$1,000 for a kebab? Afghan villages fight corruption. | The Aga Khan Development Network teaches Afghans how to conduct social

Flikr photo by Carpetblogger used under a Creative Commons license.  The Christian Science Monitor (CSM) reported on an innovative way rural Afghans are figting corruption: social audits.  With some training from the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN), villagers in Northern Afghanistan are able to question the local shura about the use of money allocated for community development.  In one instance, a social audit revealed a shura has paid $1,000 for a kebab.  Social auditing has been envisioned as a stepping stone to more sophisticated models of community budgeting and accountability, but the reach of social audits has been limited to the relative security of the North.  On their own, small-scale village projects are vulnerable to sabotage, but linked in with a broader network of anti-corruption initiatives, social audits are an empowering tool for local ownership over development funds.