News

12-14 Nov 2014: The Ministry of Public Service and Modernization of the Administration in the Kingdom of Morocco organized a training in Rabat on 12-14 November 2014.It was organized in partnership with UNDP’s Regional Project on “Anti-Corruption and Integrity in the Arab Countries,” in collaboration with the Arab Anti-Corruption and Integrity Network entitled “Towards a Comprehensive Mechanism for Monitoring and Evaluating the Anti-Corruption Strategy.”

The training included officials and experts representing ministries and public administrations, in addition to representatives of non-governmental organizations and the private sector. The aim of the training was to raise awareness on the importance of monitoring and evaluation systems for the success of anti-corruption efforts, as well as deepen participants’ understanding of anti-corruption measurements.

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26 Oct – 2 Nov 2014: The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) completed a scoping mission to Jordan, undertaken by a team of experts provided through its Regional Programme, with the aim of exploring national needs and priorities in the area of anti-corruption and integrity, and discussing ways to strengthen cooperation at the country level in the period of 2015-2017.

The mission received wide media attention and lasted for a week starting on October 26th and ending on November 2nd. It included high-level meetings and in-depth working session with key concerned institutions, including the Anti-Corruption Commission, as well as others, namely the Ministry of Public Sector Development, the Ministry of Justice, the Judicial Council, the Audit Bureau, the Royal Committee of Evaluation and Follow up on the Implementation of the Executive Plan of Integrity Charter, the Civil Service Bureau, and the Ombudsman Bureau. Furthermore, the mission provided opportunities to meet with officials responsible for Jordan’s efforts in the framework of the Open Government Partnership, as well as with parliamentarians and representatives of civil society and the private sector. On Tuesday, October 28th, UNDP held a meeting with development partners in Jordan. It enabled the mission to present results achieved during past cooperation in Jordan as well as potential directions for the future. Interactive discussions allowed participants to exchange information on their respective efforts and explore initial ideas to strengthen related cooperation and coordination in with a view to enhancing development effectiveness.

The Mission demonstrated strong national interest in deepening related cooperation with the UNDP, and helped to crystallize a number of concrete proposals in this regard. Those will be reflected in a comprehensive project document that will be presented to all concerned parties prior to its endorsement and the commencement of implementation by the UNDP Country Office in cooperation with the Regional Center that will be established in Amman pursuant to the agreement that has been recently signed between the UNDP and the Government of Jordan represented by H.E. the Minister of Foreign Affairs.  Overall, priorities include strengthening the legal and institutional frameworks in order to enhance transparency and accountability, launching sectoral initiatives to reduce related corruption risks, and supporting a number of activities to expand the scope of stakeholders engaged in related national efforts, all with a view to supporting the implementation of the National Anti-Corruption Strategy and the Execution Plan of the National Integrity Charter.

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Public procurement, which represents an average from 15% to 20% of GDP in developing countries, is one of the most corruption-prone areas. Irregularities in public procurement in Thailand resulting from collusion and conflict of interest are frequent, affecting the delivery of essential public services and exacerbating inequalities.

UNDP has developed well-tested methodologies to address inequalities by mitigating corruption risks in key services, in particular water, health and education.  In 2014, the UNDP piloted a procurement risk assessment in Thailand for the first time at a global level in Thailand, in cooperation with the Office of Public Sector Development Commission, the Comptroller General Department and the private-sector-led Anti-Corruption Organisation of Thailand.  The risk assessment, conducted through desk reviews, interviews and surveys with government, private sector and academia has produced a set of recommendations on how to reform the overall procurement system as well as a good practice checklist for public officials to mitigate corruption risks in the process.

The project has gained a lot of political momentum, with the Prime Minister, General Prayuth Chan-ocha, announcing the partnership with UNDP, in this area, in his TV speech on 3 October. The government is now considering the introduction of a procurement law as a result of the assessment as well as planning to use the Checklist for training officials on how to mitigate corruption risks.

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10-12 Nov 2014 – Empowering the youth to refuse corruption in the Asia Pacific region is a pre-condition for changing attitudes in the wider society and promoting a culture of integrity.  The UNDP Resident Coordinator in Thailand Luc Stevens, in his opening remarks of a Regional Symposium on Anti-Corruption Education, organized by the Ubon Ratchathani University in Thailand, highlighted the importance that universities can play in instigating that change. The event, organized with the support of UNDP Global Anti-corruption Initiative and in partnership with Integrity Action, brought together 50 representatives from academia, government, as well as students from the region, to discuss approaches of integrity, anti-corruption education, and an integrity curriculum for universities in Thailand.

Surveys in the region have shown that the youth’s attitude towards corruption can be quite lenient when they are not appropriately sensitized or taught about its risks and impact. According to the 2013 Asian Barometer 4 out of 10 young people in South Korea are not willing to report corruption to authorities (Youth and Democratic Citizenship in East and South East Asia, UNDP, 2014). Also a survey of the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study shows that the majority of young Thais believe that corruption is acceptable, as long as they benefit from it. That is why it is essential that young people receive effective training in integrity and anticorruption during their university studies, while also being provided with positive role models that they can learn from.  This is a pre-condition to empower them to act as leaders in their communities and workplaces, both in resisting corruption and promoting good governance practices.

A wide variety of integrity education approaches were presented during the symposium – ranging from formal undergraduate or graduate integrity curricula in Australia and Malaysia, drama and play-acting educational programmes in South Korea, to social auditing of public services in the Philippines. The workshop also provided an occasion for Thai and other South-East Asian universities to exchange best practices and lessons learnt on how to create a curriculum for an integrity and anti-corruption university course.

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The United Nations Development Programme in Kosovo has been actively involved in the transparency and accountability arena and continues to provide support in the increasingly important area of anti-corruption. To recognize the tireless effort of journalists to publicly expose corruption issues, the UNDP established a media award in 2007. The award in 2014 distinguished important stories addressing rampant corruption and engaging with discussions on transparency and honesty in public life.

Another side of UNDP Kosovo’s activities include promotion of innovation solutions and open data at the local level through boot camps. In October, a boot camp brought together software engineers who, over a period of three weekends, taught young programmers applications which are used to visualize data. This boot camp is especially important since the Municipality of Gjakovë/Djakovica is the first municipality in Kosovo to open up its procurement data, more specifically the databases of 2011, 2012 and 2013.

All references to Kosovo in this report shall be understood to be in the context of Security Council Resolution 1244 (1999).

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