The Time
is now
addressing the gender dimensions
of corruption
THE TIME
IS NOW
addressing
the gender dimensions
of corruption
united nations office on drugs and crime
Vienna, 2020
© United Nations, 2020. All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-92-1-148354-3
eISBN: 978-92-1-005554-3
e designations employed and the presentation of material in this information product do not
imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the United Nations Oce on Drugs
and Crime (UNODC) concerning the legal or development status of any country, territory, city or
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UNODC encourages the use, reproduction and dissemination of material in this information
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provided that appropriate acknowledgement of UNODC as the source and copyright holder is
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way.
is publication has not been formally edited.
Cover photo courtesy UNODC.
Publishing production:
Editing: Jaya Mohan
Design and Layout: Gerda Palmetshofer
iii
Contents
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS....................................................................................................................vii
ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS ................................................................................................ ix
Introduction ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 11
Chapter 1
WHAT IS THE CONNECTION BETWEEN GENDER INEQUALITY AND CORRUPTION? .................. 19
Introduction .............................................................................................................................................20
1. Nurture vs. nature? .....................................................................................................................20
1.1 Debunking the fairer sex myth .....................................................................................21
1.1.1 Initial studies examining the relationship between gender
and corruption ....................................................................................................24
1.1.2 Gendered corruption patterns ..........................................................................26
1.2 e eect of public accountability ................................................................................29
1.2.1 Are women more or less risk averse? ...............................................................30
Chapter 2
WHAT IS THE IMPACT OF GENDER ON CORRUPTION AND CORRUPTION ON GENDER? ............ 33
Introduction .............................................................................................................................................34
2.1 e impact of corruption on gender equality and women’s agency ..................................... 34
2.1.1 e corruption opportunity gap ................................................................................... 34
2.1.2 Networking, patronage and clientelist behaviour ......................................................36
2.1.3 Women’s agency and interest in countering corruption ............................................38
2.2 e gendered impacts of corruption ........................................................................................42
2.2.1 Abuse of authority: sex as a currency of corruption ..................................................44
2.2.2 Legislative gaps and the threshold of proof .................................................................45
2.2.3 Examples of abuse of authority to obtain sex addressed under corruption laws ...47
2.3 Sectoral impact: corruptionduringapublic healthcrisis .....................................................47
2.3.1 Health care system vulnerabilities ................................................................................ 48
e tsunami impact ........................................................................................................48
e Ebola outbreak .........................................................................................................49
e COVID-19 pandemic .............................................................................................50
2.3.2 Education sector vulnerabilities ...................................................................................52
2.3.3 Private sector roles — in and outside of a public health crisis .................................53
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The Time is Now — addressiNg The geNder dimeNsioNs of corrupTioN
Chapter 3
INTERNATIONAL FRAMEWORKS ..................................................................................................57
Introduction ............................................................................................................................................. 58
3.1 International gender and anti-corruption instruments ......................................................... 58
3.1.1 e Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination
AgainstWomen ..............................................................................................................58
3.1.2 e Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Ocials in
International Business Transactions (OECD) ............................................................59
3.1.3 e Criminal Law Convention on Corruption and the establishment of
GRECO (Council of Europe) ........................................................................................59
3.1.4 e United Nations Convention against Corruption ................................................60
3.2 Gendered references in anti-corruptioninstruments ............................................................. 60
3.3 Gender and anti-corruption synergies — anewapproach ...................................................63
3.4 Gender equality and anti-corruption — fromtheMDGs to the SDGs ...............................64
Chapter 4
NATIONAL POLICY RESPONSES TO INTERNATIONAL COMMITMENTS ........................................67
Introduction ............................................................................................................................................. 68
4.1 Evidence-based policymaking and the need for moredata ..................................................68
4.2 Address corruption by reinforcing genderequality ...............................................................71
4.2.1 Gender responsive public procurement policies — addressingthe
homosocial capital ..........................................................................................................71
4.2.2 Opportunities for anti-corruption policies to promote genderequality ...................74
4.3 Judicial responses and unconscious bias ..................................................................................76
4.3.1 e role of the judiciary — equality before the law ...................................................78
A protocol for judicial decision-making with a gender perspective ........................79
e Global Judicial Integrity Network’s Paper on Gender-Related Judicial
IntegrityIssues ................................................................................................................80
4.3.2 Adopting gender-sensitive whistleblower protection systems .................................80
4.3.3 Lessons learned — a victim-centred approach ...........................................................82
4.4 Gender parity — a strategy for the UnitedNations ...............................................................84
Chapter 5
CASE STUDIES ...............................................................................................................................87
CASE STUDY: BRAZIL
Introduction .................................................................................................................................90
Women acting for women .........................................................................................................91
Revealing local corruption ..........................................................................................................94
Gender stereotyping and women’s access to power ............................................................................. 96
Conclusion ................................................................................................................................... 99
v
coNTeNT
CASE STUDY: INDONESIA
Introduction ...............................................................................................................................101
Decentralization — from vertical to horizontal ....................................................................102
Patronage networks ......................................................................................................103
Women in the informal sector ................................................................................................104
2017 local elections and women brokers in Aceh ................................................................. 105
Post-tsunami relief eorts — gender mainstreaming gone wrong ........................106
Not all networks are male ............................................................................................ 107
I am a Woman Against Corruption: SPAK ............................................................................108
Conclusion .................................................................................................................................110
CASE STUDY: GHANA
Introduction ...............................................................................................................................112
e Women’s Manifesto for Ghana .........................................................................................113
Ghana’s National Anti-Corruption Action Plan ...................................................................115
Gendered disparities in local administrations ......................................................................117
e gendered dimensions of public procurement ................................................................ 119
e gendered impact of corruption in land rights ...................................................121
e underlying reasons for land corruption .............................................................121
Addressing land corruption through public education ...........................................123
Assertive civil society — making a dierence .......................................................................124
Conclusion .................................................................................................................................125
Conclusion ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 127
Bibliography ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 133
Annex
OUTCOMES OF THE EXPERT MEETING ON GENDER AND CORRUPTION
19–20 SEPTEMBER 2018, BANGKOK, THAILAND ....................................................................... 156
vii
ACknowledgments
is publication was produced by the United Nations Oce on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). It
was developed with generous funding from Germany, Sweden, and the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Northern Ireland.
UNODC wishes to extend its thanks to Anna Petherick from the Blavatnik School of Government,
University of Oxford, as author of the initial dra of this publication.
UNODC also acknowledges with gratitude the peer reviewers and thanks them for their time,
their expertise and valuable insights:
Frederic Boehm, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD);
Alexandra M. Habershon, World Bank Group;
Monica Kirya, U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre, Norway;
Vita Habjan Barborič, Gender Equality Rapporteur, Group of States against Corruption
(GRECO), Council of Europe;
Lioubov Samokhina, GRECO, Council of Europe;
Julia Pilgrim, Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Ocer, Oce of the Chief,
Corruption and Economic Crime Branch (CEB), UNODC;
Hanna Sands, Gender Team, Oce of the Executive Director UNODC;
Tim Steele, Senior Anti-Corruption Advisor, CEB, UNODC.
anks to Helena Stensöta, Lena Wängnerud, and Richard Svensson from the University of
Gothenburg for their willingness to share their graphs for re-production in this publication, and
to the journal Governance where they were rst published.
We would also like to extend our gratitude to the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative
Justice of Ghana (CHRAJ), the Corruption Eradication Commission of Indonesia (KPK), the
Supreme Court of Mexico, the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission of the Republic
of Korea and the Federal Oce for Buildings and Logistics of Switzerland for their review and
subsequent contributions to this publication.
UNODC also wishes to acknowledge and thank the following artists for allowing the use of their
art for this publication: Juliette Delorme (LadyJday), Ozeas Duarte (Ozi), Leonardo Smania
Donazon and the students and teachers of the Wilson Camargo public school in Americana (Sao
Paolo, Brazil).
UNODC wishes to acknowledge the responsibility for the overall coordination, focus and
substantive development of this publication ensured by Jennifer Sarvary-Bradford, Mafaro Kasipo
and Suhaas Ema, CEB, UNODC.
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The Time is Now — addressiNg The geNder dimeNsioNs of corrupTioN
e publication also beneted from the valuable input of CEB collectively and those who reviewed
various sections of this publication including in particular: Brigitte Strobel-Shaw, Tatiana Balisova,
Felipe Freitas Falconi, Simon Gewoelb, Shervin Majlessi, Alberto Martinez Garcia, SophieMeingast,
Beatrice Pesce, Louise Portas, Kari Ann Rotkin and Roberta Solis Ribeiro Martins.
Moreover, we would like to thank Jaya Mohan, editor, and Gerda Palmetshofer, graphic design and
layout, for supporting the nal version of this publication.
Our gratitude also to the participants of the gender and corruption expert group meeting organized
in Bangkok, ailand, September 2018, where it all started.
ix
ACronyms And AbbreviAtions
ACRC Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission of Korea
BBC British Broadcasting Corporation
BRR Badan Rehabilitasi dan Rekonstruksi (Indonesian Agency for the
Rehabilitation and Reconstruction of Aceh and Nias)
CDD-Ghana Ghana Center for Democratic Development
CEDAW Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against
Women
CGU Controladoria-Geral da União (Comptroller General’s Oce of Brazil)
CHRAJ Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice in Ghana
CoE Council of Europe
COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019
ECOSOC United Nations Economic and Social Council
GACC Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition
GHEITTI Ghana Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative
GII Ghana Integrity Initiative
GMC Multidisciplinary Group on Corruption
GRECO Group of States Against Corruption (Council of Europe)
IANWGE Inter-agency Network on Women and Gender Equality
IAWJ International Association of Women Judges
KPK Komisi Pemberantasan Korupsi (Corruption Eradication Commission
of Indonesia)
MDG Millennium Development Goals
MMDA Municipal, Metropolitan and District Assemblies in Ghana
MOWAC Ministry of Women and Children’s Aairs in Ghana
MTurk Amazon Mechanical Turk
NACAP National Anti-Corruption Action Plan of Ghana
NGO Non-Governmental Organization
OECD Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
PNS Pegawai Negeri Sipil (Indonesian civil servant)
PPE Personal Protective Equipment
SDG Sustainable Development Goals
(S)GBV (Sexual and) gender-based violence
SIWI Stockholm International Water Institute
SPAK Saya Perempuan Anti-Korupsi (I am a Woman Against Corruption)
STAR-Ghana Strengthening Transparency, Accountability and Responsiveness in Ghana
SWAP System-Wide Action Plan
UN United Nations
UNCAC United Nations Convention against Corruption
UNDP United Nations Development Programme
UNGASS United Nations General Assembly Special Session
UNODC United Nations Oce on Drugs and Crime
UNODC-INEGI CoE e joint centre of excellence of the National Institute of Statistics and
Geography of Mexico (Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía —
INEGI) and UNODC
WGB Working Group on Bribery in International Business Transactions
WiLDAF Women in Law and Development in Africa
Introduction
12
The Time is Now — addressiNg The geNder dimeNsioNs of corrupTioN
Are women any less corrupt than men? Many would instinctively say “yes, probably”, even if
they had not reected on the issue before. When asked in public opinion surveys whether men or
women are more corrupt, far greater numbers of respondents tend to pick men, though this varies
across countries. When polled about policy preferences, those who prioritize a need for more
ethical government are more likely to say they intend to vote for a female candidate.
What is the relationship between gender and corruption? Research into links between gender
and corruption began around the turn of the millennium with studies commissioned by the
World Bank that reported correlations between the proportion of women in positions of power in
dierent countries and anti-corruption measures in those countries. e preliminary conclusion
seemed clear: with more women in power there was less corruption.
Today, we recognize that gender aspects inuence and shape cultures across the world and
feature in diverse areas of our lives ranging from religious teachings to the common bedtime story.
Building upon this universality, corruption aects men and women dierently across the world. In
many societies, women remain the primary caretakers of the family and are regularly confronted
with corruption when dealing with education, health and other public services. In the health care
sector, women are particularly vulnerable as they have reproductive health needs that may require
regular attention. ey can face corruption for things as simple as getting appointments to having
to pay for treatment that they should have received for free. Furthermore, patronage networks that
are oen dominated by men, exclude women from participating in or access to the public and
private sectors as well as the political sphere.
On the other hand, women in leadership roles have been shown to be more motivated and invested
in addressing aspects of corruption that are closer to their own reality, i.e. in areas such as public
service delivery of health care and education. ey may also be more interested in addressing the
gendered currency of corruption, namely where women are asked for sexual favours to access
services that are, in fact, sometimes even free.
Seeking to explore this interconnectedness between gender equality and corruption, UNODC
held an expert group meeting in Bangkok in 2018
1
bringing together 26 participants from
United Nations agencies and other international organizations, anti-corruption authorities and
other national criminal justice practitioners, as well as civil society and academia, with the aim
of exploring actionable recommendations on how to mainstream gender in anti-corruption
programming. Building on the outcome of the meeting, the present publication attempts to delve
deeper into this topic and discern the origins of the themes that were discussed in order to
support and substantiate them with academic and other research sources. While keeping in mind
the steadfast goal of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), this publication also
seeks to provide food for thought to the anti-corruption community at large in translating ideas
to programmatic initiatives. e original recommendations have been included throughout the
publication and, with the benet of additional research, have at times been strengthened further.
1 e full report of the expert meeting is attached as an annex to the publication.
13
iNTroducTioN
e concept of gender is applied throughout this document to convey a binary
understanding of men and women simply because this is where research can
support the ndings, without the intention of diluting the rainbow representing the
community of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons. Also, the
terms ‘woman’ and ‘female’ are used interchangeably as an editorial choice to make
the text more readable, even though it is acknowledged that these terms are not
perfect synonyms.
In order to help guide the reader when exploring the gender dimensions of corruption, this
publication has been divided into ve chapters.
Chapter 1
is chapter starts by re-examining the assertion that women are the “fairer
2
sex”. Carefully
designed experiments using games have allowed researchers to show how, given the right
circumstances, women and men are equally prone to being corrupt. One way in which corrupt
public ocials are held accountable is at the ballot box and a few examples from around the world
show that this holds true — but only to a certain extent. e publication underlines the importance
of understanding how national, cultural and social norms and the way in which they interact,
underpin the linkages between gender and corruption. By examining some of these contexts,
the publication illustrates the impact of such intersectionality. ese include culturally learned
risk-averse behaviours that are ingrained in women or the disproportionate sanctions women
receive if caught engaging in corrupt activities.
Chapter 2
e second chapter looks at how corruption impacts women and men dierently and how gender
inequality impacts corruption. e claim that women simply do not have the opportunity to be
corrupt as they are excluded from collusive networks of patronage is discussed. In contrast, more
recent research also indicates that criminal behaviour of women is increasing and coinciding with
increased female participation in the labour market.
A highly under-reported area of corruption, namely abuse of authority, is where sexual favours
and acts of a sexual nature are used as currency. is form of body corruption is very dicult
to capture due to the social taboo frequently associated with sex crimes and the stigmatization of
victims who speak up and also aer the situation has been addressed. In order to address this area
of corruption, the chapter highlights successful cases where anti-corruption legislation has served
as a basis to prosecute such acts, rather than sexual harassment or even gender-based violence laws.
2 e term ‘fair’ refers to notions of equity and justice.
14
The Time is Now — addressiNg The geNder dimeNsioNs of corrupTioN
Finally, chapter 2 also discusses the impact of women during a public health crisis by focussing on
the aermath of a tsunami, the outbreak of the Ebola virus and the COVID-19 pandemic in three
dierent sectors — education, health care and private sector — and considers the various sectoral
scenarios and the gendered impact of corruption.
Chapter 3
Taking a closer look at the legal sphere and gender-lensed interpretation of anti-corruption
legislation, this chapter considers the historical evolution of key international instruments.
In relation to the international anti-corruption instruments, the chapter highlights a shi away
from the early concept of the victimless crime, to one that is victim-centred. While these legal
instruments may have evolved in parallel with international and national frameworks promoting
gender equality and the empowerment of women, the chapter also highlights how gender equality
elements can be found in major anti-corruption instruments. Furthermore, the Council of Europe’s
(CoE’s) Group of States Against Corruption (GRECO) has taken the lead amongst international
organizations by requiring its Member States to include gender disaggregated data and report on
gendered anti-corruption measures in their country evaluations.
Chapter 4
is chapter underlines the importance of evidence-based policymaking and emphasizes the
diculties in gathering anti-corruption data in general, particularly sex-disaggregated data.
While the SDGs have set a high standard for data collection and disaggregation, Member States
will nd it challenging to be able to rise to that level — even those with well-developed data
collection systems. Nevertheless, the development of gender-sensitive anti-corruption policies
can work in dierent ways and with unexpected positive outcomes. e chapter highlights how
gender equality policies can have a positive eect in preventing and countering corruption
and, vice versa, how anti-corruption policies can benet from using gender equality principles to
level the playing eld and be more inclusive.
Such approaches to policymaking have the potential to improve the eectiveness of judicial
systems and their responses through increased judicial integrity and even encourage increased
reporting from groups that are oen marginalized. However, this chapter reiterates that these
policies would benet from an evidence-based approach and makes the case to increase eorts
in data collection. Nevertheless, there is no one-size-ts-all solution to addressing the gender
dimensions of corruption; sex-disaggregated data alone only hints at one aspect in a multi-layered
reality of intersectionality, and does not reect lived realities.
As an example of innovative initiatives that challenge the status quo of the public sector, this
publication presents the Supreme Court of Mexico’s protocol to address gender bias — whether
unconscious or conscious — in the country’s judiciary. e guidelines were draed to serve as
a fundamental tool to ensure that the right to equality before the law is a reality as enshrined
in the Constitution of Mexico and in line with its international human rights undertakings.
15
iNTroducTioN
e presence of gender-sensitive whistleblower reporting and protection systems and a
victim-centred approach enable the reporting person to come forward. Such reassurance has
been shown to be of greater importance to female than to male whistleblowers, as women are
generally more fearful than their male counterparts to report such instances of corruption. For
women, the lack of protection, fear of reprisals and the level of condentiality can negatively
impact the decision to report corruption.
Another initiative is the eorts of Secretary-General António Guterres to ensure gender parity
in the United Nations Secretariat. As part of his oath of oce, the Secretary-General outlined
how he intends to implement this so that “[g]ender parity … can be achieved not just in line with
the highest standards of merit, but in fact while simultaneously strengthening standards of
eciency, competence and integrity.” e ultimate goal of the new strategic approach is to enable
a change in the Organization’s culture to be “a female and family friendly work-place, and ensure
gender-sensitive workplace practices to build an enabling environment and secure a sustainable
approach to parity”.
Chapter 5
To illustrate the ndings of chapter 1 to 4, chapter 5 includes three country-specic case studies
from Brazil, Ghana and Indonesia that demonstrate each country’s contextual anti-corruption
landscape while focusing on unique gender narratives.
An analysis of mayoral elections and candidates in Brazil reveals that women mayors are more
likely to act on socio-economic issues that predominantly aect women. is includes a strong
agenda to curtail the practice of temporarily giving out jobs to win votes just before elections.
Voting patterns also reveal that more Brazilians are likely to vote for a woman candidate if a
previous male incumbent was found to be corrupt. e country has an innovative approach to
addressing local level corruption. e Oce of the Comptroller General undertakes federal audits
of local administrations on the basis of the numbers drawn in the national lottery, hence keeping
the oces on their toes, and making the selection random.
In Indonesia, varying intersectionalities emerging from the urban-rural divide demonstrate
how dierent women in the informal sector prefer formalizing (or not) their businesses due to
the disproportionate impact corruption has on them including through demands for bribes and
informal fees. Indonesia also provides an inspiring example of women on the forefront of the
ght against corruption through the Corruption Eradication Commission of Indonesia (KPK)
that launched the SPAK (Saya Perempuan Anti-Korupsi) initiative. e acronym translates to ‘I am
a Woman Against Corruption’ and engages thousands of women to raise awareness about corrupt
behaviours through games at the local and village levels.
Ghana’s postcolonial society witnessed women traders dominate its informal economy, only
to be blamed later for being central to the country’s economic challenges including corruption.
In response to this, and driven by dierent women’s groups, the Women’s Manifesto for Ghana
of 2003 remains the guiding light for the country’s gender mainstreaming eorts. e National
16
The Time is Now — addressiNg The geNder dimeNsioNs of corrupTioN
Anti-Corruption Action Plan stands out for its acknowledgement of the negative impact of
corruption on women, children and other ‘equity-seeking groups’. Exploring the gendered impacts
of corruption in public procurement and land rights is also a highlight of this case together with
the role Ghana’s vibrant civil society has come to play by helping to empower women with the
knowledge of their legal rights.
We are paving the way
for future generations.
~ Dimitri Vlassis
Former Chief Corruption & Economic Crime Branch, UNODC
Chapter 1
WHAT IS THE
CONNECTION BETWEEN
GENDER INEQUALITY
AND CORRUPTION?
20
THE TIME IS NOW — ADDRESSING THE GENDER DIMENSIONS OF CORRUPTION
INTRODUCTION
Chapter 1 of the publication has two objectives. First, it seeks to navigate and summarize early
research into the existence and nature of a link between gender and corruption. Second, it seeks
to consolidate the evidence base for what is frequently asserted, yet oen insuciently supported:
that women are disproportionately aected by corruption. e evidence nds that this is in part
because, in most societies, women as a group have less socioeconomic power than men, and in
part because there are certain public services that women rely on and where corruption is more
likely to be prevalent. In both of these cases, intersectional identities
4
of gender with ethnicity,
class, age, etc., play a critical role.
As this chapter moves from explaining the initial World Bank ndings to discussing the suite of
studies that have since re-evaluated the conclusions of its early research into this issue, it is worth
noting that the challenge of understanding the link between gender and corruption is continuously
being explored and our understanding of it is being enriched. For instance, currently, it is moving
in the direction of breaking down the broad concept of corruption into the many and oen very
dierent kinds of acts and activities that fall within its ambit, such as the abuse of functions and
trading in inuence, and making sense of how these may have distinct yet dierent connections
to gender.
5
1. NURTURE VS. NATURE?
Some kind of link between gender dierences and corruption seems intuitive to many people,
even if they have never consciously thought about it. Gender features in religious teachings,
in ceremonies and practices all over the world and even in bedtime stories where we learn as
children to associate dierent forms of femininity with purity, honesty and trustworthiness. As
adults, we translate these nurtured impressions — or stereotypes — into opinions about whether
women are less corrupt and less corruptible than men. For instance, in the biennial Americas
Barometer survey, a far greater proportion of respondents regularly reply that male politicians
are more corrupt than their female counterparts.
6
With regard to women being perceived as more
trustworthy than men, a good example is provided by the results of an experiment known to
4 Cho, S., Crenshaw, K. and McCall, L. (2013) Toward a Field of Intersectionality Studies: eory, Applications,
and Praxis. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 38(4), pp.785–810.
5 ‘Gender’ is used thorough this publication to equate a binary understanding of men and women due to the
current state of research without the intention of diluting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex
persons. e terms ‘woman’ and ‘female’ are used interchangeably as an editorial choice to make the text more
readable, it is also acknowledged that these terms are not perfect synonyms.
6 As recorded, for example, in the 2014 AmericasBarometer survey, in which participants of several countries
were directly asked whether men or women make more corrupt politicians. Dierent percentages, though
always the vast majority, answered ‘men’. See also: Pereira, F. B. (2020). Do Female Politicians Face Stronger
Backlash for Corruption Allegations? Evidence from Survey-Experiments in Brazil and Mexico. Political
Behavior. doi:10.1007/s11109-020-09602-9.
21
WHAT IS THE CONNECTION BETWEEN GENDER INEQUALITY AND CORRUPTION?
economists as ‘the trust game’. In 2009 an online panel of 88,000 people was encouraged to send
cash with the promise that whatever another player returned to them would be tripled. It was
found that both men and women sent larger amounts aer being informed that their playing
partner was female.
7
Other studies provide strong reasons to broadly understand how the link between gender and
corruption is rooted in the ways that people are taught what is expected behaviour — of themselves
or others — rather than something we are born with. us, widespread expectations about how
people should and do behave do not necessarily have anything to do with the gendered qualities
we are born with, even if people are frequently tempted to assume that they do.
1.1 Debunking the fairer sex myth
Research into the links between gender and corruption began in earnest around the turn of the
millennium, with a couple of studies by researchers at the World Bank reporting correlations
between the proportion of women in positions of power in many countries around the world,
and measures of corruption in those countries.
8
ese studies indicated that the more women
in power, the less corrupt the country. Subsequently, some academics have contested whether
the pattern exists,
9
while others have highlighted particular contexts of women’s presence and
power-holding, and have uncovered evidence of both a positive and negative correlation.
10
at
is, while in some circumstances having more women in power may correlate with less corruption,
it is also true that more corruption can prevent women from attaining power. In sum, there is a
realization that there are many more elements than biological sex that need to be considered when
exploring — and explaining — the gender dimensions of corruption.
One of these elements is the power dynamic at play in any attempted, solicited or oered act of
corruption. As explained by one scholar, relations of power are not something that operate outside
of other relations, on the contrary, they are rooted in non-egalitarian and mobile interactions. us,
all power relations are relations of inequality regardless of where they arise — in families, limited
groups or institutions.
11
In Ghana, such interactions occur amongst others at the intersection of
inheritance rights and land rights due to the dierence between national land ownership laws
7 Garbarino, E. and Slonim, R. (2009). e robustness of trust and reciprocity across a heterogeneous
population in the United States of America. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 69(3), pp.226–240.
