This policy brief summarises the main findings and lessons learned from research on corruption, social norms and behaviours in Tanzania. While the findings show that petty corruption is prevalent and results in inequitable public service delivery, they also inform that citizen and public officials’ attitudes and behaviours towards corruption are shifting as a result of changes in the political environment.
This Policy Brief summarises the main findings and lessons learned from a research on corruption, social norms and behaviours in Rwanda. The findings show that, although Rwanda has successfully curbed corruption, favouritism continues to be used to secure preferential access to public health services.
While the Rwandan experience illustrates how behavioural insights can effectively complement conventional anti-corruption approaches, further entry areas for deepening behavioural anti-corruption interventions are also identified.
Publication
Non-State Actors as Standard Setters
This analysis of 'globalised' standard-setting processes draws together insights from law, political sciences, sociology and social anthropology to assess the authority and accountability of non-state actors and the legitimacy and effectiveness of the processes. The essays offer new understandings of current governance problems, including environmental and financial standards, rules for military contractors and complex public-private partnerships, such as those intended to protect critical information infrastructure.
Despite the growth in literature on political corruption, contributions from field research are still exiguous. This book edited by Davide Torsello, includes two chapters co-authored by Claudia Baez Camargo, head of the Institute’s research division. It provides a timely and much needed addition to current research, bridging the gap between macro level quantitative indicators of corruption and micro level qualitative evidence through an innovative ethnographic approach to the study of corruption and integrity in public administration.
What is corrupt behaviour? In order to better understand how endemic corruption “works” from the perspective of the affected populations themselves, researchers from the Basel Institute explore behavioural factors that impact attitudes towards petty corruption in Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. One of the milestones of the research project has now been successfully completed with a systematic literature review.
The British Academy is hosting an all-day event on Monday, 27 February for the Anti-Corruption Evidence (ACE) scheme, which is run in partnership with the Department for International Development (DfID). All eight ACE award winners are coming together at mid-point of their projects to present and discuss their progress thus far.
On 27 February, Dr Claudia Baez Camargo, Head of the Institute’s Public Governance Research, gave a talk on her latest research findings at the British Academy. Her presentation on “Informal Governance and Corruption: Transcending the Principal-Agent and Collective Action Paradigms” was recorded and can be accessed online here.
From 30 to 31 March 2017, the OECD invites pioneers from a variety of backgrounds and academic disciplines to share their latest evidence and findings in corruption at the Global Anti-Corruption & Integrity Forum in Paris. Researchers from the Basel Institute will be present to discuss their findings on new approaches to anti-corruption.
On 21 June 2017, the Basel Institute will participate in an event during the 35th session of the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) in Geneva on innovative approaches to the implementation of sustainable development goals (SDGs).
On July 4th, the Basel Institute and Makerere University co-hosted a multi-stakeholder consultation workshop on behalf of the research project "Corruption, Social Norms and Behaviours in East Africa". The workshop informed interested Ugandan stakeholders on the findings of the research project and invited a discussion on the way forward to developing innovative anti-corruption interventions for Uganda based on the evidence uncovered through the research.