As part of a one-year train-the-trainer programme in Egypt, funded by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the ICAR training team implemented a first series of training sessions in Egypt, focusing on the investigation of complex corruption and money laundering cases and techniques for the recovery of stolen assets.
The Counsel of the University of Basel has officially approved the association agreement between the University of Basel and the Basel Institute on Governance. The Basel Institute, along with only a very small group of other independent Swiss organizations, including the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute and Swisspeace, is now an official “associated institute” of the University of Basel.
In pursuit of the Basel Institute’s mission to improve the quality of governance globally, and in the context of its related applied research initiatives, the Institute has developed and now offers a new curriculum for a 2 to 3-day workshop on “Quantitative and qualitative Research Methods on Corruption and their Application.”
The workshop is designed to provide working professionals and interested stakeholders with the necessary conceptual and methodological tools to undertake corruption research applicable to a wide variety of topics, contexts and aims.
During the first week of August, as part of the Master in Anti-Corruption Studies (MACS) at the International Anti-Corruption Academy (IACA) in Vienna, Austria, Dr Claudia Baez Camargo, Senior Research Fellow of the Basel Institute, taught two courses, one on "Quantitative and Qualitative Research Methods,” and one on "Corruption and Development.”
The participants of this Master programme represented an international group of 31 professionals, mostly officials from their respective countries' anti-corruption agencies.
The Basel Institute and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) are partnering in a research project on the potential of community-based participatory approaches for strengthening anti-corruption efforts.
The initiative involves conducting a baseline assessment of context sensitive indicators in the communities targeted by ongoing social accountability initiatives supported by UNDP in the Philippines, Serbia, Ghana and Papua New Guinea.
The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) of Indonesia successfully launched its radio streaming service on August 17, 2013. This project has been developed over the last 10 months with the support form the Basel Institute on Governance’s Public Governance division and funding from GIZ.
ICAR is currently developing a regional training programme on “Financial Investigations and Recovering Stolen Assets” for a group of practitioners from relevant institutions from selected countries of the MENA region (Egypt, Iraq, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, South Sudan and Yemen).
In the context of USAID’s FOTI Timor Leste programme, ICAR has been requested to assist local counterparts (the Attorney General Office, the Central Bank and the Anti-Corruption Commission) in analyzing and identifying the different stages of investigation and adjudication of money laundering cases; identifying legislative and/or procedural shortcomings that hinder the investigation and adjudication of money laundering in East Timor; and recommending inter-institutional coordination mechanisms for streamlining the investigation and adjudication of such cases.
At the upcoming UN Conference of States Parties (CoSP) to the UNCAC in Panama City during 25-29 November 2013, the Basel Institute will officially launch its most recent publication, Emerging Trends in Asset Recovery (see above under “Recent publication”). The book will be distributed at our information booth where we look forward to welcoming you.
During the CoSP, the Institute will also be hosting and participating in a series of workshops, notably:
The Basel Institute worked closely with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) to develop the Business Reporting Institution for the Ukraine, which represents a High Level Reporting Mechanism to address business corruption risks. An official agreement in respect of this new Institution was due to be signed in early November by the EBRD and the Government of Ukraine.
This process has currently been postponed by the Ukraine Government due to their need and request for further legal clarifications prior to the final signing of such agreement.