June 2014

New York, 24 June 2014 – Marking ten years of the UN Global Compact’s 10th Principle Against Corruption, business called on Governments to address corruption and foster good governance in ways that advance the global development agenda.

Recognizing corruption as one of the greatest obstacles to economic and social development around the world, and good governance as critical for sustainable development and responsible business, the Call to Action: Anti-Corruption and the Global Development Agenda represents a call from companies to Governments to promote anti-corruption measures and to implement policies to establish systems of good governance.

“It was clear a decade ago – and remains today – that corruption so profoundly corrodes sound business practice and good governance, and thus our ability to realize the other nine principles, that it uniquely deserved to be added to the commitments on which our Global Compact is founded,” said Georg Kell, Executive Director of the UN Global Compact. “While much has been accomplished, it is evident that corruption continues to be a critical challenge for business. Only by fostering a culture of integrity, transparency, accountability and good governance, can an equitable, inclusive and sustainable global economy be achieved.”

Companies that sign the Call to Action send a strong signal to Governments and businesses worldwide that it is important to put an end to bribery and corruption in all its forms. The Call to Action asks Governments to take five specific actions, ranging from fully implementing and enforcing the tenets of the UN Convention against Corruption by strengthening anti-corruption policies, laws and enforcement mechanisms to create a level playing field and incentivize good behaviour, to committing to engage in competitive and transparent procurement processes through public advertising of all Government procurement cases (read all five appeals).

The Call to Action – which is supported by the UN Global Compact, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, Transparency International, the Open Contracting Initiative, the World Bank Institute and the Global Organization of Parlamentarians against Corruption – will be forwarded to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon to highlight the private sector’s continuing efforts to work with other stakeholders to address corruption.

Signatories to the Call to Action will be acknowledged at the UN Global Compact’s 10th Anniversary of the 10th Principle, to be held in New York on 10 December 2014. The event will also highlight the private sector’s achievements in the fight against corruption over the past decade and discuss emerging anti-corruption measures in both developed and emerging markets.

Find more information about the Call to Action online at www.unglobalcompact.org/anti-corruption and follow the conversation on Twitter using #BizAgainstCorruption.

Contacts 

Olajobi Makinwa
Head, Transparency & Anti-Corruption Initiatives
UN Global Compact
makinwa@un.org

Kristen Coco
Public Affairs and Media Relations
UN Global Compact
cocok@un.org

http://www.unglobalcompact.org/news/1111-06-24-2014

United Nations Global Compact

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ETICO, a unique new portal aimed at fighting corruption in education systems around the world, was launched 16 June 2014 by UNESCO’s International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP-UNESCO).
Corruption is often hard to track and measure, but is found at different levels in countries’ education systems and is hampering access to education and children’s learning. It results in children being denied a good-quality education. Examples of corruption in education range from ghost schools and fake diplomas, to missing textbooks, stolen school supplies, absent teachers and misallocation of school grants.

PHOTO COURTESY OF JOSE IBARRA ANGELES.

For example, surveys carried out by IIEP partners tackling corruption estimate that the salaries of absent or ghost teachers may account for 15-20% of payroll costs in some countries; in some cases this is equal to half of the funds allocated to improving school buildings, providing better class equipment and buying school textbooks, etc.
The ETICO database, which houses the latest cutting-edge research tracking ethics and corruption, is a gateway for accessing expert training materials on transparency, accountability and anti-corruption issues in education and for support in implementing anti-corruption tools and strategies.
The global online platform will serve as a key interactive discussion hub for national and international partners who are promoting transparency. It will provide them with the opportunity to upload and share research on this crucial topic to help create a stronger united front against corruption in education.
“It is estimated that corruption is sucking millions of dollars out of the system, and as a result many children are missing out on an education due to malpractices and a serious lack of ethics in the system. The ETICO platform aims to help prevent this by bringing all of the key stakeholders together to fight against the problem and offer expert advice,” IIEP’s Senior Researcher on anti-corruption and ethics in education, Muriel Poisson, said.
Through its blog, the ETICO platform will host in-depth discussions on tackling corruption by sharing news and information, as well as highlighting best practices in countries where interventions against corruption in education have proved successful.
The launch of ETICO coincides with the release of an important new IIEP publication, Achieving Transparency in Pro-Poor Education Incentives. The book outlines the best ways to ensure that scholarships, conditional cash transfers, free school meals, etc., actually reach children from poor backgrounds and families who need it most.
For example, in South Africa, the quintile ranking system was designed to provide enhanced funding to schools serving the poorest students. To ensure that funds are reaching the right schools, several measures have been introduced, such as the use of objective, transparent and publicly known targeting tables. This system is recognised as an important effort towards ensuring greater equity in education by cutting school fees for the poorest children in South Africa, thereby giving them access to education.
In Brazil, the creation of food school councils has reduced the risks of misappropriation of food or fraud in food procurement – both problems in the past – by institutionalising the process of continuous programme monitoring and accountability. Relying on the participation of the school community and civil society, these councils scrutinise school menus and their related expenses. They help reduce delay in the transfer of resources, cut down operational costs and improve the quality of goods. The Brazilian school lunch programme reaches over 45 million people, and provides stability to the lives of poor families and students.
In the Indian state of Rajasthan, 28% of schools have introduced display boards that are available for public scrutiny. Usually painted on the school building, they display key information related to the daily functioning of the school, e.g. all financial investments made by the school; teacher attendance, etc. Publicly displayed transparency boards are now regarded as an important feature of community-based monitoring and public hearings are held where people are invited to give testimonies of corrupt practices and government officials are called upon to take action.
Presenting research comparing seven projects implemented worldwide, Achieving Transparency in Pro-Poor Education Incentives shows that measures taken to confront corruption risks – such as school display boards, local transparency mechanisms, appeal mechanisms, social audits, and informal whistleblowing, among actions taken is key in the battle against corruption in education. These measures are seen as crucial tools for achieving the Education for All goals. They are presented in detail on ETICO, together with hundreds of other such cases.
Visit the ETICO portal: http://etico.iiep.unesco.org/

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Bangkok, 13 Jun 2014 – Six innovations to tackle anti-corruption in Asia and the Pacific have won awards in the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)’s first-ever social innovation initiative in the region launched in Thailand this week.

The countries with winning ideas that will now be funded by UNDP for a pilot-phase are Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Viet Nam, and China. The proposals were judged on their ability to integrate anti-corruption efforts with development solutions, with a specific focus on women, youth, and marginalized communities.

The challenge drew proposals from 14 countries ranging from UNDP country offices to partner non-government organizations. A high-level panel of governance and innovation experts judged them on their applicability and their ability to sustain themselves beyond seed funding.

A joint effort of UNDP’s Global Anti-Corruption Initiative (GAIN) and the UNDP Asia-Pacific Regional Centre (APRC), the Social Innovation Initiative announced the awardees at a regional dialogue on “Transparency, Accountability and Voices against Corruption” that ended on June 13.

“Signing conventions is not enough, and we’ve also seen that having singular approaches to addressing anti-corruption is not enough: we have to take a much more innovative and integrated approach,” said Caitlin Wiesen, who heads UNDP’s Asia-Pacific Regional Centre.

Corruption disproportionately impacts at-risk groups of the poor, especially women, Wiesen pointed out at the launch of the two-day dialogue that brought together over 70 participants from 27 countries.

“At the moment, citizens in my country, especially marginalised groups, have no access to information on public expenditures in their districts. Through our project, they will have access to this information – and for the first time they will be able to judge how well and representatively they are being governed,” said Syed Hashim Zaidi, Project Officer, UNDP Pakistan, who co-developed one of the winning projects.

Each of the awarded projects will now receive funding of US$25,000 to US$50,000 to roll out their projects in a pilot phase, the results of which will determine whether UNDP goes on to scale-up the solution in partnership with governments and other national actors.

Following are summaries of the winning proposals:

1. Pakistan – Citizens’ Information and Accountability Forum

The initiative will launch a Citizens’ Information and Accountability Forum in the province of Punjab, one of two local governments in Pakistan that have passed Right to Information (RTI) laws. The Forum is a citizens-led group that will review district development plans and budgets in order to promote government accountability and transparency.

The Forum will submit RTI requests to gain access to all relevant public documents and hold government officials accountable at public hearings it will organize. It will conduct monthly meetings and site inspections to check the progress of publicly funded projects and raise any issues with the appropriate government body.

In the long run, the Forum intends to change how development planning happens at the district level, allowing citizens greater say and scrutiny in public expenditures.

With UNDP Pakistan as lead organizer, the Forum will have representatives of youth, women rights organizations, minority groups, bar associations, traders association, farmers association, teachers association, NGOs, community based organizations, university faculty, and press clubs. UNDP also will partner with the Punjab district government, particularly its Information Commission, to ensure its ownership of the initiative.

For more information about this initiative, please contact: Amir Goraya, Assistant Country Director, Democratic Governance Unit, UNDP Pakistan. amir.goraya@undp.org

2. Philippines – Citizen Empowerment Hubs

To be set up in three strategic areas, Citizen Empowerment Hubs will address a major challenge in the Philippines: disaster management. Natural disasters here are now more frequent and severe. Most affected are local communities, especially their most vulnerable groups — women and children.

The initiative will pilot the Hubs in building the capacity of grassroots women to map and monitor service delivery, with a distinct focus on local response to disasters. Key to the initiative is increasing partnerships between grassroots women and local authorities so that women become more visible in local decision-making, including budget planning, for disaster risk reduction.

Implementing partners are the Government Watch (G-Watch) project of the Ateneo School of Government, Damayan ng Maralitang Pilipinong Api (national federation of 217 grassroots organizations), the Huairou Commission, Department of the Interior and Local Government, Government of the Philippines, and UNDP Philippines.

For more information about this initiative, please contact: Emmanuel E. Buendia, UNDP Team Leader for Governance, UNDP Philippines. emmanuel.buendia@undp.org

3. Thailand – Anti-Corruption Cafes in Universities

This initiative will expand “Refuse To Be Corrupt”, a social enterprise of the UNDP-led Thai Youth Anti-Corruption Network (TYACN). The enterprise is part of a broader strategy to influence youth attitudes to corruption and is a joint project with True Coffee, the largest locally owned chain of coffee shops in Thailand.

TYACN will scale-up “Refuse To Be Corrupt” cafés in Khon Kaen University and Ubon Ratchathani University. Each café will give college students a space and a command centre where young people can sit down and discuss issues, share their views with peers, organize multi-media events, and map out plans to tackle corruption in their universities and the wider communities.

The World Economic Forum recognized “Refuse To Be Corrupt” as a Creative For Good best practice that presented an inspiring and effective public education campaign to instil social change.

For more information about this initiative, please contact: Kwanpadh Suddhi-Dhamakit, Programme Analyst, UNDP Thailand. kwanpadh.suddhi-dhamakit@undp.org

4. China – Youth Participation Innovation Laboratory

This initiative will set up an Innovation Laboratory for Youth Participation in anti-corruption, as a tool to promote youth engagement in corruption prevention in China’s higher education sector.

Among the initial activities will be a national student design competition on innovative anti-corruption plans to curb the spread of corruption in the higher education sector, with technical advice from UNDP. Winning plans will be piloted in selected member universities of the China Integrity Education Network (CIEN).

The proposed initiative scales up a UNDP project that currently supports a nationwide integrity innovation competition among 10 member universities of the CIEN, in consultation with the Beijing Education Commission and the Guangdong Education Department. The scale-up doubles the number of participating universities to 20.

