Carrots Before Sticks: Celebrating International Anti-Corruption Day with Successful Anti-Corruption Approaches

On Wednesday the world celebrated the International Anti-Corruption Day, designated in 2003 by the United Nations (UN) General Assembly when it adopted the UN Convention against Corruption. Recognizing the importance of fighting corruption in that way was a major step in a growing global effort to remove the taboo around addressing corruption in the international discourse on development. Indeed, the new expectation of governments and businesses alike is to face corruption head on everywhere it cripples democracies and markets.

This year’s theme for the International Anti-Corruption Day is breaking the corruption chain. CIPE’s work with private sector organizations in countries around the world reflects precisely that objective. In many environments where corruption has become entrenched, is very hard for an individual or a company to stand up against abuses such as bribery or extortion. Furthermore, it is hard for businesses to make a credible commitment to integrity without sufficient knowledge on how to build proper management systems to prevent corruption in daily operations. These limitations can be overcome through better anti-corruption compliance and collective action. These private sector-led approaches have the power to break corruption chains and make a real difference.

Earlier this year my colleague Frank Brown and I presented CIPE’s experiences from Russia, Kenya, Ukraine, and Thailand at the Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics Institute in Las Vegas. To celebrate the International Anti-Corruption Day, we captured key takeaways from our presentation in CIPE’s latest Economic Reform Feature Service article:

Article at a glance:

• Corruption is primarily an institutional issue and combating it requires proactively preventing corrupt practices through supply- and demand-side reforms.
• Collective action and anti-corruption compliance are practical approaches that reform-minded businesses can use to build a critical mass of companies committed to operating with integrity.

Companies in emerging markets can greatly benefit from improving their anti-corruption practices, which makes them more attractive business partners in global value chains.

Read the whole article here.

Anna Kompanek is Director for Multiregional Programs at CIPE.