2015

Last month – alongside nearly 1,200 other anticorruption experts and practitioners from over 130 countries – I had the opportunity to go to Malaysia for the 16th International Anti-Corruption Conference (IACC). UNDP was one of the main organizers and I was keen to bring the Romanian perspective following our work on the subject.

So what did I learn?

When IACC participants whisper in the room about your national partner, “He’s awesome!” – Priceless!

UNDP co-organized four workshops at the IACC, one of which focused on Recovering and Returning Stolen Assets.

The UNDP Istanbul Regional Hub partnered with OECD, GIZ and the Basel Institute on Governancefor a session that discussed the challenges surrounding the asset recovery process.

Speakers included representatives of two key Romanian institutions in the field – Cornel Calinescufrom the Romanian Asset Recovery Office, and Anca Jurma from the National Anti-corruption Directorate.

They shared Romania’s experience and good practices in building the national framework, policy and capacities in recovering stolen assets and Romania’s experience in applying the extended confiscation in the asset recovery process.

While enjoying the session, a gentleman in front of my seat asked the lady to his left, “Who is this guy? He’s awesome!”

It was none other than our partner Cornel. I couldn’t have been prouder.

When civil society breaks big

The investigative journalism workshop was by far one of the most interesting sessions I attended.

It featuring mind-blowing stories and amazing speakers from The New York Times, Thomson Reuters,Columbia University, RISE Project Romania, and others.

Paul Radu, one of the RISE Project Romania founders confessed:

“We achieve real results and generate real change with the investigative journalism we practice: Our US $6 million budget has led so far to over $1.2 billion in assets seized and frozen. So one of our investigations alone could fund 100 years of operations.”

Wow! This is the civil society we need!

By: Anca Stoica, UNDP’s Romanian ODA Project Manager

For more information, click here. 

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IIEP is pleased to announce that registration is now open for all of its training sessions in Paris including the 52nd session of its flagship Advanced Training Programme (ATP) in Educational Planning and Management (2016-2017), the 4th session of the Education Sector Planning Course (ESP) (2016-2017) and the Specialized Courses Programme (SCP) to be held in April – May 2016.

IIEP’s training programmes are designed to strengthen skills and competencies in education policy analysis, sector diagnosis, plan formulation and implementation, and monitoring and evaluation, as well as to develop strategic management and leadership skill in education.

IIEP’s Advanced Training Programme (ATP) in Educational Planning and Management has, for five decades now, been successfully developing the professional expertise and leadership skills of civil servants and other education actors, preparing its trainees for careers in the highest ranks of educational administration. The ATP is an intensive and practice-oriented one-year course (six months online + six months residential in Paris), leading to a professional Master’s-level certificate. The ATP aims at strengthening the skills and knowledge of managers and experts in education in order to enable them to build better education systems worldwide.

IIEP’s Education Sector Planning (ESP) Programme is the core of the ATP curriculum, offered as a shorter, stand-alone course. It enables participants to acquire the fundamental skills of educational planning and corresponds to the first phase of the ATP. Combining 12 weeks of online learning with a 13-week residential training phase, the ESP enables participants to acquire the fundamentals of educational planning – from education sector diagnosis to the preparation and monitoring of the implementation of an education sector plan. This is a good option for those who need to learn sector planning but whose schedules do not permit allow them to enrol for the longer programme.

IIEP’s Specialized Courses Programme (SCP) offers six specialization courses, which develop capacities in management and analyses, addressing technical and managerial issues, strategy, monitoring and evaluation. Participants receive intensive, short-term, specialized training in specific areas of educational planning and management. Each course consists of a two-week residential training at IIEP in Paris. Trainees participate on a full-time basis in one to three courses offered in the 2016 programme.

To join these prestigious programmes, we are seeking motivated professionals who have the ability to make a difference to the education system in their country. Previous participants have come from Ministries of Education, Finance and Planning, public service agencies, national research and training institutions. Please help us spread the word to any other parties who would be interested in and benefit from IIEP’s unique training programme.

Further details on how to apply, along with the application form, are available on the IIEP website. The deadline for submission of applications for all programmes is 15 December 2015.

We remain at your disposal should you require further information and hope to soon receive online applications from your country.

