It was one year ago in Merida, Mexico, when 114 nations signed the UN Convention against Corruption (UNCAC). To date, 14 have ratified the convention. As the World Bank and others mark the one year anniversary, there's a call for all countries --particularly rich countries -- to sign onto the pact. World Bank Institute governance director Daniel Kaufmann, who led the Bank’s team at the signing ceremony a year ago, says it was a really significant achievement for the UN to get consensus around the globe to combat corruption, through the convention. However he says all countries that have ratified it are from emerging economies. "It is therefore critical that rich countries accelerate their ratification process, with a view for this convention to come into full force (after 30 ratifications) early in 2005. Kaufman says corruption is not a "popular topic" in official circles. Nor it is easy to embrace like attacking poverty. "No matter how politically sensistive it may be though, corruption is a major impediment to any strategy to attain sustained growth, reduce poverty and infant mortality, and to reach key developmental and also global security objectives," he says. "Corruption and misgoverance are still highly prevalent today - worldwide - although the extent, manifestations and consequences vary from setting to setting." What’s the Bank’s Role? “The World Bank supports this important initiative, which would allow for looted asset recovery among other things,” says Kaufmann, who is delivering a keynote presentation at a conference marking the UN Anti-Corruption day in Colombia. "We have been urging all countries to ratify it and work towards effective implementation and monitoring mechanisms. Developed countries need to place governance and anti-corruption at the top of their collective agenda, not only because they face considerable governance challenges of their own, but because of the increasing global evidence of the links between governance, development and global security.” Transparency International was a leader in the negotiations for the convention. Nancy Zucker-Boswell, from Transparency International, says, “Any government with the political will can decide to implement the many UNCAC provisions which comprise the various steps needed to enhance integrity." "The Bank has a critical role to play in assisting governments to carry out these steps. Country assistance strategies should focus on helping governments make progress. Beyond this, it will take time to develop a peer review mechanism, like those in place for other conventions, necessary to encourage or, in some cases, embarrass countries into implementing this,” Zucker-Boswell says.
What We are Doing About It ? The international community has been intensifying its cooperation in the fight against corruption, with a realistic sense of just how difficult it is to achieve progress. A snapshot of some recent leadership events gives a sense of this activity. Other international forums are focusing directly on the convention’s implementation. Maarten de Jong, the Bank’s director of Institutional Integrity (INT) , has recently been appointed chair of the International Group for Anti-Corruption Coordination (IGAC) steering committee. “From the point of view of the international community, there must be some rules of the road. The UN convention supplies those rules. IGAC is here to support the convention’s implementation and to enhance anticorruption efforts through an exchange of data and experience," de Jong says. Just last week, INT hosted its counterpart antifraud units in all the other multilateral development banks for a two day working meeting. It resulted in a joint statement “reaffirming the shared commitment to fight corruption in our respective operations and projects and to protect staff members from reprisals for reporting in good faith.” Donor Interest Donors are increasingly interested in the results of anticorruption efforts. Sanjay Pradhan, the Bank's Public Sector Governance Board Director, is representing the Bank in a Dec 9-10 Development Partnership Forum on improving donor effectiveness in combating corruption sponsored by the OECD. Daniel Kaufmann has recently been making presentations to UN ambassadors and expert staff at the UN headquarters in New York, in an effort to generate increased understanding on the challenge of global corruption at this juncture. The presentations are also designed to elicit feedback on the types of strategies required in the next stage to enhance prospects to attain the Millennium Development Goals. He concluded his reflections on this first anniversary by commenting that the Bank would in collaboration with other organizations, institutions in many countries, and with civil society, continue to measure and monitor governance and anti-corruption performance worldwide. "And we will continue to work in assisting countries on governance and anti-corruption reform programs. We will also work with the private sector, to hold them accountable as well, and we will continue with the Bank’s efforts to investigate and publicly sanction any fraud and corruption related to World Bank-financed projects. This will hopefully complement the continued work by the UN on the ratification and eventual implementation of the convention," Kaufmann says.  Also available: Listen to an interview with Daniel Kaufmann (6:27, mp3)
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