Monica Guy
Team Lead, Communications and External Relations
Monica Guy leads internal and external communications and publications across the Basel Institute on Governance and works closely with senior management to support strategic external engagement and institutional priorities. As part of her role, she also coordinates crypto-related events and engagements. She joined the Institute in 2018 and is part of the Office of the Executive Director and President.
Monica leads the Institute’s Communications team, overseeing strategy, publications and digital channels to ensure clear, consistent and high-quality communications across the organisation. She works closely with the Executive Director and Core Management Team on external relations and strategic engagement, including supporting partnerships, international events and policy outreach.
In her capacity as Coordinator for Crypto and Digital Finance, she leads the co-organisation of the annual Global Conference on Criminal Finances and Cryptoassets together with Europol and UNODC, and coordinates and contributes to a range of crypto-related initiatives across the Institute.
Before joining the Basel Institute, Monica worked mainly in international communications and digital content management. She was Director of Operations for Europe and the Middle East at a US-based content agency, where she led major digital marketing and content projects for global clients including Google, Expedia, IHG and Accor.
Earlier in her career, she worked on communications projects including trade publications, reports and websites for a wide range of companies and non-profit organisations, primarily in the shipping, engineering and technology sectors. She also spent several years as assistant to Professor Stephen Hawking in Cambridge. During this time she became a strong advocate for accessibility in the travel sector, engaging in initiatives including the development of the first accessibility guide to the University of Cambridge, travel information websites for people with disabilities in Cambridge and Cape Town, and communications and fundraising support for disability rights organisations in Europe, the U.S. and South Africa.
Monica holds a first-class degree in Classics from the University of Cambridge, a Master’s in Interactive Communications from Quinnipiac University and a Master’s in Sustainable Development from SOAS University of London. She speaks several languages, including Spanish, German, French, Catalan and Arabic – the latter rather poorly.
Publications
Quick Guide 39: Business integrity and ethics
The changing landscape of anti-corruption regulation and enforcement has triggered important discussions around the role of ethics and compliance in business strategies and in the economy as a whole. It has also given impetus to the narrative that anti-corruption compliance programmes are inevitably costly, potentially ineffective and bureaucratic.
This ignores many of the positive advances in compliance that have been made in recent years, as well as the growing body of evidence supporting the business case for compliance.
This Quick Guide covers five broad areas in which mature and well-constructed ethics and compliance systems can benefit businesses even in the face of an uncertain regulatory and enforcement framework. It is based on a roundtable convened by the Basel Institute on Governance and bilateral discussions with key figures in the business and anti-corruption community.
About this Quick Guide
You are free to share and republish this work under a Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0 Licence. It is part of the Basel Institute on Governance Quick Guide series, ISSN 2673-5229.
Quick Guide 37: Strategic corruption
This quick guide is the second in a two-part series on the tangible yet under-addressed impacts of corruption on security and the complex power dynamics at play.
This second guide goes deeper into a specific security threat: when states use corruption to gain power and influence over other states and even as a geopolitical tool.
It looks at common features characterising strategic corruption cases, explores what is strategic about it and what this means for governance and security. It highlights the usefulness of “strategic corruption” as an analytical concept, but also urges caution in using it to guide domestic security or foreign policy decisions, or approaches to countering corruption.
About this Quick Guide
You are free to share and republish this work under a Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0 Licence. It is part of the Basel Institute on Governance Quick Guide series, ISSN 2673-5229.
Quick Guide 36: Corruption and security
How does corruption threaten national and international security, both directly and indirectly? Can viewing it through the lens of power offer deeper insights? And what might we achieve by framing corruption as a security concern?
This quick guide gives a short introduction to this complex issue as part of a two-part series on corruption, security and strategic corruption.
About this Quick Guide
You are free to share and republish this work under a Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0 Licence. It is part of the Basel Institute on Governance Quick Guide series, ISSN 2673-5229.
Corruption risk assessments and illegal wildlife trade enforcement
This Practice Note:
- Summarizes experiences and lessons from conducting corruption risk assessments (CRAs) with authorities responsible for investigations and prosecutions of illegal wildlife trade (IWT) cases in three countries in Africa and Latin America. It seeks to demonstrate the value of adopting a collaborative approach to CRAs, illustrates potential avenues for pursuing such an approach when the right factors are in place, and demonstrates how mapping the criminal justice process provides a solid starting point to identify critical vulnerabilities. The note also highlights factors that might recommend another approach, for example where collaboration cannot be assured.