8 Dollar, D., Fisman, R. and Gatti, R. (2001). Are women really the “fairer” sex? Corruption and women in
government. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 46(4), pp.423–429. Swamy et al. explored the
correlation between gender and corruption in greater depth. Swamy, A., S. Knack, Y. L, and Azfar, O. (2001).
Gender and Corruption. Journal of Development Economics, 64(1), pp.25–55.
9 Goetz, A. M. (2007). Political Cleaners: Women as the New Anti-Corruption Force? Development & Change,
38(1), pp. 87–105.
10 Esarey, J., and Schwindt-Bayer, LA. (2019). Estimating Causal Relationships Between Women’s Representation
in Government and Corruption. Comparative Political Studies, 52(11), pp. 1713–1741.
11 Foucault, M. (1998). e History of Sexuality: the will to knowledge. London Penguin.
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THE TIME IS NOW — ADDRESSING THE GENDER DIMENSIONS OF CORRUPTION
Mummy I am a vandal
“I was already a teenager when I got in touch with Alice [in Wonderland] through Walt Disney’s
film. When I read the book, I was impressed by Lewis Carroll’s provocative tone and I became
a confessed fan of the work. What enchants me is the way the author uses cynical and
nonsensical humour to criticize the tyrannical power of that time; besides the totally anarchic
tone for a children’s book, which makes it sensational.”
Published with the permission of Ozeas Duarte - Ozi.
23
WHAT IS THE CONNECTION BETWEEN GENDER INEQUALITY AND CORRUPTION?
and customary law. Ghana’s constitution mandates equal rights regardless of gender.
12
erefore,
either spouse of a heterosexual union inherits the other’s estate if there is no will. In practise,
however, widows are granted minimal or no inheritance rights under customary law and their
husband’s family or traditional leaders may opt to dispossess them.
13
For many widows, this can
also mean losing their agriculture-based livelihoods. eir only recourse is to approach the local
‘tindana’, whose job it is to adjudicate customary land disputes. Typically, the tindana ensures
that widows are not le empty-handed. However, at times the husband’s family sells the land to
business owners, who quickly le paperwork in the courts to formally register their ownership,
taking advantage of the national law. Sometimes, this happens before the matter is brought to the
tindana, but oen, the tindana can be bribed to cooperate. In these cases, widows get nothing.
Here, the lack of knowledge of their legal rights on part of the widows tilts the balance of power to
the tindana, and can lead to corrupt practises.
e understanding of the role intersectionality plays within corrupt exchanges is developing as
illustrated in the case studies in chapter 5, from which the example above was taken. Social norms,
underpinned by historical events and cultural values, are key factors when assessing the links
between gender and corruption in dierent national contexts. Moreover, researchers are starting
to explain how dierent forms of femininity and masculinity relate to corruption, explicitly
recognizing the inadequacy of just working with two gender categories, male and female, which
so oen are assumed to be equated to the biological sex.
14
Researchers derive sex-disaggregated data from censuses, electoral institutions, and all too
infrequently, tailored surveys, but overall, such data tends to reect only two categories of
respondents — men and women. No doubt, researchers seeking to make sense of how social
processes develop and aect the world, and scholarship about how gender and corruption are
connected, will continue to move towards more nuanced analyses.
12 See the Constitution of Ghana Article 17 — Equality and Freedom from Discrimination.
(1) All persons shall be equal before the law.
(2) A person shall not be discriminated against on grounds of gender, race, colour, ethnic origin, religion,
creed or social or economic status.
e Intestate Succession Law of 1985, as amended (PNDCL 111), also makes reference only to spouse without
further qualication of biological sex.
13 Yeboah, Eric, Linda Kwafo, Mary Awelana Addah, Annette Jaitner, and Mariya Gorbanova. Women, Land and
Corruption in Ghana: Evidence from Selected Case Studies. Accra, Ghana: Ghana Integrity Initiative, 2016.
14 roughout this publication the terms ‘woman’ and ‘female’ are used interchangeably as an editorial choice to
make the text more readable, even though it is acknowledged that these terms are not perfect synonyms.
Intersectionality / ɪntəsɛkʃəˈnalɪti /
mass noun ~
Def. The interconnected nature of social categorizations
such as race, class, and gender as they apply to a given
individual or group, regarded as creating overlapping and
interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage.
24
THE TIME IS NOW — ADDRESSING THE GENDER DIMENSIONS OF CORRUPTION
Expert Recommendations:
Solutions need to fit the institutional context, where the
intersectionality of gender, ethnicity and other social norms
within a given environment are considered.
Complement sex-disaggregated data with qualitative
investigation. This will aid in gathering information on
understanding the processes behind the data.
1.1.1 Initial studies examining the relationship between gender and corruption
e rst of the World Bank studies in 2001 looked at the proportion of women in national
legislatures. Dollar et al
15
considered whether this proportion varied alongside a national-level
measure of high-up government ocials’ likelihood of demanding special payments.
16
e
correlation was signicant across more than a 100 countries — the greater the proportion of
female legislators, the less likely a country’s top ocials were to demand bribes, at least over the
50-year period (1945 to 1995) included in the analysis.
is pattern remained when the authors statistically removed the eects of a selection of factors
that could have skewed the analysis, such as each country’s gross domestic product (GDP), and
an index of political and civil liberties. ey assessed two other measures of corruption to see if
this changed the headline nding. First, the original measure of corruption — top government
ocials’ demands for special payments — was swapped for annual assessments by exporters of the
proportion of business deals, for each country, that involve bribes or so called ‘kickbacks’. en
they tried an index that sought to capture the extent to which such practices prevail in the public
sector. Whichever of the three indicators of national corruption levels Dollar et al analysed, the
main pattern held — the more female legislators, the lower the country’s corruption score.
17
Not long aer this study was published in 2001, another paper reported similar, but broader
ndings. To make their argument, Swamy et al
18
analysed global public opinion data, and found
that when interviewed, women were generally more likely than men to state that corrupt acts were
never justied, such as accepting a bribe while performing one’s duties, or to avoid paying the fare
15 Dollar, D., Fisman, R. and Gatti, R. (2001). Are women really the “fairer” sex? Corruption and women in
government. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 46(4), pp. 423–429. Note that for countries with
bicameral legislatures, these authors used the average proportion of women in the lower and upper chamber.
16 Dollar et al used the International Country Risk Guide’s corruption index as the principal measure of
corruption. e Risk Guide and data is supplied by the PRS group, https://www.prsgroup.com/.
17 Although the correlation for the German exporters’ kickback measure was weaker, and not statistically
signicant at the p≤0.05 level (as is the conventional level of assessment in the academic literature).
18 Swamy, A., Knack, S., Lee, Y. and Azfar, O. (2001). Gender and corruption. Journal of Development Economics,
64(1), pp.25–55.
25
WHAT IS THE CONNECTION BETWEEN GENDER INEQUALITY AND CORRUPTION?
when using public transport. ese researchers checked public opinion data in many dierent
countries, and found that in the majority of cases
19
the results were approximately the same (and
never the other way around). en, echoing Dollar et al’s ndings, Swamy et al reported a positive
correlation between national measures of corruption and the percentage of women among senior
members of government (cabinet ministers, deputy and vice ministers). In addition, they looked for
a correlation between national corruption levels and women’s representation among top-ranking
public ocials and political appointees (permanent secretaries, deputy permanent secretaries
and heads of central banks), and between national corruption levels and women’s presence in the
workplace. e strength of these two additional correlations proved to be similar, if fractionally
weaker, than that between corruption and the proportion of female legislators. In all three cases,
the more the number of women, the less the extent/perception of corruption.
Swamy et al buttressed their ndings with survey data from business owners in Georgia.
20
When
the survey was carried out in 1991, 350 rms reported that they paid nine per cent of their
turnover, on average, in bribes. Firms owned or managed by women claimed to pay bribes to
public ocials far less frequently than those owned or managed by men — a dierence that
remained aer taking into account the inuence of other factors that might have explained the
result, such as the education level of the company manager, the size of the company, the sector
it operated in, and whether the government had a majority stake in the company. Although
Swamy et al were cautious in their conclusions, they speculated that: “Women, who are typically
more involved in raising children, may nd they have to practice honesty in order to teach their
children the appropriate values” and “Women may feel more than men — the physically stronger
sex — that laws exist to protect them and therefore be more willing to follow rules.”
21
A few
years later, in 2007, a discerning scholar would counter this conclusion by pointing out that for
centuries, prominent political philosophers have tended to think the opposite — that women’s
traditional role as caregivers makes them more prone than men to nepotism and other forms of
corruption.
22
19 In 36 out of 43 countries in this 1991 survey, and in all 18 countries in the 1981 survey, women were more
likely than men to answer that paying a bribe is never acceptable.
20 Anderson, J., Azfar, O., Kaufmann, D., Lee, Y., Mukherjee, A. and Ryterman, R. (1999). Corruption in
Georgia: Survey Evidence. Mimeo, e World Bank.
21 Swamy, A., Knack, S., Lee, Y. and Azfar, O. (2001). Gender and corruption. Journal of Development Economics,
64(1), pp.25–55.
22 In 2007, Anne-Marie Goetz wrote: “Ironically the reverse myth has kept them [women] out of the public
realm for centuries… In Rousseau’s conception, for instance, this untness [of women for government] comes
from their ‘natural’ role as caretakers and custodians of aectivity, desire, and the body in the home. If appeals
to personal connections and desires were allowed to move public debates, the principles of universality,
impartiality, and justice would be subverted, as too would the convenient separation between the private and
the public realms.” See: Goetz, A. M. (2007). Political Cleaners: Women as the New Anti-Corruption Force?
Development & Change, 38(1), pp.87–105.
26
THE TIME IS NOW — ADDRESSING THE GENDER DIMENSIONS OF CORRUPTION
1.1.2 Gendered corruption patterns
In the years following their publication, the two World Bank studies were embraced in public
policy circles.
23
Meanwhile, feminists cautioned against framing women’s participation in politics
and business as a tool to ght corruption as opposed to a goal in itself.
24
Academics picked holes
in the studies. One of the early doubters, Sung
25
, suggested that the pattern was spurious, and only
apparent in the data because the initial analyses had not fully considered the role of democracy.
is argument proposed that democracy — rather than having more women in power — was
what really mattered for lowering corruption. e author postulated that it is democracy that
simultaneously promotes good governance and gender equality, thus opening professional doors
for women who want to become politicians. To support this argument, Sung showed that if the
inuences of the strength of the rule of law, of press freedom, and the existence of free and fair
elections in the analyses were taken into account, there was no discernible correlation between
women in power and corruption.
26
Other scholars questioned the universality of the trend by
deploying alternative statistical approaches.
27
As this follow-up research has burgeoned, the idea
that a greater proportion of women always goes hand in hand with less corruption has been
discarded,
28
while research showing that the pattern exists in some contexts but not in others has
gained credence. erefore, innate dierences between men and women cannot be responsible for
the association — else the correlation between national corruption levels and women in power
would be found everywhere.
Picking up Sung’s point that democracies provide a more open means of attaining political power
than autocracies, and that there are aspects in which the contest for power can be gendered, Esarey
and Chirillo asked whether the proportion of female legislators is equally good at predicting
corruption levels in both regime types.
29
ey found a strong correlation in democracies, but none in
autocracies. Stensöta et al
30
, meanwhile, explored the details of whether the pattern existed in state
administrations. e authors reasoned that public administrations, by their nature, are organizations
23 King, E. and Mason, A. (2001). Engendering Development rough Gender Equality in Rights, Resources,
And Voice. [online] Washington, D.C.: World Bank. http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/
en/512911468327401785/Engendering-development-through-gender-equality-in-rights-resources-and-voice.
24 Goetz, A. M. (2007). Political Cleaners: Women as the New Anti-Corruption Force? Development & Change,
38(1), pp.87–105.
25 Sung, H. (2003). Fairer Sex or Fairer System? Gender and Corruption Revisited. Social Forces, 82(2), pp.703–723.
26 In 2012, he analysed changes between 1998 and 2004 in women’s parliamentary presence and in measures of
corruption, and found that a rise in female legislators does not predict a reduction in corruption over time
(as opposed to assessing the static pattern) when these factors are considered. See: Sung, H. (2012). Women in
government, public corruption, and liberal democracy: a panel analysis. Crime, Law and Social Change, 58(3),
pp.195–219.
27 For example, using ‘xed eects’ models: Debski, J., Jetter, M., Mösle, S. and Stadelmann, D. (2018). Gender
and corruption: e neglected role of culture. European Journal of Political Economy, 55, pp.526–537.
28 Yu Hao et al recently showed that population sex ratios are irrelevant for predicting corruption levels. See:
Hao, Y., Chang, C.-P. and Sun, Z. (2017). Women and corruption: evidence from multinational panel data.
Quality & Quantity, 52(4), pp.1447–1468.
29 Using data from 157 countries, between 1998 and 2007. See: Esarey, J. and Chirillo, G. (2013). “Fairer Sex” or
Purity Myth? Corruption, Gender, and Institutional Context.Politics & Gender, 9(04), pp.361–389.
30 Stensöta, H., Wängnerud, L. and Svensson, R. Gender and Corruption: e Mediating Power of Institutional
Logics. Governance, 28(4), (2014), pp.475–496.
27
WHAT IS THE CONNECTION BETWEEN GENDER INEQUALITY AND CORRUPTION?
Figure 1
Bivariate relationship between the number of women in administration (European Union Level 1)
and levels of corruption.
Figure 1 shows that the explanatory power of share of women is strong; the adjustedR2is 49%. e coecient (Control
of Corruption) in the bivariate analysis is not very high (0.05*** (p>|t| 0.000 [t=5.25]), but it is signicant.
Source: Gender and Corruption: e Mediating Power of Institutional Logics (2014)
Figure 2
Bivariate relationship between the number of women in Parliament and Control of Corruption
(European Union).
is gure shows the relationship between Control of Corruption and the number of women in Level 1 administration
(European Commission data). ere is no relationship between the share of women in administration (Level 1) and
the Control of Corruption (World Bank). e coecient is 0.00 (t 0.04), and the adjusted R2 is below zero (n = 29).
Source: Gender and Corruption: e Mediating Power of Institutional Logics (2014)
Austria
Belgium
Bulgaria
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark
Estonia
Finland
France
Germany
Greece
Hungary
Iceland
Ireland
Italy
Latvia
Liechtenstein
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Malta
Netherlands
Norway
Poland
Portugal
Slovakia
Slovenia
Spain
Sweden
Turkey
United Kingdom
0 .5 1 1.5 2 2.5
Control of corruption
0 10 20 30 40 50
Women in Parliament
R−squared= 0.50
Austria
Belgium
Bulgaria
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark
Estonia
Finland
France
Germany
Greece
Hungary
Iceland
Ireland
Italy
Latvia
Liechtenstein
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Malta
Netherlands
Norway
Poland
Portugal
Slovakia
Slovenia
Spain
Sweden
Turkey
United Kingdom
0 .5 1 1.5 2 2.5
Control of corruption
0 10 20 30 40
Women in administration (Level 1)
R−squared= 0.00
28
THE TIME IS NOW — ADDRESSING THE GENDER DIMENSIONS OF CORRUPTION
that strive to ensure a culture of impartiality in their functioning. To that end, they are expected
to enforce strict standardized procedures that inhibit the ways in which gendered norms interfere
or inuence their operations. Public sector recruitment, for example, is expected to be through
meritocratic examinations, procedures within administrations routinized, and pay scales xed for
each level in the hierarchy. In this way, their work diered from Swamy et al’s study, which considered
public sector appointees who typically got their jobs due to political or personal connections.
When examining European Commission data
31
from 30 European countries about terms of
employment and hiring policies and comparing it with the World Bank’s Worldwide Governance
Indicators (WGI),
32
Stensöta et al found that the proportion of women in these administrations
was unrelated to corruption (Figure 1). us, corruption levels were not aected by a greater or
smaller proportion of women public employees. Furthermore, the stronger the instilled culture
of following administrative principles such as strict standardization and impartiality, the less
predictive the public administration’s sex composition was of the country’s level of corruption. Yet
for the same group of countries, the more women in Parliament, the lower the perceived level of
corruption (Figure 2). In other words, even within the same country, a variation in the strength
of gender norms and gendered processes in dierent organizations and environments can aect
whether there is a correlation between the number of women and the actual or perceived levels of
corruption.
Expert Recommendations:
Patterns of the representation of men and women in different
areas must be considered.
When analysing the patterns, it is important to consider
how gender is intertwined with the logic of institutional
architecture and behaviour.
31 European Commission. (2005). Database on Women and Men in Decision-Making. http://ec.europa.eu/justice/
gender-equality/gender-decisionmaking/database/public-administration/national-administrations/index_en.htm.
32 e World Bank-run Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI) project reports aggregate individual governance
indicators for over 200 countries and territories over the period 1996–2018, for six dimensions of governance,
amongst them “control of corruption.” https://info.worldbank.org/governance/wgi/.
29
WHAT IS THE CONNECTION BETWEEN GENDER INEQUALITY AND CORRUPTION?
1.2 The effect of public accountability
So why do some contexts support a positive association between the level of corruption and the
proportion of women, and others undermine it? One way that research in the eld has inferred
causal links has been to zero in on the common features of contexts in which the pattern holds.
Comparing correlations in dierent sets of countries has led to the suggestion that democracy can
drive the pattern not because it straightforwardly opens doors for women that autocracy tends to
close, as Sung proposed, but because competitive elections and freedom of expression can interact
with gender norms and stereotypes to generate dierent incentive structures for men and women.
e common thread in these is public accountability. Meanwhile, it is important to recall that
co-relation does not necessarily mean causation.
Why should an association between gender and corruption emerge more clearly where public
accountability appears to be more eective? Culturally ingrained ideas of women as less
corruptible than men, and the expectation that women should be less corruptible have their own
consequences. Women are oen socially penalized much more strongly than men for the same
ethical transgressions.
33
In general, the media tend to scrutinize women oceholders’ behaviours
and decisions more and in the United States of America, for example, voters have been shown
to more keenly hold female senators to account than they do male senators,
34
possibly because
women in public oce are still under-represented and the exception rather than the rule.
35
e
expectation of stronger penalizing for any given corrupt act provides incentives for women to be
rationally more risk-averse. In short, if women leaders are expected to be less corrupt/corruptible,
there will be more reason for them actually to be so, as compared to their male counterparts who
might see this as an inadvertent acceptance of their corrupt behaviour.
36
Another aspect of accountability is a free press that can gain access to information to investigate
and report on corruption. An integrous and active press enables citizens’ oversight on their
elected ocials. Where engaging in corruption goes against how politics is normally done, people
feel especially aggrieved upon learning about those in power committing acts of corruption.
Parliamentary systems typically feature a vote of no condence that can bring down a government
when citizens express strong discontent, whereas presidential systems oer more secure
employment for the head of government (who selects the ministers in both systems).
is theme of public accountability comes through in experiments as well. One eld experiment
conducted in Burkina Faso and Canada asked participants to mark 20 exam papers using an
33 See also, the Joyce Banda eect: https://www.cmi.no/publications/5794-the-joyce-banda-eect e former
president of Malawi and female politicians were penalised during elections (fewer women were re-elected)
aer the Malawi cash-gate scandal.
34 Jones, P.E.(2014). Does the Descriptive Representation of Gender Inuence Accountability for Substantive
Representation? Politics & Gender, 10(02), pp.175–199.
35 Bauer, G. and Manon Tremblay (2011). Women in executive power: a global overview. London: Routledge.
Rainbow Murray (2010) Cracking the highest glass ceiling: a global comparison of women’s campaigns for
executive oce, 1st edition ed., Santa Barbara: Praeger. As of September 2020, 25 per cent of the US Senate
seats are held by female senators.
36 To be sure, ghting corruption (as well as engaging in corruption) entails risk. is point has contributed to
the development of women’s interest mechanisms, discussed later in the next chapter.
30
THE TIME IS NOW — ADDRESSING THE GENDER DIMENSIONS OF CORRUPTION
answer book that was provided for them.
37
e eleventh paper always contained some money
tucked away, with a request for the marker to nd very few mistakes. While there was no dierence
in how willing men and women were to take the bribe when they knew there was a zero chance of
being caught, in both countries, the introduction of monitoring led to women becoming less likely
than the men to accept the bribe.
1.2.1 Are women more or less risk averse?
Oen, the suggestion that cultural incentive structures (which, in turn, guide social norms)
explain why women are more risk averse than men is met with the reply that women are innately
more risk averse. e diculty of studying these phenomena in relation to corruption, which in
itself can be a hidden phenomenon, leads us to rely on proxies, including studies of societies which
have retained a traditional gendered social structure. To this end, a study in 2009 examined the
propensity to take risks among the patriarchal
38
Maasai in Arusha, Tanzania, and the matrilineal
and matrilocal
39
Khasi in Meghalaya, India.
In this experiment, individuals were asked whether they wanted to bet on themselves in a
competition with another anonymous member of their village. With one of the researchers present,
participants in this experiment could choose to receive a small payment every time they managed
to throw a tennis ball into a bucket, irrespective of the success rate of the other anonymous village
member (who was completing the same task on the other side of a building). Alternatively, they
could embrace more risk, and receive a bigger payment if they beat their unknown opponent. In
both societies, men and women were equally good at throwing the ball into the bucket. Maasai
men were more willing to engage in risky competition than Maasai women. Khasi women were
more willing to do this than Khasi men. In fact, these Khasi women, who had grown up in a
society in which they had more power than men, were even more willing to take the risky option
than the Maasai men were. In both societies, the subordinate sex was the more risk averse.
Other studies are also starting to question the traditional assumption of women being innately
risk averse. In 2019, a researcher at University of Essex published a paper
40
reviewing dierent
sets of crime data — some dating back to before World War II. In studying the pattern in women’s
criminal behaviour, Campaniello concluded that, while women are not as criminal as men, their
criminal behaviour is increasing, an evolution she attributes to the fact that other socio-economic
gender gaps have been shrinking. Technological progress and evolving social norms have freed
women from the home, increasing their participation in both the labour and the crime market.
37 Armantier, O. and Boly, A. (2008). Can Corruption be Studied in the Lab? Comparing a Field and a Lab
Experiment. SSRN Electronic Journal.
38 Gneezy, U., Leonard, K. and List, J. (2009). Gender Dierences in Competition: Evidence from a Matrilineal
and a Patriarchal Society. Econometrica, 77(5), pp.1637–1664.
39 is is not a matriarchal society, as female domination is not universal is all spheres of life.—.for example,
women do not participate in some professions, such as the priesthood of civil defence. However, Khasi men
are generally subservient to Khasi women. Clan membership follows female lineage (matrilineal) and, upon
marriage, a man usually leaves his mother’s household to join his wife’s (matrilocal).
40 Campaniello, N. (2019). Women in crime, IZA World of Labor 2019: 105 doi: 10.15185/izawol.105.v2.
Women have more freedom than in the past, and with an increasing number of women accessing
the labour market come more opportunities to commit crime. Building on Campaniello’s ndings,
other evidence
41
points to factors such as increases in compulsory schooling laws, school quality
and educational attainment being associated with signicant reductions in female crime.
41 Cano Urbina, J., and Lochner, L. (2017). e eect of education and school quality on female crime.National
Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series, working paper 24061 http://www.nber.org/papers/w24061.
Corruption is the ultimate betrayal of public trust.
~ António Guterres
Secretary-General
Chapter 2
WHAT IS THE
IMPACT OF GENDER
ON CORRUPTION
AND CORRUPTION
ON GENDER?
34
THE TIME IS NOW — ADDRESSING THE GENDER DIMENSIONS OF CORRUPTION
INTRODUCTION
Chapter 2 of the publication will take a closer look at examples of how corruption impacts women
and those who are not part of collusive networks. Such networks, sometimes referred to as
‘old boys’ clubs, tend to be predominantly male and cater to their selected members by continuing
to exclude outsiders. is chapter underscores that gender itself implies a greater risk of exposure
to particular forms of corruption; for example, a woman’s body as a currency where sexual favours
rather than money (or assets with obvious monetary value) are requested or paid as a bribe. It
will also take a closer look at the impact of gendered corruption in the health care, education and
private sectors, especially in the context of a health crisis.
2.1 THE IMPACT OF CORRUPTION ON GENDER EQUALITY
AND WOMEN’S AGENCY
2.1.1 The corruption opportunity gap
If in most societies people broadly believe women are and are expected to be more risk averse
and more honest than men, and if women expect extra punishment if they are found to be
involved in corruption, then being held to a higher standard undermines the principles of fairness
and equality. Rationally, then, women would be discouraged from trying to make a career in
politics and business, where corruption is tricky to navigate and there is some chance of those
involved getting caught. In other words, these pressures operate in both directions to create the
much-analysed pattern of risk aversion.
42
In the political arena, they place gendered incentives
on those who already have parliamentary seats by implying the more women in power, the lower
the level of corruption. Alongside, they create invisible barriers to women winning seats, thus
implying the more corruption, the fewer women in power. However, women’s low representation
in corrupt environments is not only the result of women opting out of pathways of power. Women
are le out, too. Indeed, one of the mechanisms by which corruption can prevent women rising in
organizational structures is alluded to in the example below about Mexican female police ocers:
women being seen as outsiders to male ocers’ established networks.
Gendered expectations
43
about corruptibility can be measured and broken down into their
component parts. In one study, Internet users around the world who signed up to be workers on
42 Esarey, J. and Schwindt-Bayer, L.A. (2019). Estimating Causal Relationships Between Women’s Representation
in Government and Corruption. Comparative Political Studies, 52(11), pp.1713–1741.
43 What scholars oen refer to as ‘injunctive gender stereotypes’ — stereotypes about how men and women
should behave. ‘Descriptive gender stereotypes’ refer to how people think men and women are in an essential
sense, or how men and women actually behave. See: Eagly, A.H. and Karau, S.J. (2002). Role congruity theory
of prejudice toward female leaders. Psychological Review, 109(3), pp.573–598.
