Supporting Anti-Corruption Reform in Partner Countries: Concepts, Tools and Areas for Action (Full Report) (original) (raw)
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"Corruption serves as a major impediment to development. Resources intended to address the basic development needs of millions of poor people around the world are diverted and misallocated through various forms of corrupt practices. Donors are becoming increasingly aware of the relationship between corruption and development and taking measures to mitigate these effects. This concept paper emphasises that a shared consensus between partner countries, policy-makers and academics is critical. Donors should situate themselves in a position from which they are able to provide the necessary analysis and support required by partner countries in their own anti-corruption efforts. The main objective of this paper is to provide insights into the current thinking on anti-corruption in developing countries in order to enable the EU staff (at the Commission, EEaS and in EU delegations) : • acquire useful tools to analyse corruption in a given local setting; • Become better equipped to support the implementation of anti-corruption strategies and policies; and • to better identify relevant anti-corruption measures so as to improve the mainstreaming of anti-corruption in European Commission development assistance."
Supporting Anti-Corruption Reform in Partner Countries Concepts, Tools and Areas for Action
European Commission Tools & Methods Series - Concept Paper No. 2, 2011
This concept paper focuses upon three main sections: • Chapter One introduces the main concepts relating to corruption; namely, an overview of the various definitions, forms and typologies of corruption; the causes and consequences of corruption; and the importance of the specific country context. This is intended to provide the EU staff and other interested stakeholders with an introductory tool to assist in the appreciation of current understandings of corruption. • Chapter Two seeks to situate corruption within a global context. This section examines the global drivers of corruption and anti-corruption, including conventions and other international instruments. It also provides a case study looking at the field of natural resources management to demonstrate how corruption can be fought indirectly as well as directly. • Chapter Three is more operational in its approach than the first two chapters. It seeks to introduce EU staff to the frameworks and tools available to analyse and assess levels and perceptions of corruption and the challenges posed by this process. It also includes suggested steps for undertaking corruption analysis using cutting edge analysis tools. In keeping with the aims of the Concept Note overall, its main purpose is to provide readers with a deeper understanding of relevant issues related to measuring corruption and assessing anticorruption in order to help improve the policy-making process.
Corruption, Anti-Corruption Efforts and Aid: Do Donors Have the Right Approach?
2008
This paper reviews the literature on corruption, anti-corruption efforts and aid, with a focus on: (i) tools for measuring corruption; (ii) the social science literature on the country-level causes of corruption and its relationship to poor governance; (iii) donor approaches to reducing corruption – both specific anti-corruption interventions and broader governance measures; and (iv) the debates and evidence on aid modalities and corruption.
Corruption widely defined as the mis/abuse of entrusted power for private gain (Sandholtz and Koetzle 2000; Transparency International 2020) is one of the most challenging threats facing contemporary societies around the globe. Corrupt acts range from relatively small-scale bribery and embezzlement to various forms of high-level favouritism including cronyism and nepotism, the sale of public policies and other types of rent-seeking, as well as sextortion (Holmes 2015). Although there are very large variations in how corruption operates, it exists in every society, in every sector and at all levels. In all its forms, it is detrimental to economic, social and political development (Mauro 1997; Uslaner 2013; Mungiu-Pippidi and Hartmann 2019) and harms social, economic, ethical and mental well-being at both an individual and community level, even in those settings where it functions as a last-resort response to governmental failure. It decreases the quality, effectiveness and efficiency...
CONTRIBUTING TO PREVENTION AND MITIGATION OF CORRUPTION IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
With a relatively low standard of living, undeveloped industrial base, and a moderately low human development index (HDI), Uganda is defined by the United Nations as a ‘developing country.’ However, like most of the world’s developing economies, Uganda is phenomenally dodged with corruption and, unless new measures are adopted, its expanding as this study can reveal. The study from June to September 2015 in Kampala, Uganda, was purposed to establish why exiting measures and official interventions are often failing to stem corruption in Uganda as a case study for developing economies. The process would generate new appropriate strategies to reinforce existing ones in preventing corruption among the young and considerably reduce it among adults in developing nations. In this study corruption was broadly defined as the abuse of public institutions for private gain. The main methodology included both primary and secondary data, variously obtained from the Excusive arm of Government of Uganda, its Judiciary, cultural and traditional institutions as well as religious institutions. Other sources of information were from the main stream media, Uganda Police Force (UPF), Inspectorate of Government (IG) and Transparence International (TI). A questionnaire was administered to the above officials at their individual offices where an ensuing conversational approach generated a wide range of perspectives in regard to social, economic and political constraints faced by anti-corruption agencies in Uganda. Primary data was sound-recorded as well as hand-written for eventual analysis. Vital information was also obtained from secondary materials-where it was established that primary-data-sources were well versed with concerns addressed in these literatures. Informants, therefore, provided new approaches basing on those learned from best practices elsewhere in the world. Our main finding is that nearly all informants echoed related viewpoints to what they consider as feasible long term solution to the cancer of corruption. They all condemned the political class, logistical constraints and immorality for undermining the efforts of anti-corruption agencies. The study established that corruption cases are expanding (Transparency International-2014, Inspectorate of Government- 2015, and World Bank Survey-2014.) Logistically, law enforcement agencies are using inadequate methods that hardly march the new technologies applied by agents of corruption. Corruption practices start from tender