As Samoa prepares for a historic election this August, and as the country's economy emerges from the pandemic, CIPE's John Morrell sits down with Sam Saili, President of the Samoan Chamber of Commerce and CEO of SkyEye Pacific, a technology company providing innovative solutions for the Pacific. Sam discusses the state of the Samoan economy and business climate, the work of the Chamber, and he walks listeners through the upcoming election. Listeners will learn what to expect, how to interpret the respective campaigns, the role of the business community in Samoan politics, and what the election results might portend. This episode on “Business and Politics in Samoa” is part of a special podcast series on the Pacific.

A key driver of the modern increase in global entrepreneurship is the increasing participation of women in sectors that were once inaccessible to them. This Global Entrepreneurship Week, CIPE’s Elena Ratoi sits down with Arijeta Pajaziti Qerimi, a trailblazer for women in Kosovo’s energy sector. Together, they discuss how Arijeta’s recent partnership with CIPE’s Center for Women’s Economic Empowerment is strengthening women’s participation in Kosovo’s traditionally male-dominated energy sector. Listeners will learn how new technology is decreasing labor-intensive roles, how young women are meeting older role models, and how more women-centered events are decreasing knowledge gaps.

Guest Bio

Arijeta Pajaziti Qerimi’s professional career as an electrical engineer is complemented by her academic profile with a Master of Science degree from the Electrotechnical Faculty, University of Prishtina. In 2021 she has been graduated from Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business in Gender Equity Executive Leadership Program. She has been part of the sector for almost 25 years. She currently works as an engineer specialist for SCADA / EMS in the Kosovo Transmission System and Market Operator (KOSTT) and as an executive director of AWESK (Association of Women in the Energy Sector of Kosovo) and contributes and advocate for many years to the advancement of the national agenda for the inclusion of women in energy.

Parliamentary elections in Sri Lanka follow the September selection of a new president and are expected to put the country on a new course. What might that look like? Sarrah Sammoon, CIPE's field coordinator in the country, joins Regional Director John Morrell to exchange insights on the economic and political situation in Sri Lanka leading up to the November 14 elections, including the role of the private sector and the Women's Chamber of Commerce under a new government.

CIPE’s own Sousena Tefera, Senior Program Manager with the Global Alliance for Trade Facilitation, hosts a discussion from Blantyre, Malawi, with key industry professionals McWilliams Mhone, Griffin Kamanga, and Mavuto Zabula. They explore the transformative impact of a new training program for clearing agents, which aims to professionalize the industry and enhance compliance with trade regulations. The guests share their personal journeys into the logistics and freight forwarding sector, the challenges they faced, and the significant benefits they've gained from the training. This episode highlights the importance of education and professional development in improving trade facilitation and economic growth in Malawi.

In this episode of the Democracy that Delivers podcast, Frank Brown, Director for the Anti-Corruption and Governance Center (ACGC), is joined by Cristina Ritter, Head of Governance and Anti-Corruption at the UN Global Compact (UNGC), in a discussion on the UNGC resolution and how it has served as a vital tool to bring together governments and the private sector in 190 countries to combat global corruption. With over 25,000 participants worldwide, UNGC uses national commitments to its business integrity policies to empower SMEs at the national level to leverage the power of collective action to advance anti-corruption compliance initiatives. Listen in to learn more about how UNGC has collaborated with CIPE over the years and what comes next for the organization.

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Cristina Ritter is an attorney-at-law specialized in business administration with a professional career of 20 years in both the United Nations and the private sector. She is currently the Head of Governance and Anti-Corruption at the UN Global Compact. Prior to this position, Ms. Ritter worked for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) since 2014, where she provided technical assistance in various continents on the international standards and tools to address corruption and money laundering, while engaging in international cooperation and asset recovery. Over the years, she was designated Global Coordinator of the Integrity Component of CRIMJUST, a UNODC flagship programme against drug-trafficking, she became responsible for the Americas at the Corruption and Economic Crime Branch (CEB) and served as Regional Anti-Corruption Advisor twice. In this context, she engaged with chambers of commerce, compliance associations, private sector entities and companies in over twenty countries to promote business integrity. She also fostered private-public dialogue, achieving the adoption of multiple policies, legal frameworks and national anti-corruption strategies.

Contemporary anti-corruption work has moved on from the old model defined by the public-sector directives and towards a new system of public-private collaboration. Our guest Viviane Schiavi sits at this critical intersection in her work with CIPE’s valuable partner, the International Chamber of Commerce. Listen along as she shares first-hand knowledge of the present and future state of anti-corruption work with CIPE’s own Frank Brown and Anna Kompanek on this week’s Democracy that Delivers.