35
WHAT IS THE IMPACT OF GENDER ON CORRUPTION AND CORRUPTION ON GENDER?
the crowd-sourcing marketplace, Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk), were invited to earn money
by reading one of several short stories, or vignettes, about the Mexico City trac police.
44
e
vignettes began by explaining that the Mexico City trac police had deliberately hired women
as a means to try to counter corruption in the department, which was a true story. e vignettes
then continued with a randomly assigned justication as to why hiring more female trac police
ocers might cut bribes. Having read the full story, the MTurk workers then had to rate how
successful they imagined this hiring policy would be. By comparing the responses across those
who read dierent justications, the researchers could isolate how convincing each reason was.
e most convincing was that female police ocers would be more risk averse. is was followed
by “because women aren’t part of male ocers’ established personal and professional networks”,
and, in the third place, “because women are believed to be more honest”.
45
Overall, most MTurk
workers thought that adding women would reduce bribery, seemingly regardless of the justication
provided.
is corruption opportunity gap is also present in European politics. Research in 2008 into
women’s presence on regional councils in 18 European countries
46
concluded that the existence of
closely-knit male-dominated networks, which exert control over the political recruitment process
in countries where corruption appeared to be more prevalent, leads to fewer councilwomen.
47
e
same dynamics appear in African politics. An analysis of what predicts women’s representation in
African parliaments found that corruption, on average, signicantly reduces it, because “corrupt
political and economic processes oen deny [women] the opportunities to seek and hold public
oce.”
48
e corruption opportunity gap is also a feature of business. By analysing data from the
World Bank’s Enterprise Surveys, which are administered in 105 countries and contain a
series of questions about companys’ experiences with corruption, Breen et al, have shown that
women-owned businesses pay fewer bribes.
49
is is particularly the case in the manufacturing
sector, and among small- and medium-sized, domestic (as opposed to foreign-owned) companies.
Across the many companies lling in the Enterprise Surveys, on average those with female owners
saved US$6,785 in bribes annually. While these patterns echo Swamy et al’s early study of Georgian
companies, crucially, the Enterprise Survey data reveals that those companies that reported
corruption to be an obstacle to their operations tended to have female managers. e implication
44 Barnes, T.D., Beaulieu, E. and Saxton, G.W. (2017). Restoring trust in the police: Why female ocers reduce
suspicions of corruption. Governance, 31(1), pp.143–161.
45 All the justications proved more convincing than the control condition, where no justication was oered at all.
46 Council of European Municipalities and Regions. (2008). Women in local politics in Europe: Figures from
34European countries of CEMR‘s membership. Published by the Council of European Municipalities and Regions.
47 Women also appear to be dissuaded from trying to enter local politics in these regions because they witness
government authorities treating some people better than others. e authors of this study argue that the latter
signals to womenthatiftheywere to come forward and try to become political representatives,theywould
not receive equal treatment. See: Sundström, A. and Wängnerud, L. (2014). Corruption as an obstacle to
women’s political representation. Party Politics, 22(3), pp.354–369.
48 Stockemer, D. (2011). Women’s Parliamentary Representation in Africa: e Impact of Democracy and
Corruption on the Number of Female Deputies in National Parliaments. Political Studies, 59(3), pp.693–712.
49 Breen, M., Gillanders, R., Mcnulty, G. and Suzuki, A. (2016). Gender and Corruption in Business. e Journal
of Development Studies, 53(9), pp.1486–1501.
36
THE TIME IS NOW — ADDRESSING THE GENDER DIMENSIONS OF CORRUPTION
is that female managers are locked out of networks that organize, participate in, and facilitate
corruption. is is a dierent mechanism to that proposed by Swamy et al: it is not that women
are more honest than men, but that they have fewer opportunities to engage in corrupt acts.
2.1.2 Networking, patronage and clientelist behaviour
Why might it make sense for close-knit networks of men, engaging in corruption, to leave women
out? e initial condition of existing power structures — including for example clientelist political
parties — is almost always male dominance. For a network of individuals to coordinate any activity
that is illegal or widely disapproved of, there must be strong within-group trust, and this trust
may be easier to establish and reinforce among people who have gender in common. A detailed
ethnographic study of political parties in ailand examined how such networks maintain these
ties, and what that implies for who can join their ranks.
50
e study explains how the political
parties operated through a system of “patronage” and won voters’ support by promising benets
to individuals, or to small groups — as long as they oer political support. is practice is known
as clientelist exchange. Bjarnegård begins with the ideas that because people are socialized to have
gendered expectations, and so they perceive — generally speaking — members of their own sex to
be more like themselves; and that small groups can develop their own within-group norms, which
help bond the group together and create a closed network.
Expert Recommendation:
Improve inclusiveness within a given social environment and
break ‘networks’ to reduce corruption: mainstreaming should
aim to include individuals who have been excluded due to the
gendered manifestations of corruption.
50 Bjarnegård, E. (2015). Gender, informal institutions and political recruitment: explaining male dominance in
parliamentary representation. Basingstoke, Hants: Palgrave Macmillan.
You can have everything in life you want,
if you will just help enough other people
get what they want.
~ Hilary Hinton Zig Ziglar
Author, motivational speaker
37
WHAT IS THE IMPACT OF GENDER ON CORRUPTION AND CORRUPTION ON GENDER?
Networks that coordinate corrupt acts must thus prioritize predictability among potential new
members above all other attributes. Secrecy is at a premium for a collusive group; when it adds
members, the network must remain closed to prevent information leaking out. Using these three
ideas, Bjarnegårdargues that these pressures lead current group members to seek new members of
their own sex who adhere to and display the norms that help to bind the group together and tend
to express a culturally dominant form of masculinity. As women do not t the prole of a new
recruit, they are excluded.
Men who do not display the particular form of masculinity that acts as a social glue for the group
are also le out. Bjarnegård terms the particular kind of social capital that in-group men have,
and potential new members must demonstrate to enter a corrupt network, as ‘homosocial capital’.
In contexts as dierent as ailand and Iceland, researchers have described similar dynamics
playing out.
51
ere are other indications that clientelist political parties create informal barriers to women’s
political representation. In Argentina, women who have been elected to federal Congress are
more likely than male congressional members to represent political parties other than the large
traditional parties that are usually associated with clientelist networks.
52
is suggests that these
female representatives have somewhat dierent constituencies to their male colleagues and
should thus have fewer incentives to sustain patronage networks which helped them get elected.
Researchers studying Mexican politics have found that female politicians oen begin their
political careers as members of civil society organizations,
53
not as members of an established
clientelist network. ey then build electoral support from within.
54
is means that representing
their core supporters’ demands is likely to require responding to the preferences of groups
that oen promote the ght against corruption, implying some truth in early assumptions
that women in power may be ready to counter corruption, and not merely avoid it. e critical
dierence is that these explanations use female agency and interest as the dening motive, rather
than innate virtue.
51 Johnson, J.E., Einarsdóttir, Þ. and Pétursdóttir, G.M. (2013). A Feminist eory of Corruption: Lessons from
Iceland. Politics & Gender, 9(02), pp.174–206.
52 Franceschet, S. and Piscopo, J.M. (2013). Sustaining Gendered Practices? Power, Parties, and Elite Political
Networks in Argentina. Comparative Political Studies, 47(1), pp.85–110.
53 Grimes, M. and Wängnerud, L. (2010). Curbing Corruption rough Social Welfare Reform? e Eects
of Mexico’s Conditional Cash Transfer Program on Good Government. e American Review of Public
Administration, 40(6), pp.671–690.
54 Rothstein, B. (2016). Corruption, Gender Equality and Feminist Strategies. QOG e Quality of Government
Institute, Working Paper Series (2016:9).
Clientelist / klʌɪənˈtɛlɪst /
adjective
~
Def.
Of, relating to, or characterized by clientelism, i.e.
a social order that depends on relations of patronage.
38
THE TIME IS NOW — ADDRESSING THE GENDER DIMENSIONS OF CORRUPTION
2.1.3 Women’s agency and interest in countering corruption
e women’s agency
55
and interest argument has two strands. Women, as a group with relatively
less power than men in almost all societies, tend to face discrimination in careers like politics. So,
rationally, women are more motivated to counter corruption because it gets in the way of their
professional ambitions, more than it does for men. Moreover, female politicians can have somewhat
dierent support bases to their male colleagues. When gender is prominent, women have been
shown to be more likely than men to vote for female candidates,
56
and female constituents oen
expect female politicians to do a better job of representing women’s interests.
57
ese interests
extend to particular areas of public service delivery. All this indicates that female politicians have
good reason to be selective about the sectors they try to clean up, so as to benet women.
58
e data suggest that this has actually happened. Across Europe, for example, more balanced
gender representation in local councils goes hand in hand with less collusive practices in public
procurement. Bauhr et al put to the test the idea that women in power pick and choose the kinds of
55 Evans, A. and Nambiar, D. (2013). Collective action and women’s agency: a background paper (English).
Women’s voice, agency, and participation research series, no. 4, Washington, D.C. World Bank Group. Expressions
of women’s agency can include but are not limited to access to and control over resources; decision-making
over family formation; freedom of movement (mobility); freedom from violence; and political participation and
societal inuence.
56 Dolan has found that this pattern was evident in the 1992 U.S. Congressional Elections, but not for the 1994
or 1996 elections. For more information, refer to Dolan, K. (1998). Voting for women in the “year of the
w o m a n”. American Journal of Political Science, 42(1), pp.272–293. More recently, Campbell and Heath showed
that women who held positive views about the value of women’s numerical representation were more likely
to vote for women in the 2010 UK general election. See: Campbell, R. and Heath, O. (2017). Do Women Vote
for Women Candidates? Attitudes toward Descriptive Representation and Voting Behavior in the 2010 British
Election.Politics & Gender, 13(02), pp.209–231.
57 Bratton, K.A. and Ray, L.P. (2002). Descriptive Representation, Policy Outcomes, and Municipal DayCare
Coverage in Norway.American Journal of Political Science, 46(2), pp.428–437.
Bolzendahl, C. (2009). Making the Implicit Explicit: Gender Inuences on Social Spending in Twelve
Industrialized Democracies, 1980–99.Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State & Society, 16(1),
pp.40–81. Bolzendahl, C. (2014). Opportunities and Expectations.Gender & Society, 28(6), pp.847–876.
58 Watson, D. and Moreland, A. (2014). Perceptions of Corruption and the Dynamics of Women’s
Representation. Politics & Gender, 10(03), pp.392–412.
Women voters may punish female legislators (whom they expect to be promoting women’s interests) especially
harshly for engaging in corruption. is has been shown by Eggers et al. See: Eggers, A.C., Vivyan, N. and
Wagner, M. (2018). Corruption, Accountability, and Gender: Do Female Politicians Face Higher Standards in
Public Life?e Journal of Politics, 80(1), pp.321–326.
Furthermore, a survey that collected data across 21 EU countries in 2019 found that women perceive local
corruption to be more about needing to access basic public services, while men perceive corruption in their
area to be a tool to access special privileges and wealth. See: Bauhr, M. and Charron, N. (2020). Do Men and
Women Perceive Corruption Dierently? Gender Dierences in Perception of Need and Greed Corruption.
Politics and Governance, 8(2), p.92.
Women’s agency / ˈwʊməns ˈeɪdʒ(ə)nsi /
mass noun ~
Def.
Women’s ability to define goals and act on them.
39
WHAT IS THE IMPACT OF GENDER ON CORRUPTION AND CORRUPTION ON GENDER?
corruption that they put most eort into ghting.
59
e authors evaluated women’s representation
on regional councils across Europe, alongside a measure of corruption in public procurement, a
type of corruption that is oen orchestrated by networks glued together by homosocial capital,
with tentacles reaching into political party hierarchies and inuencing promotion. For women
who have been elected as regional councillors, breaking up collusive male-dominated networks
can help their career progression in politics.
60
Typically, women experience poverty dierently — as primary family caregivers and due to
their reproductive health needs. ey are therefore likely to be more aected by corruption in
family-oriented sectors, such as health and education. is was conrmed through the analysis of
data from a survey in 2014, in which 85,000 Europeans
61
spread over 20 countries. Respondents
indicated how oen they had to pay bribes to access dierent kinds of public services. In Europe
62
as elsewhere
63
women are poorer than men, suggesting that women give away relatively larger
proportions of their income as they have to pay bribes to access state services. erefore, in
substantively representing other women, female regional councillors act rationally by focusing on
improving public service delivery in health and education, and expending less eort on sectors
that do not directly impact women.
Expert Recommendations:
Promote women empowerment while incorporating
anti-corruption and integrity programmes.
Explore strengthening accountability mechanisms by
bringing greater diversity to institutions and changing the
organization’s dynamics.
Indeed, bribery in education and health care has been reshaped by women joining European
local legislatures. Across the continent, women are about 3.5 times more likely to pay a bribe
to access education where women’s representation is at its lowest, compared to where women’s
representation is at its highest. In health care, greater gender equality in local government is also
associated with reduced bribery in accessing state services. ese ndings point to women in
59 Bauhr, M., Charron, N. and Wängnerud, L. (2018). Exclusion or interests? Why females in elected oce reduce
petty and grand corruption. European Journal of Political Research.
60 Ibid.
61 Charron, N., Dijkstra, L. and Lapuente, V. (2014). Mapping the Regional Divide in Europe: A Measure for
Assessing Quality of Government in 206 European Regions. Social Indicators Research, 122(2), pp.315–346.
62 Bastos, A., Casaca, S.F., Nunes, F. and Pereirinha, J. (2009). Women and poverty: A gender-sensitive
approach.e Journal of Socio-Economics, 38(5), pp.764–778.
63 Nilüfer Cagatay and United Nations Development Programme. Social Development and Poverty Elimination
Division. (1998).Gender and poverty. New York: UNDP, Social Development and Poverty Elimination Division.
40
THE TIME IS NOW — ADDRESSING THE GENDER DIMENSIONS OF CORRUPTION
Figure 3
Summary diagram of causal processes that can contribute to a correlation between women in power
and corruption levels.
Where gender inequalities exist,
women’s substantive
empowerment may cut corruption
For policymaking, this implies:
To improve opportunities for career
advancement, women in power cut corrupt
practices orchestrated by collusive,
male-dominated networks.
Women in power avoid corruption because
they face stronger incentives than men
for clean management. ey are oen
socialised to be risk averse, and may face
additional social sanctioning for
ethical transgressions.
To substantively represent women’s interests,
women in power improve delivery of public
goods and services in “women’s interests”
policy domains, which requires cutting
corruption in those sectors.
Corruption reduces
women’s opportunities
Women in power
reduce corruption
Women observe public ocers in corrupt
systems broadly treating people with less
power in a biased manner. ey also
anticipate being held to higher ethical
standards than men. Consequently,
women assume that they would face unfair
treatment if they were to seek more power,
and so are put o trying.
Male-dominated networks that conduct
corrupt activities and control access to
power discriminate against women, keeping
them out by various means such as the use
of masculine norms to cement
trust relationships.
Women’s inequality is deepened by more
negative impacts of corruption on those
with less power, and also by intrinsically
gendered forms of corruption, such as
demands for sexual favours as the
bribery currency.
e reason for this may be:
It may exist because:
Where gender inequalities
exist, cutting corruption may
help reduce them
A correlation may exist:
Corruption levels
Women in power
41
WHAT IS THE IMPACT OF GENDER ON CORRUPTION AND CORRUPTION ON GENDER?
power seeking to represent the needs of women with less power, by reducing the ways in which
corruption contributes to women’s inequality.
Supporting Bauhr et al’s conclusions, other researchers have found that women in elected oce
may be more willing to install government auditing devices in order to stem leakage in public
money that goes towards health care and other basic services;
64
that more women in public
oce leads to improvements in countering tracking in persons;
65
and that as women enter the
workforce, governments face growing demands to shi the allocation of public resources towards
more gendered public goods and services, including more day care and parental leave, and away
from excludable, private goods, which have higher potential for rent-seeking.
66
e area of law enforcement, however, is somewhat dierent. Like other security sector professions, it
is traditionally male dominated, and is one area where women legislators spend less eorts countering
corruption. e 2014 survey found that European men are more likely to access the police, and about
two to three times more likely than women to pay bribes to the police. Combining this data about the
frequency that citizens pay bribes to the police with information about women’s representation on
regional councils implied that female councillors have le petty corruption in law enforcement fairly
untouched. In other words, there is little dierence in the rate of bribe-paying to the police whether
there is greater or lesser representation of women in regional councils, in Europe.
Expert Recommendation:
Explore ways to develop a gender-analysis of
anti-corruption initiatives in the criminal justice sector
and an action plan based on the findings.
In summary, there are many reasons for the much-discussed correlation that sometimes exists
between women’s power-holding and levels of corruption in a country. e pattern can emerge
in response to gains in women’s representation leading to lower corruption. is happens when
female politicians face greater social pressures than their male colleagues to avoid corruption,
and when, choosing to act in the interest of women, they cut large-scale corruption that inhibits
their own careers, and cut bribery in key sectors where it most aects women. is can be
seen for instance, in the case of Brazil where women who gain the powers of public oce use
them to substantively represent women — promoting other women, and improving service
delivery in public sectors with which women especially interact, which oen involves reducing
64 Agerberg, M. (2018). Gender Aspects of Government Auditing. In:Gender and Corruption Historical Roots
and New Avenues for Research.
65 Alexander, A.C. and Ravlik, M. (2015). Responsiveness to Women’s Interests as a Quality of Government
Mechanism: A Global Analysis of Women’s Presence in National Legislatures and Anti-tracking Enforcement.
Paper presented at the American Political Science Association Meeting, San Francisco, CA.
66 Breen, M., Gillanders, R., Mcnulty, G. and Suzuki, A. (2016). Gender and Corruption in Business.e Journal
of Development Studies, 53(9), pp.1486–1501.
42
THE TIME IS NOW — ADDRESSING THE GENDER DIMENSIONS OF CORRUPTION
corruption. Nevertheless, the correlation can also emerge when male-dominated networks that
engage in corruption exclude women. e evidence suggests that causal processes running
in both directions — improvements in gender equality reducing and countering corruption,
and anti-corruption measures reducing gender inequality — tend to occur simultaneously
(Figure 3).
67
Having introduced the idea that reducing corruption in public service delivery can promote
gender equality, the remainder of this chapter takes a closer look at the dierences in how men
and women tend to be adversely aected by corruption in dierent sectors, and considers how
corruption can be intrinsically gendered.
2.2 THE GENDERED IMPACTS OF CORRUPTION
Corruption harms people of all genders in diverse ways.
68
It reduces trust in institutions
69
and
trust between people,
70
both of which are foundations of democracy and a functioning economy.
However, there are several reasons to think that corruption has a larger negative impact overall
71
on women than on men — and also, or perhaps more so, on non-binary individuals, though there
is very little information about this.
72
In all of the ways in which corruption is thought to have
gendered impacts, intersectionality
73
is central to making sense of relative eects. For example,
while generally speaking, women are excluded from corrupt networks, the occasional woman may
be allowed in, especially if she is viewed as the most faithful representative or replacement of
her husband, father, or some other male family member who is or was already established in the
network. In such cases, familial membership and social class, alongside gender, matter.
74
Women
can also be enablers in corruption networks, for example in Nigeria, where powerful gures
are referred to as “godfathers”. Both men and women politicians who received support from a
67 Esarey, J. and Schwindt-Bayer, L.A. (2019). Estimating Causal Relationships Between Women’s Representation
in Government and Corruption.Comparative Political Studies, 52(11), pp.1713–1741.
68 Ambraseys, N. and Bilham, R. (2011). Corruption kills.Nature, 469(7329), pp.153–155.
69 Anderson, C.J. and Tverdova, Y.V. (2003). Corruption, Political Allegiances, and Attitudes Toward
Government in Contemporary Democracies.American Journal of Political Science, 47(1), pp.91–109.
70 Rothstein, B. and Eek, D. (2009). Political Corruption and Social Trust.Rationality and Society, 21(1), pp.81–112.
71 ere are occasions where men shoulder more of the impact of corruption than women. For example, men
in rural Liberia, as providers of communal labour, are more exposed to a chief’s land grabbing under certain
circumstances. See: Beekman, G., Bulte, E. and Nillesen, E. (2014). Corruption, investments and contributions to
public goods: Experimental evidence from rural Liberia.Journal of Public Economics, 115, pp.37–47.
72 e World Bank has published a Good Practice Notes on the role of sexual orientation and gender identity
in relation to environmental and social framework for investment project nancing operations (Oct 2019)
and a Discussion Paper on sexual orientation and gender identity in contexts aected by fragility, conict and
violence (April 2020).
73 Carbado, D.W., Crenshaw, K.W., Mays, V.M. and Tomlinson, B. (2013). Intersectionality: Mapping the
Movements of a eory.Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race, 10(2), pp.303–312.
74 Minza, W. (2014). Ethnicity and Young People’s Work Aspirations in Pontianak. In Van Klinken, G. and Berenschot,
W. (Eds.).In Search of Middle Indonesia: Middle Classes in Provincial Towns, pp.111–131. Leiden; Boston: Brill.
43
WHAT IS THE IMPACT OF GENDER ON CORRUPTION AND CORRUPTION ON GENDER?
godfather will use their public oce to distribute lucrative state contracts in a way that rearms
loyalty to their patrons, in the process maintaining and strengthening the patronage network.
75
Another reason for the dierential impact of corruption on women is that they tend to access some
state services more than men do.
76
Reductions in a state’s tax income base due to corruption result
in fewer resources to invest in public goods and services. Corruption that erodes the eciency with
which services are delivered — from ‘skimming o the top’ in the procurement of medicines, to
demands for bribes to register a child in school — are generally thought to hurt women on average
more than men. Even where men and women access a public service at the same rate, women may
be perceived as easier targets in contexts where they have less socio-economic power (and thus
both less agency and recourse) than men. Another reason for corruption having a disadvantageous
eect on women comes from gender’s inuence on who is included into networks that benet
insiders through corrupt acts.
77
Women are oen excluded from these networks, and as a group,
are less able to reap the benets and consequences of membership relative to men. However, while
women are oen not aorded the same opportunities to be corrupt,
78
Campaniello also highlights
how some researchers argue that it is important to not only look at the absolute gender wage
gap — that women earn less than men for the same job — but also at relative inequality in the
distribution of wages for men and women, which shows that wage disparity across skilled and
unskilled jobs is greater for women than for men.
79
Having highlighted how the impact of corruption is gendered, let us now look at how women
and girls — and possibly also non-binary persons — are more likely to face pressure to use
their bodies as the currency of corruption/or a bribe, with potentially devastating physical,
psychological, social and economic long-term eects.
80
Information about these kinds of
exchanges tends to be anecdotal, yet this form of corruption is understood to be commonplace
in many parts of the world.
81
e limited information available suggests that while women and
girls are especially burdened by it, they are not the exclusive targets of such behaviour.
75 Okonkwo, A. D. (2016). Gender and Corruption in Nigerian Politics. African Sociological Review/Revue
Africaine de Sociologie, 20(1), pp.111–136.
76 Matsheza, P., Timilsina, A.R., and Arutyunova, A. (2012). Seeing Beyond the State: Grassroots Women’s
Perspectives on Corruption and Anti-corruption. UNDP, New York.
77 Transparency International has warned that corruption is likely to worsen gender disparities fuelled by the
COVID-19 pandemic. See: ‘Anti-corruption Response to Covid-19 Must Include Women’, Transparency
International, 10 June 2020. https://www.transparency.org/en/news/anti-corruption-response-to-covid-19-
must-be-transparent-and-include-women#.
78 Goetz, A. (2007). Political Cleaners: Women as the New Anti-Corruption Force?Development and Change,
38(1), pp.87–105.
79 Campaniello, N. (2019). Women in crime, IZA World of Labor 2019: 105 doi: 10.15185/izawol.105.v2.
80 For a detailed discussion of the types of impact, see: Feigenblatt, H. (2020).Breaking the silence around
sextortion: e links between power, sex and corruption. Transparency International.
81 Transparency International’s Global Corruption Barometer rst set out to assess this in 2019. Its survey
in Latin America found that one in ve people either experienced sexual corruption themselves while
accessing government services or knows someone who did. Its surveys in Jordan, Lebanon and Palestine
reported exactly the same frequency. See: Pring C. and Vrushi J. Global Corruption Barometer Latin
America & e Caribbean 2019, Transparency International. https://www.transparency.org/en/publications/
global-corruption-barometer-latin-america-and-the-caribbean-2019. Kukutschka R. M. B. and Vrushi J.
Global Corruption Barometer Middle East & North Africa 2019. Transparency International. https://www.
transparency.org/en/publications/global-corruption-barometer-middle-east-and-north-africa-2019.
44
THE TIME IS NOW — ADDRESSING THE GENDER DIMENSIONS OF CORRUPTION
2.2.1 Abuse of authority: sex as a currency of corruption
When sexual favours constitute the currency of corruption, the content of the exchange is gendered.
In this way, gender is directly implicated in corruption’s dierential impact on women. A case
of bribery demands from a former deportation ocial in New Jersey, United States of America,
illustrates the point.
82
is ocial was convicted of illegally issuing employment authorization
forms. While the ocial had requested the payment of tens of thousands of dollars from male,
undocumented immigrants, he had, instead, demanded sex from two female, undocumented
immigrants. In 2019 in Norway, a regional governor was found guilty of abusing his position and
exploiting the vulnerability of the three young male asylum seekers (the youngest was 17 years
old), who said they believed their response to the governor’s demands for sex could either result in
being deported or securing permanent residency.
