Korruptionens grumme virkninger for hundreder af millioner fattige kloden over kom aldrig med som et af de internationale 2015 mål for en bedre verden, men måske bliver det anderledes i den nye globale dagsorden mod 2030 – kræfter arbejder for, at det skal ske.
NEW YORK, 4 October 2013 (IRIN): With the realization that corruption is undermining development and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs = 2015 Målene), experts are lobbying the UN to adopt goals and targets on good governance (god regeringsførelse) and transparency (gennemskuelighed) in the post-2015 development agenda.
A high-level anti-corruption panel, co-chaired by UNDP, Transparency International and UNODC, gathered at the UN in New York in late September to highlight the impact of corruption on development and find ways to ensure that anti-corruption is part of the new global development agenda.
The eight MDGs – established in 2000 and set to expire in 2015 – saw the creation of ambitious targets to improve the lives of poor people, from goals on education and health to those on gender equality and the environment.
But no mention was made of fighting corruption.
Yet corruption has an enormous impact on the health and welfare of the poor.
Corruption means dead mothers
Research by Transparency International shows that “in countries where there is more bribery (bestikkelse), more women die during child birth and fewer children are in education, irrespective of how rich or poor a country is”.
Transparency International board chair Huguette Labelle said the organization’s research showed a direct correlation (sammenhæng) between bribery and maternal mortality (mødredødelighed).
One study found that in places where 30 percent of 100.000 women had to pay bribes, 57 died in childbirth, and where 60 percent of 100.000 had to pay bribes, 482 women died.
The organization has found a similar correlation between bribery and failures in the education sector.
Few dispute that corruption blocks entry to services, erodes the quality of those services, and redirects resources from the poor towards the elite. The thornier issue is what to do about it.
How should anti-corruption be incorporated into the post-2015 global development agenda?
Should fighting corruption be a goal in itself? Should there be a framework to measure anti-corruption targets? Can corruption – or lack thereof – be measured at all?
And where does accountability lie – at the domestic or international level? These were some of the difficult questions debated by the panel.
A sense of urgency
There is overwhelming support for the addition of anti-corruption objectives in the next global development agenda:
the 1,3 million people who participated in a public consultation process on the new development priorities ranked the need for honest and responsible government third highest of all priorities, after education and health care.
UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) executive director Yury Fedotov said at the panel:
“In the General Assembly here in New York, we must make it clear that accountability (stå til ansvar) and transparency are fundamental building blocks for achieving sustainable development outcomes.”
He said there has been progress towards putting corruption on the agenda since the UN Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) was adopted 10 years ago; there are now 168 state parties to the convention, all pledging to combat corruption in their governments.
More progress on global anti-corruption measures is expected at UNCAC’s fifth session in Panama City in November.
What about the “youth bulge”?
Nigerian Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said the need to find global measures to combat corruption and promote good governance had become even more urgent in the wake of the global financial crisis, which is widely said to have resulted from poor regulation, corruption and negligence.
She also pointed to the worrying “disconnect” in many developing countries between young people and their governments.
Okonjo-Iweala cited the “youth bulge (boble)” – the fact that 60 percent of people are under 30 in many countries in Africa, the Middle East and beyond – and the unemployment problems facing this cohort.
“These young people are seeing that poor governments and acts of corruption deprive their countries of resources and services and the ability to create jobs.” This, she said, was creating turmoil in countries unable or unwilling to tackle the problem.
International accountability needed
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