| Corruption is likely to be extensive, persistent and damaging in places where the rule of law is weak, or where the context for rule enforcement is adverse. Most low and middle income countries are located in this context. Yet research from SOAS-ACE points out that despite this adverse context, developing countries are typically not in a state of anarchy and positive outcomes abound. Here, rules are enforced, but not all rules, not everywhere and not on everyone. The critical question for the SOAS-ACE programme was to design anti-corruption policy that was feasible to implement in that context as well as deliver developmental impacts. This analysis suggests how anti-corruption should be designed depending on the extent of effective checks already in operation in a sector.
Does policy design ensure that capable and productive insiders supported the policy in their own interest? Another way of looking at it was whether our anti-corruption solution has a built-in mechanism that ensures peers have a material incentive in seeing it succeed, and whether they can be effective in their actions to reduce corruption. We describe this as a power, capabilities, and interests driven approach to anti-corruption or the PCI-driven approach for short. And this is our framework for making anti-corruption real.
Over the past 5 years, the SOAS-ACE programme has tested a number of different approaches in a range of countries and sectors to identify feasible and implementable anti-corruption strategies using this framework. SOAS-ACE has identified three anti-corruption strategies which offer the most potential for reducing corruption. To find out more join us (in person or virtually) for a panel discussion in which we outline these three approaches, discuss fundamental insights about how to enforce and on whom, and the application of the PCI-driven framework.
Speakers:
- Mushtaq Khan, Executive Director, SOAS-ACE, SOAS University of London
- Dina Balabanova, Professor of Health Systems and Policy in the Department of Global Health and Development, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM)
- Prince Agwu, Researcher, Department of Social Work, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria
- Anir Chowdhury, Policy Adviser, Aspire to Innovate (a2i), Government of Bangladesh (tbc)
- Pallavi Roy, Research Director, SOAS-ACE, SOAS University of London
Chair: Peter Evans, Director, U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre
Find out more about the event. |
