Thai Youth Integrity and Anti-Corruption Network - Project Report 1
“Thai Youth Integrity and AntiCorruption Network – Empowering Youth through Civic
Education to Undertake Public Interest Advocacy”
Achievements and Lessons Learned
JANNUARY 2013
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1. Background
1.1. About College of Local Administration (COLA), Khon Kaen University
The College of Local Administration or “COLA” was established in 2007 as the first institution in
Thailand to provide training and offer degree programs in local government and in police
administration. COLA have trained more than 10,000 graduates, who now serve in various public
and private sectors throughout the country. COLA offers a variety of curriculums from
undergraduate to doctoral program in order to accommodate national changes in terms of
decentralization and public services. We offer three undergraduate programs in Local Government,
Fiscal Management, and Construction and Urban Management. We also include two MPA program
in Local Government and in Police and Community Administration. Currently COLA conducts
extensive research in areas of Local Governance, Administration Innovation of Thailand ‘s Local
Governments and Decentralization of Authorities to Local Government.
1.2. About “Thai Youth Integrity and Anti-Corruption Network” project
Conducted in 2009 and in 38 countries to measure student perceptions and behaviors relevant to
civics and citizenship, the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS) shows that
Thai students expressed the most favorable views among the five studied Asian countries for these
statements: i) It is acceptable to bribe government officials to get things done; ii) It does not matter
if a public official uses resource from his/her institution; iii) Preventing corruption is adults’
business, nothing to do with me.
Thai students’ score in civic participation is more than 10 percentage points above ICCS average,
but their civic knowledge is the fifth lowest and gender difference is the largest, i.e. female students
are more knowledgeable and hold less positive attitudes toward acceptance of corrupt practices
than male students. These statistics are revealing and indicate that the strong participation does
not translate into better civic knowledge among Thai youth.
A recent nationwide poll also provided similar evidence. It was reported that a majority (63.4%) of
Thai people still hold the view that corruption in government is acceptable as long as they also
benefit from it. The vast majority of young people under 20 also hold the same attitude.
With such evidence in mind and in line with UNDP’s Country Programme (2012-2016) to promote
civic education with particular focus on democratic governance and through engagement with nonstate actors and people’s assemblies, UNDP in collaboration with the College of Local
Administration, Khon Kaen University held the first anti-corruption weekend camp from 23-25
June 2012 for 36 student leaders from 15 universities across Thailand. The aim of the event was
fourfold:
 To educate youth about the many dangers of corruption in Thai society, using a diverse
array of speakers, motivators, and educators.
 To raise youth’s awareness about corruption and its negative impacts;
 To assess youth’s interests in forming an inter-university students’ network as a platform
for their active participation and engagement in promoting integrity and preventing
corruption.
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To identify partnering universities as youth “edutainment”1 anti-corruption hubs to further
expand youth anti-corruption network and plan campus-wide/inter-university activities to
promote integrity and prevent corruption
Given the level of enthusiasm among youth leaders witnessed in the first camp, UNDP, the College
of Local Administration (COLA), Khon Kaen University, and partnering university hubs have agreed
to expand the network to many more universities in Thailand with the aim to cultivate, instill, and
grow values of integrity among Thai youth across the country.
Through the Letter of Agreement with UNDP, COLA is responsible for successful implementation of
the five camps by university hubs and for organizing a network’s core group meeting.
The 5 camps took place during September and November 2012 as follows:
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Prince of Songkhla University (South) for 2 days, 8-9 September 2012
Mahasarakham University (Upper Northeast) for 2 days, 15-16 September 2012
Burapha University (East) for 2 days in 22-23 September 2012
Core Group Meeting for 3 days in 28-30 October 2012 at Rama Gardens, Bangkok
Thammasat University, Lampang Center (North) for 2 days in 3-4 November 2012
Ubol Ratchathani University (Lower Northeast) for 2 days in 17-18 November 2012
Each hub university invited 60-80 participants from universities in its region to participate in their
camps and with the following objectives in mind:
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To promote and instill integrity and anti-corruption values among youth;
To empower youth, give youth ownership, information and knowledge by using a diverse
array of speakers, scholars, journalists, parliamentarians, motivators, and educators that
will deepen their capacity and enable them to act independently and on their own account;
To expand the network “Cor Rub ‘Chan’ Mai Kor Rub” (Refuse to be Corrupt) of Thai
university students in their regions to get together and brainstorm in order to develop
plans and activities in the flight against corruption;
To engage youth in a deep, participatory process of “cutting the diamond” – what precisely
must youth demand and of whom?
To set up regional hubs for the network, assigning roles and responsibilities to sustain
activities in their regions and to be linked up with other regions and nationally
To get as many youth members to sign up to the Network’s facebook
2. The Youth Anti-Corruption Camps
The anti-corruption camps are one part civic education and one part communications and media
training. The camp programme is designed to empower the participating youth to become anticorruption champions in their respective universities. To become champions, students’ leadership
qualities are important. Thus, COLA specifically invited student presidents and chairs of students’
Specific anti-corruption courses on integrity and understanding of corruption, dangers of corruption, and
prevention of corruption are neither offered as part of civic and citizenship education nor a stand-alone
curriculum. Instead of a classroom style, this initiative will take “an active learning by doing” approach that
emphasizes “student participation” in and beyond their universities.
1
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councils of each university to participate. If, for whatever reasons, these students were not
available, representatives from students’ council would be sent on their behalf to participate in the
camps.
Right from the start, this advocacy campaign is determined to be of youth’s making. COLA and
UNDP will merely provide a platform and guidance. Such approach proved successful in the first
camp in Khon Kaen where student leaders have taken over the leadership and agenda of the
meeting half way through.
The campaign is intended to empower them, let them take ownership, and educate them about the
many dangers of corruption in Thai society. The information and knowledge is to deepen their
understanding about corruption issues, capacity and confidence to enable them to act
independently and on their own account.
The camps aimed to turn such a highly politicized issue into a moral issue and engage youth in
learning about integrity and morality without imposition but with real acumen and rigor. The
camps also avoided reducing morality and integrity learning to a matter of personal and arbitrary
taste and students were engaged to learn differing views people hold on complex questions as
morality and integrity
The camps also aimed to ensure that the students become aware that corruption is inside all of us
and that each and every one of them plays a role to help deepen and sustain corruption in Thai
society. More importantly, the camps ensured that preventing corruption is not only adults’
business, but it has a lot to do with each and every one of therm.
The camps also had the best experts
in the field. The expertise of Thai
journalist Prasong Lertrattanawisute
and Thailand’s leading academic
expert on corruption, Assoc. Prof.
Sungsidh Piriyarangsan, Dean of
College of Social Innovations, Rangsit
University meant that students were
given a crash course on the pandemic
problem of corruption in Thai
society. With the quality these
experts, the students became aware
of the issue and could articulate their
renewed attitudes about corruption.
From left, Mr. Prasong Lertrattanawisute and
Assoc. Prof. Sungsidh Piriyarangsan
The other half of the camps was dedicated to advocacy and communications. Students at the camps
brainstormed in small groups about what ideas, attitudes, and principles they share about
corruption and learned to develop ‘key messages’, things they all mutually agree on. In addition,
students at the end of each camp made a declaration to resist corruption and pledged together to
fight corruption in their communities and on their campuses. They have refused to be corrupt—a
message we have repeated so often during the camps.
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Additionally, each camp also had a parliamentarian to share their views about corruption in Thai
society. These parliamentarians who came to the camps included the former Prime Minister Abhisit
Vejjajiva, a controversial MP Chuvit Kamolvisit, and an ex-MP-turned-monk Phra Rakkiat. The
Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister Hon. Pongthep Thepkanchana was also among the
list but did not make it to the camp due to last-minute rescheduling of his agenda.
2.1. Southern Region Youth Camp
The first regional camp was held on September 8 to 9, 2012 at The Regency Hotel in Hadyai,
Songkla Province and at the Prince of Songkla University, Hadyai campus. This Youth
Anticorruption camp was co-organized by the Prince of Songkla University Student Union (PSUSU).
Lessons learned from our first camp are the following:
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The venue was not fully set up to
host the camp setting, due to the working
distance between COLA and our co-host
PSUSU. The camp preparation was mainly
done by PSUSU which resulted in
improper set up of the camp venue.
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According to the schedule, the
registration started very early in the
morning. Many students could not arrive
on time to be ready for the camp activities
in the morning session.
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The activities were heavily arranged with academic lecture and discussion both in the morning
and afternoon sessions. Since, many students have to travel over night to attend the camp
activities in the morning, this group of students lacked enthusiasm to participate in the
afternoon activities.
Students came from different universities and different part of the region. The group activity
was needed to break away from their comfort zones and make them more involved with the
camp activities.
Our camps seemed to lack communication on what message we want to deliver to the youth
other than coming and joining the camp. We also lacked on how to teach the students to reach
out to others fellow students.
During the morning session of the first day (September 8), the MP showed up and we had to
arrange an extra lecture section to accommodate the visit.
We saw similar trends as a result from the brainstorming session. If we keep this activity for the
next, we would not likely gain much.
We realized that there was a need to set agenda for the newly formed group to move forward
especially the need for social network and online communication.
2.2. Upper Northeast Region Youth Camp
COLA worked closely with Mahasarakham University’s Student Affair Office and College of Politics
and Governance (COPAG), Mahasarakham University to organize the camp. The camp was at Taksila
Hotel Mahasarakham last September 15 -16, 2012. Prior to the schedule date, we were informed
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from our counterpart that the number of participants
may not be the same number we expected due to the
students’ exams in their respective universities.
In our previous camps both at Khon Kaen and
Southern camp, we used the same group facilitators
to help conduct team building activities with our
participants. However, for Mahasarakham camp,
during the preparation, our co-host expressed
interest of having their own group of facilitators. We
agreed to their proposal but when the time came,
they did not turn up. We then quickly resolved the problem by calling our group facilitators to fill in.
We later decided to use the same group of group facilitators in every camp. By doing this, we can
ensure a more smooth-sailing schedule and create similar experiences in every regional camp.
Lessons learned from the previous camps, In this camp we had introduced the new activities
session on how to build and grow a national network by UNDP Thailand’s Communications and
Media Officer giving the participates fundamental communications strategies for engaging
audiences on social media. This activity proved to be the right strategies, the numbers of fan page
subscribed to the TYAnticorruption page had increased tremendously after the camp. Also starting
from this camp, instead of having participant brainstorming of anticorruption activities, we have
them brainstorm to create powerful key messages instead to help spread the message to their
fellow students.
Banner created from key message that students had generated from their brainstorming session
On the second day of the camp, we also faced sudden cancelation of speech scheduling for MP
Chuwit Kamolwisit due to unforeseen circumstances.
2.3. Eastern Region Youth Camp
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On this third camp in Chonburi, we learned a crucial lesson in arranging the Thai Youth
Anticorruption network regional camps. After many months of coordination and arrangement with
our co-host partner Burapa University Student Council (BUSC), everything was close to perfect for
our eastern region youth camp. One week before the camp started, the university administrators
expressed hesitation to host the youth camp inside the campus. The university administrators were
worried about our invited speaker, Mr. Abhisit Vejjajiva, former PM of Thailand. The university
later decided to not co-host the camp and suggested to organize the camp outside the university
campus. The team decided to move forward with the eastern camp and moved the venue to the Sez
Hotel Bamgsaen. From this incident, we learned that we should inform the administrators as early
as possible to prevent misunderstanding and miscommunication of the project objectives. Initially,
the camp organizers would avoid traveling to meet with our co-host for preparation to reduce
overall project cost. This has been proved that face-to-face meeting with our partners was a must.
In this camp we had also learned that inviting high profile politician require extra coordination
effort to arrange proper protocol and security.
Working further distance also prove to be not easy in term of procurement and reimbursement
process. After finishing camp, there was a long process of back and forth documents to proceed
with the settlement and reimbursement.
2.4. Northern Region Youth Camp
Our northern region youth camp was co-hosted by Thammasat University Lampang Center Student
Council. Lesson learn from previous camp, this camp, COLA and UNDP made a visit and meet with
top university executive at Thammasat University Lampang Center to explain objectives of the
project and answers to question that
For this camp, we start to invite two high school institutions in the area to join with camp. There
was a mix result of this trial. Some student blended very well with the group while some other was
very quiet. Mixing this two of the different education background groups together may not be in
ideal situation.
Also in this camp the organizers had called for ten participants from our TYAnticorruption facebook
subscriber to join the camp. We found no problem in invite in our online subscriber to join with the
group of student leaders. Somehow, all of our participants from online were also either university
students or college students.
There was some coordination difficulty at the activities level between our core group facilitator
team and regional facilitators. Since those two groups of facilitator have not met before prior to the
camp, the two groups did not have a chance to meet and discuss resulting in coordination glitch.
Better coordination was needed in this area.
2.5. Lower Northeast Region Youth Camp
The Lower Northeast Region Youth Camp at Ubol Ratchathani University was our last camp on our
project. At the start, Suranaree University of Technology had also express interested in co-hosting
the camp for lower northeast region. However, Ubol Ratchathani University was the first university
to formally agree to co-host the camp. When such a tide competition occurred, the incident created
some hostile situation among regional universities.
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2.6. Core Group Meeting
After three camps has been successfully implemented in September and now the network has
expended in size and the regional network core leaders have been identified, the core group
meeting was held at Rama Gardens Hotel, Bangkok during October 28 to October 29, 2012 to
capture network momentum and working on network positioning and strategic planning.
On the first day, the brainstorming session lead by Assoc. Prof.Dr Prinya Thewanarumitkul helped
students crystallize the root cause of the problem and able to guide students to further investigate
the work plan. Late in the evening, the core group was successfully drawn network positioning,
network vision and strategic planning. The day after, the network presented their plan received
feedback from a group of experts and stake holders, such as, Dr. Mana Nimitmongkol, Director of
the Thai Anti-Corruption Network, Mr. Pas Passatta, Deputy Secretary of Thailand Office of the
National Anti-Corruption Commission, Ms. Kittiya Soponpokai, representative from office of the
Ombudsman and Mr. Thitipong Korsakul form Thai Public Braodcasting Service (Thai PBS). Experts
praise network’s strategic plan, however many of them has express their concerns regarding a
sustainability and continuation of the project. One of their main concerns was that the university
students will only be in their student life for not more than four year. If the current active students,
member of the network, had finished their school, what will happen? Sustainability issue was big
on the discussion table.
Many students have mentioned that the thinking or brainstorming session in the hotel. The hotel
setting is might not the ideal place that brain can work well
3. Achievements
The project achievements can be broadly categorized into 3 areas, namely i) network formation, ii)
instilling desired values in youth, and iii) network’s future plans and activities
3.1. Network formation
The network is only to be taken seriously if it is perceived to be part of, and represents a sizeable
constituency: the bigger the constituency the greater the credibility of network. 36 students from
15 universities participated in The Khon Kaen camp at Whishing Tree resort. In this second phase,
we continue to listen to them, educate and inform them about the dangers of corruption in Thai
society, and after six camps, the network now has a solid network of 2,700 students from over 90
Thai universities.
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The 5 partnering universities were acting as hubs attracting universities in their regions to
participate in the respective regional camps. The hubs serve to widen the circles of supporters and
at each camp ambition and goals were shared and their supports were solicited.
A regional structure to ensure network continuation and sustainability has been put in place also.
Each region selected their representatives and assigned roles and responsibilities to coordinate
regional activities. At the same time, student leaders from participating universities, in turn, act as
agents to persuade others and expand their circles of supporters.
To date, the network has an active regional structure and focal points to help drive the network
activities.
3.2. Instilling new values
The civic education discourse suggests that youth acquire norms and values, such as ’integrity’,
’democracy’ and ’transparency’, through exercising their citizenship, which implies a focus on
democracy and good governance. Hence, these are the themes and focus of the youth camps.
The camps were successful in depoliticizing corruption issues and turned them into a moral one,
and with a specific focus on civic and citizenship education. We have asked the students to look
internally at themselves and identify the causes of corruption, from the perspective of the
individual. We are successful in creating new realization among students and for them to know that
corruption is inside all of us - each and every one of us plays a role to help deepen and sustain
corruption in Thai society and that preventing corruption is everyone’s business.
At the beginning of each camp, time was spent to assess their knowledge and understanding about
causes of corruption and their linkages with the democratic values and good governance. In all
camps, the level of knowledge was relatively weak, but with the crash course on corruption issues
by the experts, the students were able – at the end of their first day – articulate the newly learned
values and principles. These new learning among youth during the camps can be illustrated below:
“Try Every Way to Win Power, but Do No Good to Society and
Instead Just Want to Hold Thailand for Ransom”
Turn down corruption with your own hands
Me, Society, Communities, Country are part of Corruption
Thai Youth Integrity and Anti-Corruption Network - Project Report 10
During the camp, time was also dedicated to discuss key
principles a democratic society and how they are linked with
good governance and anti-corruption.
Students were solicited for their views when they think about
democracy. In all camps, the following answers were given:
 Equality
 Rights and liberty
 Elections
 Freedom of expressions
None of the students mentioned about checks and balances
which are the cornerstone for democracy to function well. At
the camp, the discussion would continue to elaborate and get
across to the students the need to ensure equality, rights and
liberty, and freedom of expressions in order to allow citizens
to provide checks and balances to the system. This field
finding also points to an urgent need to enhance the quality of
civic education in Thailand.