- Highlights some common risks that emerged from the CRAs in the three countries and that may negatively affect the progress of IWT cases in other countries. Still, corruption risks vary among countries and agency contexts, and it is not always feasible for practitioners to conduct or initiate a CRA. These general insights can help point practitioners to possible vulnerabilities to look out for.
The practice note was developed by team members of the Basel Institute’s Green Corruption programme as part of a wider research collaboration between the Basel Institute and the TNRC project consortium.
Takeaways
- Effective enforcement against illegal wildlife trade (IWT) and related crimes is a vital component of wildlife conservation, but corruption risks within law enforcement agencies can undermine their ability to investigate and prosecute such cases. Supporting agencies to identify, evaluate, prioritize, and mitigate their corruption risks can help improve enforcement outcomes, assign scarce resources to areas that pose the highest risks, and build trust and cooperation with other agencies and stakeholders.
- This TNRC Practice Note describes the lessons and insights from a three-country corruption risk assessment (CRA) exercise, using a collaborative approach that involves engaging with agency staff and relevant stakeholders to illuminate and systematically evaluate major risks. This is a sensitive process that requires strong relationships with agency leadership and a deep understanding of local political, social, and economic factors.
- In all three countries, mitigating high-priority corruption risks in law enforcement agencies required a constructive, pragmatic, and sustained approach. Working jointly and acknowledging agencies’ political, capacity, and resource constraints can therefore represent a viable alternative to simply penalizing corrupt practices through investigations and audits.
- Experience suggests that mapping the criminal justice process’ decision points is a crucial first step that builds shared understanding across stakeholders and helps identify corruption risk areas. It can take substantial investments of time to produce such maps, but that investment is usually warranted as it ensures researchers and stakeholders are speaking the same language.
About the TNRC project
The TNRC project seeks to improve biodiversity conservation outcomes by helping practitioners to address the threats posed by corruption to wildlife, fisheries and forests. TNRC harnesses existing knowledge, generates new evidence, and supports innovative policy and practice for more effective anti-corruption programming on the ground.
A USAID-funded project, TNRC is implemented by a consortium of leading organizations in anti-corruption, natural resource management, and conservation: World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre at the Chr. Michelsen Institute, TRAFFIC, and the Terrorism, Transnational Crime and Corruption Center (TraCCC) at George Mason University.
Corrupting the Environment: insights on corruption, the environment and illicit trade
This collection of insights on corruption, the environment and illicit trade emerges from the monthly Corrupting the Environment webinar series between December 2020 and August 2021.
A joint initiative of the Basel Institute on Governance and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the series brought together leading voices from the public and private sectors, academia and civil society. In lively panel discussions, they explored critical trends and shared recommendations for addressing the corruption that is destroying our planet and people’s opportunities for sustainable development.
The publications below are adapted from summaries published on the Basel Institute following each event.
Mainstreaming Collective Action: Establishing a baseline
This paper sets out why and how Collective Action needs to become a global “norm” in the fight against corruption and an integral part of mainstream anti-corruption efforts. The idea is to ensure that Collective Action is considered in companies’ compliance programmes as a risk mitigation tool to analyse and address persistent problems of corruption. The pathway to achieving this is to embed Collective Action as recommendation in international, national and business-relevant standards.
The report:
- Describes anti-corruption Collective Action.
- Sets out what “mainstreaming” and “creating norms” mean in this context.
- Presents detailed analysis on the current state of endorsements of anti-corruption Collective Action by relevant bodies, including a selection of national anti-corruption strategies in various countries.
- Gives a brief description of the strategy to expand the take-up of Collective Action in such documents and standards.
Collective Action against illegal wildlife trade: Engaging freight forwarders and logistics providers
This report emerges from the Basel Institute’s Green Corruption programme, a multi-disciplinary engagement that targets environmental degradation through tested anti-corruption, asset recovery and governance methods. It was funded by PMI Impact as part of a wider project on intelligence-led on financial crime in illegal wildlife trade (IWT).
The freight forwarding and logistics industry has been identified by IWT specialists and transport companies as being a crucial but not yet fully engaged sector when it comes to addressing IWT. This report sets the industry in its wider context and explores how it is affected by the risks around IWT. Understanding the industry, and how the illicit trade affects companies and their risk management, will help to build a strong business case for companies to catalyse their efforts to prevent and combat IWT both individually and through Collective Action.
The ultimate aim of the report is to create a baseline for greater dialogue between counter-IWT practitioners and industry representatives, and to help practitioners identify pathways to strengthen the engagement of this vital sector in the fight against IWT. The report is based on publicly available information.
