As global efforts to recover and repatriate the proceeds of corruption intensify, a critical question remains: how are these funds being used?
To address this, CiFAR has launched Monitoring Returned Assets: A Toolkit for Civil Society Organisations, a comprehensive resource designed to ensure that recovered wealth truly benefits the public and is managed with the highest standards of integrity.
Why Monitoring Matters
Civil society organisations have been increasingly recognised as essential actors for promoting transparency, accountability, and public participation in the repatriation of stolen assets.
For several years already CSOs have been particularly involved in monitoring these returns – both as formal parts of return processes and independently – to ensure that funds are spent as planned and reach communities harmed by corruption.
This monitoring has helped to identify how money is reaching communities, challenges that need to be addressed, and cases where money is being re-stolen. It has also helped communities become part of the process and engage with returns as restitution to the people harmed.
The Toolkit
The toolkit builds on this experience and provides the practical foundation needed for CSOs to transition from observers to active monitors of the asset return.
Toolkit highlights
The toolkit is structured into three practical sections to guide organisations through every stage of the process.
Part 1 introduces the core concepts that shape asset recovery and return. It outlines the policy frameworks of these processes, examining both international instruments and regional or civil society–driven standards. It also provides an overall introduction to the topic of civil society engagement in the monitoring of recovered assets. Finally, this part provides a brief analysis and illustrative examples of how national laws can facilitate civil society engagement in asset monitoring, particularly through mechanisms such as access to information and structured avenues for citizen participation.
Part 2 provides detailed examples of civil society experiences in monitoring returned assets and draws out key lessons to learn from them. It analyses both formal and informal models of civil society involvement, distinguishing contexts in which CSOs are explicitly recognised in the governance structure of asset return mechanisms from situations in which CSOs act independently. It then identifies factors that shape the feasibility and scope of monitoring efforts, including the legal environment, access to information, institutional openness, operational capacity, and the broader civic space. Finally, by synthesising diverse examples—from large-scale international returns to domestic confiscation processes—it distils common challenges, lessons and practical insights that can guide future monitoring efforts.
Part 3 is a structured toolkit designed to help CSOs plan and implement monitoring of recovered and returned assets. This part translates the lessons learned into practical guidance, offering step-by-step considerations for initiating monitoring activities, assessing organisational capacity, mapping stakeholders, and analysing risk. It also outlines key legal and institutional frameworks that can support monitoring efforts and serve as advocacy entry points for broader reform. It then presents concrete tools and methodologies for different types of monitoring, including case-based monitoring, institutional monitoring, and financial tracking, and provides additional considerations. Finally, this part ends with a list of further resources to support continued learning, collaboration, and capacity building among organisations entering or expanding their work in asset monitoring.
There is no “one-size-fits-all” model for oversight. Instead, this toolkit serves as a structured reference that can be adapted to specific local circumstances, legal environments, and organisational capacities.
By strengthening the capacity of civil society, we can ensure that recovered assets serve the public good and reinforce the fight against corruption