In the context of a series of capacity building workshops by the German Development Cooperation (GIZ) to strengthen governance in Central Africa’s extractive sector, the Basel Institute contributed to a 4-day seminar on good governance in the extractive industries in the Central African Monetary Community (CEMAC), held in Douala, Cameroon, in December 2014.
In the spirit of the Association Agreement between the Basel Institute and the University of Basel, the Basel Institute’s governance specialist, Dr Claudia Baez-Camargo, is again co-teaching a Spring semester course on “Sustainability and Health Governance” together with Professor Krista Nadakavukaren.
The course is taught as part of the Masters Programme on Life Sciences of the University’s Law Faculty.
At the request of the Kuwait Anti-Corruption Authority (KACA), ICAR is currently preparing and developing a one-year multi-component capacity building programme in asset recovery and financial investigation for the KACA.
In the context of the Swiss-Bhutanese cooperation framework (“DG and Democratic Governance Programme”), which seeks to consolidate Bhutan’s democratic institutions and practices, ICAR delivered a further five-day training workshop in financial investigation and asset recovery to 28 experts from the Judiciary, Office of the Attorney General, Anti-Corruption Commission, Royal Bhutan Police, Drug Regulatory Authority, Department of Revenue and Custom, Bhutan National Legal Institute, the Royal Insurance Corporation of Bhutan and the Royal Audit Authority.
Mandated by the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine to assist with tracing and recovering assets stolen by the former Ukraine President Viktor Yanukovych and his inner circle, and with funding from the local office of the Swiss Agency for Development Cooperation (SDC), ICAR conducted a five-day training workshop in financial investigation and asset recovery for the National Prosecution Academy of Ukraine in Kyiv from 19 to 23 January 2015.
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.