Section 3 explores the industry and current trends affecting its vulnerability to abuse by wildlife traffickers. It looks at the specific services and actors involved in the cross-border transportation of goods, the main exposure to corruption and criminal acts, and the role of Customs.
Section 4 gives a picture of the global market for logistics services, identifying relevant players and setting out how the industry is distributed regionally and globally.
Section 5 discusses the main legal, financial and security risks for logistics providers related to IWT. It also offers five recommended risk mitigation measures for companies exposed to these risks.
Section 6 offers potential pathways for practitioners seeking to engage the industry in these collective efforts, taking advantage of the momentum of existing private sector-focused IWT forums. It also digs deeper into the business case for logistics providers to engage in Collective Action to address IWT.
News and blog
Crypto: the ultimate enabler of corruption?
As cryptoassets and other blockchain-based tokens enter the mainstream, alarm bells are ringing about the risks of their misuse. The technology is neutral in itself, but like any mechanism to transfer value, it can and does facilitate a wide range of crimes. And it’s not just scams, hacks and ransomware attacks. Cryptoassets are now seen in practically all crime types, from drug trafficking and terrorist financing to sanctions evasion, and increasingly as a tool for laundering the proceeds of those crimes. When it comes to the links between crypto and corruption , research and closed case examples are still scant. But since both are important enablers of crime, it’s vital to better understand how they intersect. This blog outlines some basic areas of concern. Despite the gaps in data and analysis, one thing is clear. While the technologies are fairly new, the corrupt practices are not: they are simply manifesting in different ways. Crypto and corruption: what we mean In this blog we take a broad view of both crypto and corruption. By “crypto”, we mean cryptoassets such as Bitcoin BTC and Ether ETH as well as stablecoins tied to fiat currencies such as Tether USDT and USD Coin USDC ; plus other digital tokens that run on public, decentralised blockchains. The scope also includes the companies, industries and services built around crypto, as well as the systems for their regulation and supervision and for law enforcement. “Corruption” refers not just to bribery, but to any abuse of entrusted power for undue benefit – whether financial or political, whether personal or for a collective entity. 1 Crypto for bribery Is crypto a brilliant way to pay bribes and kickbacks? Transfers are pseudonymous after all – linked to long wallet addresses like 1Lbcfr2sAHTG9CgdQo3HTMTkV7LK4ZnX75 rather than names. Transfers can be made directly between individuals, through decentralised platforms or peer-to-peer transactions, which avoids awkward questions about who is who and where the money comes from. Crypto holdings are easier to keep private, so might not be included in the asset declarations of politically exposed persons keen not to reveal all of their hidden wealth. And it’s fast and easy: you can transfer crypto to any person, anywhere in the world at the touch of a button. That makes it superficially more attractive than an international bank transfer, and less hassle and personal risk than travelling to another continent carrying suitcases stuffed with cash. Some clearly think crypto is great for bribes: In 2024, a Ukrainian Member of Parliament was sentenced to eight years in prison for offering a bribe of EUR 46,000 in bitcoin to secure funding for reconstruction projects. Crypto payments were allegedly made to a former senior official at the China Securities Regulatory Commission in return for abuses of power in making appointments and securing loans – alongside expensive liquor and invitations to banquets. In June 2025, two employees of the state-owned China Construction Bank were charged in Hong Kong with bribery and other offences: they allegedly accepted around USD 470,000 in crypto in exchange for authenticating false documents for the now-bankrupt Israeli firm Vesttoo. Yet the use of crypto for bribery has a unique vulnerability: transactions on public blockchains are permanent and publicly visible. If investigators can verifiably link an address to a suspect, the evidence of the bribery remains accessible forever. Sadly, it’s pretty hard to identify bribes or kickbacks being paid unless you already know there’s a bribery scheme or you know the addresses of suspected accomplices. That might explain why major crypto bribery cases haven’t surfaced yet . 2 Laundering proceeds of corruption using crypto What about laundering the proceeds of corruption? For those with a lot of dirty money to launder, crypto adds a new dimension to the playbook. Sure, keep the shell companies and offshore bank accounts, the trusts and real estate and gambling schemes, the hawala networks. Now you can add to the mix by converting corrupt proceeds into crypto, converting these to other coins, hopping across blockchains and using privacy-enhancing technologies to throw investigators off track. As adoption of tokenised assets grows – digital representations of financial or real-world assets – we can expect corrupt actors to buy not only villas in Tuscany and ski apartments in Switzerland, but tokens representing these. And while you can’t ski on a digital token, it is likely attractive to money launderers to be able to trade in a broad range of investments while keeping the beneficial owner hidden. Are corrupt actors using crypto to launder their funds? There’s little direct evidence, but it does seem likely. Corrupt individuals have long relied on professional money laundering services, often provided by lawyers and accountants. Europol warns that these professionals, “increasingly with specialised knowledge in digital asset trading, have developed parallel, underground financial systems that operate outside the regulatory frameworks governing legal financial institutions”. And