publications/publications/wp

Working Papers

Working Paper 04/2011: Corruption in the Land Sector

Unprecedented pressures on land and its governance have been created. As evident around the globe, where land governance is deficient, high levels of corruption often flourish. Under such a system, land distribution is unequal, tenure is insecure, and natural resources are poorly managed.

ISSN 1998-6408

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Working Paper No.03/2011: Corruption and Human Trafficking

Human trafficking is thought to affect more than 12 million victims around the world. Corruption is seen as facilitating this flow of people and feeding the impunity that prevents the prosecution of those involved.

ISSN 1998-6408

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Working Paper No 07/2010:Timber Trafficking and Laundering: An Anti-Corruption Approach

Timber trafficking is a trans-national problem. The high profits involved in the illegal timber trade provide incentives for smugglers to launder illegal timber for sale on international markets. This paper argues how an anti-corruption approach to the problem may help to finally break the trafficking chain.
ISSN 1998-6408

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Working Paper No 01/2011: Reducing demand for illegal timber: Targeting corruption in customs and procurement

Illegal timber finds its way into the consumer markets. A crucial aspect of stemming the flow of and demand for illegal timber is improving customs and procurement regulations in importing countries.

ISSN 1998-6408

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Working Paper No 05/2010: Corruption and Public Procurement

Public procurement impacts people’s lives and accounts for a big share government budgets. The large monetary transactions involved make the risk of abuse high and the need for anti-corruption safeguards essential.
ISSN 1998-6408

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Working Paper No 06/2010: Regulating the Revolving Door

The increased interaction between business and government – as result of privatisations, lobbying and public contracting - has meant increased opportunities for corruption. Conflicts of interest, and the ‘revolving door’ phenomenon that has arisen, need to be better prevented and regulated.

ISSN 1998-6408

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Working Paper No 03/2010: Corruption in Logging Licenses & Concessions

Corruption is one of the main drivers of illegal logging. It runs through the whole timber production and marketing chain. Corruption in logging is fuelled by a range of factors,1 such as the lack of institutional capacity to monitor and enforce existing legal and policy frameworks, low transparency and accountability, and overall weak governance.
ISSN 1998-6408

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Working Paper No 04/2010: After the Conflict: Nation- Building and Corruption

Globally, there are 26 ongoing armed conflicts and nearly one sixth of the world’s population lives in so-called ‘weak governance’ zones.1 In 2009 alone, the United Nations estimated that 42 million people were displaced due to
conflict and persecution.
ISSN 1998-6408

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WP# 02/2010: Corruption and Gender in Service Delivery: The Unequal Impacts

Corruption in the provision of basic services can have disproportionate and negative consequences for women and girls, compromising their own empowerment as well as the gender equality and development of their country.
ISSN 1998-6432

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Corporate Responsibility & Anti-Corruption: the Missing Link?

At their best, corporate responsibility initiatives are an attempt to address the great environmental, social and ethical challenges of our times. As these programmes continue to evolve, the challenge for the anti-corruption movement is determining the appropriate place for anti-corruption efforts and whether — and how — they can support a company’s corporate responsibility strategy.

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Working Paper 07/2009: Making Government Anti-Corruption Hotlines Effective

Anti-corruption hotlines are being valued as a channel for citizen redress and to cross-check whether campaign pledges and government promises are producing results. Yet their success is dependent on a number of operational, administrative, institutional and political factors – which examples from Azerbaijan, Czech Republic, Kenya and Moldova help us to explore.
ISSN 1998-6432

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Working Paper No. 6/2009 Youth and Corruption

Integrity, like corruption, is learned. Unfortunately, in many countries corruption has been tolerated for generations. Young people have the potential to transform this present reality and end corruption.

ISSN 1998-6432

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Working Paper No. 05/2009 Corruption and Local Government

In their daily lives, citizens tend to have close contact with local agencies. This proximity to the people and the discretion that local officials have can make local government highly vulnerable to corruption. Experiences from Liberia, Peru, Slovakia and South Korea are profiled to show how stakeholder collaboration can aid in designing effective local initiatives to combat corruption.

