Social Forum Calls for Fight Against Corruption, to Defend the Amazon

Corruption has penetrated the Amazon rainforest like an illness that infects everything, said Ruben Siqueira, coordinator of the Pastoral Land Commission (CPT), during the VIII Panamazonic Social Forum (FOSPA), which brought together in the Peruvian Amazon jungle representatives of civil society from eight Amazon basin countries.
https://www.ipsnews.net/2017/05/social-forum-calls-for-fight-against-corruption-to-defend-the-amazon/

Public Hearings Can Fight Corruption

Bangladesh is a lower middle-income country with a promising and stable economy. The economy of Bangladesh continues to maintain its sustainable growth momentum with a healthy 7 percent-plus growth rate in FY 2015-16. The gead count poverty rate declined from 31.5 percent in 2010 to 23.2 percent in 2016 while the extreme poverty rate decreased from 23.2 percent in 2010 to 12.9 percent in 2016 (BBS, 2016). The foreign exchange reserve shows a steady increase and the exchange rate of US dollar remains stable. The country's remarkable steady growth is possible due to a number of factors including macroeconomic stability, population control and openness of the economy. Building on its social-economic progress so far, the government has taken up multifarious initiatives to elevate Bangladesh to a knowledge-based and technology-driven middle-income country by 2021.
https://www.ipsnews.net/2017/03/public-hearings-can-fight-corruption/

Corruption: Promises, But Not Enough Progress from G20 Countries

Open data is a pretty simple concept: governments should publish information about what they do to fight corruption– data that can be freely used, modified and shared by anyone for any purpose, according to two major international anti-corruption watchdogs. This is particularly important in the fight against corruption.
https://www.ipsnews.net/2017/02/corruption-promises-but-not-enough-progress-from-g20-countries/

Five Key G20 Powers Break Promise to Help Tackle Corruption

Five key G20 countries are failing to meet commitments to publish data that helps tackle corruption, warns a new report by international anti-corruption watchdogs.
https://www.ipsnews.net/2017/02/five-key-g20-powers-break-promise-to-help-tackle-corruption/

Corruption Kills

Preparing for earthquakes should go beyond first aid preparation. Most of the time schools, companies and government offices equip employees, workers, and students the basic knowledge of stop, drop, cover, hold, and then evacuate to open spaces, as protocols in the event of an earthquake. As an extra preparation, like in our offices at Palafox Associates and Palafox Architecture, all of our employees are equipped with emergency kits that have a whistle, flashlight, bottle of water, compass, first aid kit, and multi-function portable tools. Identified members of the company are trained to do first aid, rappelling, and coordination for emergencies. But at the end of the day, these are things that we hope will not be necessary because preparation goes beyond first-aid reactionary measures.
https://www.ipsnews.net/2017/02/corruption-kills-2/

Corruption Brings Down an Empire: Odebrecht in Brazil

People in Brazil have been overwhelmed by the flood of news stories about the huge web of corruption woven by the country’s biggest construction company, Odebrecht, which is active in dozens of fields and countries.
https://www.ipsnews.net/2017/02/corruption-brings-down-an-empire-odebrecht-in-brazil/

Populism, Wrong Medicine Against Corruption, Inequality

2016 showed that around the world systemic corruption and social inequality reinforce each other, leading to popular disenchantment with political establishments and providing a fertile ground for the rise of populist politicians, warns a new report by an international anti-corruption watchdog.
https://www.ipsnews.net/2017/01/populism-wrong-medicine-against-corruption-inequality/

New Anti-Corruption Leader Takes the Helm in Ghana

Ghanaian opposition leader Nana Akufo-Addo has made history as the first son of a former president to lead the West African country, beating incumbent President John Mahama in the 2016 presidential elections held on Wednesday, Dec. 7.
https://www.ipsnews.net/2016/12/new-anti-corruption-leader-takes-the-helm-in-ghana/

Corruption Control–Is It Feasible or a Fantasy?