we do see that law enforcement is starting to take down organised groups that specialise in laundering illicit funds, including through crypto. An Australian takedown of an organised money laundering operation in June 2025, for example points to millions of tainted Australian dollars laundered through crypto exchanges as well as bank accounts, couriers, a car dealership and a sales company. Some outfits specialise in a specific clientele: in the Europol-coordinated Operation Karasu in 2025, authorities arrested 17 suspects alleged to be providing money laundering services to Chinese- and Arabic-speaking clients using hawala banking, cash transactions and crypto. The largest blockbuster takedown to date is the October 2025 indictment of the Chairman of Prince Group, a Cambodia-based multinational business enterprise, and the filing of a forfeiture action for more than 127,000 bitcoin – approximately USD 15 billion at the time of seizure. The press release described the use of professional money laundering operations and pointed to highly sophisticated techniques, such as “spraying” stolen cryptoassets across multiple addresses to obscure the trail of the funds. Commenting on the indictment, the head of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration highlighted the role of corruption in such schemes. He explained how: complex criminal schemes \ such as this\ exploit global financial systems and emerging technologies to conceal illicit proceeds. These networks operate at the intersection of drug trafficking, corruption, and financial crime, threatening the stability of institutions and communities, alike. 3 Corrupt law enforcement in crypto cases Say you’re a law enforcement officer – a public servant. You’re one of the few in your agency with the technical skills to trace and seize cryptoassets suspected of being involved in crime. You see an opportunity to supplement your salary by stealing crypto during an investigation or taking payments from criminals to leave their holdings in peace. Nobody will know – surely? That’s what two US agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration and Secret Service thought, when they abused their power as law enforcement officers and their access to government-controlled wallets to steal tens of millions of USD in bitcoin linked to the takedown of the illicit Silk Road online marketplace. In Russia, a former investigator was found guilty in 2023 of accepting bitcoin bribes equivalent to tens of millions of US dollars from an organised crime group in order not to confiscate their bitcoin holdings – estimated at USD 138 million at the time. In Iran, senior intelligence officers of the Revolutionary Guard are alleged to have gained around USD 21 million during the takedown of the Cryptoland exchange: following the CEO’s arrest, they stole and sold his tokens before the arrest was made public and the tokens’ value collapsed. It’s not uncommon for law enforcement officers to go rogue, or for bribes to be paid to influence law enforcement actions or judicial proceedings. So authorities don’t just need to build capacity to go after crypto-related crime. They also need to look out for crypto-related corruption risks among their own ranks, including entities such as asset management offices that have custody over seized and confiscated cryptoassets. 4 When the crypto industry meets politics Crypto is a fast-evolving industry that demonstrates genuinely exciting financial and technological innovation. It’s no wonder that politicians all over the world are getting interested. Corrupt behaviour by politicians involving the crypto industry is still a realm of speculation, as data on real-world cases is sparse. But red flags for corruption are a common feature of all fast-growing, profitable industries with highly technical aspects, like mining and defence. So, it is sensible to look out for common risks, which span from licencing schemes to the shaping of cryptoasset regulations or the resources put into enforcement. When it comes to public trust in government, even suspicions of crypto-related wrongdoing matter. Examples range from a political financing scandal in Colombia to graft accusations in Venezuela and to allegations of crypto-related irregularity affecting the US President and his family. And in the Czech Republic, when the Justice Ministry accepted a bitcoin donation worth around USD 46 million from a convicted criminal, the ensuing scandal triggered a public investigation and the resignation of the Justice Minister; some feared it might even topple the government. 5 Corruption fuelling organised crime and state capture The link between crypto and corruption with possibly the most damaging social impact is its role in enabling criminal gangs to carry out cybercrime and launder money with impunity. As detailed in a 2025 UNODC report on corruption and cybercrime, corruption both creates the “permissive environment” that allow cybercrime operations to flourish and “enables many daily operations of cybercriminal networks.” In Southeast Asia, for example, a separate UNODC report depicts how industrial-scale scam centres run by organised crime groups generate huge amounts of illegal revenue – mostly in crypto. Despite often being plainly identified in public reports, they remain operational and engage in human trafficking to obtain unwilling workers. The report emphasises “high rates of corruption which criminal actors can leverage” to continue their scam operations unmolested. UNODC warns that the revenue generated by scam centres, coupled with the ability to easily launder the stolen crypto, is increasing the power and influence of organised crime groups as well as their financial liquidity. And that gives them even more ability to corrupt and capture politicians and states. That may already be happening, according to a November 2025 Economist report on allegations of political collusion in scam operations in Cambodia, the Philippines and Thailand. These have led to the resignation of a deputy finance minister, the jailing of a mayor and a warning from Thailand's deputy leader of the opposition that