Anti-Corruption

General Overview.  The experience of the first decade of transition brought about a greater awareness that improved governance and reduced corruption are essential to reach the long-term objectives of poverty alleviation and sustainable growth. Through lending operations and policy dialogue, the World Bank is helping its clients to address the underlying causes of corruption and is integrating governance concerns into its assistance in every sector, from rural transport to health care reform to legal and judicial reforms... more>>

Regional Challenges.  In Europe and Central Asia, communism and socialism prescribed roles for public institutions that created distinct mind sets and systemic limitations. The transition to democracy and market economies demanded complete transformation of these institutions and threw up new challenges of governance.  A decade of transition revealed that corruption was undermining developmental goals.  Dysfunctional public institutions were perverting civil society and triggering off new forms of corrupt practices. Corruption weakened public service delivery, misdirected public resources, and deterred new investments. Overall, it exacerbated poverty and human suffering.  Restraining corruption is now widely viewed as a necessary condition for long-term economic growth in the region... more>>

The World Bank's Strategy.     In 1997, the World Bank began its anticorruption efforts in Eastern Europe and Central Asia with the design of diagnostic tools.  It has since developed a full program of analytic work, technical assistance, training programs and lending instruments targeted towards reducing corruption. More indirectly, it has worked to ensure that transparency and accountability feature prominently in all of its programs and projects... more>>