Any upcoming or past event or conference in which a Basel Institute member is participating.
Have we reached a turning point in the fight against corruption that impacts the environment?
For the first time in its 20-year history, the Conference of the States Parties to the UNCAC (CoSP10) hosted a series of special events on corruption that impacts the environment. The 25 co-organisers included states, international organisations and non-profit organisations, including the Basel Institute on Governance through our Green Corruption programme.
It is becoming a truism that projects designed to address society’s biggest problems – like corruption or environmental degradation – need to be based on an understanding of the political context.
It is clear why. Without an understanding of the political context, we may miss important policy opportunities or stakeholders who can support and sustain the project goals. Our efforts may clash with power dynamics in unexpected ways, introducing unforeseen risks and undermining what we seek to achieve.
A high-level meeting of heads of anti-corruption agencies in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) last month was a chance to take stock of member countries’ efforts to tackle corruption.
The meeting allowed for a reflection on many ongoing activities and discussions around Collective Action in the region this year. It was the perfect opportunity to reflect on how to galvanise joint efforts against the region’s biggest scourge.
A hybrid international conference attended by 1,300 participants has concluded that tackling the criminal use of cryptocurrencies is a race against time. Law enforcement agencies that collaborate in joint task teams and proactively collaborate with the private sector are getting ahead of the criminals. In contrast, countries that do not take the risks seriously are in danger of becoming a haven for crypto-enabled scams, money laundering and terrorist financing.
“Fighting corruption has to be a collective effort. No single stakeholder can do it alone. Government cannot do it alone, or the public administration. If only citizens are left to fight corruption, they will struggle. And the private sector likewise.”
– Gretta Fenner, Managing Director, Basel Institute on Governance
Asia and the Pacific are expected to contribute to around 70 percent of global growth in 2023 – but sustaining this economic development in the face of environmental and social challenges will be tough. Business integrity, transparency and collaboration are key.
Andrea Gacki, Director of U.S. Department of the Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), recently gave an address at a joint event on Combating Green Corruption: Fighting financial crime as a driver of environmental degradation.
“Fighting climate change and the degradation of our planet is hard enough. We cannot allow poor governance and corruption to undermine our hard-fought progress.”
– Ambassador Georg Sparber, Ambassador of Liechtenstein to the United States
This event has now passed. See short takeaways and quotes.
A high-level forum in the Bulgarian capital Sofia on 10 October 2023 will focus on Bulgaria’s efforts to strengthen integrity, transparency, accountability and open government through Collective Action and the active participation of the business sector.
On 11 September 2023, the Basel Institute on Governance in partnership with WWF-Ukraine will host an online event on safeguarding Ukraine’s forests and the challenges of countering environmental corruption during wartime. All are welcome to attend the online meeting, which will have English-Ukrainian simultaneous interpretation.
On the agenda: