Preventing Corruption in Humanitarian Operations: A Handbook of Good Practices is a timely, practical guide to help aid organisations deal with corruption in day-to-day operations. When people donate money to aid agencies they expect it to reach people in need. When it ends up in someone’s pocket, this not only hurts the victims but damages the donor-aid-delivery supply chain. Eliminate corruption and donors remain confident and more aid ends up helping those who need it most.

The idea for this handbook came from the massive humanitarian response to the Asian tsunami, similar to the reaction to the earthquake in Haiti. Then, as now, there were concerns about corruption. Although many international development agencies have anti-corruption polices, there was a noticeable gap in policies for preventing corruption in emergencies.

This handbook fills that gap. It offers a menu of best practice tools for preventing and detecting corruption in humanitarian operations that includes ways to track resources, confront extortion and detect aid diversion. The handbook, part of TI’s broader work to stop corruption in humanitarian assistance, covers policies and procedures for transparency, integrity and accountability, and specific corruption risks, such as supply chain management and accounting.

The handbook is primarily aimed at managers and staff of humanitarian agencies, both at headquarters and in the field who work on the front line of aid delivery. It can also help donors assess the robustness and accountability of agency programmes, and help local civil society organisations and the media hold agencies to account.

The first edition is in English. French and Spanish translations will follow.

More than a year after the 2004 tsunami, which left an estimated 500,000 people homeless in the Indonesian province of Aceh, many thousands of families were still huddled in tents. Instead of settling into sturdy new homes, they were victims of the corruption, which devastated the housing programmes of aid agencies, such as Save the Children US.

Like many aid agencies, Save the Children had little experience in construction. “The contractors were supposed to sink foundations up to 60cm,” reported the Aceh Anti-Corruption Movement, “but they’d just propped wooden stilts on stones and dug no foundations at all. The timber was substandard and already warping.”

When the shabby work came to light Save the Children suspended construction and promised to rebuild the houses. The agency met with local communities and authorities and called in experts who worked closely with procurement staff, oversaw design development and verified on-site activities.

The episode led Save the Children to strengthen anti-corruption measures and introduce a global construction policy. The Indonesia office established its own ombudsman committee. By December 2007, the committee had investigated 44 cases, 39 of which prompted either contract terminations or prosecutions. Key to the committee’s success is the fact that both headquarters and field staff know how the ombudsman system works and welcome its existence.

• Discussion of corruption needs to be brought into the open. If corruption remains a taboo topic, it inhibits the effectiveness of anti-corruption measures, such as whistle-blowing.
• Corruption is viewed differently in different cultural contexts. Clear definitions of what constitutes corrupt behaviour are an important part of preventing it.
• Corruption is not only confined to financial mismanagement and fraud. ‘Non-financial corruption’ such as nepotism/cronyism, sexual exploitation and the diversion of aid resources to non-target groups are also corrupt practices.
• Accountability and good management start with integrating the identification of corruption risks into emergency preparedness. This is not a marginal issue and should be built into inductions and staff training.
• Group decision-making and careful vetting are essential for the selection of humanitarian staff, partners and suppliers.
• Independent monitoring and evaluation by civil society organisations such as TI National Chapters can help identify corruption.
• The humanitarian community should share information on their anti-corruption practices systematically and address this problem jointly.

TI would like to adapt the handbook for use by other humanitarian assistance stakeholders including affected country governments, UN agencies, national and local humanitarian agencies, and donors.

It would like to develop a companion toolkit to help civil society organisations monitor the transparency, integrity and accountability of public and private emergency response operations. TI-Secretariat and its National Chapter in Haiti are looking to pilot the toolkit to help monitor the relief, recovery and reconstruction aid allocated to Haiti following the earthquake.

The handbook is designed to be a living document, so we welcome feedback on the effectiveness of its recommendations and suggestions for additional measures and policies that help tackle corruption. Please email us at humanitarianassistance@transparency.org.

For more information on next steps please read our In Focus Issue on preventing corruption in humanitarian assistance.

From Bangladesh to Georgia and Guatemala to Sierra Leone, TI works around the world on humanitarian assistance. To learn more about TI’s activities, research and resources, please click here.

Download the complete Handbook "Preventing Corruption in Humanitarian Operations" (10.2 MB).

Download the Handbook in sections:

ii. Table of Contents and Introduction

iii. Institutional policies and guidelines

iv. Programme support functions

v. Corruption through the programme cycle

vi. Glossary

To receive a printed copy and/or CD of the Handbook, please contact: Larissa Schuurman lschuurman@transparency.org.

GLOBAL: Fighting corruption in disaster response
IRIN, Dakur, 03 February 2010

Stopping corruption to save lives: A practical guide for humanitarian emergencies
Prevention Web, Geneva, 01 February 2010
Transparency International targets corruption in Haiti aid effort, beyond
AlertNet, London, 01 Febrary 2010

Media Contact:

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