At the invitation of the OECD, the Basel Institute on Governance has joined the Advisory Board, which has been established to advise on the OECD’s Thematic Study on Business Integrity in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

The first meeting was held in Istanbul in October, with all Advisory Board members giving input into the questionnaire, which will form the basis for the first part of this study.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has requested the Basel Institute, along with a group of other health governance experts, to assist WHO in its efforts to define a Health Systems Governance agenda for the organisation.

An initial technical consultation meeting on the specific topic of “Governance: an essential element to achieve universal health coverage” took place on 11 November 2013 in Geneva, Switzerland.

The Institute presented a paper on “Old regime habits die hard: Institutional challenges to participatory governance in post-authoritarian Mexico” at the ECPR General Conference in Bordeaux, France (September). The paper presents findings from field research conducted in the context of the Institute’s two-year, EU funded research project on the linkages between corruption, governance and social accountability.

On 12 May 2014, the Government of Ukraine signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and several business associations, addressing bribery and promoting transparency and accountability.

Mandated by the EBRD to develop a mechanism to address unfair business practices and bribery for the purpose of improving the overall business climate in Ukraine, including prospects for foreign investment, the Basel Institute assisted in the set up of this MoU.

In the context of the Basel Institute's renewed collaboration agreement with the World Health Organisation (WHO) to conduct analytical research into concepts of governance and accountability, experts of the Basel Institute traveled to Finland, Moldova and Turkey to collect insights into the institutional arrangements governing the health system in these three countries.

The findings from this field research will be incorporated into a final report on "strengthening health systems by improving accountability for health systems in European Member States".

On April 28-30 2014, the Basel Institute on Governance held a workshop on Quantitative and Qualitative Research Methods on Corruption at the University of Basel, Switzerland. The workshop brought together a group of 18 academics, practitioners from governmental and non-governmental institutions, as well as private sector compliance officers from 9 countries (Armenia, Brazil, Colombia, Germany, Greece, Indonesian, Italy, Peru and Switzerland).

On 12 May 2014, at the 23rd Session of the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (CCPCJ) in Vienna, ICAR joined experts from the International Association of Prosecutors and the Korean Institute on Criminology to support a workshop on challenges of international cooperation in criminal matters.

In the context of ICAR's one-year multi-phase training programme in financial investigation and asset recovery for the Indonesian Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), funded by USAID/Management Systems International, ICAR has developed a series of new training modules jointly with the International Anti-Corruption Resource Centre (IACRC).

On 24 April, the Ukraine Anti-Corruption Action Centre, jointly with Ukrainska Prvada & GOPAC Ukraine, hosted an international conference to discuss and identify challenges relating to the recovery of assets stolen by former President Yanukovych and his associates, and thereby to initiate a (inter-) national dialogue to address these challenges. ICAR spoke on modalities for the return of stolen assets, alongside senior representatives from the Ukraine government and Canada, the European Union, Switzerland and the US, as well as specialist civil society organisations.

On April 2-9, ICAR hosted its first international workshop on the use of virtual currency to launder money. Held at the University of Basel, Switzerland, the workshop brought together public and private sector practitioners from countries such as France, Liechtenstein, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The workshop circled around a case study presented by the FBI, presentations by ICAR experts and interactive group discussions to identify particular challenges and potential solutions for law enforcement.