83
Studies of acts of a sexual nature as corruption currency
84
are few and more research is needed.
85
A series of focus groups with women in Bogotá, Colombia, and Johannesburg, South Africa,
conducted on behalf of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Stockholm
International Water Institute (SIWI), sheds some light on the day-to-day realities of how sexual
corruption operates in the water sector.
86
In both cities, women were primarily responsible for
ensuring the reliability of household water supplies, and reported cases of bribery involving
sexualized behaviour in return for access to water. Sexual favours were oered or demanded for
not turning o the water supply, or for intentionally misreading water meters and consequently
lowering the water bill. e study found that sexual corruption was more common in Johannesburg’s
water sector than in Bogotá’s, with women in the Johannesburg focus groups explaining that
because they could not aord to pay monetary bribes to the public ocials, they actively oered
sex as a form of bribery, further elaborating that they were prepared to do so by, e.g. irting and
dressing up. e study notes that even where women were the ones oering sexual bribes to reduce
their water bills, the power dynamic always represented a structural power asymmetry in favour of
82 USA v. Arnaldo Echevarria, No. 17-3382 (3d Cir. 2018)
83 Supreme Court conrmed the ruling (case number HR-2019-2111-U) of the lower court (case number
TNHER-2018-194021-2) https://lovdata.no/dokument/TRSTR/avgjorelse/tnher-2018-194021-
2?q=TNHER-2018-194021-2.
84 e word sextortion is not being used in the present publication, in view of the following ambiguities.
e expression ‘sextortion’ was popularized by the International Association of Women Judges
( http://www.iawj.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Corruption-and-Sextortion-Resource-1.pdf )to capture
the abuse of authority to extort sex. e term is intended to encompass any ‘form of corruption in which sex,
rather than money, is the currency of the bribe’ [Carnegie, S. (2019). Sextortion: A crime of corruption and
sexual exploitation. e International Bar Association]. Yet it has another meaning under the laws of some
federal states in the United States of America such as Pennsylvania, where sexual extortion–shortened to
sextortion-refers to a situation where someone forces another individual to send them sexual images
under the threat of exposing private or sensitive information, https://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/legis/li/
uconsCheck.cfm?yr=2019&sessInd=0&act=100. Sextortion is also used dierently by the National Crime
Agency of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland ( https://www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.
uk/what-we-do/crime-threats/kidnap-and-extortion/sextortion-webcam-blackmail ), ‘as a form of webcam
blackmail, where criminals befriend victims online by using a fake identity and persuade them to perform
sexual acts in front of their webcams’.
85 See recent report from Transparency International Zimbabwe: http://www.tizim.org/wp-content/
uploads/2020/07/Gender-and-Corruption-in-Zimbabwe-2019.pdf.
86 UNDP-SIWI Water Governance Facility. (2017). Women and corruption in the water sector: eories and
experiences from Johannesburg and Bogotá. WGF Report, No. 8. Stockholm: SIWI.
45
WHAT IS THE IMPACT OF GENDER ON CORRUPTION AND CORRUPTION ON GENDER?
the male public ocer receiving them. Indeed, illiteracy, ignorance of laws and de facto lesser legal
protection can hamper women’s ability to change their circumstances, and is likely much more
pervasive than the anecdotal evidence shows.
Oen, the use of sexual acts as a currency of corruption including through the abuse of power
occurs when power disparities between the payer and requester of the bribe are large, and
when the bribe-payer does not have any other means of payment. For the latter reason, many
anecdotally reported cases of sexual favours as a corruption currency are from higher education.
87
e conceptual tools to properly characterize sexual favours as a kind of corruption currency
are still in development as they do not necessarily clearly dene what constitutes sexual acts or
favours; they can, for example, involve sexualized behaviour.
88
Expert Recommendations:
Victims of “sextortion” may not categorize demands for
sexual bribes as corruption or understand that being asked
for sex is a form of corruption, in which sex constitutes the
currency of the bribe. They therefore may not even know they
are victims of corruption.
The forms of corruption that men and women encounter
can be different and thus analysis and awareness-raising on
engendered forms of corruption are needed.
2.2.2 Legislative gaps and the threshold of proof
Traditionally corruption legislation has been geared to address nancial bribes, although an
argument can be made that the language in the legislation tends to be broad enough to allow an
interpretation to cover all non-nancial forms of bribery, by focussing on the concept of ‘undue
advantage’. e status quo has been a narrow interpretation of existing anti-corruption laws.
Research published in 2020 reveals that a common reason for the failure of prosecutors and judges
to interpret corruption laws to cover cases of sex as a form of bribery is that “it did not occur” to
them.
89
87 Where typically students have limited funds and a single professor may operate as a bottleneck to their
educational advancement, able to single-handedly make or break a professional future. See: U4 Expert Answer,
‘Gender, Corruption, and Education,’ https://www.u4.no/publications/gender-corruption-and-education.
88 Neither, it is worth pointing out, is sex as a currency of bribery the only way in which the content of a corrupt
exchange may be gendered; care responsibilities can also form part of the exchange.
89 Transparency International. (2020). Breaking the silence around sextortion: e links between power, sex and
corruption. https://apo.org.au/sites/default/les/resource-les/2020-03/apo-nid278106.pdf.
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THE TIME IS NOW — ADDRESSING THE GENDER DIMENSIONS OF CORRUPTION
e manifestation of power dynamics intersecting between cases of corruption and sexual abuse is
gendered in a way that speaks to the vulnerability primarily of women in dierent spheres of social life.
In the absence of legislation directly targeting sex-related abuse of authority, practitioners
have limited choice but to use existing legal frameworks, which can be broadly placed into two
categories: corruption laws and gender-based violence (SGBV) laws. Although these dierent
laws overlap and are all useful tools to address abuse of authority to obtain sexual favours, the
challenge is that “prosecution may be less likely to occur under either of these legal frameworks,
as sextortion cases may be considered beyond the scope of either”.
90
Nonetheless, an argument can be made that prosecuting cases of abuse of authority involving acts
of a sexual nature under corruption legislation has the advantage of having a lower threshold for
proving coercion than required under GBV laws or, for example, sexual harassment laws. e
mere solicitation or suggestion of sex as a currency of corruption meets the threshold required
to constitute abuse of authority under corruption legislation, bypassing the issue of consent
that makes it dicult to prosecute cases of sexual harassment. Conversely, prosecuting cases of
corruption with sex as a corruption currency using GBV laws is inundated with challenges of
satisfying the high criminal standard of proof and providing sucient evidence. Typically, the
standard of proof is ‘beyond reasonable doubt’, however, “in cases involving [GBV], the applicable
standard is oen presented as having no doubt at all, and therefore almost impossible”
91
to secure
a successfully prosecution. e research nding of the International Association of Women Judges
(IAWJ) reveal an important weakness in using corruption laws in cases where sex is the currency
of corruption; most corruption laws tend to criminalize both the oer and provision of a bribe,
therefore potentially criminalizing the victim.
92
is highlights the need for critical engagement of
all stakeholders to create legislation addressing cases intersecting corruption and sexual abuse that
protects and does not criminalize victims.
90 Ibid.
91 UNODC. (2009). Handbook for the Judiciary on Eective Criminal Justice Responses to Gender-based
Violence against Women and Girls https://www.unodc.org/pdf/criminal_justice/HB_for_the_Judiciary_on_
Eective_Criminal_Justice_Women_and_Girls_E_ebook.pdf.
92 International Association of Women Judges. (2012). Naming, Shaming and Ending Sextortion. http://www.
iawj.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Corruption-and-Sextortion-Resource-1.pdf.
Don’t let what you cannot
do interfere with what you can.
~ John Wooden
American Basketball Coach
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WHAT IS THE IMPACT OF GENDER ON CORRUPTION AND CORRUPTION ON GENDER?
2.2.3 Examples of abuse of authority to obtain sex addressed under
corruption laws
In June 2009, the Corruption and Crime Commission (Commission) in Australia opened an
investigation into allegations that an academic used his position to pressure female students for
sex in exchange for higher marks at the University they attended. e investigation concluded
that the academic “engaged in serious misconduct under … the CCC Act [Corruption and Crime
Commission Act 2003]” as he “corruptly took advantage of his employment as a public ocer to
obtain a benet for himself by seeking sexual favours from a female foreign student … in exchange
for awarding her a higher mark in her mid-term examination”.
93
In another case, in 2012, a family judge in Peru oered a mother ghting for custody of her younger
son assistance in exchange for sex. e judge was tried using corruption legislation and found
guilty, but the conviction was rescinded because the request for sex was made “subtly”. However,
in a new trial the judge was found guilty and sentenced to eight years imprisonment.
94
Expert Recommendation:
Provide adequate training on integrity in public services,
including on sextortion.
2.3 SECTORAL IMPACT:
CORRUPTION DURING A PUBLIC HEALTH CRISIS
As mentioned earlier health care and education are two sectors where women tend to access
the state more than men, and correspondingly, women are more exposed to corruption in these
sectors. ere are numerous examples in medical literature of corruption negatively impacting
the provision of services for women and infants. Studies have shown that women have to pay
bribes to access maternal health services that are supposed to be free in rural Zimbabwe
95
and
in many other places.
96
e vulnerabilities in these two sectors are further exacerbated in times
of crisis.
93 Corruption and Crime Commission. (2010). Report on the Investigation of Alleged Public Sector Misconduct
by Dr Nasrul Ameer Ali as a sessional academic employed by Curtin University of Technology.
https://www.parliament.wa.gov.au/publications/tabledpapers.nsf/displaypaper/3812425a89a0f0788ec4da48
2577970028e5a4/$le/tp2425.pdf.
94 Transparency International. (2020). Breaking the silence around sextortion: e links between power, sex and
corruption https://apo.org.au/sites/default/les/resource-les/2020-03/apo-nid278106.pdf.
95 Choguya, N. Z. (2018). Corruption in Health Service Delivery: e Case of Maternal Health in Rural Zimbabwe.
Review of Human Factor Studies, 24(1), pp.81–104.
96 Schaaf, M. and Topp, S.M. (2019). A critical interpretive synthesis of informal payments in maternal health
care.Health Policy and Planning, 34(3), pp.216–229.
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THE TIME IS NOW — ADDRESSING THE GENDER DIMENSIONS OF CORRUPTION
2.3.1 Health care system vulnerabilities
Public health emergencies have come to reveal entrenched weaknesses in governance as well as
public health systems with many countries around the world not adequately prepared to mobilize
eective responses to crises. e major public health emergencies in the rst two decades of the
millennium have showcased the adverse impact on healthcare systems. Regional emergencies
such as tsunamis in Asia and the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, as well as the global COVID-19
pandemic, have not only revealed defects in health governance and oversight systems but how
corruption undermines recovery processes.
The tsunami impact
e 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami resulted in more than 227,000 deaths
97
and exposed vulnerabilities
of health care services, inter alia, by exposing dierent types of corruption, ranging from medicines
being stolen or resold by external actors and internal sta in health-care facilities, to systemic
corruption as is described in the Indonesia case study.
98
According to research by the World Health
Organization (WHO), the number of women fatalities from the tsunamis exceeded that of men
99
and women were disproportionately impacted due to diverse factors including limited participation
in public life, limited access to resources and over representation in the informal sectors, as well as
gender-based violence.
100
In Indonesia, the post-tsunami disruption fuelled corruption
101
and at one point prompted
humanitarian organizations such as Oxfam to suspend operations in Aceh, which had been
particularly hard hit.
102
e aermath of this unprecedented natural disaster also saw contestation
over gender roles and gender’s symbolic representation in Acehnese society. e Indonesian
Government agency that coordinated the reconstruction (the Badan Rehabilitasi dan Rekonstruksi,
or BRR) developed checklists to encourage reconstruction programmes to incorporate gender
mainstreaming practices. A Gender Working Group was set up to coordinate the gender
mainstreaming eorts of international organizations, local and central government, and NGOs
97 Tsunamis, World Health Organization. Between 1998–2017, approximately 250 000 people died from
tsunamis around the globe. https://www.who.int/health-topics/tsunamis#tab=tab_1.
98 Curbing Corruption in Tsunami Relief Operations, Asian Development Bank Organisation for Economic
Co-operation and Development, Transparency International, 7–8 April 2005. https://www.oecd.org/site/
adboecdanti-corruptioninitiative/partnerships/35593461.pdf.
99 Ten years aer the tsunami of 2004: Impact action change future, World Health Organization, 1January 2015.
https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/ten-years-aer-the-tsunami-of-2004-impact-action-change-future.
100 Gender and inclusion alert: central Sulawesi earthquake and tsunami, UNWomen, November 2018.
https://asiapacic.unwomen.org/-/media/eld%20oce%20eseasia/docs/publications/2018/12/
genderinclusionalertfa-compressed.pdf?la=en&vs=5628.
101 Horgan, P., In the Wake of the Tsunami: An evaluation of Oxfam International’s response to the 2004 Indian
Ocean Tsunami. Oxfam International Tsunami Fund, Monitoring and Evaluation, December 2009. https://
www-cdn.oxfam.org/s3fs-public/le_attachments/oxfam-international-tsunami-evaluation-summary_3.pdf.
102 Gelling P., Oxfam Says 22 Will Face Discipline in Fraud. New York Times, 4 May 2006. https://www.nytimes.
com/2006/05/04/world/asia/04iht-oxfam.html.
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WHAT IS THE IMPACT OF GENDER ON CORRUPTION AND CORRUPTION ON GENDER?
involved in reconstruction.
103
However, these eorts were criticized for having backred as in
some areas such as land titling, they le women worse o than they had been under the local,
customary rules.
The Ebola outbreak
e outbreak of the Ebola virus in West Africa 2014–2016
104
started in isolated rural areas and
spread to overpopulated urban areas ended with approximately 28,600 cases and 11,325 deaths.
105
e outbreak occurred against the backdrop of civil war and insecurity with damaged public
health infrastructure and weak oversight and monitoring systems.
106
e slow response of the
international community to the Ebola outbreak had negative consequences on its containment.
107
Women had higher fatality rates than men — in Liberia, as many as 75 per cent of those who died
were women.
108
In 2014 in Sierra Leone, women frequently had to pay for a card to record ante-natal visits, for infant
medicines, vaccinations, and even to have their infant weighed.
109
is, despite the fact that four
years prior, Sierra Leone had introduced free health care for pregnant women, lactating mothers,
and children under ve years of age. Several non-governmental organization interventions failed
to curb this problem, and health workers largely operated with impunity in a context where their
social standing and power relations vis-à-vis those seeking care had been inated by the outbreak.
e health service was also short-staed, and salaries were low. In focus groups, women who
paid these bribes oen said that they did not believe the demands for payment were ocially
sanctioned, yet they would not dare challenge the health workers.
110
e aermath of the Ebola crisis also saw an upsurge in maternal mortality rates.
111
is was
attributed to women’s reluctance to use the available medical facilities along with the spread of
misinformation. However, the explicit and causal relationship that corruption had on maternal
mortality rates in Sierra Leone was subsequently conrmed and elaborated on in a sequential
103 Lee-Koo, K. ‘Gender at the Crossroad of Conict: Tsunami and Peace in Post-2005 Aceh’. Feminist Review
101, no. 1 (July 2012): pp.59–77.
104 Ebola virus disease, World Health Organization. https://www.who.int/health-topics/ebola/#tab=tab_1.
105 2014–2016 Ebola Outbreak in West Africa, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 8 March 2019.
https://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/history/2014-2016-outbreak/index.html.
106 Ibid.
107 6 lessons from international response to Ebola, World Economic Forum, 23 February 2015. https://www.
weforum.org/agenda/2015/02/6-lessons-from-the-international-response-to-ebola/.
108 Ebola outbreak takes its toll on women, UNWomen, 2 September 2014. https://www.unwomen.org/en/news/
stories/2014/9/ebola-outbreak-takes-its-toll-on-women.
109 Pieterse, P. and Lodge, T. (2015). When free healthcare is not free. Corruption and mistrust in Sierra Leone’s
primary healthcare system immediately prior to the Ebola outbreak.International Health, 7(6), pp.400–404.
110 Ibid.
111 One year aer Ebola’s end, Sierra Leone’s midwives help mend health system. United Nations Population
Fund, June 2017. https://www.unfpa.org/news/one-year-aer-ebolas-end-sierra-leones-midwives-help-mend-
health-system.
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THE TIME IS NOW — ADDRESSING THE GENDER DIMENSIONS OF CORRUPTION
mixed-methods study conducted from October 2016 to January 2017.
112
Surveys targeting
households with women who had given birth since the Ebola outbreak concluded that women
expressed mistrust in health care workers primarily due to payments demanded for health care
that would otherwise have been free. us, corruption was one of the central underlying and
facilitating causes for this increase in maternal deaths.
The COVID-19 pandemic
e COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the role that corruption in public services plays to
undermine gains in women’s empowerment and further deepen existing gender inequalities.
Indeed, a comprehensive understanding of the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on women will not
be possible until the crisis dissipates. Corruption in the disbursement of COVID-19 relief and aid
packages, including issues of fraud, cutting corners in procurement processes, and non-payment
of salaries to critical health care workers, undermines the eectiveness of health care services to
address the crisis have already been noted; arguably, women will be disproportionally aected.
113
e rapid spread of the COVID-19 pandemic has underscored, yet again, the weaknesses in
health-care systems of many countries around the world
114
with fears that some systems might
even collapse, even in relatively well-established economies.
115
At the centre of the COVID-19
pandemic is the issue of equitable health care that recognizes and addresses the gendered
vulnerabilities and harmful eects of the pandemic. As with other highly contagious diseases,
COVID-19 exposes frontline health personnel to great risk, creating circumstances conducive
to corruption: desperate health care workers focusing on their own survival and ability to work
could be more susceptible to bribery and other forms of corruption to pay for vital protective
equipment as seen in previous public health emergencies.
Corruption undermines the ability of health care workers and systems to eectively contain
the impact of COVID-19.
116
Wrongdoing can only be addressed when sta feel safe to report a
violation within their organization with assurances of protection from retaliation and reprisal. It
is noteworthy that a lack of protection, fear of reprisals and the level of condentiality are central
112 Elston, J.W.T., Danis, K., Gray, N., West, K., Lokuge, K., Black, B., Stringer, B., Jimmisa, A.S., Biankoe, A.,
Sanko, M.O., Kazungu, D.S., Sang, S., Loof, A., Stephan, C. and Caleo, G. (2020). Maternal health aer Ebola:
unmet needs and barriers to healthcare in rural Sierra Leone.Health Policy and Planning, 35(1), pp. 78–90.
113 Corruption in the time of COVID-19: A double-threat for low income countries, U4 Anti-Corruption
Resource Center, Chr. Michelsen Institute, 2020. https://www.u4.no/publications/corruption-in-the-time-of-
covid-19-a-double-threat-for-low-income-countries.
114 WHO releases guidelines to help countries maintain essential health services during the COVID-19
pandemic, World Health Organization, March 2020. https://www.who.int/news/item/30-03-2020-who-
releases-guidelines-to-help-countries-maintain-essential-health-services-during-the-covid-19-pandemic.
115 Coronavirus: corruption in health care could get in the way of Nigeria’s response, e Conservation, May
2020. https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-corruption-in-health-care-could-get-in-the-way-of-nigerias-
response-136913.
116 Coronavirus: corruption in health care could get in the way of Nigeria’s response, e Conservation, May
2020. https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-corruption-in-health-care-could-get-in-the-way-of-nigerias-
response-136913.
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WHAT IS THE IMPACT OF GENDER ON CORRUPTION AND CORRUPTION ON GENDER?
“Tribute and Respect to both frontline and essential workers. One of the many lessons that this
current crisis teaches us is that many people we usually consider to be low-skilled are actually
critical to the proper functioning of our countries. They are in fact recognized key workers.
Unfortunately, many of these people are invisible in our acknowledgements of those on the front
lines.
It is both a symbol and a symptom of the blatant inequality that persists in our cities, our countries
and throughout the world. In times of crisis, immigrants and minorities are generally the most
impacted class of people. The large majority of essential workers cannot afford to stay at home nor
use private cars. They are the most vulnerable among us.”
Published with the permission of Juliette Delorme — LadyJday.
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THE TIME IS NOW — ADDRESSING THE GENDER DIMENSIONS OF CORRUPTION
when women are deciding whether or not to report corruption.
117
e importance of having
gender-sensitive systems for the reporting of corruption is covered in chapter 4 of this publication.
Expert Recommendation:
The importance of the participation of women in response
efforts allows the inclusion of safeguards that mitigate
corruption risks which can exacerbate women’s
vulnerabilities and failure to access healthcare services.
2.3.2 Education sector vulnerabilities
Education is a critical tool in advancing gender equality and the economic empowerment of
women, both of which are key to countering the gendered dimensions of corruption. A health care
emergency disrupts educational systems as many States opt to shut down educational institutions
temporarily in a bid to contain the spreading of the disease in question.
118
During the 2014 Ebola
outbreak in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, teenage pregnancy spiked along with incidents
of sexual coercion and assault resulting in increased exclusion of girls from school once the
pandemic was over.
119
Similar data
120
is starting to emerge in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic
raising concerns that this could perpetuate the poverty cycle and the feminization of poverty. e
COVID-19 crisis undermines SDG 4 to attain inclusive and equitable education and promote
learning opportunities for all.
121
In the education sector, bribes may take various forms, and sometimes mothers may have to
pay them to get their children registered in school. As mentioned above, corruption and abuse
of authority involving acts of a sexual nature seem to be particularly common in the education
sector.
122
As well as corruption in the form of sex for grades, corruption scandals involving sex as
a corruption currency have occurred in the hiring of teachers, and in the promotion of education
117 Brierly, S. and Ozdemir, E. (2017). Petty corruption in the provision of public services in Ghana. Washington
University in St Louis for STAAC-Ghana. Available on request from STAAC-Ghana (DFID).
118 Education: From disruption to recovery, United Nations Educational, Scientic and Cultural Organization, May 2020.
https://en.unesco.org/covid19/educationresponse.
119 Education in crisis: why girls will pay the highest price in the COVID-19 pandemic, e Telegraph, April 2020.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/women-and-girls/education-crisis-girls-will-pay-highest-price-
covid-19-pandemic/.
120 Rise in teenage pregnancies in Kenya linked to COVID-19 lockdown, Global Citizen, 19 August 2020.
https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/rise-in-teenage-pregnancies-during-kenya-lockdown/?utm_
source=Iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=EUR_08_21_2020_content_digest_alive.
121 COVID-19 is a serious threat to aid to education recovery, Policy Paper 41, United Nations Educational,
Scientic and Cultural Organization, July 2020. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000373844/
PDF/373844eng.pdf.multi.
122 Boehm, F. and Sierra, E. e Gendered Impact of Corruption: Who Suers More — Men or Women?.
U4Brief, August 2015.
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WHAT IS THE IMPACT OF GENDER ON CORRUPTION AND CORRUPTION ON GENDER?
professionals.
123
Part of the reason is the gendered hierarchy and power dynamics oen found in
the education sector. Frequently, women make up large proportions of lower levels of the sector’s
workforce, for example, as primary school teachers, and more men are employed in positions with
more power within the administration. erefore, nancial austerity measures in post-emergency
recovery eorts could also result in the disproportionate number of women, who are employed
in the education sector, remaining vulnerable to corruption — in part due to the absence of their
income, but also where a reduction in the education budgets makes women vulnerable to paying
bribes to avoid retrenchment and to retain their jobs as teachers altogether.
124
2.3.3 Private sector roles — in and outside of a public health crisis
In the private sector, numerous studies have demonstrated that a more gender equal
top-management not only improves opportunities for women but also boosts the nancial
performance of a company along with increased transparency. For instance, from 2006–2012,
Credit Suisse conducted a study
125
of more than 3,000 companies worldwide which concluded that
women on boards improved a company’s performance in key areas such as stock performance and
decreased average debt. e study further showed that net income growth for these companies
were higher with women board members. Another study in 2012, conducted by the University
of California, Berkeley, revealed that companies with more women on boards were more likely to
institute strong governance structures with a higher level of transparency.
126
Corruption undermines progress in gender equality
127
and is an obstacle to the general and overall
growth and protability of a company.
128
In the private sector, although senior positions are
traditionally occupied by men, studies have shown that women in leadership results in “higher
quality social corporate responsibility” (CSR). An example of a gender sensitive CSR initiative is
assisting women business owners to access opportunities and resources.
129
Furthermore, a more
123 is has been reported in Africa and Asia, and in a study of Honduras. See: Transformemos Honduras. (2010).
Investigación documental sobre las normas para otorgar plazas a docentes en el sistema público de Honduras.
Tegucigalpa: Transformemos Honduras.
124 54% women paid bribe to get government jobs, e Sentinel, March 2018, https://www.sentinelassam.com/top-
headlines/54-women-paid-bribe-to-get-government-jobs/; Ensuring that Integrity Is at the Core of Sport’s Response
to the Pandemic: Preventing Corruption in Sports and Manipulation of Competitors, a Policy Brief by UNODC,
IOC and Interpol, 2020, highlights similar concerns in relation to sports professionals. https://www.unodc.org/
documents/Safeguardingsport/Documents/COVID-19_and_Anti-Corruption_FINAL_VERSION_3.pdf.
125 e CS Gender 3000: Women in Senior Management (2014). Credit Suisse Research Institute.
https://www.credit-suisse.com/media/assets/corporate/docs/about-us/research/publications/the-cs-gender-
3000-women-in-senior-management.pdf.
126 McElhaney, K. and Mobasseri, S. (2012). Women Create A Sustainable Future. UC Berkeley Haas School of Business.
127 For more information on private sector corruption, please see Education for Justice (E4J) Anti-Corruption Module 5.
https://www.unodc.org/e4j/en/anti-corruption/module-5/index.html.
