A new research project led by the Basel Institute's Public Governance team aims to help anti-corruption practitioners design more effective interventions by taking into account – and in fact leveraging – the informal relationships and social networks that underlie people's behaviour.

A summary of groundbreaking research into social norms and attitudes towards corruption by our Public Governance team has been published in Ellis, Jane (ed.) Corruption, Social Sciences and the Law – Exploration across the disciplines. Published by Routledge, the book is part of a series entitled The Law of Financial Crime.

This eye-opening exploration of social norms and attitudes towards corruption appears in Chapter 12 of Ellis, Jane (ed.) Corruption, Social Sciences and the Law – Exploration across the disciplines, published by Routledge on 15 May 2019 as part of a series entitled The Law of Financial Crime. See the publisher's flyer with full details of the book and a 20% discount code.

This paper sets out lessons from a mixed-methods study that identified and explored ‘positive outlier’ cases of bribery reduction in challenging governance environments. It discusses the two cases the research examined in depth:

The Basel Institute is partnering with Adams Smith International (ASI), Integrity Action and other expert organisations to implement a five-year multi-component anti-corruption project in Uganda ("Strengthening Uganda's Anti-Corruption and Accountability Regime Anti-Corruption Chain”) funded by the UK Department for International Development.

The Basel Institute’s primary role will focus on providing technical support and legal advice to Uganda’s local anti-corruption authorities on matters related to asset recovery.

In the context of a multi-centre research project, the Institute and its partners seek to map the manner in which informality is associated with the resilience of corruption. In this innovative project, researchers shift the focus away from analysing the implementation of formal legal frameworks, regulations and policies to concentrate on informal actions and practices that may be effectively taken into consideration where conventional anti-corruption interventions have failed.

Throughout 2016, ICAR experts have played a significant role in enhancing Uganda’s capacity to fight money laundering and terrorism financing. Part of this support, provided in the context of the Basel Institute’s involvement in the “Strengthening Uganda’s Anti-Corruption and Accountability Regime” (SUGAR) programme managed by Adam Smith International (ASI), involved assisting the country during the process of identifying and assessing its risk exposure to money laundering and terrorism financing.