Monthly Archives: July 2024

UNCAC Coalition Seeks Input on Improvements to UNCAC Implementation Review Mechanism

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GAB just learned of the UNCAC Coalition’s request for comments on a paper recommending ways to strengthen review of state’s compliance with the provisions of the UN Convention Against Corruption. Though the timeline is tight (August 8) and it’s the height of vacation season for Northern Hemisphere readers, please take a moment to examine the paper and offer thoughts. This is an important initiative by one of the NGOs leading the fight to combat corruption in all nations.

The UNCAC Coalition is launching a campaign calling for States to make the UNCAC review mechanism #FitForPurpose. The aim is for the next UNCAC Conference of the States Parties (CoSP) in 2025 to agree on a stronger review mechanism for the next review phase. We want to make sure that our campaign reflects the experiences and views of our global anti-corruption community.

The Coalition’s proposals to strengthen and improve the IRM are described in this Google Doc – please provide your input and thoughts by 8 August, by adding comments there (including your name and organization).

We are seeking your feedback on 

  1. whether there are elements that are missing or could be better formulated, 
  2. whether you agree with the proposed measures, and
  3. which elements should be prioritized.

We will use your input and feedback to refine the priorities of our advocacy over the next one and a half years as States discuss and negotiate what the next phase of the UNCAC IRM will look like. 

There is wide agreement that the UNCAC review mechanism in its current phase has numerous weaknesses that make it ineffective in holding States to account for their anti-corruption commitments, including a lack of transparency and inclusiveness, a lengthy and inefficient review process and no structured follow-up process.

New Podcast Episode, Featuring Lucio Picci

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A new episode of KickBack: The Global Anticorruption Podcast is now available.In this episode, host Liz Dávid-Barrett interviews Lucio Picci, a professor of economics at the University of Bologna, about his recent work on rethinking the current anticorruption paradigm. Professor Picci explains why he thinks we need to pay more attention to potential “side effects” of anticorruption discourse, particularly the risk that the anticorruption agenda will be hijacked by populists to support political goals–as we have seen, he notes, in Brazil, Russia, and the United States. Professor Picci also discusses his earlier work on corruption measurement, including approaches to measuring corruption at the subnational level. You can find both this episode and an archive of prior episodes at the following locations: KickBack was originally founded as a collaborative effort between GAB and the Interdisciplinary Corruption Research Network (ICRN). It is now hosted and managed by the University of Sussex’s Centre for the Study of Corruption. If you like it, please subscribe/follow, and tell all your friends!

Guest Post: The Need for Better Monitoring and Evaluation of Anticorruption Projects

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Today’s guest post comes from Tom Shipley, a researcher at the Centre for the Study of Corruption at the University of Sussex.

While the anticorruption field is rife with disagreements and debates about “what works,” one thing that pretty much everyone can agree on is the need for more and better evidence. This is why it is so important that governments and other organizations engage in appropriate monitoring and evaluation (M&E) activities to assess the impact of their anticorruption work. Lots of organizations conduct M&E activity—but how good is it? A new report developed at the Centre for the Study of Corruption and published with the U4 Anticorruption Resource Centre seeks to provide a comprehensive review of anticorruption M&E in development cooperation. The report, which is based on a structured review of 91 evaluation reports published by 11 development agencies and non-governmental organizations, examines the M&E evidence available for a range of anticorruption measures implemented in a wide range of countries.

The findings are disappointing. Although there are some high-quality evaluations, the review demonstrates there are systematic problems with the quality of the evidence produced through M&E. Continue reading →

New Podcast Episode, Featuring Emmanuel Mathias

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A new episode of KickBack: The Global Anticorruption Podcast is now available.(Actually, this one isn’t that new anymore–it was released a couple of weeks ago–but I was traveling then and wasn’t able to do the update. Sorry for the delay!) In this episode, host Liz Dávid-Barrett interviews Emmanuel Mathias, the Head of the Governance and Anti-Corruption Division at the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The interview covers the main pillars of the IMF’s 2018 Framework for Enhanced Engagement on Governance, and provides insights into how the IMF approaches its anticorruption work.

You can find both this episode and an archive of prior episodes at the following locations:

KickBack was originally founded as a collaborative effort between GAB and the Interdisciplinary Corruption Research Network (ICRN). It is now hosted and managed by the University of Sussex’s Centre for the Study of Corruption. If you like it, please subscribe/follow, and tell all your friends!

Announcement: Safeguarding Carbon Markets Challenge

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Phyllis Dininio, the Chief of Party for the USAID-funded Countering Transnational Corruption Grand Challenge, contributes the following announcement:

Carbon markets, which enable the trading of carbon credits and emission allowances, can help reduce carbon emissions by channeling funds from those seeking to offset their carbon emissions to those who can reduce emissions through conservation, renewables, forest protection, and other initiatives. Yet carbon markets entail important corruption risks. To take just a few examples:

  • In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the head of the ministry that manages forests embezzled around $38 million of funding from REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation), which provides a framework to give developing countries payments in exchange for reducing deforestation.
  • Also in the DRC, a French oil company and its local partner leased 70,000 hectares of land from the government to offset emissions by planting acacia trees; local farmers claim they were displaced from this land without appropriate consultation or compensation by the government.
  • In Slovakia, the government sold about 15 million tons of carbon offset units for half their market price to a firm that turned out to be a shell company run by people connected to the government; that firm turned around and sold the units for their market value, making $47 million.

To help address these sorts of problems, the USAID-funded Countering Transnational Corruption (CTC) Grand Challenge, in partnership with BHP Foundation and the Global Partnership for Social Accountability, has launched the Safeguarding Carbon Markets Challenge. The CTC Grand Challenge team is hoping to make awards of up to $500,000 in February 2025. And will accept concept notes until mid-August. Possible innovations might ways to improve procurement, certification, and licensing practices in carbon markets; efforts to improve oversight, transparency, and accountability; employing data transparency and risk assessment tools; improving land use tracking; and empowering communities, environmental journalists, and diverse civil society groups. The CTC team is also looking for partners to help with disseminating the call for proposals, serve as judges, support solvers as mentors or in testing out their solutions, provide further financial support to the challenge, or in other ways so please check out the website and get in touch.

Whistleblowers in Ukraine: Successes and Challenges in Ukraine

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The Anti-Corruption Research and Education Center (ACREC), Kyiv, Ukraine, and the National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP) are pleased to invite you to the Fourth Annual Conference “Whistleblowers in Ukraine: Successes and Challenges,” which will be held on July 10, 2024, from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM. Kyiv time.

The event aims to bring together activists, representatives of non-governmental organizations, judges, whistleblowers, authorized officials, employees of the National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP), international experts, political figures, and compliance managers to discuss opportunities for improving Ukraine’s legislation on whistleblowers. The event will feature three panel discussions and two workshops.

The event will be held online via the Zoom platform, where viewers will be able to actively participate in the conference. Please confirm your participation in the event by filling in this short form: https://forms.gle/DaF6T32Jd5GXMLQa7.