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Viviane Schiavi is the Global Policy Lead, Anti-Corruption and Corporate Responsibility at the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC). She oversees ICC’s program in this area, which is based on the development of capacity building tools for companies and policy advocacy vis-a-vis the UN, the OECD, the G20 and other fora. The ICC Commission on Anti-Corruption and Corporate Responsibility that Viviane manages brings together over 400 companies worldwide engaged on integrity, anti-corruption, and supply chain responsibility. Viviane is an attorney and member of the New York Bar, American of French and Argentine origin, with over 20 years’ experience in international commercial law practice and global policy. She is a graduate of Bard College and the City University of New York Law School. Before joining ICC, Viviane practiced international commercial law in New York City and in Paris with Arthur Andersen International (now Accenture).

Last year, Poland held extraordinarily consequential parliamentary elections where the conservative Law and Justice party (PiS) lost its majority for the first time since 2015. Against this backdrop, CIPE supported a new project, “The Rule of Law – Our Future” through the Institute for Private Enterprise and Democracy (IPED) based in Warsaw between July 2023 to January 2024. As part of the Free Enterprise and Democracy Network Small Grants initiative, the project educated voters about the importance of the rule of law and encouraged youth participation in the election.  

In this podcast, Program Officer Tamari Dzotsenidze from CIPE Policy and Program Learning is joined by FEDN Steering Committee member and president of IPED Mieczyslaw Bak and Director of Program Strategy Anna Szczesniak in a discussion on lessons learned over the course of the project and perspectives on engaging with youth.

In this new episode of the Democracy that Delivers podcast, Adam Sachs, Program Manager for the Center for Digital Economy and Governance (CDEG), discusses the results of a recent study characterizing Colombian small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and their levels of digital adoption with Luz Stella Gómez, Manager of Financing and Technological Capabilities at iNNpulsa Colombia, and Pablo Lemoine, President of the Centro Nacional de Consultoría. This survey was conducted with input from 4,000 companies throughout Colombia, including those in regions most affected by conflict, as well as women-led and LGBTQ+-led enterprises. The study was a partnership between CIPE, iNNpulsa Colombia—the innovation and entrepreneurship agency of the Colombian government—and the Centro Nacional de Consultoría, one of Colombia's most prestigious and recognized surveying think tanks, which has worked with numerous companies and the national government. In collaboration with iNNpulsa, they also conducted the first version of the Digital Adoption Study in 2017.

Click here to view the results of the survey: https://www.cipe.org/resources/characterization-of-smes-in-colombia-and-their-digital-adoption/

In 2018, widespread protests dislodged a decades-long kleptocratic regime in Armenia. Known as the Velvet Revolution, these protests represented a culmination of decades of civil society organization and activism and the first surge of revolutionary action against Serzh Sargsyan following his attempt to cling to power.

In this episode of Collectively Combating Kleptocracy, Gayane Abrahamyan, an award-winning journalist and social justice activist, who served as a member of the Armenian Parliament as part of the My Step Alliance, joins the host, Max Levites (Senior Governance Specialist, Center for Global Impact, International Republican Institute), to discuss the key foundations and mechanisms that fostered a unity between civil society and citizens, leading to the Velvet Revolution. Abrahamyan shares her unique perspective on the trajectory of this unity and the involvement of marginalized groups while also outlining the importance of Armenia’s new-found democratic narrative as an outcome of the Velvet Revolution, among other short-term but key successes.

Beginning in November of 2013, then President of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych withdrew from a long-desired and promised EU trade agreement in the interest of consolidating a kleptocratic regime with Russia. The events ignited a series of both violent and non-violent large-scale protests in Kyiv, spanning many months. The protests, named ‘Euromaidan’ shifted the tide in Ukrainian politics and represented one of Ukraine’s largest ever collective action movements against corruption and kleptocracy.

Vladimir Dubrovsky is this episode of Collectively Combating Kleptocracy’s guest, joining CIPE’s ACGC Program Manager Izabela Chmielewska, to discuss his personal insights into the Euromaidan protests. Vladimir has extensive experience working as a senior economist at Case Ukraine and as a chief expert at the Economic Expert Platform; and a rich experience working in macroeconomics, political institutional economics and governance and anti-corruption. Vladimir outlines the historical and political background leading up to the protests and uses his experience and insight to explore the events’ tipping points and mobilization mechanisms. He also discusses the outcome of the protest, noting the shift in collective action narrative in Ukraine, the existing needs for reform and the unification of civil society in response to recent conflicts.