2014

Dakar, 26-28 May, 2014 — Chaired by  the President of Senegal H.E Macky Sall, and organised by  the UNDP Global Anti-Corruption Initiative (GAIN), UNODC, the World Bank, the Center for the Studies and Action Research on Governance, Open Society Institute for West Africa(OSIWA) and the Governance and Peace Programme of USAID in Senegal, the conference  aimed to obtain a realistic overview on the legislation and practice of Asset Declaration in West and Central Africa and share technical experiences between countries from the region, including best practices, innovations, and political, economic and judicial implications of asset declarations.

The conference adopted a statement outlining guiding principles to encourage the countries of the region to put in place adequate practices and policies in terms of collecting and verifying the asset declarations, and adopt an action- research programme on asset disclosure in the countries in the region.

Read full story in French.

Using text messages to crowdsource corruption information. Establishing citizens’ accountability forums to review development plans and budget allocations at the local level. Digitizing scholarship data to increase school enrolment of girls from marginalized groups. These are just three of some 14 anti-corruption initiatives being considered for the Social Innovation Fund on Anti-Corruption for Development.

A joint effort of UNDP’s Global Anti-Corruption Initiative (GAIN) and the UNDP Asia-Pacific Regional Centre (APRC), the Social Innovation Fund will announce its awardees during a Regional Dialogue on “Transparency, Accountability and Voices against Corruption – Accelerating Human Development in Asia-Pacific” to be held in Bangkok, 12-13 June 2014.

According to Elodie Beth Seo, Regional Anti-Corruption Adviser, UNDP Asia-Pacific Regional Centre, poor governance and discrimination remain key development challenges despite the high economic growth in many countries in the Asia-Pacific region. The Fund intends to encourage UNDP country offices and partnering NGOs to come up with innovations that address corruption in a way that reduces poverty.

The Fund has received expressions of interest from country offices and partnering NGOs from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, Fiji, Indonesia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam.

At least three initiatives will be selected to receive grants of US$50,000 each. Awardees will be announced on 13 June, the final day of the Regional Dialogue on “Transparency, Accountability and Voices against Corruption” Bangkok.

About 70 participants from 27 countries are expected to attend the dialogue. They will include representatives from UNDP country offices in Asia-Pacific and headquarters, delegates from national anti-corruption agencies, as well as representatives from non-government organizations and development partners.

Ahead of the Regional Dialogue, a Knowledge Fair on 11 June will allow participants to showcase their transparency, accountability, and anticorruption initiatives. The Knowledge Fair also will be an opportunity for them to pitch for new initiatives that they would like to propose as part of the competition.

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For more information about the Social Innovation Fund and the Regional Dialogue, please contact:

Elodie Beth Seo
UNDP Regional Anti-Corruption Advisor
Asia-Pacific Regional Centre
Email: mailto:elodie.beth@undp.org

During the few last years, initiatives against corruption have increasingly taken centre stage, involving the public and private sector, non-governmental organizations, the media and the youth.

In the course of UNODC’s ongoing work on probity in public procurement and corporate integrity, stakeholders from the above sectors identified a significant information gap regarding “where” and “whom to” report a corrupt act. Both citizens and professionals felt it was difficult to identify the relevant contact person in a government department – at the national or state level to report an act of corruption. Although numerous anti-corruption and vigilance bodies exist across the country, the information is scattered across multiple platforms within the public domain.  In response to this, the idea rose to consolidate  contact information on anti-corruption and vigilance desks in one platform and make it available to the public.

On 29 May 2014, UNODC launched the National Anti-Corruption Referral of key contacts in vigilance and anti-corruption desks across India’. The referral provides relevant contact information on vigilance desks in a variety of institutions at the national level, such as the Central Bureau of Investigation, Central Vigilance Commission and the Enforcement Directorate. It also covers respective information on government departments in the top twelve service areas which have a high level of interaction with the private sector, including customs, health, highways authorities, credit institutions and land and property registration authorities. The referral is structured by departments and states, containing data from 28 states, 7 union territories and 82 economic centres as well as a total of 25 ministries/government departments. It contains the remarkable number of 10,000 entries.

