The overall aim of the project is to further contribute to the understanding of dynamics that underlie corruption, and the significance of local informal social norms, in relation to, international anti-corruption conventions and national law, when building counteraction strategies on a local level.

The overall aim raises the following core project objectives:-To systematically review the scholarly literature on corruption from a multi-level perspective (global, national and local), with the purpose of underlining the importance of a local approach.

-To conduct an ethnographic case study of informal practices and anti-corruption efforts concerning schools in the district Cau Giay in Hanoi, Vietnam.

-To apply participatory design principles, involving a school in the district Cau Giay, when developing an anti-corruption intervention that can serve as a model for counteracting corruption on local levels in different countries. The intervention design will be informed by the literature review and the ethnographic case study.

-To assess the intervention design by applying and testing it in multiple locations/countries. The intention is to make use of the ICLD network of participants, in Municipal Partnerships and International training programmes, for this part of the study. The assessment will involve both in-depth interviews and surveys.

-To create teaching materials, based on the findings of the overall project, that can be used within the ICLD International training programmes and in other contexts where anti-corruption efforts on a local level are in focus.

These objectives will form the basis for answering the overarching research question:

From a 'multi-level order of corruption' perspective; what theoretical implications can be drawn from an analysis of the case study data regarding informal practices and anti-corruption efforts on a local level; and how can these theoretical insights be transformed, in a participatory manner, into local anti-corruption strategies?

The research project is financed by International Centre for Local Democracy, Sweden