Workshop: Setting Anti-Corruption Agenda for MDGs: Challenges and Opportunities

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Workshop Coordinator: Anga R Timilsina, Coordinator of the “Global Thematic Programme on Anti-Corruption for Development Effectiveness (PACDE)”, UNDP.

Many States have now implemented poverty reduction programmes such as social protection schemes as part of the drive to tackle extreme poverty under MDG1. However, corruption can have a severely detrimental impact on the efficacy of such programmes, and therefore the lives of people living in extreme poverty, reducing their net income and obstructing their access to benefits, services and opportunities. It also perpetuates the exclusion of the most disadvantaged groups, who are often most in need of the benefits that such programmes may provide but also most vulnerable to corruption, for example women.

This presentation will address the importance of a human rights approach in preventing corruption in the design, implementation and monitoring of poverty reduction programmes. Such an approach emphasises the importance of transparency and access to information, which are human rights, to ensure accountability, safeguard against abuse and also make anti-corruption work more effective, thereby maximising the real potential of these programmes to tackle extreme poverty.

The year 2008 marked the mid-point between the adoption of the MDGs and the 2015 target date for achieving them. Looking at the progress to achieve MDGs in sub-Saharan Africa, several middle-income countries, and countries that are in or emerging from conflict, which face particularly severe challenges in meeting the MDGs and other internationally agreed development goals, there is an urgent need to work on the MDG acceleration process.

With this background, this workshop will discuss in details the outcome of the 2010 MDG Summit and the opportunities and challenges for the anti-corruption community to integrate its work and deliver on the global action agenda. The workshop will thus be an agenda setter for the sessions to be presented under the MDG stream during the 14th IACC. It will bring together all important angles such as fighting corruption and role of civil society, corruption, human rights and gender, fighting corruption in sectors, such as health, education and water. This workshop will lay a ground for a detailed discussion on each topic mentioned above throughout the 14th IACC.

The main purpose of the workshop is to present the agreed global agenda to accelerate progress and discuss the global challenges (both at international and national/sub-national levels) that hinder the MDG achievement and its acceleration process. The workshop will try to strategize the policies and programmes for accelerating MDG achievement by addressing the following questions: How can multi-sector partnerships be strengthened and what commitments are needed from donors and national governments? How can civil society ensure that public promises are honoured, particularly with respect to ensuring that governments deliver the public services to their citizens? How can the challenges for implementing and enforcing international instruments and agreements be met (e.g., Millennium Declaration and Development Goals and utilizing the United Nations Conventions against Corruption for MDGs)?

The high level representatives from United Nations, Amnesty International, Transparency International, and International Council on Human Rights Policy will update on the global development context and share their experiences on the challenges and opportunities for achieving MDGs and fighting corruption. Discussions will focus on how fighting corruption should be an integral part of MDG acceleration strategy. The workshop will look at the linkages from both angles: the negative impact of corruption on MDGs as well as the positive impact of anti-corruption strategies/tools on the MDGs with an objective of effectively integrating anti-corruption in the MDG acceleration process.

Moderator: Dr. Selim Jahan, Director Proverty Practice, UNDP
Rapporteur: Renata Nowak-Garmer, Research Analyst, Poverty Reduction Network, UNDP

Panellists:

Salil Shetty, Director, Amnesty International

A representative from TI (TBC)

Magdalena Sepulveda, UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty

Phil Matsheza, Policy Advisor – Anti-Corruption, UNDP

Christian Gruenber, International Council on Human Rights Policy

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