Publications

Despite very substantial investments in anti-corruption, progress is frustratingly limited and in some cases insignificant. The resources devoted to the issue in the last fifteen years have been sizable, stemming from intense activity on the part of multilateral organisations, bilateral donors and private companies across numerous countries. These efforts have focused for the most part on ensuring the implementation of the OECD and UN conventions as well as regional instruments, building capacity, providing technical assistance and offering educational programs – to the point one can speak of the emergence of a veritable “anti-corruption industry”. Given that the anti-corruption agenda is frequently and correctly linked to those of rule of law, good governance and sustainable development, the funds and human capital applied to this issue are even more significant.

In this article we challenge the prevalent anti-corruption approaches in three ways. First, rather than discussing the failures of anticorruption reforms and the normative anticorruption rhetoric of the leadership in Mexico, Russia and Tanzania, we explore patterns of informal governance that work effectively, allowing the authorities to stay in power and citizens to access services and resources. Second, we link these practices to the impossibility of a clear public/private divide and identify those practical norms that enable its seamless crossover in these countries. Third, we find that the resilience of corrupt behaviours is associated with the fact that the informal governance norms that we identify across the three cases are permeated with ambivalent meanings and implications. This approach is expected to generate insights relevant to the development of a new generation of more effective anti-corruption measures for countries that suffer from high levels of corruption.

3 Research Case Studies: Targeting corrupt behaviours in a Tanzanian hospital: A social norms approach; Leveraging informal networks for anti-corruption in East Africa; Exposing the networks behind transnational corruption and money laundering schemes

This Policy Brief distils recommendations for Collective Action practitioners based on empirical insights on certain forms of corruption involving private-sector actors.

Field research carried out in Tanzania and Uganda produced detailed case studies that show how informal networks link private and public sector actors to pursue common illicit goals, such as gaining an unfair business advantage, avoiding a sanction, decreasing taxes owed or jumping the queue at the point of delivery of public services. Corruption, most often bribery, is the currency that works to cement and nurture those networks.

This Policy Brief is based on that research and a series of in-depth interviews with Collective Action practitioners working in Africa, Eastern Europe and Latin America. The goal is to extract insights from what we have learned about the networks that fuel corruption and discuss implications for anti-corruption Collective Action initiatives.

Corruption is frequently associated with money alone and the behaviours of a few individual “bad apples” operating in otherwise healthy governance systems. This is too simplistic. As the latest research shows, including research in Tanzania and Uganda on which this Policy Brief is based, corruption is a networked phenomenon. This Policy Brief explains what this means and its implications for anti-corruption practice.

Claudia Baez Camargo presenting for the GI-ACE Weekly Series

This case study presents sheds light on the functioning of informal networks in East Africa, based on evidence collected in Tanzania. The report presents evidence, consisting of four mini-case studies from Uganda that describe informal networks associated with bribery and procurement fraud. The ten cases are also analysed and implications for anti-corruption practice discussed in the larger report.

This case study presents sheds light on the functioning of informal networks in East Africa, based on evidence collected in Tanzania. The report presents evidence, consisting of six mini-case studies from Tanzania that describe informal networks associated with bribery and procurement fraud. The ten cases are also analysed and implications for anti-corruption practice discussed in the larger report.

This report presents findings from a research project entitled “Harnessing informality: Designing anti-corruption network interventions and strategic use of legal instruments”. The project follows from a previous research project where the Basel Institute on Governance, in partnership with University College London and SOAS, researched informality and its relationship with corruption and governance in seven countries in East Africa and Central Asia.

The findings from that research project, which can be explored at length here, suggested that corruption often takes place according to informal, unwritten rules. The present report sheds light on the functioning of informal networks in East Africa, based on evidence collected in Tanzania and Uganda. The report presents evidence, consisting of ten mini-case studies (six from Tanzania and four from Uganda) that describe informal networks associated with bribery and procurement fraud. The ten cases are also analysed and implications for anti-corruption practice discussed.

Mobile phones and other technologies have transformed the nature and dynamics of informal social networks in Kyrgyzstan. Some scholars argue that new technology (electronisation, digitalisation) helps to prevent corruption and reduce the risk of bribery, informal social networks and bureaucracy. In their view, new technology has the potential to create transparent and efficient ways to access public services. This is usually done by implementing electronic queue systems, online payment platforms, registers and other public services, as well as transparency portals providing access to government data, statistics and state laws and regulations.

This post on the Basel Institute's site provides findings from Baez Camargo's research project on social norms and how they drive behavior and perpetuate corruption.

Journal article co-authored by Claudia Baez Camargo about informal governance and the public/private crossover in Mexico, Russia and Tanzania. The article argues that scholars' focus must lie not only on harnessing the informal practices that lead to effective outcomes and sustain political structures, but ensure they can be used to promote positive change and improve development outcomes.