without action against politicians colluding in scam operations, “we’ll wake up to find the country run by crooks in suits". What to do? Crypto represents an exciting transformation in financial systems. The industry and its underlying technology could improve privacy, efficiency and access to financial markets. This may benefit many people poorly served by today’s centralised systems. But without a clear understanding of crypto-related risks and proper safeguards, the industry could create more opportunities for corruption and related financial crimes such as money laundering, terrorist financing and sanctions evasion. Crypto-fuelled corruption could weaken trust in governments and be leveraged to undermine the stability and security of nation states. At the Basel Institute, we’re keen to explore better how the worlds of crypto and corruption intersect and how best to mitigate both systemic and day-to-day risks. We’re also committed to building the capacity of anti-corruption and asset recovery practitioners to “follow the money” across blockchains and to connect these to wider financial and criminal investigations. Beyond training for individuals and public agencies, we also bring together people from across sectors and geographies at our annual Global Conference on Criminal Finances and Cryptoassets together with Europol and UNODC. Look out for more on this topic in the coming months
Not just for lawyers: learning your way into anti-corruption
Our Senior Communications and External Relations Specialist Monica Guy looks back on how a curious mind paired with diverse learning opportunities and the desire to make an impact can pave the way into anti-corruption. This article is part of a series on careers in fighting financial crime and opportunities to learn and study with the Basel Institute. One of the many things I’ve learned at the Basel Institute on Governance is that rewarding jobs in the field of countering financial crime are not just for those who woke up aged 10 and said: “Mummy, I want to be an anti-corruption prosecutor”. Or who studied business and law with the dream of becoming a compliance officer. My own journey has been rather zig-zaggy, from caring for Stephen Hawking to managing multilingual content projects for Google and big companies in the travel and shipping industries. And a lot in between. Education and continuous learning have been crucial in giving me the flexibility to bounce from one thing to another and hopefully make at least a tiny bit of impact on the way. From dusty libraries to blended learning I didn’t learn much of practical use during my first degree in Classics at Cambridge. But it was a good way to learn to think, read, write and argue with clever people about the world with all its wonders and weirdness. That’s something I have to do a lot in my communications role at the Basel Institute, though thankfully not in ancient Greek. My first master’s in interactive communications at Quinnipiac University was one of the earliest “blended learning” degree courses. I.e. hybrid classes and the then revolutionary idea that it’s better to learn the theory in advance and use precious class time to practise and discuss. What was in 2010 the cutting edge of communications now looks like stone-age cave paintings. But it did give me the basics to start building websites early web design = animated cave paintings and think a bit more strategically about things like audience, purpose and how communications and social media tactics can be used for good or ill. That has been of real practical value in our efforts to build the Basel Institute’s visibility and reputation over the last years. Digging deeper but I wish Basel STUDY had existed then You can’t be successful in communicating if you don’t understand what you’re talking about. So during covid times I took another master’s course, this time in sustainable development at SOAS University of London. I wanted that deeper understanding of topics like poverty, globalisation and environment that are fundamental to the work the Basel Institute does. This degree was fully online and designed to fit alongside a full-time job. But I’ll be honest: if our Basel STUDY courses had existed then, I’d have gladly taken them instead. Basel STUDY – that's our postgraduate programmes with the University of Basel: they are six months, hands-on, with live classes and in-person meetings, top-notch instructors and a diverse group of other participants with real-world experience. That’s a lot more fun, useful and digestible than a two-year master's degree, plus easier to combine with other modules and qualifications. Free or low-cost learning I absolutely know that I’ve been privileged to be able to study at good universities, with grants and jobs to pay the way. But I’ve also learned a lot through MOOCs Massive Online Open Courses and other free or low-cost online learning opportunities from organisations like Coursera and the University of Leiden. And of course the crème de la crème of eLearning: our own free Basel LEARN courses on countering financial crime. A desire to learn All this to say that you don’t need to be a “financial crime professional” to play a part in making the world a better place. Just as you don’t need to be a “communications professional” to communicate effectively about countering corruption, fostering good governance, catalysing asset recovery and all the other difficult but worthwhile things we do here in Basel and around the world. What you do need is a desire to learn – from courses, peers and colleagues. Join in My “call to action”? Take a look at the opportunities we offer at the Basel Institute for individuals who also burn to learn about countering corruption and financial crime and build practical skills they can apply in their daily work: Basel LEARN – our online training and learning hub with free eLearning courses and lots more Basel STUDY – our new academic programmes with the University of Basel on anti-corruption and asset recovery Our forthcoming open course on Introduction to blockchain: crypto investigation and AML compliance
COP26: Is corruption on the agenda?