stages in primary school and are sustained through the various levels of student politics up to the national level. Hence, it’s a culture being nurtured rather than constrained. The study was, however, constrained by inability to secure input of the legislature—owing to the fact parliament was in recess and individual MPs felt that their newly passed anti-corruption (Amendment Act 2015), which calls for confiscation of property of the corrupt would provide remedy—or that it needed time to be tested. Conclusively, the findings are consistent with the main hypothesis of the study—thus existing anti-corruption measures are inadequately delivering because: (i) the personnel in the concerned agencies are morally inept. (ii) Public support is not forthcoming because the general perception is gradually adopting the vice as part of life. Also, by extension, the objectives of Uganda’s anti-corruption strategy as were declared by president Museveni in 2006—i.e. effective political leadership against corruption, public demand for accountability and rejection of corruption and enforcement of anti-corruption measures—have not been realized. Key among recommendations are (i) upgrading the moral stance of the office of political leadership right from lowest local unit to the national executive. This would be contained in the (next) Electoral Reforms Bill to the effect that individuals vying for political office at any level; local or national, MUST not have been convicted on corruption-related crimes and upon being convicted while in office must resign from that office. (ii) Integrating corruption-related courses of study in the national educational systems as a new intervention to involve the young generation in anti-corruption measures. ****
The global anti-corruption framework: Lights, shadows and prospects
Corruption, Integrity and the Law: Global Regulatory Challenges, 2020
Our previous book Corruption in the Global Era (Pasculli and Ryder, 2019a) aimed at improving our understanding of the global causes, means, forms of perpetration and effects of corruption through an interdisciplinary dialogue between academics and practitioners, taking advantage also of the partnership between the Financial Crime Research Network (FCRN) at the University of the West of England and the Global Integrity Research Network (GIRN) at the Centre for Financial and Corporate Integrity (CFCI) of Coventry University. This volume complements those studies by focusing on global and local regulatory responses to corruption. It is not a handbook or a commentary, but a research book aimed at advancing the still limited assessment of the effectiveness of anti-corruption laws (cf. Isenring, Chapter 14) and enriching the scarce British literature on corruption and financial crime (cf. Ryder, 2018a: p. 247). Many of the authors are practitioners and the approach is still interdisciplinary: different fields of the law (criminal law, tax law, European law, corporate law, competition law), as well as issues in ethics, criminology, restorative justice, governance and political philosophy are covered. The perspective is international and comparative. The book explores not only international regulations but also their implementation in different countries, such as the United Kingdom (UK), the United States (US), Italy, Switzerland, Luxembourg, and Nigeria. This chapter brings together the findings of this book and formulates recommendations for future policies and research. One of its purposes is precisely to coordinate such findings with those of our previous research. Therefore, remands to our own works are not self- congratulatory, but necessary to avoid reiterating arguments and references already expressed elsewhere. In the first section, we will outline the sources of the current global anti-corruption framework and their limits. In the second section, we will illustrate the shortcomings of negative anti-corruption measures, while in the third we will analyse positive measures. In the fourth section, we will articulate some recommendations. Finally, we will draw our conclusions.
POLICY AND GOVERNANCE review of donor agency approaches to anti- corruption
2005
This literature review examines donor approaches to anti-corruption using available policy, project, and academic material. This first entails a discussion of the main conceptual issues such as the definitions of, and theoretical approaches to, corruption. This is then complemented by a discussion of implementation issues through the comparison of different bilateral and multilateral donor approaches to corruption and an analysis of lessons learned from past experience. The paper concludes by highlighting areas for further work.
Three decades of international cooperation against corruption - looking ahead
International Journal of Constitutional Law, 2024
Corruption, a ubiquitous phenomenon throughout history and societies, has been long criminalized in many countries. However, international cooperation against corruption only gained momentum in the 1990s. Since then, the international legal framework has expanded significantly through conventions like the Organisation on Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Anti-Bribery Convention and UN Convention against Corruption. Nearly all states have now ratified at least one anticorruption treaty. However, implementation and enforcement of these standards has been uneven across states. Domestic reforms have also lagged in some areas like prevention. Corruption remains widespread and its socioeconomic costs have not appreciably decreased. This Symposium aims at assesses the outcomes of three decades of international cooperation in combating corruption, while also exploring the future direction of international anticorruption rules and cooperation. Through a positive, critical, and normative legal analysis, complemented by empirical research and behavioral science, it focuses on the dynamic interactions between international anticorruption instruments and municipal law, highlighting understudied problems, both substantive and methodological. After discussing the origins and evolution of international anticorruption law, this article presents the state of the art on the questions tackled by this Symposium and highlights its contribution to existing literature on the topic. In doing so, it offers different considerations aimed at bringing together various trends emerging from the articles contained in this Symposium and exploring avenues for further research and reflection.
A Review of Donor Agency Approaches to Anti-Corruption
This literature review examines donor approaches to anti-corruption using available policy, project, and academic material. This first entails a discussion of the main conceptual issues such as the definitions of, and theoretical approaches to, corruption. This is then complemented by a discussion of implementation issues -through the comparison of different bilateral and multilateral donor approaches to corruption and an analysis of lessons learned from past experience. The paper concludes by highlighting areas for further work.