Stories, evidence and inspiration from the Basel Institute on Governance
At its core, Collective Action is a simple yet powerful concept: tackling corruption challenges together, rather than alone. Over the past two decades, anti-corruption Collective Action has grown from a niche idea to a recognised approach embedded in international standards, national strategies and corporate practices.
After the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the wide-reaching sanctions which ensued, many Western financial institutions began to de-risk Russian clients. Dealing with Russian clients, in many cases, has become expensive from a compliance point of view and toxic from the reputational side.
However, the de-risking of unsanctioned Russian individuals may have a significant impact on the fight against financial crime by potentially causing:
AMPEC, the Mexican Association of Ethics and Compliance Professionals, is a non-profit civil organisation that was created with the objective of providing up-to-date resources and learning spaces for ethics and compliance professionals from diverse backgrounds. It is dedicated to issues of ethics, compliance and the fight against corruption in Mexico. The focus is on practice, not just theory. The association encourages dialogue with industries including financial services, pharmaceuticals, technology and oil.
This USD 2 million, 3-year project, a partnership between the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), The Royal Foundation of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, the Global Wildlife Program and others, aims to reduce maritime trafficking of wildlife between Africa and Asia by strengthening wildlife law enforcement at ports and increasing cooperation between ports and other maritime stakeholders.
The United for Wildlife Taskforces are a network of private, public and third-sector partners working individually and cooperatively to reveal, disrupt and prevent illegal wildlife trade (IWT).
CoST works with government, industry and civil society to promote the disclosure, validation and interpretation of data from infrastructure projects, to inform and empower citizens to hold decision-makers accountable. It is a country-centred multi-stakeholder initiative designed to promote transparency and accountability in publicly financed construction.
The goal of this initiative is to reduce corruption levels in South Africa through a business-led demonstration of practical collective action initiatives. The Project has engaged extensively with business and government, held several training sessions targeting business whole also including local government. It has generated interest from all sectors and seeks to build on this going forward, to move toward implementation of collective initiatives and models of good practice.
CoST – the Infrastructure Transparency Initiative is the leading global initiative improving transparency and accountability in public infrastructure.
CoST works with government, industry and civil society to promote the disclosure of infrastructure project data. It validates and makes this data easy to understand through an assurance process and ensures this information reaches citizens. This helps to empower citizens to demand better infrastructure and hold decision makers to account.
This initiative brings together the four leading firms in the metals technology industry for the exchange of best practice and knowledge in anti-corruption compliance and fair competition and related developments within the industry.
MTI is facilitated by the Basel Institute on Governance, which leads and organises meetings of the top compliance management of the four member companies, providing agendas, minutes, substantive contributions and benchmarking of elements of the companies' compliance programs.
The project aimed to create fair and clean business environment in China by submitting policy recommendations and building compliance capacities of all market participants. Research by the Beijing New Century Academy on Transnational Corporations (NATC) shows that while Chinese companies are highly motivated to comply with corporate rules on ethics, there is still a diverse range of Chinese companies which lack the ability to establish and implement such a compliance system.
In concrete terms, the project focused on attaining the following objectives: