corruption

The new site www.fightingcorruption.org, is a collaboration of a number of stakeholders from the NGO sector, the business community and other stakeholders: the World Bank, the UN Global Compact, the Center for International Private Enterprise, the Global Advice Network, Grant Thornton, Siemens, and Transparency International.  The site includes a guidebook for businesses that are interested in working to fight corruption, particularly through collective action with other stakeholders.  In addition, the site offers country-specific resources on anticorruption, case studies and a business case for addressing corruption.  Scroll down on the “resources” page to find sector-specific anticorruption

A significant feature of the Bank’s new Governance and Anticorruption (GAC) Strategy (pdf) is the emphasis on mainstreaming the focus on governance work into the sectors, such as health, education, and natural resource management.  Governance, which the strategy defines as “the manner in which public officials and institutions acquire and exercise the authority to shape public policy and provide public goods and services,” clearly refers not only to the functioning of central government administration, but also to the way services are delivered and public resources managed. 

A coworker recently emailed me an article about corruption in Vietnam.  Both that article, which talks about the arrests of several journalists who had done extensive reporting on corruption, and some others I’ve read about anticorruption efforts in China have made me wonder whether it’s possible to really measure corruption.  Most of the existing, accepted measures, as the Washington Post noted in an editorial, rely on “perceptions” of corruption or on individual experiences of bribery.

I recently had the pleasure of accompanying a group of 15 senior officials from East and Southern Africa on a field visit to Guangxi Autonomous Region and Guangdong Province.  Prior to the field visit, the officials had spent three days in Beijing at a workshop on China’s development experience. The visit to Guangxi and Guangdong gave them a chance to see the results of China’s reforms for themselves, and to interact with local government officials, farmers, villagers, and entrepreneurs.  As one participant noted, “I’ve never been so reminded of the old saying that seeing is believing.  I came here a bit skeptical of all of the hype about the Chinese miracle, but now I’ve seen for myself what they have achieved in terms of poverty reduction and development”.  

Apart from the formal briefings and visits to farms and factories, the field visits afforded a few light-hearted moments, including an impromptu sing-along led by the Vice Governor of Guangxi Autonomous Region, and a mock-wedding ceremony in a Yao-minority village in Guangxi with two of the African officials serving as grooms.  

Former Hong Kong anti-corruption administrator Bertrand de Speville was at the Bank recently, speaking about political will on anticorruption.  According to de Speville, there are seven essentials to fighting corruption:

1.    Political will
2.    Our values clearly stated in law
3.    A national anticorruption strategy - clear, concise and comprehensive
4.    An effective mechanism for implementing it
5.    Community support
6.    Resources
7.    Endurance