With this new understanding, the student champions are then able to spread the new values and
understanding about corruption and its linkages to the democratic values. They alter thoughts and
values among their peers, help recruit new members, build, grow and own the network which
started off with 36 students from 16 universities to more than 2600 students and more than 90
universities – and this can be counted as an initial success of network formation.
Now that the network is expanded and that youth’s awareness about the dangers of corruption is
raised and values such as integrity, democracy, and transparency are instilled, the next step is they
want their voices to be heard.
The question is “what precisely do youth/must youth demand and of whom?”
The camps were in some way a means to get youth’s attention and we were successful in that
regard. And through these intensive, participatory engagement and discussions, we have
illuminated the true story or the real cause of corruption and it has become the standing of this
network and aligned with its name – “Refuse to be Corrupt”.
Through this process, the cause of corruption has been identified: corruption is inside all of us,
and this has led to the vision of this network, that is:
“Change yourself, change society, and change the country to be a better society”
3.3 Future Plans and Expected Outcomes
The core group meeting was held during 28-30 October 2012 at Rama Gardens Hotel in Bangkok.
Thirty network representatives from their respective regions partook in the meeting and Assoc.
Prof. Dr. Parinya Thewanaruemitkul, Vice Rector for Students’ Affairs of Thammasat University was
our resource person who helped guide the students the meeting’s consultative process.
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Through this consultative and participatory process, the students were able to share their views on
causes of corruption and agreed that each individual in the society is the main cause of corruption
and the society needs to be instilling with this new value. In a nutshell, the students agree that
 there is no point blaming politicians if people in the society still vote for corrupt politicians;
 there is no point in blaming the police not being able to uphold the rule of law, if people in
the society do not respect simple things as traffic laws or involved in illegal transactions
(e.g. underground lottery, football gambling, illegal parking, driving in wrong lanes, etc.);
and
 there is no point in blaming the corrupt, if students themselves only see benefits to
themselves and ignore negative impacts to the society from their actions and behavior
In summary, what started as conversations/discussions have culminated into civic awareness and
education that is corruption would be much less if people in the society:
 Respect rules and laws;
 Pay due consideration to public interests and not only individual interests; and
 Respect other people’s rights and do not violate each other rights.
Once the cause of corruption has been identified, the students brainstormed and agreed on the
network’s objectives, vision, strategies and expected outcomes – see Annex 1 for details:
This question should be posed to all university students participating in the network and clear,
measurable goals and objectives should emerge from a deep, participatory process of “cutting the
diamond” - Cutting the diamond is the process of analyzing (cutting) the issue (the diamond)
“Try Every Way to Win Power, but Do No Good To Society and Instead Just Want to Hold Thailand
for Ransom” We have asked art students to look internally at the causes of corruption, from the perspective
of the individual
One of the key strategies to fight corruption is through Education, or more precisely, how to
develop new public consciousness. Education here is referred as civic education – or put differently,
a means to instill desired values in youth. The discourse suggests that youth acquire norms and
values, such as ’integrity’, ’democracy’ and ’transparency’, through exercising their citizenship,
which implies a focus on democracy and good governance. In continuation of this, the discourse
emphasizes the importance of giving youth a ’voice’ and how this is possible through the use of
communications technologies, presenting new ways for
4. Lessons learned
The active engagement with youth through this anti-corruption initiative has yielded a number of
lessons learned. These lessons can be summarized into 2 main areas: i) strategic lessons learned,
and ii) operational lessons learned.
4.1. Strategic lessons learned
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UNDP’s neutrality
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Given the low-trust political climate in Thailand, UNDP’s neutrality and convening power has
been a key in ensuring participation of universities and national experts. This has helped the
network avoid being seen as having a hidden agenda. As such, it’s helped politicized the issue
and turned it into a moral issue
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The role of national university as a partner
For this anti-corruption initiative, the College of Local Administration (COLA) and Students’
Affairs Office of Khon Kaen University (KKU) has been a real partner with UNDP since the
programme’s inception. As well as ensuring an appropriate approach to reach out to university
students, COLA and staff from KKU’s Students’ Affairs Office were extremely instrumental in ice
breaking activities and making sure that students participating in the camps become friends,
which help make the network formation possible in such a short period of time. More
importantly, given that the initiative is a large part “learning by doing”, COLA has tried its best
to be accommodating during the course of project implementation.
However, at times, rivalries among universities could and did arise which made cooperation
from other universities less smooth.
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Learning by doing approach
After each camp, the process and contents became better and better and drawing from
discussions with staff involved, the last camp in Ubon Ratchathani was probably the high point
where all things came well together. For instance, the student leaders in Ubon Ratchathani have
been to UNDP-COLA camps twice before they organized on at their university. They are part of
the network’s core group and understand the direction and strategies of the network. These
have made them able to communicate to their peers pitfalls in organizing these camps. They
were able also to clarify to their professors about expectation and direction of the network,
rendering full support from the university’s management. On the contents, UNDP staff managed
to combine his approach and technique in facilitating the discussions with those of Assoc. Prof.
Parinya Thewanaruemitkul, who is an expert in brainstorming techniques and student-center
teaching techniques, helping avoid the lecture-style of communicating in the latter camps.
Lastly, as the network direction became clear, instructions and objectives for the break-out
sessions of these camps became more focused and students were able to participate, share and
articulate things they were asked to do.
However, such “learning by doing” has meant that time and resources were spent, especially in
earlier camps, without achieving the maximum results. UNDP and COLA could have had more
exchanges at the beginning to think through the whole thing and would have been equally
useful also if UNDP had consulted with experts like Assoc. Prof. Parinya Thewanaruemitkul and
other organizations experienced in this type of activity.
Nonetheless, it would have been difficult to gauge the student’s interest and dynamics over the
course of implementation and the “learning by doing” is also beneficial and organic to the
formation of this network.