For more information about this initiative, please contact Qing Gu, Team Leader Poverty, Equity & Governance, UNDP China. qing.gu@undp.org

5. Indonesia – Corruption Tracking Tool for the Extractives Industry

This initiative will pilot-test a prototype Corruption Tracking Tool to help address the high prevalence of corruption in Indonesia’s extractive industries. The Tool is a user-friendly handbook that can help local governments track stages vulnerable to corruption in both the processing of mining permits and the implementation of mining concessions.

The Tool will identify the capacities and resources needed to reduce corruption strategically. It also will pinpoint the potential benefits to local governments and stakeholders once a corruption problem is resolved.

Intended for piloting in two local governments, the Tool will be developed by UNDP Indonesia in close partnership with the two pilot local governments, the Corruption Eradication Commission, the National Development Planning Agency, and the Ministry of Energy Mineral Resources.

For more information about this initiative, please contact: Dr. Abdul Wahib Situmorang, Project Manager-Participatory Governance Assessment, Democratic Governance and Poverty Reduction Unit, UNDP Indonesia. abdul.situmorang@undp.org

6. Viet Nam – Strengthening People’s Role in Anti-Corruption Work

The initiative will strengthen the role and participation of civil society organizations in anti-corruption work in Viet Nam. It will focus on two groups: local people’s supervision boars and news media practitioners.

For the people’s supervision boards, the initiative aims to improve their knowledge on inspection law, the anti-corruption law, and related government policies; train them on policy monitoring, and monitoring and handling of complaints; and, provide them practical tools (such as handbooks and checklists) to do inspection work.

News media practitioners will benefit from training for investigative journalists on anti-corruption laws and investigation skills, and the regular sharing of updated information on corruption and anti-corruption activities.

Partners in the initiative are UNDP Vietnam, the Government Inspectorate of Viet Nam, and civil society groups.

For more information about this initiative, please contact: Tran My Hanh, Programme Analyst, UNDP Viet Nam Office. tran.my.hanh@undp.org

* * *

To know more about the Social Innovation Initiative (Asia-Pacific) and the Regional Dialogue on Transparency, Accountability and Voices against Corruption, held 12-13 June 2014, Bangkok, please contact: Elodie Beth Seo, Regional Anti-Corruption Advisor, UNDP Asia-Pacific Regional Centre. elodie.beth@undp.org

Note: This story first appeared in the UNDP Asia-Pacific Regional Centre website.

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WACA WACA – West And Central Africa Weekly Anti-Corruption Announcements – 18 July 2014

The Fight Against Corruption in the Field

Liberia: Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission (LACC) Craves Moral Support From United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL). The Executive Chairperson of the LACC, Cllr. James N. Verdier, has appealed to UNMIL and other missions in Liberia to provide moral support the Commission to enhance its work. Cllr. Verdier said while the LACC welcomes technical and logistical support from partners, the Commission would appreciate their moral support which will help boost its work and discourage perpetrators of corruption.The LACC boss made the appeal last Thursday when the new Deputy Special Representative of UN Secretary General for Consolidation of Democratic Governance, Antonio Vigilante, paid a familiarization visit to the Commission.  Read More

Nigeria: UK prosecutor reviews alleged link between UK aid and jailed Ibori. Britain’s leading fraud prosecutor is evaluating material alleging UK aid might have been channelled to companies linked to James Ibori, a jailed Nigerian former oil state governor, a top government lawyer said on Wednesday. Read More 

Nigeria:Bien mal acquis – Le Liechtenstein va restituer 167 millions d’euros au Nigeria détournés par Sani Abacha. Le Liechtenstein s’est engagé à restituer au Nigeria 167 millions d’euros détournés par l’ancien président Sani Abacha dans les années 1990. Lire la Suite

Sierra Leone: Anti-Corruption Commission talks about the new national anti-corruption strategy to officers of eastern police. Over seventy (70) police officers of the Eastern Police Division were educated on the new National Anti-Corruption Strategy (NACS 2014-18) and activities of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC). Read More