As world leaders gather this week at COP26 to negotiate their climate change commitments, we ask – will they include a credible commitment to fight corruption? Because if there is one thing that will scupper efforts to address the climate crisis, it is corruption. Yet corruption is strangely missing from the conversation. Here are some things that deserve to be talked about louder. Stealing money from climate and clean energy projects At a basic level, renewable energy and climate mitigation or adaptation projects are as vulnerable to embezzlement and fraud as any other major public investment. Indeed clean energy is a lucrative business for criminals. When a Sicilian renewable energy entrepreneur was jailed in 2018 for a corrupt scheme involving securing windfarm permits, EUR 1.3 billion in illicit funds were confiscated plus assets including 43 companies, 98 properties and fleets of cars and boats. Did you pay extra to offset your carbon footprint last year? Carbon offsetting programmes and nature-based climate mitigation solutions, like the REDD+ forest conservation scheme and similar internationally funded projects, are a really important part of our global response to climate change. But they are also vulnerable to corruption. They can even fuel it, by channelling cash into contexts with weak governance and few controls. Corrupt elites have a lot of practice in capturing foreign aid. So when there is a lack of transparency and accountability in the allocation and tracking of climate funding – not to mention allegations of financial mismanagement – corrupt officials find it even easier to game the system. And at an even bigger scale are the corruption risks in emissions trading schemes, important to achieving net zero, but only effective when they are free from corruption. Weakening laws, skewing incentives, undermining investment Beyond the usual theft of funds, corruption in climate finance is known to “negatively impact climate change interventions, undermining mitigation efforts to reduce emissions and decreasing the quality of adaptation infrastructure”, according to this U4 Brief on Corruption and Climate Finance. Bribery, kickbacks, conflicts of interest and other forms of corruption can among other things: Weaken environmental regulations, for example with the result that consumers are sold illegally logged wood, eat fish from a global catch that is alleged to be up to 50 percent illegal, unregulated and unreported, and drive electric vehicles packed with minerals from a mining sector plagued by corruption and other abuses. Negatively influence project choices by skewing decision-makers’ incentives towards building unnecessary infrastructure or opting for large and non-renewable energy projects that offer greater possibilities for nepotism and bribes. Enable industry lobbies to have undue influence on government policies, which may explain some countries’ reluctance to move away from fossil fuels and even to attempt to water down the findings of scientific reports. If the above factors weren’t enough to stymie investment in sensible and well-governed climate mitigation and adaptation projects, there’s another: numerous studies such as this one by the EBRD show that “corruption imposes additional costs on investors and increases uncertainty surrounding future costs and revenues”. And we stand now at a point in history in which effective climate-related investment is an essential driver for slowing down and stopping climate change. Destroying trust, hindering humanitarian action Whatever happens at COP26 and beyond, we can expect climate change to deliver us more frequent humanitarian disasters in the form of floods, droughts, heatwaves and the resulting mass migration. Yet when disaster strikes, corruption and its co-conspirators – lack of transparency and accountability – hinder humanitarian action. And it’s not just about cash and emergencies, of course, but about the corrupt informal networks and collusion that stifle progress towards the sustainable development goals SDGs and destroy social trust. Can real commitments to fight corruption contribute to climate change goals? Yes, they can and they must. First, for the money. If corruption deprives countries of funds desperately needed to address climate change and achieve the SDGs, then there is an obvious solution. The World Economic Forum estimated in 2019 that “Corruption, bribery, theft and tax evasion, and other illicit financial flows cost developing countries $1.26 trillion per year.” That is more than 10 times the USD 100 billion that rich countries promised to send annually to help developing countries address climate change under the 2015 Paris Agreement that promise was broken, but that is a different story . It is more than double even the UN’s highest estimate of annual investment needed for climate adaptation in developing countries, which ranges from USD 140 to 500 billion per year. You could do any number of sums with any number of estimates – the results give the same clear message. Stop corruption, Minister, and there’s your budget for the ambitious climate change strategy that your people and the planet need. With change to spare. Second, fighting corruption is not only about the money. It’s about creating just, safe societies where citizens can trust politicians and institutions to act in their interest. In our work at the Basel Institute, we see that this vision can be very real. We see how anti-corruption and asset recovery efforts can not only mobilise significant funding for sustainable development, but also, as we show in our Working Paper on Recovering Assets in Support of the SDGs “strengthen some of its key