At the launch, Mr J M Garg, Vigilance Commissioner, Central Vigilance Commission acknowledged the referral as the first of its kind in India. He encouraged the audience to make use of the Referral as it allows to easily find information, make inquiries and report corrupt acts.  

The Referral was compiled after extensive public record research on Ministries and departments at the national and state levels, which showed a high level of engagement with the private sector. Suggestions and inputs were also received from senior Government officials, private and public sector officials through numerous consultative interactions.

The Referral is available electronically at:  http://indiaanticorruptionreferral.com

The National Anti-Corruption Referral was created under the UNODC projects ( i) Public-private partnership in probity in public procurement and (ii) Incentives to Corporate Integrity and Cooperation. Both projects are supported by the Siemens Integrity Initiative.

(This story originally appeared in the UNODC website.)

For the first time, Tanzania has introduced the UN Global Compact on safeguarding the Tanzanian environment, promote equality, create wealth for local communities, fight corruption, uphold human rights, labour rights and ensuring social inclusion so that Tanzania can bring about sustainable development and promote business ethics.

Tanzania Chamber of Commerce Industry and Agriculture (TCCIA) Executive Director Daniel Machemba made this affirmation on Friday when introducing the UN Global Compact organised by the Association of Tanzania Employers and TCCIA with support from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).

During the event, UNDP senior governance advisor Steve Lee said UNDP was ready to support Tanzania and its institutions as it builds and implements the Global Compact.

He said the major goal of the compact was to address corporate social responsibility across the country, noting that the UN Global Compact “is an entry and a base for inculcating and instituting responsible business not only by multinationals and large firms but also small and medium enterprises in their respective settings.”

Read the story by Beatrice Philemon in IPP Media.

Accra, 3^rd June, 2014 – Formalising the interactions between non-state stakeholders and public agencies for collaborative governance could help in addressing some of the challenging issues in Africa’s extractive industries.

A new book released by the United Nations University-Institute for Natural Resources in Africa (UNU-INRA) urges leaders in Africa’s extractive industries to institutionalise a governance system that is transparent, inclusive and accountable in order to improve transparency, equity and efficiency in the management of revenues from the industries.

The book, “Collaborative Governance in Extractive Industries in Africa”, calls for the empowerment of community stakeholders by the state, private or international agencies, who are acting as sponsors or leaders of collaborative governance processes.

The book says collaborative governance will promote a common understanding of the environmental and socio-economic challenges associated with the extractive industries. It also suggests that with formalised arrangements, non-state stakeholders could easily have access to relevant information including financial statements, public expenditures and other disbursements without resorting to conflicts.

“Collaborative Governance in Extractive Industries in Africa” advocates improving the knowledge, skills and capacity of these stakeholders to engage in formal, non-violent dispute resolution and decision-making processes. Training of community members especially on issues such as resettlement of displaced communities, mechanisms for payment of compensations, and on the management of environmental impacts of extractive operations could help improve knowledge and understanding of issues of decision making in the industry.

In his foreword to the book, the Rector of the United Nations University, Dr. David M. Malone, encourages African countries to institutionalise and strengthen their governance system in the extractive industries for development. He states, “I am confident that collaborative governance of extractive industries in Africa will contribute to the efforts to use revenues from extractive resources for inclusive growth”.

The book also discusses the challenges in the distribution and the management of mineral and petroleum resources and suggests many other ways of addressing them for sustainable development in Africa. Also, it draws lessons from other countries to help improve the management of the rich resources in Africa. Among the recommendations are the development of guidelines by government agencies for the use of royalties that go to traditional authorities, the strengthening of relevant state institutions, the need for the establishment of a think thank that is devoted to the extractive industries as well as the development of efficient control mechanisms, to mitigate the resource curse on the continent.

Read more in http://accra.sites.unicnetwork.org/files/2014/04/Media-Release-on-Collaborative-Governance-in-Extractive-Industries-Book.pdf