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.

The Basel Institute on Governance is partnering with the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP) to offer courses on corruption prevention, compliance and related security concerns. The first joint course on "Leadership in Anti-Corruption" will take place on 21-23 March 2016 in Geneva, Switzerland, and is led by Gemma Aiolfi, Head of Corporate Governance and Compliance, and Gretta Fenner, Managing Director.

The Basel Institute's Head of Governance Research, Dr Claudia Baez-Camargo, has been able to pass on some of her governance expertise to students of the University of Basel.

In the autumn semester 2015, she co-lectured a weekly course on "Contradictions and Sustainability of Governance" at the Sociology Seminar, building on a case-based, practice-oriented approach.

In 2015, experts from the International Centre for Asset Recovery conducted three training workshops in Kuwait City, as part of a one-year multi-component capacity-building programme for the Kuwait Anti-Corruption Authority (KANCOR). Subjects covered in the three workshops included: "Financial investigations and Asset Recovery", “Corruption in Infrastructure Projects and Procurement”, and “Offshore Structures and Mutual Legal Assistance”.

The Basel Institute has a long-standing working relationship with the government of Bhutan covering a range of joint endeavours on developing anti-corruption policies and asset recovery. For a new project, commissioned by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), researchers from the Basel Institute worked with Bhutanese authorities to introduce social accountability concepts to support efforts to encourage citizen participation in democratic practices at the local government level.

ICAR’s training team chose Peru to present for the first time its new specialised training course on “Advanced On-Site Training Operational Analysis”. For the delivery of this training in Peru in early June, additional country-specific elements were added. The goal of this specialized training was to strengthen the FIU's analytical and operational capacities in financial investigation.

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.

To strengthen the capacity of East African anti-corruption agencies to investigate and prosecute international corruption and money laundering, and to enhance regional cooperation in this regard, ICAR led a regional training workshop on Financial Investigations and Asset Recovery.

Experts from the Public Governance Division visited Peru in early March in support of the Basel Institute’s SECO-funded programme “Programa GFP Subnacional”. By working with Peruvian regional and municipal governments to strengthen public finance management processes, this programme contributes to improve the quality of public services and promotes the ability of local government actors to prevent, detect and investigate acts of corruption. 

The beginning of this year marked a growing interest in ICAR’s Train-the-Trainer programme in financial investigation and asset recovery with launches in Romania and Tanzania. The TTT programme comprises 4 to 5 successive training workshops, which are delivered over a period of several months. Potential local trainers are selected and trained to deliver similar workshops to their peers in the future, thus ensuring the sustainability of the project.