KickBack - The Global Anticorruption Podcast

This week, Dr. Florencia Guerzovich, Independent Researcher and Evaluator, and Tom Shipley, Research Fellow for the Governance & Integrity, Anti-Corruption Evidence programme at the CSC, explore whether the corruption field has a learning problem. Against the backdrop of debates around 'success' and 'failure' in anti-corruption, they talk to Professor Robert Barrington about approaches to Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL). The discussion covers the basics of what MEL is and the role it has to play in building knowledge on anti-corruption effectiveness; the current state of practice for MEL; what can be learnt from other sectors; and what changes might be needed to shift towards more adaptable, learning-focused approaches.

Find Tom’s paper on this topic for U4 here: https://www.u4.no/publications/evaluating-anti-corruption-interventions-the-state-of-practice

And the paper discussed by Florencia on social accountability here: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4606929

How can the renewable energy sector learn from the corruption risks that have plagued the extractive industries for decades to ensure a just energy transition?

Mark Robinson, Executive Director of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), and Maja de Vibe, the Senior Vice President and Chief Compliance Officer at Statkraft discuss their new working paper ‘Good governance and the just transition: Implications for renewable energy companies’, published by the Basel Institute. Mark and Maja discuss the critical corruption and governance risks facing the renewables sector; the commonalities and differences in risk between this sector and extractives corruption; and what role collective action and multi-stakeholder engagement could play in the governance of the sector in the future.

You can find their paper here: https://baselgovernance.org/publications/wp-53

Dan Hough, Prof. of Politics at the University of Sussex, and founding Director of the Centre for the Study of Corruption, discusses his new book Foul Play: Tackling Football’s Integrity Problem. Dan builds on analytical frameworks from the corruption and governance fields to analyse the integrity challenges facing the beautiful game, on and off the pitch. Dan examines football as an important social institution and makes connections to broader debates about how to encourage integrity.

You can find Dan's new book here: https://agendapub.com/page/detail/foul-play/?k=9781788217637

Professor David Jancsics (San Diego State University) discusses his research on the sociology of corruption. Drawing on sociological and other theoretical insights, he proposes a new typology of corruption with two cross-cutting dimensions (the type of resource transfer and the client) and four types: market corruption, social bribe, corrupt organisation and state capture. The discussion also covers state capture in Hungary as well as David's research on corruption at borders.

Here is a link to David's new book - https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501774324/sociology-of-corruption/#bookTabs=1

Many anti-corruption initiatives disseminate messages about corruption and its harms but how can these messages be framed to ensure they are effective? To explore this and related questions Caryn Peiffer (Associate Professor of Public Policy at the University of Bristol) and Nic Cheeseman (Professor of Democracy and International Development at the University of Birmingham) join us on the podcast to discuss their research.

They share research findings which challenge some of the assumptions widely held about the benefits of anti-corruption messaging campaigns. The episode is also full of practical guidance for practitioners, with Caryn and Nic encouraging all involved in these campaigns to think carefully about how they tailor and target their messages.

The main paper discussed by Caryn and Nic can be found here: https://url.uk.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/3b71Cl7MzHYWMNJuGfoCzYaB6?domain=cipe.org/

The U.S. Foreign Extortion Prevention Act (FEPA) is a groundbreaking piece of anti-corruption legislation which makes it a crime for any foreign official to demand or accept a bribe from an American or American company, or from any person while in the territory of the United States. Our two guests, Tom Firestone, Partner at Squire, Patton and Boggs, and Scott Greytak, Director of Advocacy at Transparency International US, played a critical role in getting the act into law.

In the episode, they speak to Liz Dávid-Barrett (Centre for the Study of Corruption) about the scope of the act and how it relates to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). The three also debate some of the likely challenges around enforcing FEPA as well as the effect the law may have on enforcement efforts by other countries.