Cote d’Ivoire: Hôpital général d’Abobo – Négligence, racket et corruption. Une affaire Richard Niangoran, risque d’indigner l’opinion publique nationale et même internationale. Tout commence le mardi 8 juillet 2014 aux environs de 13 heures lorsque le chauffeur de taxi à Cocody St-Jean, Richard Niangoran ressentant un malaise au niveau de son bas ventre, décide de se rendre à l’hôpital général d’Abobo non loin de la gare. Lire la Suit

Burundi:Un militant anticorruption interdit de manifester.L’une des principales figures de la société civile du Burundi, Gabriel Rufyiri à la tête de l’Observatoire de lutte contre la corruption et les malversations économiques (Olucome) avait annoncé, mardi, son intention de manifester seul.  Lire la Suite

Congo-Brazzaville: Lutte contre la corruption: la localité de Djambala déterminée à combattre ce phénomène.Les autorités politico-administratives se sont montrées favorables pour lutter contre ce phénomène dans leur domaine d’activité. Cet engagement fait suite à la campagne de sensibilisation menée du 14 au 19 juin à Djambala, dans le département des Plateaux, par la Commission nationale de lutte contre la corruption, la concussion et la fraude (CNLCCF). Lire la Suite

African News on Anti-Corruption

Analysis:Lawyers, judges and corruption. Chief Justice, Mariam Aloma Mukhtar, pushed her anti-corruption efforts a notch higher when she sought to identify forces fostering illicit activities in the judiciary. Read More

Analyse: Afrique: Les mafias prospèrent aussi sur le colossal marché des déchets. L’Italie appelle à une coordination internationale pour contrer le phénomène d’exportation illicite des déchets qui touche aussi l’Afrique La justice italienne estime qu’il n’y a plus de temps à perdre : il faut contrer au plus vite le phénomène de l’éco-mafia dont l’activité devient de plus en plus internationale. La multiplication des contrôles et des saisies en Italie a poussé les barons de la criminalité organisée à étendre et multiplier leurs aires d’activités en dehors de la péninsule. Parce que proche, mais aussi parce que vulnérable aux frontières et peu regardante, l’Afrique reçoit désormais, avec ou sans son accord, les résidus légaux ou pas de l’activité industrielle européenne et occidentale. Lire la suit

Corruption and Justice: Ex-CEO of Tanzania ports faces fraud charges over bloated Chinese contract. The former head of Tanzania Ports Authority and his deputy were charged on Monday with fraudulently awarding a bloated contract worth more than $523 million to a Chinese company to expand the city’s main port. Read more

Analysis: Why anticorruption reforms fail-systemic corruption as a collective action problem. Read more

Opportunities and Vacancies

Free Online Course in basics on anti-corruption and Corruption Prevention. Click here to register.

Other

Your contributions to WACA WACA are strongly encouraged. Please send us information about your activities and anti-corruption programs for 2014 (Njoya.tikum@undp.org).

Electronic Resources. Anti-corruption portal https://anti-corruption.org, workspace https://undp.unteamworks.organd sharing portal on the WB anti-corruption agencies http://www.acauthorities.org/.

For more information, please contact:

Njoya Tikum
Regional Policy and Programme Advisor
Anti-Corruption
Regional Service Centre for Africa
UNDP

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(Reuters) – A United Nations panel that monitors compliance with U.N. sanctions on Somalia has accused the country’s president, a former minister, and a U.S. law firm of conspiring to divert Somali assets recovered abroad, according to a new report. The Somalia and Eritrea Monitoring Group, an 8-person committee, disclosed the findings in a confidential report to the U.N. Security Council’s Somalia/Eritrea sanctions committee. Reuters reviewed a copy of the 37-page document.

Read the Reuters story by Louis Charbonneau and Drazen Jorgic.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/16/us-somalia-corruption-un-exclusive-idUSKBN0FL07220140716?f

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