128 Women’s Enterprises: Corruption and Crime, International Center for Research on Women, October 2019.
https://www.icrw.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Womens-Enterprises-Corruption-and-Crime.pdf.
129 Gender and Corporate Social Responsibility: It’s a matter of sustainability, Soares, R., Marquis, C. and Lee, M, 2011.
https://www.catalyst.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/gender_and_corporate_social_responsibility.pdf.
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gender equal senior management improves opportunities for women. For example, women in senior
positions are more likely than men to support gender diversity policies and mentor other women.
130
Nevertheless, the impact of corruption on women is even stronger when turning to the informal
sector, where as many as 92 per cent of employed women in low-income countries are employed
in the informal sector. In such cases, women are disproportionally aected due to a lack of state
protection and regulation and are vulnerable to corruption as targets for bribes and other forms
of corruption necessary to keep their livelihoods aoat.
131
e case study of Indonesia elaborates
how running an informal business makes women easy prey for public ocials who extort bribes
to let them maintain the status quo, and not formalize their business; and how informality
can make the enforcement of contracts dicult. However, the case study also shows, in some
situations, that women prefer to remain ‘informal’, as their cost-benet analysis indicates that it
would be more expensive to register their business than to continue paying the petty bribes that
they are used to.
During the COVID-19 crisis, corruption risks that impact women increased in many ways.
132
Furthermore, corruption in disbursement processes took various forms, e.g. embezzlement
and misappropriation, abuse of function and trading in inuence, and manifests itself as lack
of transparency, preferential treatment for known counterparts, unrecorded or overpayments,
etc.
133
Such behaviour occurs through and caters to clientelist networks
134
that draw on their
established connections. e consequences can be devastating for those excluded, resulting in the
loss of small and medium-sized businesses as well as jobs in the informal sector.
135
Women’s access
to credit facilities and licensing is also hampered due to corruption, impeding their economic
empowerment. ese negative impacts are exacerbated during a public health crisis.
136
Enforcing gender equality and women’s empowerment play a vital role in ensuring an inclusive
recovery by disrupting these collusive, clientelist networks
137
while providing for a more transparent
and accountable economic recovery. It is therefore important that the informal sector is also
included in nancial stimulus plans and recovery eorts, and not only the formally established
130 Women in the Workplace 2020, McKinsey & Company, 2020.
131 Anti-Corruption Toolkit for Women-Owned Micro, Small and Medium Businesses in Fiji, UN-PRAC, 2020.
https://www.pacic.undp.org/content/dam/ji/docs/anticorruption-toolkit-for-women-owned-businesses-ji.pdf.
132 Le Houérou, P. (2020). 4 key trends on how COVID has impacted women in business. World Economic Forum.
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/07/how-private-companies-can-facilitate-a-gender-equal-recovery/.
133 Breen, M., Gillanders, R., Mcnulty, G. and Suzuki, A. (2016). Gender and Corruption in Business.e Journal
of Development Studies, 53(9), pp.1486–1501.
134 See Corruption, Accountability and Gender: Understanding the Connections, UNDP and UNIFEM,
2010. https://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/librarypage/womens-empowerment/corruption-
accountability-and-gender-understanding-the-connection.html.
135 Our recovery from the coronavirus crisis must have gender empowerment at its heart, e World Economic
Forum COVID Action Platform in collaboration with UNIDO, May 2020. https://www.weforum.org/
agenda/2020/05/industries-gender-women-coronavirus-covid19-economic/.
136 Corruption, Accountability and Gender: Understanding the Connections, UNIFEM and UNDP, 2010.
https://www.undp.org/content/dam/aplaws/publication/en/publications/womens-empowerment/corruption-
accountability-and-gender-understanding-the-connection/Corruption-accountability-and-gender.pdf.
137 Boehm, F. and Sierra, E. (2015). e gendered impact of corruption. U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre.
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WHAT IS THE IMPACT OF GENDER ON CORRUPTION AND CORRUPTION ON GENDER?
businesses and corporations. is also elicits robust compliance systems within the companies
that ensure adherence to applicable laws and policies while providing adequate and safe spaces
for everyone to report corruption, including its gendered forms such as acts of a sexual nature
as corruption.
138
As discussed under the COVID-19 pandemic, gender-sensitive reporting and
whistleblowing mechanisms are important in both the public sector as well as the private sector.
Given that the private sector participates in the majority of public procurement, including
through development nancing through the contracting of goods and services, employers have
a responsibility to implement labour standards that dene and recognize the harm of varied
misconduct.
139
erefore, it is in the interest of the private sector to proactively identify the gendered
impacts of corruption and to ensure equitable access for women to business and employment
opportunities given the dual benet of promoting gender equality and reducing corruption.
140
Expert Recommendations:
A gender-analysis on how business regulations, compliance
and integrity requirements and measures impact women’s
rights and participation in the organization must be developed
and undertaken. This can include an analysis of the dynamics
and environments that encourage more women in leadership
positions.
Raise awareness on corruption issues faced by women in the
private sector including sexual corruption, developing clear
rules and regulations along with local authorities such as
chambers of commerce.
Mainstream gender within compliance systems and support
positive incentives (e.g. awards).
138 Please refer to the annexed report on the outcomes of the UNODC Expert Meeting on Gender and Corruption.
139 According to the new Environmental and Social Standards (ESS) published by the World Bank. https://www.
worldbank.org/en/projects-operations/environmental-and-social-framework/brief/environmental-and-social-
standards#ess2.
140 Breen, M., Gillanders, R., Mcnulty, G. and Suzuki, A. (2016). Gender and Corruption in Business.e Journal
of Development Studies, 53(9), pp.1486–1501.
Chapter 3
INTERNATIONAL
FRAMEWORKS
58
THE TIME IS NOW — ADDRESSING THE GENDER DIMENSIONS OF CORRUPTION
INTRODUCTION
International eorts to address corruption largely developed in parallel to those of gender
equality and other mainstreaming landmarks. However, by 2020, international institutions and
transnational organizations publicly committed to enact policies with an awareness of how eorts
to improve gender equality and to reduce corruption can interact, potentially generating synergistic
outcomes. is chapter outlines a timeline of when the various international legal instruments
were adopted, and these legal commitments were made.
3.1 INTERNATIONAL GENDER AND ANTI-CORRUPTION
INSTRUMENTS
3.1.1 The Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination
Against Women
e adoption of the Convention on Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against
Women (CEDAW) by the United Nations General Assembly in 1979,
141
was a landmark
treaty in its transformative, holistic and gender-specic approach to non-discrimination.
142
CEDAW foresees transformative structural societal change to enable women’s equal participation
and empowerment in for instance decision-making and freedom from violence. However, the
gap between CEDAW’s ambition and the ineective protection of women’s rights and human
rights around the world, led 171 States to adopt the Vienna Declaration and Programme of
Action in 1993,
143
which led to the formal adoption of the principle of gender mainstreaming
144
by the United Nations and a global agenda for women’s empowerment at the 1995 Beijing
Declaration and Platform for Action.
145
In 1997, the ECOSOC adopted the landmark Agreed
Conclusions on Gender Mainstreaming as Resolution 1997/2. e promotion of gender equality
and the empowerment of women formally became one of the eight Millennium Development
141 United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 1249, No. 20378 — e Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of
Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) by the United Nations General Assembly, 1979.
142 Hellem, A. and Singing Aasen, H. (2013). Introduction., In Hellem, A. and Singing Aasen, H. (Eds.). Women’s
Human Rights: CEDAW in International, Regional and National Law. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
143 United Nations General Assembly, Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, 12 July 1993, A/CONF.157/23.
144 e United Nations ECOSOC adopted the Agreed Conclusions 1997/2 which established some basic overall
principles of mainstreaming, dened as the process of assessing the implications for women and men of any
planned action, including legislation, policies and programmes, in all areas and at all levels.
145 Adopted at the Fourth World Conference on Women 4–15 September 1995, Hellem, A. and Singing Aasen,
H. (2013). Conclusions. In Hellem, A. and Singing Aasen, H. (Eds.). Women’s Human Rights: CEDAW in
International, Regional and National Law. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
59
INTERNATIONAL FRAMEWORKS
Goals (MDGs) in the year 2000,
146
followed by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights
(now the Human Rights Council) endorsing gender mainstreaming in 2003.
147
3.1.2 The Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials
in International Business Transactions (OECD)
e mid-1990s to the mid-2000s saw a stream of activity primarily in the area of anti-bribery,
starting with the work of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD),
which dates back to 1989 and the establishment of the Ad hoc Working Group on Illicit Payments.
e Ad hoc working group was tasked with exploring the concepts fundamental to the oense
of corruption along with the exercise of national jurisdiction over oenses committed wholly
or partially abroad. e reviews discovered that there were a reasonable number of countries
with laws that applied in principle to the bribery of foreign public ocials. Having adopted the
non-binding Recommendation of the Council on Bribery in International Business Transactions in
1994, the ad hoc working group was formalized as the Working Group on Bribery in International
Business Transactions (WGB).
In 1997, the Revised Recommendations of the Council on Combatting Bribery in International
Business Transactions were adopted together with a systematic follow-up tasked with monitoring
their implementation. Following a debate that unfolded in the WGB between using the revised
recommendations or negotiating a new international instrument as the fastest way to achieve
the criminalization of bribery of foreign public ocials, the agreed solution was to do both
and hence, negotiations for an international convention began towards the end of 1998. Due to
strong international support for anti-bribery initiatives, the negotiations were completed and
the Convention on Combatting Bribery of Foreign Public Ocials in International Business
Transactions
148
opened for signature on 17 December 1997 and entered into force 15 February 1999.
3.1.3 The Criminal Law Convention on Corruption and the
establishment of GRECO (Council of Europe)
e Council of Europe’s (CoE) focus on corruption matters started in the 1990s aer a meeting of
the European Ministers of Justice in 1994 which concentrated on the threat corruption posed to
democracy, human rights and the economy. e Multidisciplinary Group on Corruption (GMC)
was established with the aim to investigate all measures (including legal) in place to ght corruption
and develop an international action plan to enhance it. It is worth mentioning that the early
146 e Millennium Development Goals have since superseded by the more explicitly integrated Sustainable
Development Goals, again with ‘achieving gender equality’ among the list.
147 Otto, D. (2009). e Exile of Inclusion: Reections on Gender Issues in International Law over the Last
Decade. Melbourne Journal of International Law, 10(1), pp.11–26.
148 S. Treaty Doc. No. 105-43 (1998), 37 I.L.M. 1 — e Convention on Combatting Bribery of Foreign Public
Ocials in International Business Transactions, 1999.
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THE TIME IS NOW — ADDRESSING THE GENDER DIMENSIONS OF CORRUPTION
CoE 1990 Convention on Laundering, Search, Seizure and Conscation of the Proceeds from
Crime
149
did implicitly cover some aspects of corruption. is led to a more detailed Convention
on Laundering, Search, Seizure and Conscation of the Proceeds from Crime and on the Financing
of Terrorism in 2005.
150
Nevertheless, in 1997, the Committee of Ministers of the CoE adopted the
Twenty Guiding Principles for the Fight against Corruption. Subsequently, in 1998, the Council
of Ministers approved the creation of the Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) which
immediately preceded the adoption of the Criminal Law Convention on Corruption of the CoE
151
in 1999.
3.1.4 The United Nations Convention against Corruption
In December 1996, the United Nations General Assembly, concerned at the seriousness of
problems posed by corruption, adopted the International Code of Conduct for Public Ocials
(resolution 51/59) and the United Nations Declaration against Corruption and Bribery in
International Commercial Transactions (resolution 51/191) and recommended them to Member
States as tools to guide their eorts against corruption. In its resolution 1998/21 of 28 July1998,
entitled “United Nations standards and norms in crime prevention and criminal justice”, ECOSOC
requested the Secretary-General to prepare survey instruments on the United Nations Declaration
against Corruption and Bribery in International Commercial Transactions and the International
Code of Conduct for Public Ocials. Pursuant to that request, in late 1999, the Centre for
International Crime Prevention of the Oce for Drug Control and Crime Prevention of the
Secretariat sent two questionnaires concerning the above instruments to Member States. ese
eorts culminated in the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC),
152
which
opened for signature in 2003 and entered into force on 9 December 2005. As of November 2020, it
has been ratied and acceded to by 186 States parties and the European Union.
3.2 GENDERED REFERENCES IN
ANTI-CORRUPTION INSTRUMENTS
Between the mid-1990s and the mid-2000s the mostly separate evolution of international anti-
corruption and gender instruments and policy documents to promote gender equality and ght
corruption became obvious. Whereas CEDAW and the Beijing Declaration explicitly focused on
women’s rights because their framers agreed that a gender-symmetrical approach had not gone
far enough to address pervasive and structural discrimination against women, the international
149 Council of Europe, European Treaty Series, No. 141 — Convention on Laundering, Search, Seizure and
Conscation of the Proceeds from Crime, 1990.
150 Council of Europe, European Treaty Series, No. 198 — Convention on Laundering, Search, Seizure and
Conscation of the Proceeds from Crime and on the Financing of Terrorism, 2005.
151 Council of Europe, European Treaty Series, No. 174 — Criminal Law Convention on Corruption of the
Council of Europe, 1999.
152 United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 2349, No. 42146 — e United Nations Convention against Corruption
(UNCAC) by the United Nations General Assembly, 2003.
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INTERNATIONAL FRAMEWORKS
anti-corruption instruments focused on corruption, and then primarily bribery as a victim-less
crime.
153
Nevertheless, in 2002 Ruggieri suggested that “… political and administrative corruption
may gain criminological relevance if the focus of research is shied towards the study of the
social damage caused by this behaviour.”
154
In his conclusion, Ruggieri highlighted that it was no
longer possible to identify the victims of corruption as abstract entities, such as development, fair
competition or productive investment.
155
While nearly all signatories of CEDAW
156
are also States parties to UNCAC, the latter does not
mention the word ‘gender’. However, the text of the only universal and holistic anti-corruption
legal instrument is not entirely devoid of the idea that both men and women are concerned. As an
example, the criminalization provisions of UNCAC make specic reference to men and women
as, e.g. Article 15 on the Bribery of public ocials explicitly states that the undue advantage
(i.e. the bribe) relates to inuencing the public ocial to “act or refrain from acting in the exercise
of his or her ocial duties” (emphasis added for clarity). Furthermore, the UNODC agship
study titled “State of Implementation of the United Nations Convention against Corruption:
Criminalization, Law Enforcement and International Cooperation”
157
highlights that in UNCAC,
the term and concept of undue advantage, is intended “to apply as broadly as possible and also to
cover instances where intangible items or non-pecuniary benets (such as, honorary positions and
titles, preferential treatment or sexual favours) are oered, insofar as they create or may create a
sense of obligation on the side of the recipient towards the giver” (emphasis added).
158
is does not mean that the encouragement of gender equality cannot be interpreted from
gender-neutral parts of the text, and consequently incorporated into the eective implementation
153 Sisk, D.E. (1982). Police Corruption and Criminal Monopoly: Victimless Crimes. Journal of Legal Studies,
11(2), pp.395–404.
154 Ruggiero, V. (2001). Crime and Markets: Essays in Anti-Criminology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
155 Ibid. p. 111.
156 In Hellem, A and Singing Aasen, H. (Eds.). Women’s Human Rights: CEDAW in International, Regional and
National Law. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
157 e second edition of the study was launched during the 7th session of the Conference of the States Parties in
Vienna, Austria, 6–10 November 2017, and is based on the ndings and results emanating from the rst cycle
reviews of the implementation of the Convention by 156 States parties (2010–2015).
158 Ibid. p. 19.
Your position never gives you the right
to command. It only imposes on you the duty
of so living your life that others can receive
your orders without being humiliated.
~ Dag Hammarskjöld
Secretary-General 1953 – 61
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THE TIME IS NOW — ADDRESSING THE GENDER DIMENSIONS OF CORRUPTION
of UNCAC. Paragraph 1 of Article 7 encourages meritocratic recruitment in the bureaucracy,
by proposing that States parties “endeavour to adopt, maintain and strengthen systems for the
recruitment, hiring, retention, promotion and retirement of civil servants and, where appropriate,
other non-elected public ocials based on… objective criteria such as merit, equity and aptitude”.
As such, it can be argued that UNCAC provides a basis for reviewing whether processes for
hiring and promoting public servants encourage gender equality. States parties are further
encouraged to criminalize trading in inuence, analogously, in exchange for any kind of “undue
advantage” (Article 18). is term carries over to the types of treatment that can be considered to
be unjustied in Article 33 on the Protection of Reporting Persons, or whistleblower protection,
where States parties are required to consider establishing measures to provide protection against
any unjustied treatment for anyone reporting to the authorities oenses against the provisions in
the Convention. erefore, this article has been interpreted as extending to anyone reporting cases
of bribery involving acts of a sexual nature.
159
Equity / ˈɛkwɪti /
~ uncountable
The quality of being fair and impartial
While gender equality is simply focused on providing men and women
with the same equal opportunities (like making it legal for women
to own land, or even attend school), gender equity works to correct
the historical wrongs that have left women behind (such as societal
restrictions on employment). Gender equity also means giving women
the tools to succeed.
/ ɪˈkwɒlɪti /
~
uncountable
The state of being equal,
specially in status, rights,
oropportunities.
159 Protecting Whistleblowers in the Health Sector: Guidelines for the adoption of policies and procedures to
facilitate the protection of whistleblowers in the health sector. UNODC forthcoming publication early 2021.
Equality
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INTERNATIONAL FRAMEWORKS
Similar to the language of UNCAC, other international anti-corruption instruments employ
turns of phrase that are suciently broad to encompass sexual favours as the currency in acts
of corruption. e OECD Anti-bribery Convention
160
does not mention the words ‘women’
or ‘gender’, yet it denes bribery as “the oering, promising or giving of something in order to
inuence a public ocial in the execution of his/her ocial duties”, which OECD documents
stress includes non-pecuniary advantages as currencies of bribery.
Other regional organizations have also addressed the gender dimensions of corruption in the past
couple of years. e Organization of American States (OAS) in its Lima Commitment of 2018
promised to promote gender equity and equality and women’s empowerment as a crosscutting
goal of anti-corruption policies, through a special task force.
161
e African Union held a gender
pre-summit meeting to discuss the topic, and pointed out in its 2018–2028 gender equality
and women’s empowerment strategy report that reduced tax revenues disproportionately aect
women
162
because these funds, had they been collected, would have been spent on public services
such as care services;
163
the report estimates that a quarter of the GDP of African economies is lost
to corruption, underscoring the extent of unrealized public income.
3.3 GENDER AND ANTI-CORRUPTION SYNERGIES —
A NEW APPROACH
Over the past decade (2010–2020), the dual intentions of reducing corruption and promoting
gender equality have been brought together in an increasingly structured manner. At the regional
level, the CoE’s anti-corruption body GRECO took steps in response to the Committee of
Ministers’ decision of January 2008,
164
to reect on whether and how a gender perspective could
or should be incorporated into its work. In June 2012, GRECO appointed its rst Gender Equality
Rapporteur in order to explore
the gender dimensions of corruption and whether and how
160 e OECD Convention on Combatting Bribery of Foreign Public Ocials in International Business
Transactions and Related Instruments. For more information, refer to OECD Convention on Combating
Bribery of Foreign Public Ocials in International Business Transactions and Related Instruments, OECD,
http://www.oecd.org/governance/ethics/2406452.pdf. In 2019, the OECD Working Group on Bribery sought
expert participation in discussions about how a gender perspective could be more fully incorporated into
its implementation monitoring. See: Weilert, A.K. (2016). Chapter 7: United Nations Convention Against
Corruption (UNCAC)—Aer Ten Years Being in Force. Max Planck Yearbook of United National Law Online,
19(1), pp.216–240.
161 is will be ‘a task force on women’s leadership and empowerment that will actively promote cooperation among
inter-American institutions and synergies with other international agencies’. For more information, refer to Lima
Commitment — Democratic governance against corruption, Summits of the Americas Secretariat, April 2018,
http://www.summit-americas.org/LIMA_COMMITMENT/LimaCommitment_en.pdf.
162 It also discusses how women make up the majority of workers in the informal sector in Africa, and corrupt
police frequently harass them for bribes. For more information, refer to AU Strategy for Gender Equality &
Women’s Empowerment 2018–2028, African Union, 14 June 2019, https://au.int/en/documents/20190614/au-
strategy-gender-equality-and-womens-empowerment.
163 Another report published in 2019 focuses on the disproportionate negative impacts of corruption on children.
For more information, refer to Stolen Futures: e Impact of Corruption on Children, African Union, 6 June
2019, https://au.int/en/documents/20190606/stolen-futures-impact-corruption-children.
164 Equality between Women and Men in the Council of Europe — 10th report by the Secretary General — 2008,
progress and achievements (CM/Del/Dec(2008)1040/4.5 and CM/Inf(2009)41).
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a gender perspective would add value to GRECO’s work. Several data collection initiatives
and other activities, including the 2013 conference on “Gender Dimensions of Corruption”,
165
were marked by a high participation rate and gained GRECO Member States’ support. States
underscored the value of incorporating a gender dimension into the prevention of and protection
against corruption, as a means of increasing the understanding of corruption and the way this
crime impacts groups and individuals in dierent contexts. In doing so, policy-making would
benet the population as a whole rather than unintentionally be limited to benet only part of the
population.
Clarifying the gender dimensions of corruption was deemed to be in line with GRECO’s mandate,
as well as the broader democratic, human rights and rule of law aspirations of the CoE, and was
underpinned by a commitment 1) to highlight gender aspects at the various stages of GRECO’s
monitoring procedure, 2) to support research and data collection, and 3) to co-operate with other
stakeholders on gender mainstreaming issues. GRECO developed and agreed to a more detailed
questionnaire for its Member States with the aim to gather relevant data. is would allow a more
detailed analysis of the gender dimensions of corruption, identify evidentiary gaps, consider how
anti-corruption strategies might incorporate a gender perspective and generally contribute to
the discussion on how best to promote gender equality within the framework of anti-corruption.
Since its h evaluation round, approximately a third of questions in the evaluation questionnaire
are gender related. In this manner, GRECO has continued to call on its Member States to collect
and share more sex-disaggregated data in its review reports and, thereby, rmly placing the gender
dimensions of corruption within its evaluation procedure.
166
3.4 GENDER EQUALITY AND ANTI-CORRUPTION —
FROM THE MDGs TO THE SDGs
While gender equality featured prominently in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs),
167
with its own Goal 3 “Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women”,
168
corruption did
not. However, ten years aer the entry into force of UNCAC, the United Nations Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs) were adopted
169
in 2015. As part of this broad and ambitious agenda,
all United Nations Member States committed to recovering and returning stolen assets, combatting
bribery and corruption in all its forms and developing eective, accountable and transparent
165 GRECO Conference “Gender Dimensions of Corruption”, Report and further information, Council of Europe,
13 December 2013, https://www.coe.int/en/web/greco/conferences/gender-dimensions-in-corruption.
166 Anti-corruption trends, challenges and good practices in Europe & the United States of America, 20th
General Activity Report (2019), GRECO, March 2020, https://rm.coe.int/20th-general-activity-report-2019-
of-the-group-of-states-against-corru/16809e8fe4.
167 “e Millennium Assembly of the United Nations” Resolution 53/202 of 17 December 1998, https://www.
un.org/en/chronicle/article/gender-equality-key-achieving-mdgs-women-and-girls-are-central-development.
168 Gender Equality Is Key to Achieving the MDGs: Women and Girls Are Central to Development, by Joanne
Sandler the Ad Interim Executive Director of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM).
169 “Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”, A/RES/70/1, Resolution adopted
by the General Assembly on 25 September 2015.
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INTERNATIONAL FRAMEWORKS
institutions at all levels.
170
e unied nature of the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development
entails that while gender equality is included as a separate Goal, SDG 5, it is also a transversal
element. Gender equality cuts across all 17 SDGs, and is reected in 45 targets and 54 indicators
for their implementation. Furthermore, gender equality can be a catalytic policy intervention
that triggers positive multiplier eects across the spectrum of development.
171
e same is true of
countering corruption which is fundamental not only to the achievement of the SDGs but a key
enabler to their sustainability.
172
In seizing upon this interconnectedness between gender equality and anti-corruption, UNODC
held an expert group meeting in Bangkok in 2018 to begin exploring the gender dimensions
of corruption.
173
e meeting brought together 26 participants from United Nations agencies
and other international organizations, anti-corruption authorities and other national criminal
justice practitioners, as well as civil society and academia, with the aim of exploring actionable
ideas on how to mainstream gender in anti-corruption programming. Together, experts and
practitioners shared and discussed perspectives and experiences from their diverse sectors and
countries. One specic outcome of the workshop was a set of initial, yet actionable, key points
and recommendations emerging from the discussions and participants’ inputs in relation to each
of the discussed thematic areas: vulnerabilities and opportunities reecting on research eorts;
criminal justice integrity; private sector; civil society; and public services. As a result, the present
publication attempts to delve deeper into this topic and discern the origins of the themes that were
discussed and support them with academic and other research sources.
Furthermore, in 2018, the Group of 20 (G20) addressed the links between gender inequalities and
corruption for the rst time. e G20 Anti-Corruption Working Group noted in its 2019–2021 plan
that it will deepen the understanding of the linkages between gender and corruption, and “discuss
how the gender dimension could be included in anti-corruption programming and policies”. It also
invited UNODC to share its insights stemming from the expert group meeting on exploring the
interplay between gender and corruption, held in Bangkok in September 2018. Both the B20 and C20
(‘B’ for business and ‘C’ for civil society) engagement groups coined the hashtag #CorruptionToo in a
joint statement, which also announced a recommendation for member countries and organizations
to mainstream gender in anti-corruption programmes.