For more background on the act, here is a helpful explainer written by Scott - https://www.transparency.org/en/blog/us-foreign-extortion-prevention-fight-against-global-corruption

This episode unpacks the problem of sexual corruption and how to design effective policy responses to it. Our two guests are Associate Professor of Public Policy, Anna Petherick, who is based at the Blavatnik School of Government, University Oxford, and is also the Director of the Lemann Foundation Programme at the school, and Dr. Ortrun Merkle, Research Fellow at United Nations University-Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute.

Anna and Ortrun are specialists in this topic and also work on the broader theme of gender and corruption. They talk through how the literature has evolved over the last two decades and particularly debates on conceptualizing the problem of sexual corruption. Both also provide useful guidance on how to research these extremely sensitive issues and offer their thoughts on the policy responses available.

Here are some links to writing on this topic by Anna, Ortrun and others if you are looking for further reading.

The Chandler Papers: Sexual Corruption, (by Anna, Monika Bauhr and Bolaji Owasanoye) -https://www.bsg.ox.ac.uk/research/publications/chandler-papers-sexual-corruption

A gender perspective on corruption encountered during forced and irregular migration (by Ortrun, Julia Reinold and Melissa Siegel) - https://www.giz.de/de/downloads/giz2017_eng_Gender-perspective-on-corruption-encountered-during-migration.pdf

Sexual corruption is abuse of power - and there's more to it than 'sextortion' alone (by Elin Bjarnegård, Dolores Calvo, Åsa Eldén and Silje Lundgren) - https://www.u4.no/blog/sexual-corruption-is-abuse-of-power-and-theres-more-to-it-than-sextortion-alone

Bribe to survive: sextortion and LGBTQ discrimination (by Victoria Abut) - https://globalanticorruptionblog.com/2022/06/13/bribe-to-survive-sextortion-and-lgbtq-discrimination/

Professor Lucio Picci (University of Bologna) speaks to Professor Liz Dávid-Barrett (Centre for the Study of Corruption) about his recent work on rethinking the current anti-corruption paradigm.

Lucio argues for the field to pay more attention to potential 'side effects' from anti-corruption discourse, particularly when this agenda is hijacked by populists to support political goals. Lucio uses cases from Brazil, Russia and the United States to illustrate his points. The conversation also takes in Lucio's early work on measurement, including bribery by firms and corruption at subnational level.

Here is a link to Lucio's new book: https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/rethinking-corruption/7556EA509B03B16334D5962113889FF6

And the article discussed on corruption in the management of public works authored with Miriam Golden: https://www.elgaronline.com/edcollchap/1845422422.00026.xml

Emmanuel Mathias, Head of the Governance and Anti-Corruption Division at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), speaks to Prof. Liz Dávid-Barrett (Centre for the Study of Corruption). He discusses the main pillars of the IMF's 2018 Framework for Enhanced Engagement on Governance, providing insights on how the fund approaches its anti-corruption work.

The framework can be found here:

https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/Policy-Papers/Issues/2018/04/20/pp030918-review-of-1997-guidance-note-on-governance

And the review discussed by Emmanuel can be found here:

https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/Policy-Papers/Issues/2023/04/11/Review-of-Implementation-of-The-2018-Framework-for-Enhanced-Fund-Engagement-on-Governance-532166?cid=pr-com-PPEA2023015

In this latest chapter on state capture, Ketakandriana Rafitoson (Vice-Chair, Transparency International; Executive Director of Transparency International Initiative Madagascar) outlines how this problem manifests in Madagascar and the harms caused. She speaks to Tom Shipley (Researcher, Centre for the Study of Corruption) about how state capture has unfolded in key sectors, including in the exploitation of natural resources, and the role that international firms and states have played. Ketakandriana also describes the innovative approaches civil society have taken to fighting back against networks of corrupt actors.

Further information on the case in the lychee sector mentioned by Ketakandriana can be found here, https://www.transparency.mg/telechargements/assainir-la-gouvernance-de-la-filiere-litchi-afin-den-exploiter-pleinement-le-potentiel/

The report on international enablers, 'loophole masters' can be found here, https://www.transparency.org/en/publications/loophole-masters