By Michael Sidwell

Around 300 delegates, including representatives of over 90 national chapters, individual members and international secretariat staff, gathered for the largest AMM to-date, underlining just how far the world’s leading anti-corruption organisation has progressed in the past 15 years – from a few visionary individuals to a truly global movement.

The board elections saw TI Chair, Huguette Labelle (Canada), and Vice-Chair, Akere Muna (Cameroon) re-elected to another three-year term as TI’s global leadership. As well as the re-election of three further current board members, Sion Assidon (Morocco), Boris Divjak (Bosnia & Herzegovina) and Gerard Zovighian (Lebanon), the TI movement elected three new members: Rueben L. Lifuka (Zambia), Delia Matilde Ferreira Rubio (Argentina) and Iftekhar Zaman (Bangladesh). Details of the new board members can be read here.

TI co-founder and outgoing board member, Frank Vogl, is set to continue his engagement with TI as a member of its Advisory Council, after having served four terms on the board.

In addition to the board election, the TI movement also passed resolutions on four critical issues: the global financial crisis, the UK’s record on combating foreign bribery, the protection of civil society advocates and the weakening of anti-corruption initiatives in South Korea.

To read the resolutions in full please click here.

By Michael Sidwell

The aim of the award is to recognise the work of those who raise awareness of corruption in Latin America. “Good journalism is one of the best ways to demonstrate how corruption works in reality, illustrating corruption’s impact on daily lives and the systemic weaknesses that allow it to flourish”, said Marta Erquicia, Transparency International’s Program Coordinator for Latin America.

The highly experienced jury comprises prestigious journalists with a deep understanding of the Latin American reality: Gerardo Reyes, researcher for Miami’s El Nuevo Herald, and joint winner of the Pulitzer prize; Tina Rosenberg, The New York Times journalist and winner of the Pulitzer prize; Gustavo Gorriti, IPYS president; Michael Reid, editor for the Américas of The Economist; and Marcelo Beraba, director of the Grupo Estado and the Brazilian Association of Investigative Journalists. The jury will convene in July 2009.

The annual prize started in 2002, grants US $25,000 dollars (€19,500) to the best investigative report on corruption published in Latin American or Caribbean media. A further two awards, worth US $5,000 (€3,900) each will be granted to notable investigative work. To be eligible, reports must have been published between 1 January and 31 December 2008. The deadline for submissions (print, broadcast, or electronic media) is 31 March 2009.

For more information on the award, please click here, or visit IPYS's website.

By Georg Neumann

The website is the first web-based forum dedicated to the exchange of information on development research, analysis, approaches, tools and lessons from experience. It will provide a central point for information on procurement capacity in development.

The PCDC is part of the UN Development Programme (UNDP) Capacity Development Group, and was established in January 2008 in partnership with the Danish International Development Assistance (Danida) to provide tools, methods and advice, as well as to develop national and sub-national procurement capacities.

More information on TI’s work on public contracting can be found here.