174
e recommendation called on G20
countries to recognize that sexual favours can constitute the currency of bribes, and to make greater
eorts to collect, publish and analyse sex-disaggregated data.
170 Sustainable Development Goals 16 and 16A.
171 Gender Equality as an Accelerator for Achieving the SDGs, UNDP, February 2019, https://www.undp.org/
content/undp/en/home/librarypage/womens-empowerment/gender-equality-as-an-accelerator-for-achieving-
the-sdgs.html.
172 For more information, refer to Measuring progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals, Ritchie, H.,
Roser, M., Mispy, J. and Ortiz-Ospina, E. 2018, https://sdg-tracker.org/peace-justice.
173 Addressing the interplay between gender and corruption, UNODC, 16 November 2018, https://www.unodc.
org/southeastasiaandpacic/en/what-we-do/anti-corruption/topics/22-addressing-the-interplay-between-
gender-and-corruption.html.
174 #Corruptiontoo: Why Gender Matters for Anti-corruption, G20, C20, B20, 11 October 2018, https://civil-20.
org/c20/corruptiontoo-why-gender-matters-for-anti-corruption/.
Chapter 4
NATIONAL POLICY
RESPONSES TO
INTERNATIONAL
COMMITMENTS
68
THE TIME IS NOW — ADDRESSING THE GENDER DIMENSIONS OF CORRUPTION
INTRODUCTION
Aer initial interest surrounding policy recommendations when a pattern between women in
power and corruption levels was rst spotted,
175
the topic of gender and corruption seemingly
dropped down the policymakers’ priority list. However, more recently, anti-corruption policies
and gender equality policies have come to mutually reinforce each other by building on each
other’s strengths and legacies. However, in doing so, the requirement for reliable data — and the
lack thereof — in both areas remains to be addressed, even though sex-disaggregated data may
only reveal one layer in the multi-faceted gendered dimensions of corruption. e judiciary plays
an important role in changing our understanding of integrity, by ensuring equality before the law,
while the systems in place to report wrongdoing and protect reporting persons must be made
known to the public and gain their trust.
4.1 EVIDENCE-BASED POLICYMAKING AND THE NEED FOR
MORE DATA
e lack of data was one of the most recurring gaps identied by the Mechanism for the Review
of Implementation of UNCAC.
176
As the top recommendation issued by reviewing governmental
experts, States were asked to strengthen the collection and availability of statistical data on the
implementation of anti-corruption measures, as even States with impressive and leading statistical
data collection systems in place could not report them in line with the UNCAC oences. Reliable
data about the prevalence of dierent varieties of corruption and their associated gendered
processes is required in the eld of gender and corruption. Having such information would enable
policy recommendations to be prioritized and appropriately localized.
Yet, such data is rarely available. For example, only in 2019, did the Global Corruption Barometer
start to include exchanges involving sexual favours in its survey questions about citizens’
experiences with bribe paying.
177
Similarly, the starting point for every GRECO country evaluation
is a questionnaire that serves as a basis for planning on-site visits. However, while questions
regarding data have been included as indicated above, such data has been far from readily available,
as countries did not collect crime data in that way.
178
Many reports have previously requested
175 World Bank. (2001). Engendering Development through Gender Equality in Rights, Resources and Voice.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
176 Set of non-binding recommendations and conclusions based on lessons learned regarding the implementation
of chapters III and IV of the United Nations Convention against Corruption, a Note by the Secretariat.
17September 2019, CAC/COSP/2019/3, p4.
177 Women and Corruption in Latin America & the Caribbean, Transparency International, 23 September 2019,
https://www.transparency.org/en/news/women-and-corruption-GCB#.
178 For more information, refer to Evaluations, Council of Europe, 2020, https://www.coe.int/en/web/greco/
evaluations.
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NATIONAL POLICY RESPONSES TO INTERNATIONAL COMMITMENTS
for the collection of more sex-disaggregated data.
179
But even with plentiful sex-disaggregated
data, a challenge remains in understanding what the data imply in terms of underlying gendered
processes — such processes being the substance of what policy interventions should seek to
aect.
180
As well as echoing previous calls, therefore, this publication emphasises that the value of
sex-disaggregated data is in providing clues as to the rules, practices and norms that may explain
patterns expressed in counts and categories of ‘men’ and ‘women’.
In 2018, to facilitate countries and national statistical oces in gathering data in a statistically
sound manner, and in order to support the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, UNODC
and the UNODC-INEGI CoE, in collaboration with the UNDP Global Centre for Public Service
Excellence, developed a manual on the measurement of corruption through population-based
and business-based sample surveys.
181
e survey manual underlines that only sample surveys
can accurately capture the gender dimension of corruption in data collection. It says that indirect
approaches to the measurement of corruption are not adequate for generating the evidence
required to formulate gendered policy responses. e manual then provides important advice on
how to design a survey questionnaire that incorporates the gender perspective into the objectives
of the survey; the training of interviewers and sta on how to handle sensitive questions; as well as
advice on how to conduct the interviews and subsequent analysis.
182
To be more eective at improving gender equality, policymakers should be encouraged to
think beyond these categories, in terms of plural forms of masculinity (and femininity), and
non-heteronormative genders. is means adopting an approach to policy design that embraces
substantive measures to improve gender equality, as opposed to only focusing on achieving more
equal ratios of men and women in particular roles. Targeting the root cause of gender inequalities
parallels a shi in eorts to ght corruption, in moving beyond a strict criminalization and
compliance approach, towards the implementation of deeper institutional reforms that aim to
build integrity at the level of organizations with the individual at the centre. Incorporating a gender
lens into assessments of institutional integrity should not only establish long-term organizational
resilience against corrupting inuences, but also promote improvements in gender equality for
people working in and interacting with the organization. As such, there is also no “one-size ts all”
approach that can be applied. Just as UNCAC repeatedly asks States to implement its provisions “in
accordance with its domestic legal system”
183
and “subject to its constitution and the fundamental
principles of its legal system,”
184
any gendered anti-corruption measure will need to t the national
179 For example, Toolkit for Mainstreaming and Implementing Gender Equality, OECD, https://www.oecd.org/
gender/governance/toolkit/government/assessment-of-gender-impact/disaggregated-data/.
180 Raj, A. Gender Data: Moving Beyond Sex-disaggregated Analyses. e Lancet Global Health Blog, 20 October
2017.
181 UNODC, UNDP and the UNODC-INEGI Center of Excellence in Statistical Information on Government,
Crime, Victimization and Justice, Manual on Corruption Surveys (Vienna, 2018) https://www.unodc.org/
documents/data-and-analysis/Crime-statistics/CorruptionManual_2018_web.pdf.
182 Ibid. p. 43.
183 Article 32, For more information, refer to United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 2349, No. 42146 — e United
Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) by the United Nations General Assembly, 2003.
184 Article 20, For more information, refer to United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 2349, No. 42146 — e United
Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) by the United Nations General Assembly, 2003.
70
THE TIME IS NOW — ADDRESSING THE GENDER DIMENSIONS OF CORRUPTION
context. Such equitable solutions must take into consideration a variety of factors in order to cater
to both the specic context in which a policy or law is draed as well as the unique cultural and
societal norms that apply and are relevant in that country.
In December 2019, UNODC published its ndings from the survey measuring corruption
patterns and trends in Nigeria.
185
To shed some light on the bribe-seeking behaviour of male and
female public ocials, the 2019 survey collected information from more than 33,000 households
across the country. e ndings revealed that in 89 per cent of such cases, bribe-taking public
ocials were male, while they were female in just eleven per cent of cases. e share of male
bribe-takers was even larger in the case of police ocers (95 per cent), judges and prosecutors
(94 per cent), public utility ocers (93 per cent) and Federal Road Safety Corps and vehicle
inspection ocers (92 per cent). By contrast, the share of female bribe-takers was considerably
larger in the case of teachers (33 per cent) and doctors, nurses and midwives (46 per cent). In all
of those cases, however, the answer to the question whether male public ocials are more prone to
bribe-taking than female public ocials, is not a straightforward one. is is because the prevalence
of bribe-taking by sex not only depends on the number of male and female bribe-takers, but also
on the proportion of male and female ocials among each type of public ocial and the number
of direct contacts they have with citizens. Hence, at the time of writing, UNODC is carrying out a
gender analysis of the data set from the Nigeria survey together with additional data.
In short, there is a thirst for knowledge about what constitutes good policy in the eld of gender
and corruption, and, to that end, the publication considers some of the eorts that are underway
in policymaking circles. To the extent that information is available, it also discusses which of these
eorts appear to be more or less successful at achieving reductions in corruption and improvements
in gender equality. Policies are primarily intended to generate improvements in gender equality,
which may end up cutting corruption, and subsequently policies with the alternative emphasis:
those that were designed to reduce corruption levels, which may also break down invisible barriers
to gender equality. e next part of this chapter encourages combining both objectives in policy
design and evaluation.
Expert Recommendations:
There is a lack of data and primary research on how gender
dynamics interplay with accountability, transparency and
power structures as qualitative data is scarce. Instead
of assuming the equivalence between sex and gender,
complement such sex-disaggregated data with qualitative
investigation and information on processes behind the data.
185 Corruption in Nigeria: Patterns and trends, Second survey on corruption as experienced by the population,
UNODC, December 2019, https://www.unodc.org/documents/nigeria/Corruption_Survey_2019.pdf.
71
NATIONAL POLICY RESPONSES TO INTERNATIONAL COMMITMENTS
Measuring the interplay between corruption and gender
is complex. The Manual on Corruption Surveys that was
published by UNODC, UNDP and the UNODC-INEGI Center of
Excellence in Statistical Information on Government, Crime,
Victimization and Justice provides specific guidance on
collecting gender-specific data.
4.2 ADDRESS CORRUPTION BY REINFORCING
GENDER EQUALITY
4.2.1 Gender responsive public procurement policies —
addressing the homosocial capital
Reducing gender inequalities by establishing national laws that target government suppliers is an
established practise in a number of countries. Under its 1996 Equality Act, for example, Switzerland
requires any company that does business with the government to pay male and female sta equally.
e Swiss confederation’s procurement oces conduct equal pay audits, and companies that are
found not complying can be penalized and have their contracts terminated.
186
In other countries
too, there is a substantial history of (governments) “buying social justice” by including social-policy
provisions in the procurement law.
187
is approach can be politically easier than passing more
holistic armative action legislation.
188
Some of the arguments that UN Women puts forward for
championing procurement rules that privilege bids from women-owned businesses
189
are framed
in economic terms: the promotion of companies owned or run by groups that are traditional
outsiders in business circles can create new markets. Down the line, it should grow the economy,
186 For more information, refer to Government controls in public procurement, Federal Oce for Gender
Equality, https://www.ebg.admin.ch/ebg/en/home/topics/work/equal-pay/government-controls-in-public-
procurement.html.
187 McCrudden, C. (2007). Buying social justice: Equality, Government Procurement, & Legal Change. Oxford:
Oxford University Press. Another example is South Africa which has armative procurement in the
Constitution. For companies to be awarded government contracts they have to implement social policies. See
Bolton, P. (2006). Government procurement as a policy tool in South Africa. Journal of Public Procurement,
6(3), pp.193–217.
188 As was the case in the United States of America in the 1960s. ere, the executive branch could not pass
civil rights legislation without legislative approval, but could issue an executive order creating procurement
rules to raise economic opportunities for African Americans that had to be enforced by the U.S. Oce of
the Federal Contract Compliance Programs. (Ibid.) In the eld of gender and corruption, the hypothetical
analogy would be with a feminist president facing a congress full of the members of male-bonded patronage
networks, and within procurement law, deciding to introduce substantive gender equality measures.
189 Chin, K. (2017). e Power of Procurement: How to Source from Women-owned Businesses. UN Women.
72
THE TIME IS NOW — ADDRESSING THE GENDER DIMENSIONS OF CORRUPTION
raise government revenue, and may reduce the cost of procurement to the government in the
future by increasing competition among bidders.
190
In theory, the cultivation of gender diversity among actors with power in business and in politics
should weaken and inhibit the development of patronage networks bonded through homosocial
capital.
191
For gender equality policies to contribute to the erosion of patronage networks, they must
promote diversication among those who own and run those rms that are competitive in bidding
processes. Such changes are unlikely to happen if gender equality provisions are inadequate. is
can occur if, for example, provisions permit a rm to qualify for a tender process, or to become a
more attractive government provider, by quickly installing the wife of its male, former director as its
head. e former director may still act as the boss behind the scenes, and continue to cut deals with
others in the patronage network. In such a scenario, the rm’s management will not see any benet
in disassociating from and reporting collusive bid-rigging, and other forms of corruption in the
procurement process.
What do substantive gender provisions in procurement look like? Procurement legislation can
be written so that parental leave policies (including paternity leave policies) all accrue points in
competitive bidding processes. ey can require bidding rms to put in place additional protections
against sexual harassment, and to create gender-sensitive mentoring and training opportunities
for sta. e Swiss public procurement framework’s equal-pay requirement is an example of a
policy that promotes substantive gender equality because it goes beyond the tokenism that can
occur if descriptive, sex-disaggregated indicators, are used on their own to assess the extent to
which rms’ internal opportunity structures are gendered. In Spain, where public procurement
contributes between 10 and 20 per cent to the GDP
192
, the Public Procurement Law of 2017
193
,
includes various gender equality clauses that refer to dierent phases of a procurement procedure,
190 Note that generating these positive eects is not always straightforward. If procurement is made signicantly
more expensive through the inclusion of social justice provisions, it can lead a government to purchase —
and thus to provide — fewer public goods and services, potentially exacerbating social inequality as well as
leading the economy to grow less.
191 Chapter 1 contains a discussion of ‘homosocial capital’. For more information, refer to Bjarnegård, E. (2013).
Gender and Politics: Explaining Male Dominance in Parliamentary Representation. Gender and Politics Series,
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.
192 e CNMC publishes a study on public procurement procedures in Spain, Press release 22 February 2019.
e National Commission of Markets and Competition (CNMC), https://www.cnmc.es/sites/default/les/editor_
contenidos/Notas%20de%20prensa/2019/20190222_NP_Estudio%20procedimientos%20contratación.pdf.
193 Law 9/2017, 8 November, on Public Sector Contracts.
Patronage / ˈpatr(ə)nɪdʒ /
mass noun ~
Def.
The support given by a patron or the power to control
appointments to office or the right to privileges.
73
NATIONAL POLICY RESPONSES TO INTERNATIONAL COMMITMENTS
from contractor selection to the execution of the public contract.
194
Anyone with a conviction for
violating workers’ rights, including all conduct that violates the right and opportunities of women
such as discrimination or harassment, is not allowed to contract with public sector organizations.
195
Companies with more than 250 employees that have not implemented gender equality plans are
also prohibited from participating in public procurement contracting. Even for smaller companies,
the award of contracts must be based on economic and qualitative criteria that may include the
existence of such gender equality plans.
196
An example of substantive gender provisions — gender
equality criteria can be used as a tiebreaker when evaluating equal bids.
is is not to say that descriptive provisions are without value in the promotion of gender equality,
but rather that they may not straightforwardly promote changes in processes and norms that
generate gender inequalities in the rst place. In Kenya, a presidential directive from 2013 reserves
30 per cent of government procurement opportunities for companies owned by women, youth,
and disabled people.
197
Focus group research into the eects of this law nds that it has been a
mixed blessing: while women business owners report greater economic opportunity, they also
speak of more exposure to harassment from procurement ocers.
198
Shiing more of the law’s
administration online,
199
as has been proposed, is expected to reduce that problem.
Expert Recommendations:
Explore how to make anti-corruption tools such as transparency,
open data, e-government, accountability and oversight,
complaint and grievance mechanisms, management of human
resources, decentralization risk management, and
gender-responsive public procurement.
Improve inclusiveness within a given social environment and
break the so-called ‘closed circles’ to reduce corruption:
sex balance is not the primary goal, but mainstreaming should
aim to bring in individuals who have been outsiders to power
due to corrupt (and gendered) practices.
194 Medina-Arnáiz, T. (2010). Integrating Gender Equality into Public Procurement: the Spanish Case. Journal of
Public Procurement, 10(4), pp.541–563.
195 Ibid. p.548.
196 Villarejo Galende, H. and Calonge Velázquez, A. (2018) e main innovations of the new Spanish Public
Procurement Law 9/2017, of 8 November, Revista Jurídíca de Castello y Léon, p. 55.
197 Mohammed, R. (2019). Progress on the Economic Empowerment of Female Entrepreneurs in Kenya’s 30%
Preferential Public Procurement Policy, PhD esis, Walden University. For more information, refer to Access
to Government Procurement Opportunities, https://agpo.go.ke/pages/about-agpo.
198 Ibid.
199 Kiragu, R. (2012). Information Technology and Procurement Process in Kenya, Master’s esis, School of
Business, University of Nairobi.
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THE TIME IS NOW — ADDRESSING THE GENDER DIMENSIONS OF CORRUPTION
4.2.2 Opportunities for anti-corruption policies to promote
gender equality
Rather than hoping for an anti-corruption dividend to fall out of policies intended to promote
gender equality, an alternative approach is to weave gender equality measures into anti-corruption
eorts. One way to do this is to prioritize resources for reducing corruption in the delivery of
public services that women access more than men.
200
is strategy of focusing anti-corruption
energies on particular sectors or services should also consider intersectional inequalities, and that
lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons tend to rely upon some services more than
other groups.
More ideally, all policies to prevent and reduce corruption should incorporate considerations of
gender inequalities, as per a number of international organizations’ intentions, and as exemplied
by the 2018 UNOV/UNODC Strategy for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women
(2018–2021) making gender mainstreaming mandatory in all of its programmes — not only in
its anti-corruption programmes.
201
is document strongly encourages the raising of awareness
of UNCAC, programme work with women’s groups, collection of sex-disaggregated data, and
enhancement the capacity of national institutions.
202
e Inter-American Development Bank
Transparency Fund has also issued a gender mainstreaming guidance document, which goes
into much more detail about gender-smart contract negotiations, gender-equality audits,
gender budgeting, and the role of e-government.
203
It highlights the importance of setting up
gender-responsive complaint systems by providing an “accessible and transparent one-stop
mechanism for receiving, registering, and following up on corruption reporting”, alongside sex-
disaggregated tracking of complaint type and type of resolution.
204
GRECO has started to make specic suggestions to promote gender equality in its country reviews.
For example, Member States where police forces have strongly gendered hierarchies, with more
women at the bottom and far fewer women at the top, oen stems from policewomen being assigned
to ‘soer’ policing roles than their male colleagues.
205
is means that when policewomen are
considered for promotion, they are oen perceived to lack the skills and experience needed to rise
200 As Bauhr et al have demonstrated that women who have been elected to European councils have been doing
(as discussed in Chapter 2).
201 UNOV/UNODC Strategy for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (2018–2021),
https://www.unodc.org/documents/Gender/UNOV-UNODC_Strategy_for_Gender_Equality_and_the_
Empowerment_of_Women_2018-2021_FINAL.pdf.
202 See: Ibid, p. 55 ‘Brief 2. Gender and countering corruption’.
203 Sample, K. (2018). Gender Mainstreaming in the Transparency Fund, Inter-American Development Bank., is
publication also states that in most countries reporting systems need to be broadened, and that civil servants
require specialist training, for there to be safe space established for the reporting of sexual corruption.
204 Ibid. p.20. Note that there are some indications that women’s complaints about corruption are less frequently
investigated. See: Feigenblatt, H. (2020). Breaking the Silence Around Sextortion; e Links Between Power, Sex
and Corruption. Transparency International.
205 Garcia, V. (2003). “Dierence” in the Police Department, Women, Policing, and “Doing Gender”. Journal of
Contemporary Criminal Justice, 19(3), pp.330–344.
75
NATIONAL POLICY RESPONSES TO INTERNATIONAL COMMITMENTS
further up the ranks.
206
e underpinning logic of GRECO’s approach is that having women more
evenly spread across all levels of the police force will make it harder for masculine norms to take root
in how members of the police demonstrate mutual trust, especially high up in the institution.
Beyond the OECD Anti-bribery Convention, the OECD Council adopts recommendations on a
wide variety of areas of public policies. ese recommendations are the result of policy dialogue
and good practices and are oen catalysts for major change by governments. While all OECD
members have committed to these recommendations, they are increasingly also followed by
non-member countries. ere is an expectation that adherents will do their utmost to fully
implement a recommendation, while recognizing that challenges may vary from country to
country.
Two recommendations are particularly relevant from the gender equality and anti-corruption
perspective. e 2015 OECD recommendation of the Council on Gender Equality in Public
Life
207
promotes a government-wide strategy for gender equality reform, mechanisms to ensure
accountability and sustainability of gender initiatives, and tools and evidence to inform inclusive
policy decisions. It also promotes a “whole-of-society” approach to reducing gender stereotypes,
encouraging women to participate in politics and removing implicit and explicit barriers to gender
equality. is recommendation provides not only governments, but also parliaments and judiciaries,
with clear, timely and actionable guidelines for eectively implementing gender equality and gender
mainstreaming initiatives, and for improving equal access to public leadership for women and men
from diverse backgrounds.
e 2017 OECD recommendations of the Council on Public Integrity
208
provide policy makers
with a vision for a public integrity strategy. It shis the focus from ad hoc, reactive anti-corruption
policies to a comprehensive, risk-based approach with an emphasis on cultivating a culture of
integrity across the whole of society. According to this recommendation, ‘public integrity’ refers
to the consistent alignment of, and adherence to, shared ethical values, principles and norms
for upholding and prioritizing the public interest over private interests in the public sector.
For example, the recommendation touches upon practices related to merit-based civil service,
conict-of-interest management, integrity risk management, internal and external audit, political
nance and lobbying, for instance. Good practices in these areas are key to help create an
environment where not only corruption risks are identied and mitigated but also to ensure the
eectiveness of policies aimed at improving gender equality.
Aiming to raise integrity implies aiming for more than the avoidance of transgressing compliance
standards. At the level of a public institution, it implies that public ocers who work for the
organization should pursue its purpose wholeheartedly, as long as this purpose is legitimate, and that
206 U.S. Department of Justice, Oce of Justice Programs, National Institute of Justice, Women in Policing:
Breaking barriers and blazing a path, https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdles1/nij/252963.pdf.
207 OECD (2016), 2015 OECD Recommendation of the Council on Gender Equality in Public Life, OECD
Publishing, Paris. http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264252820-en.
208 2017 OECD Recommendations of the Council on Public Integrity, OECD Publishing, Paris.
https://www.oecd.org/gov/ethics/OECD-Recommendation-Public-Integrity.pdf.
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THE TIME IS NOW — ADDRESSING THE GENDER DIMENSIONS OF CORRUPTION
they should do so as eciently as possible, and only via legitimate means.
209
Aiming for institutional
integrity must also compel integrous individual ocers to protest, lobby or report any wrongdoing
to bring about improvements. By including gender equality within the concept of legitimacy and
integrity, integrous public ocers should support an organization’s pursuit of its purpose by also
being just to all genders and, more importantly, they should seek change where this is not the case.
It is important to take an incremental approach in mainstreaming gendered approaches by
bringing about a shi in thinking about how best to enhance integrity in the long run and move
beyond preventing and combating individual corrupt acts. is shi broadens the focus on from
anti-corruption and mere compliance, to placing a greater emphasis on institutional reform and
building integrity. e motivation for it lies in the acknowledgement that many anti-corruption
eorts of the past have met with piecemeal success, and oen with failure, and that the public scandals
resulting from corruption investigations tend to reduce citizens’ trust in public institutions,
210
which
in itself is undesirable.
211
Expert Recommendation:
Re-conceptualize integrity at the institutional level and not
only at the individual level.
4.3 JUDICIAL RESPONSES AND UNCONSCIOUS BIAS
e eectiveness of international law largely rests on its domestication and subsequent enforcement
and ultimately on how such national laws are interpreted by the domestic courts. While some
legal systems do not consider acts of a sexual nature to be a form of corruption currency, other
countries make ‘sexual bribery’ explicitly illegal, either through anti-corruption legislation or
through jurisprudence.
212
209 Kirby, N. An ‘Institution-rst’ Conception of Integrity, forthcoming British Journal of Political Science,
working paper. For more information, refer to https://integrity.bsg.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/les/integrity/
documents/media/public_institutional_integrity_conceptual_issues.pdf.
210 Chang, E. C. C. and Yun-han, C. (2006). Corruption and Trust: Exceptionalism in Asian Democracies? e
Journal of Politics, 68(2), pp.259–271. Note that the relationship between corruption and institutional trust
(and interpersonal trust) is understood to be bidirectional. Morris, S. D. and Klesner, J.L. (2010). Corruption
and Trust: eoretical Considerations and Evidence from Mexico, Comparative Political Studies, 43(10),
pp.1258–1285.
211 Ciziceno, M. and Travaglino, G.A. (2019). Perceived Corruption and Individuals’ Life Satisfaction: e
Mediating Role of Institutional Trust. Social Indicators Research, 141(2), pp.685–701.
212
The IAWJ reports that Australia, Canada, Kenya and the UK, inter alia, have successfully prosecuted
sexual corruption under existing corruption statutes. See: Feigenblatt, H. (2020). Breaking the Silence
Around Sextortion; The Links Between Power, Sex and Corruption. Transparency International.
77
NATIONAL POLICY RESPONSES TO INTERNATIONAL COMMITMENTS
Unconscious bias is one of
the hardest things to get at
.
~ Ruth Bader Ginsburg
United States of America Supreme Court Justice
In Singapore, a former civil defence chief was sentenced to six months imprisonment
213
for
requesting and receiving acts of a sex nature from a woman whose engineering company bid for a
contract from his agency.