December 9 is observed throughout the world as International Anti-corruption Day (IACD). On this day in 2003, the United Nations (UN) called upon governments and peoples of the world to mark the adoption of the UN Convention against Corruption (UNCAC).
https://www.ipsnews.net/2016/12/corruption-control-is-it-feasible-or-a-fantasy/

Corruption and Wildlife Trafficking: the Elephant in the Room

Wildlife trafficking is high on conservation and political agendas. It is also increasingly high on the global crime agenda. Rightly so: corruption was identified recently by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime as the main enabler of wildlife trafficking – one of the largest transnational criminal activities in the world.
https://www.ipsnews.net/2016/09/corruption-and-wildlife-trafficking-the-elephant-in-the-room/

Democratic Corruption

`Chaste to her husband, frank to all beside / A teeming mistress, but a barren bride` - Alexander Pope From Brazil to Malaysia, democracy around the world is under threat. Not from the march of army columns, but from the greed and corruption of a rapaclous global political elite. While nation-destroying corruption of leaders such as Ferdinand Marcos, Mobutu Sese Seko, Sani Abacha, Alberto Fujimori, or Robert Mugabe was the accepted `norm` till the 1990s for a select band of unfortunate Third World countries whose people had been made destitute by their leaders` insatiable greed, the latest wave of democracy was thought to have brought in a newer, and lesstainted, leadership.
https://www.ipsnews.net/2016/05/democratic-corruption/

Corruption Swallows a Huge Dose of Water

While the United Nations marked this year’s World Water Day on March 22 focusing on the connection between water and jobs, a new report has rung loud alarm bells about the heavy impact of corruption on the massive investments being made in the water sector.
https://www.ipsnews.net/2016/03/corruption-swallows-a-huge-dose-of-water/

Corruption Threat to Pacific Island Forests

The vast rainforests of Papua New Guinea (PNG) and the Solomon Islands in the southwest Pacific Ocean are crucial for environmental sustainability, survival of indigenous peoples and the wider goal of containing climate change. But forest degradation, driven primarily by excessive commercial logging, most of which is illegal, is a perpetual threat.
https://www.ipsnews.net/2016/03/corruption-threat-to-pacific-island-forests/

Ending Corruption is Crucial for SDGs

“To achieve the sustainable development agenda, we must end corruption and bribery”, said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at one of the world’s largest anti-corruption conferences in St. Petersburg, Russia.
https://www.ipsnews.net/2015/11/ending-corruption-is-crucial-for-sdgs/

U.N. Launches Probe Amidst Charges of Bribery and Corruption

After initial hesitation, the United Nations has decided to probe allegations of bribery and corruption extending to the office of a past President of the UN General Assembly (UNGA), the highest policy-making body in the 70-year old Organisation.
https://www.ipsnews.net/2015/10/u-n-launches-probe-amidst-charges-of-bribery-and-corruption/

Young Hondurans Lead Unprecedented Anti-Corruption Movement

A Honduran spring is happening, led by young people mobilising over the social networks, who are flooding the streets with weekly torch marches against corruption and impunity.
https://www.ipsnews.net/2015/07/young-hondurans-head-unprecedented-anti-corruption-movement/

Poor Bear the Brunt of Corruption in India’s Food Distribution System

Chottey Lal, 43, a daily wage labourer at a construction site in NOIDA, a township in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, is a beleaguered man. After a gruelling 12-hour daily shift at the dusty location, he and his wife Subha make barely enough to feed a family of seven.
https://www.ipsnews.net/2015/07/poor-bear-the-brunt-of-corruption-in-indias-food-distribution-system/

Nigeria’s Anti-Corruption Pledge Resonates in Far-Off Zambia

Nigeria’s president-elect is already making waves with his pledge to attack corruption, starting with the missing 20 billion dollars allegedly swiped from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation during the previous administration.
https://www.ipsnews.net/2015/04/nigerias-anti-corruption-pledge-resonates-in-far-off-zambia/

Corruption in Southeast Asia Said to Threaten Economic Integration

Rampant corruption across Southeast Asia threatens to derail plans for greater economic integration, according to Transparency International, the global coalition against corruption.
https://www.ipsnews.net/2015/04/corruption-in-southeast-asia-said-to-threaten-economic-integration-2/

Europe’s Unregulated Lobbying Opens Door to Corruption, Says Rights Group

Lobbying is an integral part of democracy, but multiple scandals throughout Europe demonstrate that a select number of voices with more money and insider contacts can come to dominate political decision-making – usually for their own benefit.
https://www.ipsnews.net/2015/04/europes-unregulated-lobbying-opens-door-to-corruption-says-rights-group/

Tackling Corruption at its Root in Papua New Guinea

Corruption, the single largest obstacle to socioeconomic development worldwide, has had a grave impact on the southwest Pacific Island nation of Papua New Guinea. While mineral resource wealth drove high gross domestic product (GDP) growth of eight percent in 2012, the country is today ranked 157^th out of 187 countries in terms of human development.
https://www.ipsnews.net/2015/02/tackling-corruption-at-its-root-in-papua-new-guinea/