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Working Paper No.03/2009 Corruption and Sport: Building Integrity and Preventing Abuses

Whenever there is money, competition or power involved, corruption is a constant threat. The sporting industry is not immune from this reality. From match-fixing to stadium construction kickbacks, the sporting world has seen a string of corruption scandals that has tarnished its reputation.

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Working Paper No. 02/2009 Corruption in the MENA region

The characteristics of the area of the Middle East and North Africa known as the MENA region tend to fuel corruption and result in low levels of transparency. Yet anti-corruption strategies have primarily focused on public institutions and laws without addressing the roots of the problem.

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Working Paper No 01/2009 Recovering stolen assets: A problem of scope and dimension

Both developed and developing nations are responsible for stealing assets, sidelining initiatives to repatriate them and profiting from corruption. Ending this complicity is urgent.

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Working Paper No. 5/2008 Human Rights and Corruption

Although international anti-corruption and human rights regimes can run parallel agendas, they are rooted in the same principles. These commonalities suggest there are many actions and activities where both could better compliment each other.

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Working Paper No. 4/2008 Corruption and (In)security

Both anti-corruption approaches and security policies need to address linkages between them and look at the broader context that has created a web of security risks — within and outside national boundaries.

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Working Paper No 03/2008 Using the OECD Guidelines to Tackle Corporate Corruption

The Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, adopted by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), provide a set of corrupt accountability standards that offer great potential for civil society to effectively combat private sector corruption

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Working Paper No. 2/2008 Poverty and Corruption

Across different country contexts, corruption has been a cause and consequence of poverty. Yet donors and governments still treat poverty and corruption as separate — rather than integral — components of the same strategy, which has undermined the fight against both these obstacles to development.

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Working Paper No 01/2008 Accountability and Transparency in Political Finance

When money corrupts campaigns and candidates, political finance can undermine the same democratic values and good governance that it also supports. To prevent and address the problem, transparency and accountability must form part of the policies used to combat it.

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Working Paper No. 2/2007 Addressing Corruption and Building Integrity in Defence Establishments

Global defence is a big business, with expenditures exceeding more than US $1 trillion. Yet the defence establishment has historically been one of the least open of any government organisation. The secrecy that necessarily veils some defence activities often extends more widely than can be justified, making the sector particularly vulnerable to the abuse of corruption. Working with the military, governments and civil society can help to build the integrity of the system, promote accountability and increase the transparency of dealings.

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Working Paper No 03/2007 Gender and Corruption

This Working Paper analyses recent research in the field of gender and corruption. It considers how women impact on, and are affected by, corruption and looks at some of the gender implications of anti-corruption policies. Research findings on this subject over the last years have varied and this paper seeks to capture current opinion for the benefit of anti-corruption practitioner’s in our movement and around the world.

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Working Paper No. 04/2007; 04/2009 Corruption in the Education Sector

Corruption defeats the very purpose of education. In a corrupt education system, students don't acquire the skills and knowledge that would enable them to contribute meaningfully to their country's economy and society. They learn from a young age that a lack of integrity is an acceptable way of life, allowing these values to become the norm throughout society.

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Working Paper No. 1/2007 Corruption and Renewable Natural Resources

There is important evidence to suggest that corruption is a key contributing factor to the degradation of renewable natural resources. Corrupt forestry officials or law enforcement officers who are in the pockets of unscrupulous logging firms will turn a blind eye to illegal forestry activities, threatening sustainable management of the forest's biodiversity storehouse. Similarly, fisheries inspectors endanger the sustainability of fish stocks by accepting bribes from trawling companies intent on ignoring official quotas. More broadly, poor governance may translate into sub-standard environmental policy formulation and implementation, where narrow interest groups determine the common 'environmental good'. And, in extreme cases, high-level political corruption can facilitate the wholesale plunder of a country's natural resource base.

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