For information on IIEP’s training offer:

Tel: +33 1 45 03 77 61/62

Fax: +33 1 40 72 83 66

tep@iiep.unesco.org

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The President of the Republic of Madagascar Hery Rajaonarimampianina officially signed on Monday its commitment to implement the new national strategy against corruption recently adopted and committed by the same throughout the country in a new impetus to combat this phenomenon. By 2025, Madagascar arose as a challenge to become a state of law where economic, social and environmental development is free from corruption.

“We are aiming for a Corruption Perceptions Index 63/100 by 2025” says Jean Louis Andriamifidy, CEO of the Independent Anti-Corruption Bureau during the presentation of the key elements of the new strategy against corruption in Madagascar this Monday. This would involve a significant improvement compared to 28/100 score recorded by the countries in the 2014 Index of Transparency International. “By June 2016, with the establishment of all the structures provided for in the new strategy, we hope to improve already 5 points note Madagascar compared to 2014,” he said in his presentation.

Developed with technical and financial support of UNDP and under the guidance of a steering committee composed of the Minister of Justice, the President of the Superior Council of Integrity (CSI) and the General Director of BIANCO, and a Technical Committee composed of technicians from the Ministry of Justice, CSI, and BIANCO, the new national strategy against corruption put on three strategic objectives: strengthening the rule of law so as to have a state capable of meeting the aspirations of the citizens of Justice, creation of conditions for the emergence of economic development, and promoting the emergence of a strong national leadership expressing the political will. Particular attention will be given to areas of justice, security, public service, public finance, natural resources, decentralization, education and the private sector to implement the strategy and its 38 lines of activities.

For more information, click here.

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23 Sep 2015 by Patrick Keuleers, Director, Governance and Peacebuilding, Bureau for Policy and Programme Support

Ending impunity was the main topic at the 16^thInternational Anti-Corruption Conference that took place this month in Malaysia. Most topics discussed at the conference resonated well with the proposed Sustainable Development Goal 16 on building peaceful, just and inclusive societies.

Goal 16 is a victory for the anti-corruption movement as for the first time, the development agenda makes an explicit link between good governance and fighting corruption and peace, justice and inclusive development.

This does not come as a surprise. There is now empirical evidence that once a critical threshold is reached, increasing levels of corruption result in increased levels of violence, impunity and insecurity. There can thus be no sustainable peace in a society plagued by endemic corruption and impunity.

There can also be no sustainable peace when those who hold power, be it political, economic or criminal, can purchase their impunity. And there can be no peace, nor justice when large groups of people are discriminated against because they are unable to overcome the many illegal hurdles that prevent them from enjoying their rights.  

Breaking the culture of corruption and impunity requires a comprehensive governance approach that involves, among other things, efforts to strengthen the rule of law, ensuring equal access to justice and public access to information. It calls for the development of effective, accountable and transparent institutions at all levels.

Because of the impact of corruption on the poor, at UNDP we focus much of our work on analyzing corruption risks in key social sectors: education, health and water and sanitation, and soon also in the security sector. But the nature of corruption has changed to become far more complex and engrained in obscure and increasingly global networks.

Where the capacity of national integrity institutions is totally overstretched in the face of endemic corruption and impunity, new forms of international cooperation are needed to restore the legitimacy of sovereign institutions. The “International Commission against Impunity”, established in Guatemala in 2006 to help national institutions tackle the deeply ingrained corruption and related impunity, is one example of the international assistance needed to restore trust in the functioning of national integrity institutions.

With more sophisticated problems comes the question of resources to tackle them. At the International Conference on Financing for Development in July, member states adopted the Addis Ababa Action Agenda (AAAA) which provides a financing framework to support the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The measures proposed emphasize the need to consider all sources of finance, public and private, domestic and international to complement each other. The Action Agenda also puts more emphasis on building capacities for domestic resource mobilization. That is why UNDP and the OECD launched the Tax Inspectors without Borders initiative, to provide tax management support to countries facing particular development challenges – least developed countries, Small Island Developing States and states struggling from severe dimensions of fragility.

Improved mobilization of domestic resources will not be possible without curbing the various forms of corruption and money laundering that severely reduce the taxable resource base. If the world community expects developing countries to take more responsibility for financing their sustainable development agenda, then support for strengthening their national integrity institutions will need to be increased, not reduced.

It also means that impunity for crimes of corruption can no longer be tolerated, anytime, anywhere.

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