214
In Romania, the Criminal Code explicitly applies to any public servant
who “solicits or is awarded sexual favours by a person who has a direct or indirect vested interest
in that professional act,”
215
which classies it as an act of abuse of power. In the United States of
America, a variety of statutes have been used to prosecute corruption oences which involved acts
of a sexual nature, ranging from extortion,
216
to a request for or the seeking of “anything of value”
by a public ocial in the exercise of their duties. e Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
in Atlanta, Georgia, has interpreted a “thing of value” to be any intangible consideration,
217
and a
sexual act specically.
218
is interpretation has come to foresee that the oering or providing the
sexual favour is in contravention of the law, and while coercion can guide the court’s interpretation,
this has not always happened.
219
It remains unclear how many judicial systems have adjudicated cases where acts of a sexual nature
were used as corruption currency. Broadly phrased statutes addressing “a nancial or other advantage”,
“gratication”, or “benet” or “undue advantage of any kind,”
220
should in theory suce as bribery
oences in which sexual favours are the currency of corruption. Yet judges working within the same
legal system can dier in their views on the matter, especially in the absence of case law supporting
213 Public Prosecutor v Peter Benedict Lim Sin Pang DAC 2106-115/2012.
214 So far Singaporean case law has only dealt with cases of heterosexual sexual corruption in which a man had
more power.
215 Article 299(1) of Criminal Code, 2009. For more information, refer to https://www.icmec.org/wp-content/
uploads/2018/08/ICMEC-Romania-National-Legislation.pdf.
216 e United States of America code is a consolidation of general and permanent laws prepared by the Law
Revision Counsel of the House of Representatives.
217 United States v Nilsen, 967 F.2d 539, 542 (11th Cir 1992).
218 United States v Moore 525 F.3d 1033 (11th Cir 2008).
219 e International Bar Association reports the case of e People of the State of New York, Respondent,
v Steven Teitelbaum and Jerey Starro, Appellants 138 A.D.2d 647 (1988). In this case, police ocers
demanded sex from a woman if she wanted to avoid arrest, and the judge instructed the jury that, as a matter
of law, the woman was an accomplice to the oence of receiving a bribe. In the end, the woman was not
charged. Sara Carnegie, ‘Sextortion: A crime of corruption and sexual exploitation’, e International Bar
Association, August 2019. Another case occurred in the United States of America in 2019, when two police
ocers admitted to bribe-taking and misconduct aer being accused of the rape of an 18-year-old woman
in handcus. ey received no jail time because the judge concluded that the woman’s part in the police
ocers’ ‘misconduct’ also involved criminal activity. See: Feigenblatt H. (2020). Breaking the Silence Around
Sextortion; e Links Between Power, Sex and Corruption. Transparency International.
220 Corruption, A Glossary of International Criminal Standards. OECD, 2007, http://www.oecd.org/corruption/
anti-bribery/39532693.pdf.
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THE TIME IS NOW — ADDRESSING THE GENDER DIMENSIONS OF CORRUPTION
an interpretation of which acts of a sexual nature may constitute bribes and, hence as corruption.
221
Nancy Hendry of the IAWJ recalls running a workshop for judges and anti-corruption ocials in
a country where about half of the judges in the room said they would be willing to interpret the
broadly phrased criminal statute as encompassing cases of acts of a sexual nature as corruption
currency. Many of those who disagreed reasoned that individuals oering, or indeed agreeing, to
the sexual acts would not have known that their activities amounted to acts of corruption.
222
4.3.1 The role of the judiciary — equality before the law
Doubts about judicial interpretation may deter prosecutors from investigating and prosecuting
acts of a sexual nature or body currency to commit a corruption oence in many jurisdictions.
As discussed above, this is frequently because acts of a sexual nature fall beyond the scope of the
direct application of anti-corruption laws yet might not be sucient to amount to sexual harassment
or gender-based violence. It is not uncommon for anti-corruption legal frameworks still require
bribes, or any other form of undue advantage, to have a pecuniary value. One of the most common
observation by the reviewing States parties in the context of the UNCAC implementation review
mechanism relates “[w]ith respect to the bribery oences (arts. 15 and 16), expand the objects of
theoence, in particular as regards non-material benets and payments or gratuities to expedite
or facilitate an otherwise lawful administrative act or procedure.”
223
Expert Recommendations:
Ensure human rights, anti-corruption and gender-specific
training as part of in-house training for criminal justice
officers and improve institutional cooperation frameworks
with anti-corruption authorities.
Highlight female anti-corruption champions within law
enforcement networks and educate women in these sectors
on how to instil institutional change and how to protect
themselves against corruption networks; training methods
could include games and possibly be administered with the
oversight of the anti-corruption authority.
221 is has never been tested under South African law, for example. uli Madonsela, Pers. Comm., 21 October 2019.
222 Interviews: Noticing and Combating Sextortion: An Interview with Nancy Hendry, EuropeNow, 10 March, 2020,
https://www.europenowjournal.org/2020/03/09/noticing-and-combating-sextortion-an-interview-with-nancy-
hendry/.
223 Set of non-binding recommendations and conclusions based on lessons learned regarding the implementation of
chapters III and IV of the United Nations Convention against Corruption, a Note by the Secretariat. 17September
2019, CAC/COSP/2019/3, p. 5.
79
NATIONAL POLICY RESPONSES TO INTERNATIONAL COMMITMENTS
Support initiatives to increase women’s representation
in law enforcement criminal justice institutions
(e.g. review recruitment and staff policies and practices,
awareness-raising campaigns against gender norms).
A protocol for judicial decision-making with a gender perspective
e National Supreme Court of Mexico carried out a series of internal knowledge assessments in
2008, 2009 and again in 2012
224
and has used these as the basis for establishing the rst Protocol
for Judicial Decision-Making with a Gender Perspective
225
(hereinaer the Gender Protocol). e
Gender Protocol was draed following three cases
226
in the Inter-American Court of Human Rights,
where the Court pointed to Mexico’s obligation to apply, as binding law, the international human
rights treaties it is party to. A gender perspective was introduced into judicial decision-making to
help combat arguments based on stereotypes and to refute attempts to disregard the right to equality.
In 2012, the Mexican National Supreme Court also carried out an assessment entitled “Knowledge
and Perceptions about Gender and Human Rights among Mexican Supreme Court Personnel”,
as well as an assessment on gender and work culture in 15 state supreme courts. e assessments
showed that nearly 20 per cent of judicial personnel did not know the meaning of a “gender
perspective”, that the concept of “gender equity” was not well understood and even that “the
Supreme Court’s current approach still relies on very distorted ideas about the spectrum of human
rights and the idea of a gender perspective”.
227
e Gender Protocol was established to guide judges
and adjudicators in their task of imparting justice with a gender perspective and, to the end, it
would serve as a fundamental tool to ensure that the right to equality before the law is a reality as
enshrined in the Constitution of Mexico and in line with international human rights law.
In 2019, the Directorate General for Human Rights of the Supreme Court began updating the
Gender Protocol by conducting a consultative process to gather the observations, concerns and
recommendations of justice operators, academics and members of civil society organizations. e
exercise was carried out in conjunction with the General Unit for Gender Equality of the Supreme
Court of Justice of the Nation, and with the support of Equis: Justice for Women, a civil society
organization.
228
224 Oce of the Coordinator, Gender Equity Oce of the Federal Judiciary (Coordinación General del Programa
de Equidad de Género del Poder Judicial de la Federación), Diagnósticos realizados en la Suprema Corte de
Justicia de la Nación (SCJN) en matrial de quidad de género 2008–2009.
225 For more information, refer to https://www.scjn.gob.mx/registro/sites/default/les/page/2020-02/protocolo_
perspectiva_genero.pdf.
226 Gonzalez et al. v. Mexico (Campo Algodonero” or “Cotton Field” case) see paragaphs 502, 541, 542 (I.A.Ct.G.R.,
16 November 2009; Fernandez Ortega et al. V. Mexico, see paragraphs 236 and 260 (I.A.Ct.G.R., 30 August 2010);
and, Rosendo Cantú et al. v. Mexico, see paragraphs 219 and 246 (I.A.Ct.G.R., 31 August 2010).
227 Protocol for Judicial Decision-Making with a Gender Perspective, p. 9.
228 Based on information from the webpage of the Supreme Court of National Justice of Mexico. For more
information, refer to https://www.scjn.gob.mx/derechos-humanos/protocolos-de-actuacion/para-juzgar-con-
perspectiva-de-genero.
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THE TIME IS NOW — ADDRESSING THE GENDER DIMENSIONS OF CORRUPTION
The Global Judicial Integrity Network’s Paper on Gender-Related Judicial
Integrity Issues
e Global Judicial Integrity Network, which was ocially launched in April 2018, aims to assist
judiciaries across the globe in strengthening judicial integrity and preventing corruption in the
justice sector, in line with article 11 of the UNCAC. e Network is one of the key outcomes of
the UNODC Global Programme for the Implementation of the Doha Declaration, which was
adopted at the conclusion of the 13
th
United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal
Justice held in Qatar in 2015. Among other priority areas, the Network has been addressing the
complexity of gender-related judicial integrity issues. In a bid to heighten attention around the
topic, the Network prepared a lot of relevant content, most notably a dedicated issue paper,
229
a section on gender issues in the training course on judicial ethics,
230
podcast episodes and
written opinion pieces.
231
To cite the Executive Summary of the Paper on Gender-Related Judicial
IntegrityIssues:
“is inquiry into gender-related judicial integrity issues occurs at a time when new
attention is being focused on the role that power and gender play in the workplace.
e #MeToo movement has given voice to women who have experienced a range of
sexual misconduct at the hands of men in positions of power. e extent of the problem
has long been masked by reluctance to confront those who wield such power and by
failure to address the organizational culture that allows such conduct to continue with
impunity. Even when people have had reason to know or suspect sexual misconduct,
it has oen taken many years before an incident has been investigated or addressed.
When the silence has nally been broken, others have come forward with similar
allegations, revealing that the misconduct was not an isolated occurrence, but part of
a long-standing pattern. As more women have spoken out, there has been increasing
recognition that the problems are both pervasive and under-reported.”
4.3.2 Adopting gender-sensitive whistleblower protection systems
In addition to pushing for greater awareness of existing legal ambiguities around sexual favours
as corruption currency, public advisory bodies and civil society have a role to play in assisting
with victim support. Whistleblower disclosures by employees and others can save lives as well
as reduce or avoid nancial and reputational losses to their organization. In its Guidelines on
Protecting the whistleblowers in the Health Sector, UNODC highlighted the requirement for the
provision of appropriate training for public ocers to whom such forms of corruption might be
229 Paper on Gender-Related Judicial Integrity Issues of the Global Judicial Integrity Network, https://www.
unodc.org/ji/en/knowledge-products/gender-related-integrity-issues.html.
230 e package of the Judicial Ethics Training Tools, in particular Module 3 of the E-learning Course and the
Self-Directed Course, include a section on gender-related judicial integrity issues. e tools are available at:
https://www.unodc.org/ji/en/judicial_ethics.html.
231 e podcast episodes and written opinion pieces are available at: https://www.unodc.org/ji/en/multimedia/
podcasts.html and https://www.unodc.org/ji/en/views/index.html.
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NATIONAL POLICY RESPONSES TO INTERNATIONAL COMMITMENTS
reported.
232
e ability to report wrongdoing plays a critical role in keeping public and private
entities honest, ecient, and accountable, as it allows personnel to safely report a violation within
their organization while protecting them from retaliation and reprisal.
e International Association of Women Judges (IAWJ),
233
while unlikely the rst to coin the
expression ‘sextortion’, has had an important role in making the term a common reference in
cases relating to acts of corruption involving sex. e IAWJ have played an important part in
raising awareness around this form of corruption currency. Furthermore, a House of Commons
Committee, in its oversight role of the United Kingdom’s then Department for International
Development,
234
having received oral and written evidence about sexual exploitation and sexual
abuse in the aid sector — oen as part of corrupt exchanges recommended that a victim-centred
approach be fully integrated across all aspects of how the aid sector addresses the problem.
235
e
Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) prioritized public awareness campaigns about the
issue in response to its ndings of widespread corruption involving sexual favours and acts of a
sexual nature in the water sector, as described in chapter 1. During World Water Week in 2018
236
SIWI held an event to publicize its ndings. SIWI has also collaborated with the African Civil
Society Network on Water and Sanitation and the Kenya Water and Sanitation NGO Network to
produce an educational video.
237
232 Protecting Whistleblowers in the Health Sector: Guidelines for the adoption of policies and procedures to
facilitate the protection of whistleblowers in the health sector. UNODC forthcoming publication early 2021.
233 Stopping the Abuse of Power through Sexual Exploitation: Naming, Shaming, and Ending Sextortion.
International Association of Women Judges, 2012, http://www.iawj.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/
Corruption-and-Sextortion-Resource-1.pdf.
234 is department has merged with the United Kingdom’s Foreign and Commonwealth Oce since 16 June
2020.
235 Sexual exploitation and abuse in the aid sector. International Development Committee of the United
Kingdom, 31 July 2018, https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201719/cmselect/cmintdev/840/84004.
htm#_idTextAnchor02.
236 Sex for Water: A Woman’s Right Violation, 27 August 2018, https://www.worldwaterweek.org/event/8011-sex-
for-water-a-womens-right-violation.
237 See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4AkG0h83gg.
Sextortion — quid pro quo exchanges
of sex for the favourable exercise of power.
The International Association of Women Judges
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THE TIME IS NOW — ADDRESSING THE GENDER DIMENSIONS OF CORRUPTION
4.3.3 Lessons learned — a victim-centred approach
A survey entitled “Social Norms and Petty Corruption in the Provision of Public Services in Ghana”
found that women are generally more fearful than their male counterparts to report such instances of
corruption. It is noteworthy that lack of protection, fear of reprisals and the level of condentiality are
prioritized amongst women when deciding on whether to report corruption or not.
238
Furthermore,
during a workshop on the impact of corruption on women and an introduction to UNCAC and its
Review Mechanism in Albania,
239
co-organized by UN Women and UNODC in April 2012, one of
the key outcomes and recommendations was to “promote the reporting of acts of corruption, for
example through the virtual on-line platform that is being developed by the Government and by
raising awareness of the existence of other means, such as toll-free numbers and in-person reporting”.
e recommendation followed the discussion where the participants, predominantly women, had
highlighted the diculties they faced in reporting corruption in-person.
In an innovative approach, the Republic of Korea has started implementing a proxy reporting
system for whistleblowers.
240
At the rst resumed session of the eleventh meeting of the
Implementation Review Group 31 August — 2 September 2020,
241
the Republic of Korea explained
that its public interest reporting system does not allow anonymous reporting in order to discourage
false reporting and to be able to identify the person who might be granted legal protection and
compensation. Although the law guarantees condentiality of the whistleblower’s identity, in
reality, identity disclosures continued to occur due to inattention or mistakes.
To prevent the possibility of the identity of a reporting person being disclosed, in November 2018
the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission (ACRC) adopted a proxy reporting system.
While maintaining the legal requirement to state the reporting person’s name, it allows for a
lawyer’s name to be inserted in the report format which would be the only name revealed during
the handling of the report. However, due to the cost of hiring a lawyer and due to the diculties
in identifying the correct lawyer, reporting levels through the new proxy system remained low. To
address the matter, the ACRC in cooperation with the Korean Bar Association, formed a group of
counselling lawyers in July 2019 who in turn would provide legal advice and le the proxy report
on behalf of the whistleblower. As the ACRC funds the group, it is also free of charge. Further
improvements were already foreseen at the time of the presentation in September 2020, but the
concept of proxy reporting could lend itself well in cases of gendered corruption.
238 e Social Norms and Petty Corruption research project was carried out by a team led by Professor Sarah
Brierley (Washington University, St. Louis) and Eliz Ozdemir with support from UK Aid through the STAAC
programme. A full report is available upon request from STAAC-Ghana.
239 Full report available on request from UNODC, reporting on the workshop accessed at the following link:
https://www.unodc.org/documents/southeasterneurope//newsletters/UNODC_Newsletter_South_Eastern_
Europe_4.pdf.
240 Presentation is available on the website of the First Resumed eleventh Meeting of the Implementation Review
Group, 31 August to 2 September 2020. For more information, refer to https://www.unodc.org/documents/
treaties/UNCAC/WorkingGroups/ImplementationReviewGroup/31Aug-2Sep2020/Presentations/Republic_
of_Koreas_experience_of_whistleblower_condentiality.pdf.
241 Eleventh session of the Implementation Review Group (29 June 2020, virtual format). For more information,
refer to https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/corruption/IRG/session11.html.
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NATIONAL POLICY RESPONSES TO INTERNATIONAL COMMITMENTS
Strides made in addressing sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) can also serve as inspiration
in the pursuit of a more victim-centred approach to whistleblower protection. It must be
highlighted that “victim” in both areas does not imply the same experiences, with victims of SGBV
leaning more to those of “survivors”.
242
A survivor-centred approach means that all those who are
engaged in violence against women programming prioritize the rights, needs, and wishes of the
survivor.
243
Nevertheless, what has come to be known as a “survivor-centred” or “victim-centred”
approach involves sensitized actions such as ensuring the victim’s meaningful participation in
relevant processes, and includes informed consent, condentiality, regular, clear and transparent
communication and a continuous risk assessment to protect victims.
244
Blowing the whistle can
entail extraordinary personal, professional, psychological, physical and emotional costs. ese can be
severely intensied for female whistleblowers who bear the additional brunt of corruption’s gendered
impacts and societal pressures. e described victim-centred approach is about designing strategies
that aim at empowering the victim/survivor to ensure their access to needed services as well as to the
holistic forms of protection and the enjoyment of their rights.
245
By incorporating such approaches in
whistleblower reporting and protection mechanisms, gender-sensitive and conducive environments
such as the example from the Republic of Korea, can ensure the additional safeguards required where
the power dynamics might otherwise discourage a person from reporting wrongdoing.
Expert Recommendations:
Solutions need to fit the institutional context, where the
intersectionality of gender, ethnicity and other social norms
within a given environment are considered.
Make anti-corruption efforts gender responsive by using
social audits on women’s access to services, enacting
legislation recognizing gendered impacts of corruption,
addressing sexual extortion as a form of corruption,
implementing regulations to address sexual extortion, and
having gender-sensitive complaint mechanisms.
Raise awareness of good practices in relation to anonymous/
confidential and online reporting mechanisms.
242 e United Nations Security Council (UNSC) in its resolution 2467 recognized that a survivor-centred
approach is key to address and prevent sexual violence in conict, https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/
UNDOC/GEN/N19/118/28/PDF/N1911828.pdf?OpenElement.
243 ‘Survivor-centred approach’. Virtual Knowledge Centre to End Violence against Women and Girls, UN
Women, https://www.endvawnow.org/en/articles/652-survivor-centred-approach.html.
244 Strategic litigation for sexual and gender-based violence: Lessons learned, United Nations High
Commissioner for Human Rights, 2019, https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Women/WRGS/OHCHR-
StrategicLitigationforSV-workshopreport-web.pdf.
245 Ibid.
84
THE TIME IS NOW — ADDRESSING THE GENDER DIMENSIONS OF CORRUPTION
4.4 GENDER PARITY — A STRATEGY FOR THE
UNITED NATIONS
is shi away from traditional anti-corruption programmes and towards institutional reforms
to promote integrity aims over time to insulate public organizations as well as the judiciary from
the dierent corrupting inuences that have traditionally or could continue to inltrate them,
to bring about gender equality, and to raise the institutional trustworthiness overall. Within the
United Nations, issues of gender equality and gender parity began to permeate the work of the
Organization systematically following the adoption of global agenda for women’s empowerment
at the 1995 Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action
246
when, in 1997, the ECOSOC adopted
the landmark Agreed Conclusions on Gender Mainstreaming as Resolution 1997/2. e ECOSOC
took the next decisive step in 2005 when it adopted Resolution 2005/31 and called on all United
Nations bodies to develop action plans for gender mainstreaming with clear guidelines on and
timelines for the practical implementation of gender perspectives in policies and programmes.
In 2006, the Chief Executive Board
247
endorsed a system-wide policy on gender equality and
the empowerment of women, but requested the Inter-agency Network on Women and Gender
Equality (IANWGE) to develop, in broad consultation with the United Nations System, a
system-wide action plan that would operationalize the policy and accelerate gender mainstreaming
within the United Nations System.
248
e preparatory process for the development of the
System-Wide Action Plan (SWAP)
249
involved extensive consultations with more than 50 entities
of the United Nations System and a pilot exercise. e process resulted in the establishment of the
SWAP as a unied gender framework designed to promote common understanding, enhanced
coherence, systematic self-assessment, and a progressive approach to gender mainstreaming. 2018
marked the rst year of reporting against the expanded and enhanced UN-SWAP 2.0 accountability
framework on gender mainstreaming in the United Nations System. As such, the 2018 performance
establishes a new benchmark for the years to follow, with 66 United Nations entities (93 per cent)
having reported against this framework. e analysis of the results was published in 2019, with
17 per cent of ratings meeting or exceeding requirements categories for the indicator on ‘Equal
Representation of Women’.
250
246 Hellem, A. and Aasen, H.S. (2013). Conclusions. In Hellem, A. and H. Singing Aasen (Eds.). Women’s Human
Rights: CEDAW in International, Regional and National Law. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
247 e CEB brings together the executive heads of 31 specialized United Nations organizations to deliver as one
at the global, regional and country levels. It is the prime instrument for strengthening the coordination role
of UN inter-governmental bodies on social, economic and related matters. For more information, refer to
https://www.unsystem.org/.
248 Action on the system wide action plan for gender equality and the empowerment of women. For more
information, refer to United Nations System Chief Executives Board for Coordination, 20 March 2012,
https://unsceb.org/content/action-system-wide-action-plan-gender-equality-and-empowerment-women.
249 e System-Wide Action Plan 2012–2017, UN Women. For more information, refer to https://www.unwomen.
org/en/how-we-work/un-system-coordination/promoting-un-accountability.
250 UN-SWAP 2.0 entity performance results were published in 2019 and are available at: https://www.unwomen.
org/en/how-we-work/un-system-coordination/promoting-un-accountability/un-swap-results.
85
NATIONAL POLICY RESPONSES TO INTERNATIONAL COMMITMENTS
With the arrival of Secretary-General António Guterres in 2017, the issue of gender parity was given
centre-stage in the United Nations Secretariat. As part of his oath of oce, the Secretary-General
while regretting that gender parity levels should have been met by 2000, stated that management
reform must ensure reaching gender parity sooner rather than later and to that end pledged
“… to respect gender parity from the start in all my appointments to the Senior Management
Group and the Chief Executives Board.”
251
e Gender Parity Strategy,
252
which was presented
in October 2017, is to be implemented so that “[g]ender parity can be achieved not just in line
with the highest standards of merit, but in fact while simultaneously strengthening standards of
eciency, competence and integrity.”
253
e ultimate goal of the new strategic approach is to enable
a change in the UN’s organizational culture to become “a female and family friendly work-place,
and ensure gender-sensitive workplace practices to build an enabling environment and secure a
sustainable approach to parity”.
254
251 e full Oath of Oce of António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations. For more information,
refer to https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/speeches/2016-12-12/secretary-general-designate-
ant%C3%B3nio-guterres-oath-oce-speech.
252 System-Wide Strategy on Gender Parity, 6 October 2017. For more information, refer to https://www.un.org/
gender/sites/www.un.org.gender/les/gender_parity_strategy_october_2017.pdf.
253 Ibid. p. 29.
254 Ibid. p. 32.
Parity / ˈparɪti /
noun ~ countable
The state of being equal, especially the state of having equal
pay or status.
Chapter 5
CASE STUDIES
88
THE TIME IS NOW — ADDRESSING THE GENDER DIMENSIONS OF CORRUPTION
INTRODUCTION
e three countries that are the focus of the case studies contained in chapter 5 have been
showcased for the following reasons. Indonesia was represented at the Expert Group Meeting in
Bangkok in September 2018 where they presented the inspirational SPAK network. Ghana was,
when the draing of the present publication began, the only State party to the Convention that
had noted the importance of gender mainstreaming in their anti-corruption eorts at the outset
of their participation in the Implementation Review Mechanism. Brazil was selected due to its
innovative practises in identifying and tackling corruption at the local political level, and also due
to the extensive information available on it.
Furthermore, all three countries also form part of two anti-corruption projects run by UNODC.
e project “Accelerating UNCAC implementation in Africa” is funded by the Federal Ministry
of Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany, which covers ve African countries
including Ghana. e project “Fast-Tracking the Implementation of UNCAC” applies a regional
platform approach in its implementation, and is funded by the United Kingdom Prosperity Fund.
e platform of South East Asia includes Indonesia, while the platform for South America and
Mexico includes Brazil.
89
CASE STUDIES
CASE STUDY: BRAZIL
This mural was carried out by the students and teachers of the Wilson Camargo Public School
in Americana, Sao Paulo, Brazil. It was designed by Luana Cristina for the “Rebeldia Evoluída”
sociocultural project under the theme Brazilian culture. This project seeks to draw local youth
without leisure time activities toward the school by providing a comfortable space for learning.
The art of graffiti is presented as a means to channel and express their energy in a way that is
conducive to the improvement of society at large. This piece of art was executed by Leonardo
Smania Donanzan.
Published with the permission of Leonardo Smania Donazan.