foundations of sustainable development, such as the rule of law and strong, transparent and accountable institutions”. Precisely the level of governance that is needed to bring everyone on board in tackling climate change, domestically and internationally. Corruption affects the whole of humanity and our future world Corruption is not a standalone topic to be dealt with at corruption-focused conferences or only by government anti-corruption agencies, corporate compliance departments and civil society organisations with an anti-corruption mission. Corruption affects the whole of humanity and profoundly hurts people, especially the most vulnerable, directly and indirectly through its negative impact on climate change. Green corruption destroys our environment, our wildlife and biodiversity, and the natural resources we depend upon for our lives and livelihoods, at a time they most need protection. So as the politicians debate their climate commitments at COP26 this week, perhaps those who really care about the planet and its people can bring corruption into the conversation.
UN Global Compact endorses Collective Action for sustainable and responsible business
Collective Action is at the heart of the new Strategy 2021–23 of the United Nations Global Compact, an ambitious corporate sustainability initiative that supports companies around the world in achieving sustainable and responsible business operations throughout their supply chains. The UN Global Compact’s 10th Principle on Anti-Corruption has long recommended Collective Action as a way for companies to solve shared corruption challenges and ensure a fair and enabling business environment. We have worked closely to support the UN Global Compact and its Local Networks for many years in implementing commitments to anti-corruption Collective Action. We are delighted that the approach is now reconfirmed throughout the initiative’s new strategic plans. Growing support for Collective Action The UN Global Compact’s endorsement of Collective Action aligns with wider momentum among standard-setters, international organisations and governments in promoting this approach. A recent World Economic Forum Agenda article by Siemens Chairman Jim Snabe captures the sentiment, talking of the transformative power of networks held together by a common goal. Collective Action in its wider sense was at the forefront of the OECD’s 60th Anniversary celebrations, with a focus on pandemic response and recovery. The G20 has responded encouragingly to private-sector calls for Collective Action against corruption specifically, as our recent paper on the G20’s responsiveness to anti-corruption recommendations of the B20 explores. We hope that as Network Partners in the B20 Italy Integrity and Compliance Task Force we will be able to help achieve greater uptake of Collective Action innovations at the G20 level this year. There’s more. Our paper on Mainstreaming Collective Action lists a range of endorsements of anti-corruption Collective Action by international bodies including the UNODC, OECD and EU and standard-setting organisations including the World Bank in its Integrity Compliance Guidelines, the World Customs Organization and GRI Standards . In addition, nearly 20 countries have specifically endorsed forms of Collective Action in their national anti-corruption strategies, although implementation lags. The picture is one of positive momentum, but there is still a lot more to be done before Collective Action becomes a global norm. Collective Action in practice To understand more about the Collective Action approach to addressing corruption and raising levels of fairness and integrity in business, companies and professionals can explore the B20 Collective Action Hub. Launched by the Basel Institute following a mandate by the B20 in 2013 and supported by the Siemens Integrity Initiative, the Hub acts as a resource and knowledge centre on anti-corruption Collective Action around the world. Examples of how Collective Action can bring benefits to business, government and society include the use of High Level Reporting Mechanisms and Integrity Pacts for clean procurement, local certification schemes to ease due diligence for SMEs and their multinational customers, and novel approaches to synergies in human rights and anti-corruption compliance. The covid-19 pandemic has put the spotlight on inspiring Collective Action initiatives in sectors such as healthcare and pharmaceuticals. Can Collective Action help meet the UN Global Compact’s anti-corruption targets? The UN Global Compact strategy, referencing SDG 16 on Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions, has set specific targets on anti-corruption. These include strengthening compliance programmes, transparency and reporting systems. Its Action Platform is already hard at work developing and promoting global business standards in these and related areas. Collective Action is not only a pragmatic way to achieve these targets by pooling private-sector knowledge and developing standards and systems that work for all. As our Private Sector Specialist Vanessa Hans said in a recent opinion article for Trafigura’s Sustainability report: For the private sector, active participation in Collective Action offers the advantage of tackling challenges pragmatically, such as developing good compliance, sustainability and human rights practices through constructive exchanges with peers and other stakeholders. Engagement in Collective Action initiatives is also a strong indicator in itself of a company’s proactive and collaborative approach to tackling corruption, raising standards of business integrity and levelling the playing field.