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Impact of reaching out to and teaching students about corruption
In one and a half day, the camp asked a lot from the participating students. From being unaware
of the dangers and causes of corruption, to be able to articulate about corruption issues and
proposed ways and means to prevent it. This speaks to the quality of the experts we had at the
camps as well as the capacities of Thai students to absorb such complex issues.
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While we cannot draw concrete evidence in students’ behavioral change after the camps, it can
be said with confidence that the participating students are now aware of why they are part of
corruption. Certain anecdotes also lend themselves to positive directions, i.e. students have
expressed their views that they are now afraid that what they do might constitute corruption.
This can be considered awareness rose.
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Communications and Facebook as a tool for network formation and expansion
The role of UNDP’s Communications Officer was vital in getting the students active and able to
use the network’s Facebook in soliciting support among their peers. Development of key
messages did not come about until the second camp in Mahasarakham and as all things in these
camps, the communications and media training became more focused and eventually helped
increase the Facebook’s likes.
The graph below showed an immediate spike after the camp made a full use of communications
and media training. The increase in size of network during that period was 152% from 19-25
September 19-25.
4.2. Operational Lessons Learned
 COLA’s Support
This anti-corruption initiative is an undertaking which involved a considerable number of
universities and students. The logistics and coordination was heavy and COLA’s support was at
times over-stretched. However, this has not had large impact to the activities implemented. Only in
few cases where close coordination with the partnering universities/students was overlooked and
has resulted in some miscommunications and less-than-perfect cooperation from the hub
universities.
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 Involvement of parliamentarians
As mentioned above, the camp was designed to involve parliamentarians in sharing their
experiences with corruption as well as fighting corruption. As it turned out, inviting
parliamentarians to come to the camps has proved to be a time-consuming and frustrating process.
The idea of involving parliamentarians is to attract communities around the hubs and sensitize the
issue at the local level. In order to achieve this objective, the parliamentarian to come to the camp
cannot be any parliamentarian but had to attract crowd. With this selection, the choice of
parliamentarians sometimes became a controversial issue for UNDP because of the need to ensure
its image and neutrality. It also became an issue with participating universities given the recent
political cleavages in the country which have been deepened by recent political developments in
Thailand. However, the outcome of having high-level parliamentarians and their experiences
shared with the youth was more than offset with the time spent.
5. Recommendation for future engagement
 Clear and Concise Objective
Due to our learning by doing approach, to some extent, on the first day of the camp, almost all
participate always asking the basic questions of who you are , what you do, and what you want me
to do type of question. Providing those answers in form of written materials or orientation kit will
help provide better understanding the participate prior to join the camp. In the future, we may
consider recruiting participant only through our club members or from our special group members.
 Go broad and go deep
It seems to occur that for our future network expansion, two different camp approaches may
required for two different group of participant. In the future, we can use our current educational
camp model to evangelize the idea to more university students from just only regional camps for
this project to similar camps at the university level. With more activities happen they are a need for
a second approach of camp which is gear more toward advance membership. The advance camp
like training of trainers may need to arrange to accommodate the advance group of our
membership and they will also help out in further expansion of the network. When the network is
getting bigger, they may also require more complication in award and recognition of member
 Time at camps
Suggesting has a three days time at camp for future camp. Many participants and stakeholders have
expressed that more time at the camp been needed. In the beginning, the concept of two days was
come along from the idea of weekend only setup with the assumption that the weekend camp will
better accommodate schedule of university students. Nevertheless, we have learned from
participant that the class schedule was varies among different universities. Some universities did
also have a weekend class. For them, knowing in advance in semester timeframe is better.
 Better preparation in advance
When we are working with the university environment, the student has a full time job as a student
and they their year already occupied by academic and extracurricular activities. The camp schedule
may need arrange and in advance to avoid conflict with his/her academic and other extracurricular
activities. This also allow more time to organizer to better coordination with all needed parties.
Thai Youth Integrity and Anti-Corruption Network - Project Report 15
Annex 1:
and Expected Outcomes
Refuse to be Corrupt - Network’s Objectives, Vision, Strategies,
Objectives
1.
2.
3.
4.
To raise awareness among young people about the dangers of corruption in Thai society
To build and expand the youth anti-corruption network
To reach out to the wider society about the cause and dangers of corruption
To structurally eliminate all forms of corruption in Thai society
Vision
“Change yourself, change society, and change Thailand to be a better society”
Strategies
1.
2.
3.
4.
Developing the network to become a strong and well-founded organization
Expanding the network outreach to instill corruption –free society
Becoming an anti-corruption and integrity knowledge source
Acting as a platform for students and the public to exchange views, concerns, and
knowledge
5. Instilling integrity and anti-corruption values among university students and beyond
Expected outcomes
1. University students are aware that they play a part in sustaining corruption and want to
change their individual behaviors
2. The public is aware of the network’s key message that “corruption is inside all of us”
3. Universities all over the country coordinate and drive the network’s agenda at university
and national level
Thai Youth Integrity and Anti-Corruption Network - Project Report 16
Annex 2: Project Initial Plan
Project ID: 00083249
Project title: Initiation Plan
Output 1.2: Transparency in governance process is improved through youth network and
governance assessment tools
Project Title: “Thai Youth Integrity and Anti-Corruption Network – Empowering Youth through
Civic Education to Undertake Public Interest Advocacy”
I. Background
Conducted in 2009 and in 38 countries to measure student perceptions and behaviors relevant to
civics and citizenship, the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS) shows that
Thai students expressed the most favorable views among the five studied Asian countries for these
statements: i) It is acceptable to bribe government officials to get things done; ii) It does not matter
if a public official uses resource from his/her institution; iii) Preventing corruption is adults’
business, nothing to do with me.
Thai students’ score in civic participation is more than 10 percentage points above ICCS average,
but their civic knowledge is the fifth lowest and gender difference is the largest, i.e. female students
are more knowledgeable and hold less positive attitudes toward acceptance of corrupt practices
than male students. These statistics are revealing and indicate that the strong participation does
not translate into better civic knowledge among Thai youth.
