by Georg Neumann

The Coalition of Accountability and Integrity (AMAN; TI’s national chapter in the Palestinian Authority) organised the first ever “Transparency Festival” which featured a ceremonial signing of anti-corruption codes of conduct and an Integrity Awards ceremony. The festival was attended by more than 400 people in Gaza and the West Bank. In Sri Lanka, an anti-corruption slogan competition organised by TI Sri Lanka brought close to 300 people together.

TI Bangladesh organised an eight-hour concert to mark UN Anti-Corruption Day, attended by more than 25,000 of the nation’s youth. It also hosted various and creative activities such as rallies, debates and painting competitions, a human chain, street theatre shows, and a remarkable cross-country nine-hour bicycle ride to Dhaka. TI Bosnia and Herzegovina also organised a concert to mark the day. The concert, featuring a performance by the Youth Symphony Orchestra South Eastern Europe was attended by 350 people.

National Integrity Awards ceremonies carried out in the Palestinian Authorities and in Bosnia and Herzegovina honoured the countries’ anti-corruption heroes on Anti-Corruption Day to show that combating corruption requires brave and visionary people to lead the fight. In Turin, TI Italy awarded public bodies and organisations for adopted ethical measures.

Around the world, hundreds of people convened in seminars and discussions to debate anti-corruption issues and look for new solutions. In Nepal, discussions concentrated on the role of political parties and media figures in minimising corruption. In Sri Lanka the focus was on the right to information to fight corruption. Other conferences dealt with implementing conventions – as was highlighted by TI Bosnia and Herzegovina activities– and discussed the links between corruption and poverty and human rights, for example TI Cambodia and TI UK. Many national chapters issued press releases to draw the attention of the media, the public and the governments to the importance of anti-corruption work.

The Transparency International secretariat in Berlin launched new web pages on Anti-Corruption Day to illustrate the importance of fighting corruption to a general audience and to highlight a new television advertisement that was created to raise awareness about the impact of corruption. TI’s television advertisement reminds the movement and the public why anti-corruption work remains so important: “Corruption marks children, families and societies for life”. These web pages and the advertisement are accessible through TI’s homepage at www.transparency.org.

If you have ideas on how the TI movement should mark the next anti-corruption day, please contact: aporoznuk@transparency.org

by Georg Neumann

A major accomplishment of the conference was the decision to establish a monitoring programme for the convention, including the establishment of an intergovernmental expert working group. The CoSP also committed to complete a survey of implementation before the second session of the CoSP and to establish a working group on asset recovery. The conference additionally produced a resolution calling on governments to criminalize the solicitation or acceptance of bribes by officials of public international organisations. While the CoSP called on donors to provide additional resources for technical assistance to facilitate the effective implementation of UNCAC, it failed to take action on some key details of the monitoring programme, such as addressing the need for dependable funding.

Civil society’s strong presence at the conference played a vital role in contributing to discussions on the implementation and monitoring of the convention. Transparency International (TI), including representatives from a dozen TI national chapters and the secretariat, and the Coalition of Civil Society Friends of the UNCAC, a coalition of more than 40 non-governmental organizations from 30 countries, organised a number of civil society meetings in connection with the CoSP and published the daily newsletter The Monitor to keep participants informed.

The second session of the CoSP will be in Indonesia in November 2007.

by Bettina Meier

The publication reviews the areas most prone to corruption, namely: financing of schools, teacher management and behaviour, public contracts – particularly for school construction and textbook production – organisation of examinations, accreditation of higher education institutions and private tutoring. It additionally highlights strategies to improve transparency and accountability, such as creating and maintaining transparent regulatory systems, strengthening management capacities for greater accountability and enhancing ownership of the management process.

The ‘ethics and corruption in education’ research project also produced training materials that will form the basis of a summer course on “Transparency, accountability and anti-corruption measures in education”, offered by IIEP from 11 to 20 June 2007 in Paris, France. The course is designed for education managers and administrators, and civil society representatives. TI chapters are invited to apply (no registration fees). Please contact Muriel Poisson at: m.poisson@iiep.unesco.org

Corrupt schools, corrupt universities: What can be done? by Jacques Hallak and Muriel Poisson, Paris: UNESCO Publishing (2006) can be downloaded at www.unesco.org/iiep/, or by contacting: n.kelsick@iiep.unesco.org Other IIEP publications on corruption in education can be downloaded at www.unesco.org/iiep/eng/publications/recent/etico.htm