The Basel Institute and Swisspeace are co-financing a research project that looks into the role of anti-corruption agencies in the state building process of fragile nations. The co-financed position is held by Sergio Gemperle who has studied Political Science and Political Geography at the University of Berne and holds a M.A. in International Relations and Development Policy from the Institute for Development and Peace (INEF) of the University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany.

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 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.

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).

In mid 2014, Fairtrade International appointed Dr Claudia Baez-Camargo, Head of Public Governance Research at the Basel Institute, as member of Fairtrade International’s Governance Committee.

Fairtrade International is an international non-profit, multi-stakeholder body responsible for the strategic direction for Fairtrade, setting Fairtrade standards and supporting producers. The Governance Committee oversees the governance of the association and its members with a view to making structural and procedural recommendations.

In an effort to create awareness and educate youth on corruption and related challenges, the Basel Institute is collaborating with the International Center for Policy and Conflict (Kenya) and the Institute for Social Accountability (Kenya), PAWA 254 (Kenya) and Integrity Watch (Tanzania) to develop an anti-corruption programme targeting young people in Kibera, Kenya.