A recent nationwide poll also provided similar evidence. It was reported that a majority (63.4%) of
Thai people still hold the view that corruption in government is acceptable as long as they also
benefit from it. The vast majority of young people under 20 also hold the same attitude.
With such evidence in mind and in line with UNDP’s Country Programme (2012-2016) to promote
civic education with particular focus on democratic governance and through engagement with nonstate actors and people’s assemblies, UNDP in collaboration with the College of Local
Administration, Khon Kaen University held the first anti-corruption weekend camp from 23-25
June 2012 for 36 student leaders from 15 universities across Thailand. The aim of the event was
fourfold:
 To educate youth about the many dangers of corruption in Thai society, using a diverse
array of speakers, motivators, and educators.
Thai Youth Integrity and Anti-Corruption Network - Project Report 17



To raise youth’s awareness about corruption and its negative impacts;
To assess youth’s interests in forming an inter-university students’ network as a platform
for their active participation and engagement in promoting integrity and preventing
corruption.
To identify partnering universities as youth “edutainment”2 anti-corruption hubs to further
expand youth anti-corruption network and plan campus-wide/inter-university activities to
promote integrity and prevent corruption
Through engagement and discussion, organizers quickly learned that students are well aware of the
dangers of corruption—even falling victim to it—but felt powerless to take action. Many students at
the Khon Kaen camp talked openly about corruption in their daily lives. Many student leaders
believed it was important for Thai universities to do their part in fighting corruption. The thirty-six
students at UNDP’s anti-corruption camp pledged via the “Khon Kaen Declaration”3, a statement
signed by all participants to build awareness among their peers, through student networks, and to
the Thai public at-large.
Besides the Declaration, the student leaders have also discussed realms of activities that the
network plans to engage and achieve in future:
Outputs
Activities
Provincial awareness on corruption  Corruption perception indexes produced for
raised
provinces with support from national/provincial
NACC and UNDP
Thai youth anti-corruption network  Seminars and dialogues organized to raise
established throughout universities
awareness on anti-corruption
nationwide
 Group’s Facebook established with activities to
increase memberships
 Advocacy activities to engage youth and public to
fight against corruption
Public media space for youth views  TV programme for youth to participate
on corruption
meaningfully in public media to reflect their views
on corruption in Thai society
Network strengthened through  ASEAN youth networks established in universities
ASEAN
Youth
Anti-Corruption
of ASEAN countries
Specific anti-corruption courses on integrity and understanding of corruption, dangers of corruption, and
prevention of corruption are neither offered as part of civic and citizenship education nor a stand-alone
curriculum. Instead of a classroom style, this initiative will take “an active learning by doing” approach that
emphasizes “student participation” in and beyond their universities.
2
3http://www.facebook.com/TYAnticorruption?filter=2#!/photo.php?fbid=327239624024950&set=a.326266
890788890.75289.325701554178757&type=3&theater
Thai Youth Integrity and Anti-Corruption Network - Project Report 18
 Regular meetings (in person and online) to
coordinate work and share their experiences
Thai youth network institutionalized  Inter-University Organisation for Promoting
with active participation
Integrity established
 Integrity education centers established with
support from UNDP
Community outreach mechanisms  Pro-poor,
community-based
anti-corruption
established
as
channels
for
activities to engage university students
corruption reporting
 Integrity Promotion and Anti-corruption Center
established in universities
Network
This plan will be further refined and implemented once the network is expanded and more firmly
established.
Given the level of enthusiasm among youth leaders witnessed in the first camp, UNDP, the College
of Local Administration, Khon Kaen University, and partnering university hubs are entering the
next phase to expand the network to many more universities in Thailand with the aim to cultivate,
instill, and grow values of integrity among Thai youth across the country.
II. Strategy
One of the key strategies to fight corruption is through education, or more precisely, how to
develop new public consciousness about the dangers of corruption. Many believe that systemic
corruption is a result of failing governance or lacking national integrity systems to ensure that
power is exercised in a manner that is true to the values, purposes and duties for which that power
is entrusted to, or held by, institutions and individual office-holders.
Figure 1: National Mechanisms of Governance and Pillars of National Integrity System
Thai Youth Integrity and Anti-Corruption Network - Project Report 19
Source: Galtung, Fedrik (2011), CEO, TIRI
As illustrated in Figure 1, developing new public consciousness and raising public awareness is a
good starting point to launch a wider initiative on a national integrity system. Apart from
engagement with youth, UNDP will also engage with the private sector to promote i) regular
dialogue and strategy on fighting corruption, ii) the development of public advocacy campaigns, and
iii) knowledge sharing in raising public awareness and building capacity of organisations within the
expanding anti-corruption network. Also, as part of the broader strategy, UNDP will form a
partnership with TIRI’s Integrity Education Network and Thai university partners to offer training
in integrity-focused curriculum development, interactive and student-centred teaching methods,
and supplies them with academic and practical resources in a variety of media.
As experience in Hong Kong (and also elsewhere) shows, university students spearheaded a mass
rally, protesting and condemning the government for failing to tackle the corruption problem.
Under pressure, the government took action. However, existing indigenous conditions and
circumstances in other countries may not even allow them to think of such things to occur. It will
require, as a key factor, a holistic approach to be taken – i.e. building on existing national integrity
mechanisms by identifying what there is and how the component parts are functioning. To gain
such understanding, a thorough analysis and engagement of all the relevant stakeholders will be
required.
As part of a follow-up plan to this anti-corruption youth network initiative, UNDP will build on this
initial step and start to broaden its engagement to other stakeholders with an aim of developing a
national integrity system in Thailand.
Youth and Promotion of Integrity and Anti-Corruption Values
Thai Youth Integrity and Anti-Corruption Network - Project Report 20
Youth are often framed as change agents/powerful actors without them necessarily possessing
power in reality. Thus, there is a need to inspire, listen to, motivate and empower them and the
following three themes are central to such process – education, citizenship, and communications
technologies.
Education here is referred as civic education – or put differently, a means to instill desired values in
youth. The discourse suggests that youth acquire norms and values, such as ’integrity’, ’democracy’
and ’transparency’, through exercising their citizenship, which implies a focus on democracy and
good governance. In continuation of this, the discourse emphasizes the importance of giving youth a
’voice’ and how this is possible through the use of communications technologies, presenting new
ways for youth to exercise their citizenship. Thus, with these central themes, the goals of Thai youth
anti-corruption network include:
 Instilling desired values, such as ’integrity’, ’democracy’ and ’transparency’;
 Providing a platform for exercising their citizenship; and
 Giving youth a voice through the use of communications technologies as new ways to
exercise their citizenship
Network Formation and Expansion – the use of hub-spoke model
The network is only to be taken seriously if it is perceived to be part of, and represents a sizeable
constituency: the bigger the constituency the greater the credibility of network. The Khon Kaen
camp was for student leaders from 15 universities across the country to gather. Ambitions and
goals were shared and their participation and support were solicited. At this stage, the 3 partnering
university hubs are widening their circles of supporters through 3 regional camps, targeting 40-50
more universities and 400-450 more university students.
Each region will select their representatives and assign roles and responsibilities to coordinate
regional activities. At the same time, student leaders from participating universities will also act as
agents to persuade others and expand their circles of supporters.
Shaping the Network
 Empowering and Building Unity and Cohesion
Right from the start of this advocacy campaign, it is determined that the network will be of
youth’s making. UNDP and COLA will provide a platform and guidance. Such approach proved
successful in the first camp in Khon Kaen where student leaders have taken over the leadership
and agenda of the meeting half way through. The campaign is intended to empower them – give
youth ownership not just of the campaign’s strategy and activities, but also information and
knowledge that will deepen their capacity, build their confidence and enable them to act
independently and on their own account.
In addition, using the hub and spoke model, the youth anti-corruption network is essentially a
coalition or an alliance. For public advocacy to be effective, there must be cohesion and unity.
Thai Youth Integrity and Anti-Corruption Network - Project Report 21
Thus, a strong emphasis is placed on i) unifying the diverse groups of students from various
backgrounds through recreational activities in order to ensure that the group acts cohesively, as
well as ii) getting the best knowledge from the experts in the field. The youth found the format
of Khon Kaen camp very insightful and at the same time entertaining and they have adopted a
similar agenda and experts in their effort to expand their network regionally. However, there
are plans to ensure that provision of information and knowledge to university students will be
more systematic, particularly through establishment of an integrity education center in near
future.

Setting goals – what precisely do youth/must youth demand and of whom? (The ‘Ask’)
Once the network is expanded and that youth’s awareness about the dangers of corruption is
raised and values such as integrity, democracy, and transparency are instilled, it is expected
that they would want their voices to be heard and exercise their citizenship. The question is
“what precisely do youth/must youth demand and of whom?” This question should be posed to all
university students participating in the network and clear, measurable goals and objectives
should emerge from a deep, participatory process of “cutting the diamond” - Cutting the
diamond is the process of analyzing (cutting) the issue (the diamond) – to determine strategy
and illuminate the true story4.
After the 3 regional anti-corruption camps with the university hubs, the network will reconvene
nationally to engage in the deep, participatory process of “cutting the diamond”. In planning
this meeting, COLA, in consultation with UNDP, will identify key resource persons to facilitate
the process.

Institutional Capacity
Popular social movements often fail for lack of strong institutional capacity. This campaign is no
exception. The youth anti-corruption network is targeting at student leaders from universities
across the country. These student leaders will act as agents, talk to and persuade their peers to
join the network and efforts will be made to ensure that there will be substitutes to continue
the advocacy and activities. As effective leaders they might be, they will need to be backed by
strong, guiding institutions with resources, and with open, accountable procedures and
mechanisms. Strong, guiding institutions can include local and national governments, UN
agencies, civil society organisations, and the universities themselves.
In the process of forming and establishing the network, apart from UNDP and COLA, the
National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) has been kept abreast also of this initiative and
its progress. There has also been some discussion to link the network with the provincial NACC
Pettifor, A. and Kessler, M. (2011) Cutting the Diamond – How to shape a movement to make
transformational change, Advocacy International, p.8
4
Thai Youth Integrity and Anti-Corruption Network - Project Report 22
offices. The youth network will also be linked with the extensive Thai Chamber of Commerce
(TCC)’s Anti-Corruption Network also5
At the moment, UNDP and COLA are acting as guiding institutions. However, for the
sustainability of the network, it must have a strong, guiding institution at its heart - an
institution that is appropriately resourced (technically and financially) to act as a vehicle for the
leadership of the campaign.
Communicating
Social media tools and mobile devices are democratising media and putting more control into the
hands of campaigners. Apart from the group’s facebook page that is accessible by the public
(http://www.facebook.com/TYAnticorruption). The group is using also a closed-group facebook to
discuss and plan their activities. At the moment the closed-group facebook is very active and has
proved an effective communications at this initial stage. A strategy to effectively use these social
media tools and devices will need to be thoroughly thought through when the network is expanded.
Making, Monitoring and Evaluating Impact
Advocacy is not just the communication of arguments, of goals, news, information and events, it is
intended to deliver change and impact also. However, what kind of impact, what indicators to use,
and how it is evaluated depends on the “Ask” (what precisely do youth/must youth demand and of
whom?). It is that the network continually monitors and evaluates the campaign. This is not just for
accountability, but also to improve the effectiveness of the collective efforts.
Monitoring and evaluation can strengthen democracy by mapping and recording increased
engagement by youth with the state. M&E can spotlight and showcase the empowerment and
leadership of youth that hold government officials and representatives to account for their
decisions. Effective M&E means devising and developing indicators for tracking and assessing
impact. These indicators must be developed from within the campaign. That is, the campaign itself
will throw up what needs to be measured, and how it can be measured.
III. Objectives
This project is a follow-up to the first UNDP-COLA youth anti-corruption camp in June 2012. In its
‘second phase’ of network formation and expansion, the student leaders participated in the Khon
Kaen camp will organize a similar event to attract more members in their respective
regions/universities into the network. Four university “hubs” – including Prince Songkhla
In mid-2011, the private sector, led by the Thai Chamber of Commerce (TCC), has announced that it would
kick off the anti-corruption campaign for the betterment of the national development. Since then, many more
private companies and organizations have joined the campaign. Their activities range from advocacy to
watchdogs as well as acting as a body to receive corruption complaints through their hotline.
5
Thai Youth Integrity and Anti-Corruption Network - Project Report 23
University (inviting 31 universities in the South), Mahasarakham University (inviting 27
universities in the Northeast), and Burapa University (inviting 10 universities in the East) – will be
hosting anti-corruption camps with the following objectives in mind:






To promote and instill integrity and anti-corruption values among youth;
To empower youth, give youth ownership, information and knowledge by using a diverse
array of speakers, scholars, journalists, parliamentarians, motivators, and educators that
will deepen their capacity and enable them to act independently and on their own account;
To expand the network “Cor Rub ‘Chan’ Mai Kor Rub” (Refuse to be Corrupt) of Thai
university students in their regions to get together and brainstorm in order to develop
plans and activities in the flight against corruption;
To engage youth in a deep, participatory process of “cutting the diamond” – what precisely
must youth demand and of whom?
To set up regional hubs for the network, assigning roles and responsibilities to sustain
activities in their regions and to be linked up with other regions and nationally
To get as many youth members to sign up to the Network’s facebook
After these camps by regional hubs, COLA and UNDP will convene the first national assembly of
inter-university student network in October/November 2012. Representatives from all the
participating universities will come together for the following objectives:







To present the outcome of “cutting the diamond” of their respective hubs
To learn from experiences of practitioners in setting up anti-corruption networks and
possible arrays of integrity promotion activities that youth might consider engaging;
To identify and plan campus-wide and inter-university activities for Anti-Corruption Day, 9
December 2012 and beyond;
To identify the youth network’s intended impact and develop indicators from within and
among network members;
To set up the Thai Youth Anti-Corruption Network as a non-profit, inter-university
organisation;
To identify plans for strengthening the network’s organizational and institutional capacity
both at the regional and national levels; and
To plan and improve communications among youth members in the network and between
the network and general public through the use of social media tools;
IV. Scope and timeline
Through this Letter of Agreement, COLA will be responsible for successful implementation of the
four camps by university hubs and the first network assembly. COLA will provide a team of
facilitators for recreational activities and will, in consultation with UNDP, identify and arrange for
appropriate and inspirational speakers and resource persons for these events. Overall, COLA will be
responsible successful network formation and expansion using the hub-spoke model, and more
importantly, achievement the afore-mentioned objectives.
Each university hub will invite 100-120 participants from its region to participate in their camps.
The list of university hubs is as follows:
Thai Youth Integrity and Anti-Corruption Network - Project Report 24
1)
2)
3)
4)
Prince of Songkhla University (South)
Mahasarakham University (Upper Northeast)
Burapha University (East)
Ubon Ratchatani University (Lower Northeast)
The College of Local Administration, Khon Kaen University and UNDP will also host its first “Cor
Rub ‘Chan’ Mai Kor Rub” Network Assembly for 3 days in October/November 2012 (place to be
determined) to assess the strength and prospect of the Network, to plan campus-wide and interuniversity activities for Anti-Corruption Day, 9 December 2012 and beyond, and to review and
refine the network’s future plan.
V. Deliverables
1. Materials of meeting, including a consolidated spreadsheet containing contact details of
participants
2. Questionnaires and results assessing participating students’ awareness and knowledge
about corruption and the dangers of corruption of all 3 camps by university hubs;
3. Four reports (in English) summarizing the proceedings and how well the objectives in
Section III are achieved as well as any challenges in achieving these objectives for each of
the 3 camps. Each report should also describe structures, roles and responsibilities of the
regional hubs and of the network at the national level;
4. A strategy paper, containing approach, methodology, a list of resource persons, and agenda,
and objectives for the assembly meeting
5. A summary report discussing lessons learned in the approach used to form and expand the
network and recommendations for future engagement with youth, linkages of the network
with other stakeholders (local and national governments, UN agencies, civil society
organisations, and the universities themselves), and sustainability of the network, including
- but not limited to - network’s institutional capacity and financial implications for their
future activities;
6. Detailed plan(s) for regional hubs’ activities as well as campus-wide and inter-university
activities for Anti-Corruption Day, 9 December 2012 and beyond;
7. Registration of the Thai Youth Anti-Corruption Network as a non-profit, inter-university
organization to promote integrity and anti-corruption values;
8. Video recordings of the events (3 camps and 1 Network Assembly) to be used as
educational materials in DVDs; and
9. A 5-minute recording of highlights from all the events to be used as a network’s
promotional/advocacy tool.
VI. Duration of Assignment
The duration of this assignment is from August 2012 to November 2012
Thai Youth Integrity and Anti-Corruption Network - Project Report 25
VII. Expected results
1. Awareness on dangers and impact of corruption among youth is improved
2. Stronger links between active adolescent participation and later involvement as adult
citizens to prevent corruption are established
3. Collective youth powers unleashed in a more systematic, coordinated and constructive
fashion, especially with guidance from their professors and country’s subject experts
4. The network to act as a platform for a more catalytic role in fostering broader civic and
citizenship education
VIII. Reporting and Accountability
The Responsible Party (COLA) shall report to the Programme Specialist of UNDP Thailand’s
Democratic Governance Unit and in close consultation with the Programme Analyst