Coronavirus: a wake-up call on illegal wildlife trade?
The latest deadly strain of coronavirus emerged, according to the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, from a market in the city of Wuhan selling everything from rats to wolf pups and civet cats. The Chinese government shut the market, locked down the city and banned the trade in wildlife nationwide while it battles to contain the nascent epidemic. Initial investigations point the finger to a person that ate a snake that ate a bat that harboured the virus. But other scientists question the hypothesis, and in truth we may never know. Those who inhabit the murky underworld of wildlife trade may well have detailed supply chain records – illegal wildlife trade is an organised crime after all – but they aren’t inclined to reveal these to investigators. It’s happened before. Remember SARS, sparked by the trade in wild civet cats? The scourge of Ebola, still ongoing, where it may have been a monkey and not a snake that ate the bat? These epidemics originate in the no man’s land between legal and illegal trade, where bushmeat and suspicious packages travel long distances on commercial routes with the help of bribes and legal loopholes. And it will happen again. The trade in illegal wildlife products is valued at up to USD 23 billion per year, and it continues at a breathless pace. Wild animals and animal products are traded at markets like the one in Wuhan right across East and Southeast Asia. Supply chains snake their way across the globe. The problem is that hygiene and veterinary controls designed to stop the transmission of inter-species diseases, and to prevent diseases from crossing borders, cannot be applied to smuggled wildlife and wildlife goods. They are also not enforced in the places where these goods are traded, often alongside legal wildlife. Corruption plays a big role in this. Offered a bribe, inspectors are quickly ready to turn a blind eye. The market in Wuhan was given a clean bill of health by inspectors late last year. That’s why it doesn’t matter whether the virus-inside-the-bat-inside-the-snake came from a local park or another continent. The whole ecosystem of illegal wildlife trade is the breeding ground for diseases with the potential to decimate communities and disrupt the world’s biggest economies. There is nothing good to say about a public health epidemic. In this case, though, we can learn some useful lessons. The Chinese government seems earnest about enforcing its ban, setting up a hotline to report illegal wildlife trade and pledging severe sanctions for violators. But one can’t help wondering if the coronavirus outbreak could have been prevented if the Chinese government had upheld the ban on wild animal markets instituted during the SARS outbreak. So the crux will be in how effectively these new measures, and in particular the preventive measures, are enforced. On the wider point – that the negative impact of illegal wildlife trade extends far beyond wildlife – a much broader range of stakeholders must hear the wake-up call from the coronavirus outbreak. Consumers who buy illegal wildlife products as luxury food items, as ingredients for traditional medicine or for prestige are unlikely to be motivated by concerns for animal welfare. But maybe they care about protecting their families from the risk of disease. A new angle for awareness campaigns? Businesses should worry about security risks when corrupted employees bypass standard checks, or reputation risks when their company appears in media articles linked to a wildlife smuggling bust. When it costs human in addition to animal lives, it hurts the company even more. Businesses and industries must do more still to strengthen their systems against abuse by wildlife traffickers, complementing calls for greater corporate social responsibility. And if nothing else, companies should be worried about the impact on their share prices: stock markets across the world have recorded index drops due to the novel coronavirus. Banks and indeed the entire financial system have known for a long time that they are at risk of being misused by high-level traffickers and those funding criminal and terrorist activity. Acutely aware that wildlife trafficking is a major component of illegal trafficking, the FATF has called on financial institutions to prioritise tackling illegal wildlife trade as a financial crime. In the same vein, the coronavirus situation may help wake governments up to the far-reaching risks inherent in wildlife smuggling, including in clearly visible ways on national security. Much remains to be seen in relation to this new strain of coronavirus. If decisive action by the Chinese and other affected governments can limit its spread, that will be a success. Once the current outbreak is defeated, taking decisive action to end the illegal wildlife trade that nourished the virus in the first place would be a major success. It would also be a fitting tribute to the victims and to the courageous healthcare personnel. If we hit the snooze button on this wake-up call, it won't be long until it rings again – and next time it will be even louder.
Back
Go back to the team overview