, with active contribution and participation in its second pillar - the Western Balkan Counter-Serious Crime initiative (WBCSCi). Through this partnership, a platform was created for addressing corruption's role in fostering organized crime and security threats, tackling key challenges to the Western Balkans' EU membership aspirations. As an EU-funded project, the IISG is focused on improving the collective efficiency of security actions and actors in the Western Balkans and in such way to support the European perspective of the region.
Southeast European Law Enforcement Center (SELEC)
RAI has been granted an Observer status in SELEC in 2023. This partnership is aimed at contributing to stability and peace through building integrity to help curb corruption in the security sector and meeting the RAI strategic objectives. SELEC is a law enforcement, treaty-based, international organization that brings together the resources and expertise of Police and Customs authorities that join synergies in combating more trans-border organized crime in Southeast Europe.
Centre for Security Cooperation (RACVIAC)
RAI and RACVIAC signed the MoU in 2014 which formed basis for formalizing the cooperation for safeguarding and improving regional security and good governance. RACVIAC is an international, independent, regionally owned organization, which aims to provide arms control training, promote confidence and security building measures and broaden cooperation in SEE. Its scope of activities comprises a wide range of politico-military issues, including security sector reform and international and regional cooperation with a focus on Euro-Atlantic integration.
Migration, Asylum, Refugees Regional Initiative (MARRI)
RAI and MARRI signed MoU on mutual cooperation in 2023. The MoU sets the basis for working together to ensure fair, efficient and practicable asylum and migration systems, and upholding the fundamental rights of migrants and persons who have applied for international protection, while enhancing regional and international cooperation on preventing and combating corruption, drug smuggling, human trafficking, and weapons trafficking. MARRI’s mandate is aimed at promoting closer regional cooperation and common, comprehensive and harmonized approach in areas of migration, asylum, border control, trafficking in human beings, visa regime, integration and return of refugees with the ambition to reach international and European standards in these areas.
Regional Youth Cooperation Office (RYCO)
RAI and the RYCO signed MoU on regional cooperation in 2022. The MoU sets ground for joint initiatives, including support of youth cooperation, non-formal education, youth empowerment and youth participation in the region, thus supporting cooperation, peace building and reconciliation in the region. RYCO aims to promote the spirit of reconciliation and cooperation between the youth in the region through supporting and funding projects which bring youth of the region together and engage in the civic, social, educational, cultural, and sports domains.
In 2024, RAI signed the MoU with the WBF. Key cooperation priorities include raising awareness, building regional networks, and sharing valuable knowledge and best practices. The WBF is an international organization, founded by the governments of Western Balkans jurisdictions. WBF aims to promote cooperation and the common values between citizens, civil society and people to people contacts, by providing funding for small and medium projects.
Southeast Europe Leadership for Development and Integrity (SELDI)
Cooperating with SELDI as an associated partner provides a platform for cooperation and promotion of RAI Activities to the Civil Society in the region and enables establishing closer cooperation and a platform for fruitful dialogue with the civil society. SELDI is a coalition comprised of 17 CSOs from nine SEE countries. The coalition’s objective is to contribute to a dynamic civil society in the region, capable of participating in public debate and influencing policy and decision-making process in the area of anti-corruption and good governance.
SEE Coalition on Whistleblower Protection
In 2015, RAI facilitated the establishment of the first ever CSOs network in SEE dedicated solely to the subject of whistleblowing – the Southeast Europe Coalition on Whistleblower Protection. RAI was supportive of the work of the Coalition since its establishment, in recognition of the importance of collaboration between the government and the NGO sector in effectively protecting whistleblowers. As the first regional initiative of its kind, the Coalition brings together activists, journalists and experts to strengthen legal rights for whistleblowers and support their efforts to achieve justice, thus carrying the banner for employees and citizens who report crime and corruption throughout the region.
Advice on Individual Rights in Europe (AIRE Centre)
Since 2017, RAI established partnership with the AIRE Centre to implement joint activities and projects aimed at strengthening regional cooperation and promoting human rights in the fight against corruption. This partnership has led to several successful regional projects focused on asset recovery, asset seizure measures, and final court judgments in corruption cases, contributing to combating corruption and organised crime in the Western Balkans. The AIRE Centre is an NGO based in the UK whose mission is to promote awareness of European legal standards and assist vulnerable and marginalised individuals in asserting them. For more than two decades, the AIRE Centre been delivering rule of law programmes in the WB at all levels of the judiciary across the region.
SEE Good Governance and Anticorruption Women Leaders Forum
RAI played a significant role in establishment of the SEE Good Governance and Anticorruption Women Leaders Forum in 2023, with its Head of Secretariat, Ms. Desislava Gotskova, being one of the signatories of the founding Declaration. The purpose of the Forum, supported by UN WOMEN, RAI and UNODC, is to create a regional network that strives to strengthen the leadership of women in society, through professional development and international networking for exchange of best practices, experiences and mutual support for building better societies for all.
Recognizing the importance of media and importance of addressing and countering corruption as a necessity and requires a holistic approach and mobilizing society as a whole, in 2024, RAI Secretariat and Al Jazeera Balkans signed the MoU that established a framework for further cooperation in the fight against corruption. Al Jazeera Balkans is owned by Al Jazeera Media Network - a multimedia and multinational conglomerate that owns all Al Jazeera news channels, several specialized programs (from documentaries to children's) and a network of global prestigious sports programs. Al Jazeera's news programs currently have 82 centers around the world, making it the largest network in the world after the BBC.
Donors
Austrian Development Cooperation
European Union
Central European Initiative
Konrad Adenauer Stifting
Iceland Liechtenstein Norway grants
America for Bulgaria Foundation