1975 was declared International Women’s Year and the UN officially commenced supporting International Women's Day.Over the years, the UN have promoted the participation of women as equal partners with men in achieving sustainable development, peace, security and full respect for human rights. The empowerment of women continues to be a central feature of the UN's efforts to address social, economic and political challenges around the globe. The promotion of gender equality is one of the Millennium Development Goals.

Women all around the world experience discrimination based on their gender. In some countries, women have the same legal rights as men but their social status is low. In other countries, women are seen by law as inferior to men.

Investing in women's education therefore means investing in productivity, efficiency and sustainable economic growth. Women are agents of change in development and poverty eradication, but remain underrepresented in many areas of social, political and economic life. International Women's Day is the day to encourage women to fight for their rights and for their position as equal partners in society to be acknowledged. It is also serves as a reminder for men to support them in this fight.

Surveys of corruption experiences and perceptions of the past years have shown that women are less likely to pay a bribe. These findings have made analysts wonder if men are per se more corrupt than women.

A simple answer would be: no. A more complex one would be: we do not know yet.

Correlations between decreasing corruption levels and the growing involvement of women in politics can not be confirmed. Research seems to rather point to the fact that women have fewer resources as well as less access to institutions or networks where corruption occurs and therefore less opportunities for paying bribes.

It can not be taken for granted that women will be less corrupt than men or not form their own networks, once they have reached a higher level of representation at leadership level in society, politics and business.

Corruption has a particularly damaging effect on women. In many societies, women face social cultural, political and institutional discrimination. In a corruption-ridden society, these disadvantages are multiplied. If access to institutions is restricted by gender considerations, corruption creates additional obstacles for political participation and for accessing public goods and services.

The objective of gender mainstreaming is to analyse projects and programmes according to their impact on men and women, in order to avoid discrimination of either sex and to promote their equal rights.

The United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) in 1997 defined the concept of gender mainstreaming as follows:

"Mainstreaming a gender perspective is the process of assessing the implications for women and men of any planned action, including legislation, policies or programmes, in any area and at all levels. It is a strategy for making the concerns and experiences of women as well as of men an integral part of the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies and programmes in all political, economic and societal spheres, so that women and men benefit equally, and inequality is not perpetuated. The ultimate goal of mainstreaming is to achieve gender equality."

http://www.un.org/womenwatch/osagi/gmgenericsummframe.htm

Transparency International (TI) is seeking further engage with gender-related issues. Many of TI’s projects and programmes already directly address these issues, for instance by seeking transparency in the funding of political party donations, or by raising awareness of decision-making processes. Some of TI's major tools for corruption analysis, such as the Global Corruption Barometer, extrapolate and analyse gender-relevant data. TI aims to reinforce these efforts to ensure gender-neutral anti-corruption work.

TI has produced reports on corruption and governance measurement tools in Latin American countries and Sub-Saharan Africa, which were commissioned by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). These studies highlight the extent to which the measurement tools capture information that is disaggregated along sex lines and poverty, and the extent to which information on the perceptions, experiences and impact of corruption across gender and income can be analysed. Only 20 percent of the measurement tools included in the report allow for such disaggregation, which means that the voice, experiences and perceptions of the poor, women and other marginalised groups are not represented.

TI and UNDP are developing guidelines and providing support for the application of pro-poor and gender sensitive approaches to measuring, preventing and fighting corruption.

Download the reports:

• Mapping of Corruption and Governance Measurement Tools in Sub-Saharan Africa
• Corruption and Governance Measurement Tools in Latin American Countries
• Herramientas para Medir la Corrupción y la Gobernabilidad en Países Latinoamericanos

The Global Corruption Barometer, published in December 2007, surveyed nearly 64,000 respondents in over 60 countries on their experiences of corruption. Data includes information on which institutions most frequently demand bribes, where citizens see the greatest degree of corruption and how they see both the future development of corruption and their governments' efforts to eradicate it.

Men reported more contact with institutions and services, such as the police and judiciary, where demands for bribery are more likely to occur.

The Barometer interestingly shows a significant difference in expectations for the future. More than half of the citizens polled around the world expect levels of corruption to increase to some degree over the next three years. Only one in every five respondents expected the level of corruption to decrease in the near future, while one in four expect the level of corruption to be the same. Detailed analysis reveals that women are slightly more pessimistic than men about future levels of corruption.

See TI's press release on the Global Corruption Barometer: www.transparency.org/news_room/latest_news/press_releases/2007/2007_12_06_gcb_2007_en

See the full Global Corruption Barometer 2007 report:
www.transparency.org/policy_research/surveys_indices/gcb/2007

Having a look at the many gender issues involved in the work of the ALACs is daunting. ALACs empower citizens to fight corruption and support people in their resistance to corruption. Most certainly gender differences in how women and men encounter and resist corruption exist.

While culture and context play a huge role, there are many questions that are raised in providing legal advice to people in all countries. Do women and men experience equal access to justice and equal treatment by justice system officials and do they have the same access to anti-corruption institutions? Are there additional barriers that women have to overcome to resist corruption? Are there particular roles and responsibilities that women or men have, exposing them to situations where they are requested to bribe to secure public services in health, education, water, transport, tax, land titles? These gender-sensitive questions need to be addressed and analysed by ALACs when advocating for change.

Village public meeting spaces are found in tea-houses and mosques and dozens of outreach workshops have succeeded in excellent community engagement. However, these are attended typically by a 100 percent male population (see picture from Masalli region, Azerbaijan). In response efforts are undertaken to also bring the services to clinics and school yards that are predominantly female.

Without having a complete analysis of contributing factors, ALAC client profiles show that more men than women access ALACs (see table). But on the other hand a slight majority of our ALACs are led by dynamic, charismatic, energetic, to-be-celebrated women.

Bangladesh Anti-corruption Concert to mark the International Women's Day
TI’s national chapter in Bangladesh is organising an Anti-corruption concert on Saturday 8 March to mark International Women's Day. The slogan is "Jago Manush - Nari Odhikare Jago" (Stand Up - For Women's Rights). Consistent with the chapters efforts to create and strengthen a gender-sensitive anti-corruption movement, the thematic basis links the anti-corruption movement and the women's rights movement. Just as progress in the women’s rights movement cannot be achieved and sustained without fighting corruption effectively, the reverse is equally true.

Organised in collaboration with the Anti-corruption Commission (ACC) in Bangladesh, the concert will feature prominent Bangladeshi musicians and eminent public figures to highlight solidarity with the cause and encourage the young audience to say NO to corruption.

Performing artists include Farida Parvin, Syed Abdul Hadi, Kangalini Sufia, Azam Khan, Fahmida Nabi, Shahed, Mehrin, Kafil and Krishnakoli as well as the bands Souls, Renaissance, Maksud O Dhaka, Dalchhut, Aurthohin, Black and Yatri.

• Saying 'No' to corruption on International Women's Day
  The Daily Star, Bangladesh, 10 March 2008
• Bangladesh: TIB anti-corruption concert on March 8
  The New Nation, 6 March 2008
• Bangladesh: Awareness against graft, women's rights stressed
  The New Nation, 6 March 2008
• Norway: You're fired!
  The Guardian, 6 March 2008
• South Africa: SA protest over miniskirt attack
  BBC, 4 March 2008

• International Women's Day website: www.internationalwomensday.com/
• United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM)
• UNICEF

For information about UN International Women's Day activities, see: www.un.org/womenwatch/feature/iwd.

• www.un.org/events/women/iwd/2008/

U4 research: Gender and Corruption
Including:

• Part I sets out an analysis of gender issues in corruption and offers examples of how gender plays a role in corruption.
• Part II describes how to mainstream gender into anti-corruption policy and gives examples of anti-corruption measures or policies that take into account gender issues.
• Part III provides a list of further reading.

Ranjana Mukherjee and Omer Gokcekus, Gender and corruption in the public sector in Global Corruption Report 2004: Political Corruption

Hung-En Sung, Gender and corruption: in search of better evidence in Global Corruption Report 2005: Corruption in construction and post-conflict reconstruction

Causes and Consequences of Corruption - What do we Know from a Cross-Section of Countries?
Johann Graf Lambsdorff. Discussion Paper of the Economics Faculty of Passau University, 2005: Data on the perceived levels of corruption from a cross-section of countries has been introduced fruitfully into recent empirical research. This paper reviews studies on the consequences and causes of corruption. It includes research on the impact of corruption on investment, GDP, institutional quality, government expenditure, poverty, international flows of capital, goods and aid. Causes of corruption focus on absence of competition, policy distortions, political systems, public salaries as well as an examination of colonialism, gender and other cultural dimensions.