90
THE TIME IS NOW — ADDRESSING THE GENDER DIMENSIONS OF CORRUPTION
INTRODUCTION
Brazil, together with Argentina and Chile, is one of a handful of Latin American countries that
have elected — and re-elected — a woman as their head of State. Nevertheless, and despite many
vocal, feminist, civil society groups pushing for greater gender equality in Brazil, the proportion of
elected oces occupied by women have been among the lowest in Latin America.
255
is is true at
both the federal as well as local levels. ere are many reasons for this — ranging from women’s
historical exclusion from power networks, to lesser campaign nancing, and to their comparative
lack of television time. Yet, none of these provide any clear-cut conclusions. More importantly, none
of these hold back female politicians in Brazil from raising women’s issues. In the 1980s, a women’s
caucus in Congress labelled the “lipstick lobby” (bancada do batom), successfully brought about a
re-writing of the Constitution — enacted in 1988 — to include matters such as gender equality.
256
is case study focuses on corruption in municipalities and associated gendered processes. It
describes how commonly held gender stereotypes that consider and expect women to be less
corruptible than men can aect women’s chances of winning mayoral oce, a position that wields
an unusually large amount of power in Brazil.
257
Furthermore, it illustrates how women who gain
the powers of public oce use them to substantively represent women. ey do this by promoting
other women, and improving service delivery in public sectors with which women in particular
interact, which oen involves reducing corruption.
When a woman becomes mayor in Brazil, the gender pay gap in the local bureaucracy shrinks
on average,
258
mainly because she is more likely to promote female public ocials than her male
predecessor was. Statistical analyses point to local budgets that are redirected towards increased
spending on education, social assistance, and health care.
259
To free up funds to make these changes
possible, women mayors in Brazil tend to cut spending in other areas where corruption frequently
ourishes, such as public works.
260
Women mayors also spend less money than male mayors on
patronage (e.g. on temporary sta hires shortly before the next election) and they allocate more
public funds to prenatal care, which leads to a measurable reduction in premature births.
261
255 Arajúo, C. Calasanti, A. and Htun, M. Women, Power, and Policy on Brazil from Gender and Representation
in Latin America, edited by L.A Schwindt-Bayer, Oxford Press 2018.
256 Ibid. Htun, M. (2002). Puzzles of Women’s Rights in Brazil. Social Research 69(3), pp. 733–751.
Article 5 of the Constitution “All persons are equal before the law, without any distinction whatsoever,
Brazilians and foreigners residing in the country being ensured of inviolability of the right to life, to liberty, to
equality, to security and to property, on the following terms:
I — men and women have equal rights and duties under the terms of this Constitution; …”
257 Samuels, D. Reinventing Local Government? Municipalities and Intergovernmental Relations in Democratic
Brazil. In Kingstone, P. R. & Power T. J. Democratic Brazil: Actors, Institutions and Processes. Pittsburgh:
University of Pittsburgh, 2000.
258 Funk, Kendall D., Silva T. and Escobar-Lemmon, M. C., Leading toward Equality: e Eect of Women
Mayors on Gender Equality in Local Bureaucracies, Politics, Groups, and Identities, 21 November 2017,
pp.1–20.
259 Funk, K.D. and Philips, A. Q., Representative Budgeting: Women Mayors and the Composition of Spending
in Local Governments (2018). Political Science Faculty Contributions. 33.
260 Ibid.
261 Brollo, F. and Troiano, U. What Happens When a Woman Wins an Election? Evidence from Close Races in
Brazil, Journal of Development Economics, vol. 122, September 2016, p.28.
91
CASE STUDIES — CASE STUDY BRAZIL
However, it remains unclear what the long-term consequences of gender equality eorts may be.
Women who come to power in the wake of corruption scandals involving male incumbents may
embrace traditional gender stereotypes in their electoral campaigns,
262
thereby reinforcing them.
e drawback is that such situations make it harder for other women to follow, because even the
hint of a scandal would reduce women’s opportunities in many professional spheres,
263
notably
in business and politics.
264
In Brazil’s 2016 mayoral elections, women won 11.57 per cent
265
of
mayoralties, which was the second highest proportion that women have ever won. However, the
reductions in the gender pay gap in local bureaucratic hierarchies that women mayors tend to
initiate, appeared to last only for a short while into the next male mayor’s term.
266
WOMEN ACTING FOR WOMEN
Given how widespread gendered expectations about corruptibility are in Brazil, it seems likely
that women mayors anticipate additional sanctioning from voters for ethical transgressions and
may be less willing to take the risk of engaging in corrupt acts where they perceive accountability
mechanisms to function.
267
It also appears that women mayors have less access to networks that bind together political and
business power, and consequently spend fewer municipal resources on patronage than male mayors
do. Various studies conrm that women who are elected local executives take advantage of the
powers of their oce to substantively improve women’s lives, and suggest that raising the quality of
local public services oen means reigning in government spending elsewhere, including leakage to
corruption.
262 Petherick, A., Revising Supply and Demand:Women‘s Electoral Participation and Performance WhereParties
are Diverse, Personalism Prevails, and Corruption isCommonplace. DPhil esis, University of Oxford, 2019.
Available upon request to the author.
263 Davison, H. K., and Burke., M. J., Sex Discrimination in Simulated Employment Contexts: A Meta-Analytic
Investigation, Journal of Vocational Behavior 56, no. 2 (April 2000): pp.225–248.
264 Mo, C. H., e Consequences of Explicit and Implicit Gender Attitudes and Candidate Quality in the
Calculations of Voters. Political Behavior 37, no. 2 (June 2015): pp.357–395.
265 ‘Eleições 2016: número de prefeitas eleitas em 2016 é menor que 2012’, Press release of the Brazilian Superior
Electoral Court, 8 November 2016. http://www.tse.jus.br/imprensa/noticias-tse/2016/Novembro/eleicoes-
2016-numero-de-prefeitas-eleitas-em-2016-e-menor-que-2012.
266 Funk, K.D., Silva, T. and Escobar-Lemmon, M. C. Leading toward Equality: e Eect of Women Mayors on
Gender Equality in Local Bureaucracies, Politics, Groups, and Identities, 21 November 2017, pp. 1–20.
267 As explained in Chapter 2.
Stereotype / ˈstɛrɪə(ʊ)tʌɪpˈ /
noun ~
Def.
a fixed idea or image that many people have of a
particular type of person or thing, but which is often not
true in reality.
92
THE TIME IS NOW — ADDRESSING THE GENDER DIMENSIONS OF CORRUPTION
Brazil municipal governments are responsible for the delivery of public services as reected
in the new Constitution adopted in 1988.
268
Local administrations look aer preventive and
primary health care, early and elementary education, housing, urban infrastructure, sanitation,
transportation, and the maintenance of cultural heritage sites.
269
Mayors can inuence the quality
of the delivery of public goods and services in part by appointing municipal secretaries for key
policy areas, by using various discretionary powers to reshape the local bureaucracy, and by
altering the municipal budget.
270
On average, studies show that women mayors and male mayors
do these things somewhat dierently.
271
In one study that explored these dierences, Funk et al found that women mayors are more likely
to promote women in the local bureaucracy, leading to noticeable changes in men and women
bureaucrats’ average salaries.
272
In another study, Funk and Meier found that when a woman is
elected mayor, the municipal secretaries for public health and social assistance are more likely to
be women.
273
is could be seen as an attempt to drive policy changes and improve the quality of
services in ‘women’s interest’ areas. By various means of assessment, these sectors matter more for
women’s lives in Brazil than they do for men’s: roughly six times as many women as men in the
country are employed in public health and social assistance,
274
and when citizens are asked what
the most important problem is facing the country, more women than men say the lack of health
services, or point out the levels of poverty, slums or hunger.
275
e distinction between male and female mayors’ management is especially obvious in prenatal
health care. Women mayors are far more likely to ensure that pregnant women in their municipality
receive at least one medical visit to assess both how their pregnancy is progressing, and the health
of their unborn child. Prenatal care is so much better under woman mayors
276
that the fraction of
premature births is measurably lower.
277
268 Samuels, D. e Political Logic of Decentralization in Brazil. In Decentralization and Democracy in Latin
America, in Alfred P. Montero and David Samuels (Eds), p.67–93. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame
Press, 2004. See also Article 18 of the 1988 Constitution: “e political and administrative organization of the
Federative Republic of Brazil comprises the Union, the states, the Federal District and the municipalities, all
of them autonomous, as this constitution provides.”
269 Funk, K. D., and Philips, A. Q., Representative Budgeting: Women Mayors and the Composition of Spending
in Local Governments. Political Research Quarterly 72, no. 1 (March 2019): pp.19–33.
270 Ibid.
271 Ibid.
272 Kendall D. Funk, K.D., iago Silva, T. and Maria C. Escobar-Lemmon, M. C., Leading toward Equality:
e Eect of Women Mayors on Gender Equality in Local Bureaucracies, Politics, Groups, and Identities,
21November 2017, pp. 1–20.
273 Meier, Kenneth J., and Kendall D. Funk. Women and Public Administration in a Comparative Perspective:
e Case of Representation in Brazilian Local Governments. Administration & Society 49, no. 1 (January
2017): pp.121–142.
274 Funk, K. D., and Philips, A. Q., Representative Budgeting: Women Mayors and the Composition of Spending
in Local Governments. Political Research Quarterly 72, no. 1 (March 2019): pp.19–33.
275 Ibid.
276 Even when other explanations for these dierences are taken into account in the statistical analysis, such as
the possibility that richer municipalities are more likely to elect a woman and put money into health care.
277 Brollo, F. and Troiano, U., What Happens When a Woman Wins an Election? Evidence from Close Races in
Brazil, Journal of Development Economics, vol. 122, September 2016, p. 28.
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CASE STUDIES
Primary education also matters more to women than to men in Brazil, not merely because mothers
tend to take on responsibility for nding schools for their children, and for ensuring that their kids
attend school, but because three-and-a-half times as many women as men in the country have jobs
in the education sector.
278
In municipalities with women mayors, spending priorities tend to shi,
and much more money goes towards education, in addition to health care and social assistance.
279
Women running city halls across the country appear to nd the funds for this by cutting spending
on transportation and urban development, a change that may in itself reduce corruption because
public works contracts and public procurement in Brazil, as elsewhere, carry inherent risks and
represent a major risk area for corruption.
280
e same researchers who looked at prenatal care provisions, Brollo and Troiano, also compared
overall levels of municipal corruption under male and female mayors. eir ndings add weight
to the argument that women are oen le out of male-dominated patronage networks. e lack
of transparency in government recruitment is one way that mayors can ingratiate themselves to
voters, and to the families of those with new jobs. Brollo and Troiano have found that there is
no dierence in the number of temporary hires under men and women mayors during the rst
year of mayors’ four-year terms.
281
During the fourth year, however, when re-election pressures
mount, male mayors on average hire an additional 1.5 per cent of the local electorate. Another
indication of dierences in involvement with patronage networks comes from sources of campaign
funding.
282
Campaign nance patterns have diered between men and women candidates in
Brazil, with men having been able to attract more campaign donations from the private sector
(such nancing methods have since been deemed illegal by the Supreme Court
283
). is is strongly
linked to preferential treatment later, in the awarding of government contracts.
284
Putting together
these two indications of male mayors’ incorporation into collusive networks, i.e. patronage hires
and quid-pro-quo corporate backing, helps to explain why women mayors have a 20 per cent
lower probability of winning a second term in oce.
285
at re-election statistic is all the more
striking in light of the fact that women mayors in Brazil tend to raise the overall level of funding
coming into municipalities from the federal government: they have been shown to attract about
60 per cent more discretionary scal transfers to their municipalities, by lobbying on behalf of
their districts’ needs.
286
278 Funk, K. D., and Philips, A.Q., Representative Budgeting: Women Mayors and the Composition of Spending
in Local Governments. Political Research Quarterly 72, no. 1 (March 2019): pp.19–33.
279 Ibid.
280 Ibid.
281 Brollo, F. and Troiano, U., What Happens When a Woman Wins an Election? Evidence from Close Races in
Brazil, Journal of Development Economics, vol. 122, September 2016, p.28.
282 Campaign nance rules were successfully challenged to make it illegal for corporations to donate to political
campaigns — Constitutional Court of Brazil (STF) case n°4.650 of 17 September 2015.
283 Ibid.
284 Boas, T. C., Hidalgo, F. D., andRichardson, N. P., e Spoils of Victory:Campaign Donations and Government
Contracts in Brazil, e Journal of Politics76:2 (2014),pp.415–429.
285 Brollo, F. and Troiano, U., What Happens When a Woman Wins an Election? Evidence from Close Races in
Brazil, Journal of Development Economics, vol. 122, September 2016, p. 28.
286 Ibid.
94
THE TIME IS NOW — ADDRESSING THE GENDER DIMENSIONS OF CORRUPTION
REVEALING LOCAL CORRUPTION
Most studies on corruption have to deal with the fact that reliable data about true levels of
corruption is scarce.
287
is means that corruption researchers and public oces frequently come
to rely on expert estimates and citizen perceptions with only patchworks of instances of reported
acts of corruption.
288
Studies of Brazilian municipal governments are an exception. anks to a
randomized audit programme by Brazil’s Comptroller General’s Oce, which is known in Brazil
by its acronym CGU (Controladoria-Geral da União), reliable measurements of the improper use
of public nances are available for more than 2,000 of the country’s 5,570 municipalities.
289
ese
records detail various kinds of local government malfeasance, such as fraud, over-invoicing and
illegal procurement practices.
e CGU is widely cherished by citizens who appreciate its independence. Indeed, when researchers
seek to probe how much Brazilians trust dierent sources of information about corruption,
other sources, such as allegations by political parties, are oen compared to CGU audits because
the public generally regards CGU assessments as fair and accurate.
290
is is partly because of
institutional arrangements,
291
and partly because a strong norm against partisan attachments has
developed within the institution.
292
In 2003, the CGU started using the national lottery to select local governments for audit. With
thousands of municipal administrations under its purview, and a limited budget, the CGU needed
a demonstrably fair way to select the local governments that would be subjected to its audits. Every
few months over the subsequent 12 years, Brazil’s national lottery turbines rolled in front of a live
audience, and oen in front of TV cameras. Each time, 60 numbered ping-pong balls were plucked
out.
293
Each ball carried a number that referred to a municipality.
Immediately aer each lottery, CGU auditors requested information from the federal ministries,
detailing all scal transfers that had been sent to the selected municipalities going back to at least
2001, based on which auditing checklists were created. ese detailed scal records have allowed
for the auditors to see, for example, how much money was sent to a particular municipality to
287 In 2020, UNODC Brazil and INEGI in Mexico were preparing to conduct the rst Victimization Survey
on Corruption in Brazil as a way to bridge the gap between “social perception of corruption” and “concrete
experience of exposure to acts of corruption”.
288 A few surveys do probe actual instances of corruption, for example by asking respondents how oen they
have paid a bribe in recent times. Assuming participants feel free to answer honestly, these questions still only
get at petty corruption, and miss many other forms of abuses of entrusted power, which at least in monetary
terms, may constitute the lion’s share of the problem.
289 And because the audits were randomised, inference about the levels of local government corruption across
unaudited municipalities is possible. In this case the randomisation stands up to a battery of balance tests.
290 Winters, M. S. and Weitz-Shapiro, R., Can Citizens Discern? Information Credibility, Political Sophistication,
and the Punishment of Corruption in Brazil, e Journal of Politics, vol. 79, no.1., October 11, 2016, p. 61.
291 e CGU is an autonomous institution.
292 Bersch, K., Praça, S., and Taylor, M. M., State Capacity and Bureaucratic Autonomy within National States:
Mapping the Archipelago of Excellence in Brazil, Governance, vol. 30, no. 1, pp. 105–124.
293 e very rst lottery selected 23 municipalities, the next few, 50. ereaer, and for the vast majority of these
audit lotteries, 60 were selected on each occasion.
95
CASE STUDIES
purchase a particular item of medical equipment for the local clinic. e auditors could then
specify on the audit checklist to search for and locate the item. ey could nd out the intended
dimensions of new public toilet blocks and include on the checklist that eld auditors should
be on alert for the size of such buildings. In this way, these municipal audits did not rely upon
local government book-keeping. Interestingly, in a few cases, the lottery selection even prompted
records to disappear or be destroyed.
294
Within a week of each lottery, eld teams of CGU auditors
fanned out to the 60 selected municipalities, checklists in hand. A couple of months later, they
would publish their ndings online.
295
is programme was eective at calling out corruption for a number of reasons. It facilitated
horizontal accountability,
296
i.e. accountability amongst public institutions, by gathering
information about instances of cross-municipality corruption that otherwise would have been
unlikely to come to light. A year or two into the lottery programme, for example, patterns started
to appear in the procurement of ambulances. Oen, the amounts paid were slightly too high, and
the vans procured were a bit too small to carry the equipment that ambulances should normally
contain. But because these overpayments and deciencies were not dramatic, individually, they
could be reasonably interpreted as honest mistakes of local administrators who lack the skills
to rigorously assess ambulance procurement bids. However, the audit reports from the various
lotteries, when compared, showed that the same supplier names kept reappearing and at times
these suppliers were granted procurement contracts in municipalities located strangely far away.
297
e press labelled the scheme, ‘the scandal of the bloodsuckers’.
298
e CGU’s lottery programme was also eective at reducing corruption because it prompted
vertical accountability, which is when citizens punish corrupt incumbents by withdrawing political
support. In Brazil, citizens tend to blame the mayor for local government corruption because many
policies fall under their remit. While the threshold varies by municipality, Brazilian mayors have
the authority to increase local government spending by up to 40 per cent without prior approval
of the municipal council.
299
ey are responsible for the delivery of public goods and services in
various areas of public policy. ey can also hire and re local government employees (although
with some restrictions).
294 In the case of the municipality of São Francisco do Conde, in Bahia, thieves even broke into a city council’s
building shortly aer the municipality was selected in lottery 6, and stole cell phones, diskettes and
documents relating to the activities of two ex-mayors already suspected of misappropriation of public funds.
See: ‘Municipio sorteado pela CGU tem arquivos roubados’, Agencia Nordeste, 21 October 2003.
295 Information on which municipalities were drawn are uploaded here: https://www.gov.br/pt-br/noticias/nancas-
impostos-e-gestao-publica/2020/02/cgu-realiza-sorteio-dos-60-municipios-que-serao-scalizados-em-2020.
296 O’Donnell, G. A., Horizontal Accountability in New Democracies. Journal of Democracy 9, no. 3, 1998,
pp.112–126.
297 Petherick, A., Brazil and the Bloodsuckers. Foreign Policy, 14 August 2015. https://foreignpolicy.
com/2015/08/14/brazil-and-the-bloodsuckers-corruption-lottery/.
298 For a list of coverage, see: https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/especial/2006/maadossanguessugas/.
299 Funk, K.D. and Philips, A. Q., Representative Budgeting: Women Mayors and the Composition of Spending
in Local Governments, Political Research Quarterly. 2019; 72(1): pp.19–33.
96
THE TIME IS NOW — ADDRESSING THE GENDER DIMENSIONS OF CORRUPTION
Assessments of the impacts of the CGU lotteries on incumbent mayor’s careers show that the more
acts of corruption listed in an audit report, the lower the odds of the mayor’s re-election.
300
e
eect is especially strong in municipalities with a radio station that would broadcast the auditors’
conclusions.
301
Indeed, the value of vertical accountability is evident where it is missing. For
example, while the liability of second-term mayors remains they are constitutionally prevented
from running for a third term meaning voters cannot ‘punish’ them at the ballot box
302
e lack of
fear of electoral punishment leads them to misappropriate more money than rst-term mayors, on
average, some US$55,000 more.
303
Vertical accountability also widens opportunities for candidates
who want to challenge a seemingly corrupt, rst-term incumbent by attracting voters to support a
less corruptible alternative. Also relevant: voting is mandatory in Brazil.
304
GENDER STEREOTYPING AND WOMEN’S ACCESS TO POWER
In the 2014 AmericasBarometer survey,
305
Brazilian participants were directly asked whether
they believe men or women make more corrupt politicians; 70.4 per cent answered men, and
4.3 per cent said women.
306
Another survey conducted in late 2017
307
provided Brazilians with two
lists with 25 characteristics politicians possess — one, that had the most important ‘must haves’,
and the other, the ‘must not haves’. Respondents then had to assess the gender connotations of
each attribute. ‘Honesty’ was the most commonly selected positive attribute and ‘corrupt’ the most
commonly selected negative characteristic among 25.
308
And while the respondents, on average,
300 Ferraz, C. and Finan, F., Exposing Corrupt Politicians: e Eects of Brazil’s Publicly Released Audits on
Electoral Outcomes, Quarterly Journal of Economics, vol. 123, no. 2, May 2008, pp. 703–745.
301 During the years of the CGU audit lotteries, radio served as the main source of local news in Brazil. In one
analysis that took into account how the audit report ndings led to changes in the amount of money that
the federal government sent to municipalities, and how those changes aected support for the mayor, voter
punishment for corruption (as opposed to the lesser delivery of public goods and services) only occurred
in municipalities with a local radio station. See: Brollo, F. ‘Evidence from the Brazilian Anti-Corruption
Program’, IGIER Working Paper, n.336, 2010.
302 According to the 2008 Constitution, paragraph 5 of Article 14 states that mayors may only seek re-election once.
303 Ferraz, C., and Finan. F.,2011.Electoral Accountability and Corruption: Evidence from the Audits of Local
Governments.American Economic Review,101 (4): pp.1274–1311. Additional misappropriation of second
term mayors added up across the country equated to about half of the cost of Bolsa Escola, the federal
government’s educational cash transfer programme.
304 See: Power, T. J., and Roberts, J. T., Compulsory Voting, Invalid Ballots, and Abstention in Brazil. Political
Research Quarterly 48, no. 4 (December 1995): pp.795–826. See also Article 14 of the 1988 Constitution.
305 AmericasBarometer 2014, Latin American Public Opinion Project (LAPOP). https://www.vanderbilt.edu/lapop/
ab2014.php.
306 25.3 per cent said both. Belizeans were the only other respondents to receive the same question, and while the
majority also answered men, the answers were not as heavily gendered as in Brazil.
307 Gatto, M. and Petherick, A., e Presidenta Eect (provisional title), forthcoming.
308 Not only were these the most popular selections overall, but they received the top ranking within all main
demographic subdivisions, including when men and women’s responses were considered separately (whether
the word rankings were compared across age groups, respondent sex, family income level categories).
97
CASE STUDIES
judged ‘honesty’ to be a slightly feminine trait, ‘corruption’ was the most masculine-gendered
attribute of all 50 attributes included in the survey.
309
e strength of gender stereotypes matters for women’s access to power particularly in political
systems where citizens tend to cast their votes based on impressions of candidates’ personal
qualities,
310
rather than candidates’ partisan aliations. In the public mind, capable Brazilian
mayors possess a suite of attributes that are perceived as highly masculine; they are decisive and
dominant hyper-executives,
311
who oen display an oligarchic style of running local aairs, known
in Brazil as ‘coronelismo’.
312
But when a scandal hits and corruption becomes a front-running issue,
citizens seek a more honest local leader. Under these circumstances, traditional gender stereotypes
appears to benet female candidates because women are then rapidly deemed to be far more
suitable for local executive oce.
It is possible to calculate how much a lottery audit is likely to have unintentionally given women
mayoral candidates in Brazil an electoral boost. e lottery audits have had little eect at prompting
voters to kick out corrupt male incumbents where there is no local radio station, nor when audits
reports were released early in a male incumbent’s term.
313
With two or three years of a term of
oce remaining until the next election, corrupt mayors have some time to try to make up for
misdemeanours, and citizens’ attentions dri elsewhere. But as the next election draws closer, the
potential for an audit report to draw votes away from a corrupt male incumbent and towards a
woman competitor, grows.
314
Moreover, the greater the extent of wrongdoing — measured in terms of the proportion of audited
funds that were spent in such a way that violated the law — the greater the potential of an audit report
to shi votes to a woman candidate, among municipalities with radio stations to inform voters of the
corruption.
315
On average, if a lottery audit report is published three months before the next election,
in a municipality where 20 per cent of the audited funds were wrongly spent, the overall proportion
of votes going to female candidates can be expected to rise by 11.8 per cent. at may not seem
dramatic, yet it may be enough to get a woman elected who otherwise would not have been.
309 With men perceiving it to be slightly masculine, and women perceiving it to be slightly feminine — though
more gendered than the male respondents judged it.
310 Valdini, M. E., Electoral Institutions and the Manifestation of Bias: e Eect of the Personal Vote on the
Representation of Women, Politics & Gender, vol. 9, no. 1, March 2013, pp. 76–92.
311 Samuels, D., Reinventing Local Government? Municipalities and Intergovernmental Relations in Democratic
Brazil. In Kingstone, P. R. & Power T. J. Democratic Brazil: Actors, Institutions and Processes. (Pittsburgh:
University of Pittsburgh, 2000).
312 Nune Leal, V., Coronelismo, enxada e voto, 1948. Leal coined the expression in this book as “a compromise,
an exchange of favours between a public power that was becoming progressively stronger and the decadent
social inuence of the local bosses, particularly the landowners.” However, over time, the expression has come
to symbolize a patron-clientelist relationship.
313 Petherick, A., Revising Supply and Demand:Women‘s Electoral Participation and Performance WhereParties
are Diverse, Personalism Prevails, and Corruption isCommonplace, DPhil esis, University of Oxford, 2019.
Available upon request to the author. Note that this study statistically controls for variables that, on average,
dier between municipalities that have radio stations and those that do not. e analysis used all the coded
reports of the municipalities that were randomly sampled for audit.
314 Ibid.
315 Ibid.
98
THE TIME IS NOW — ADDRESSING THE GENDER DIMENSIONS OF CORRUPTION
Among municipalities with 20 per cent of funds spent illegally, the median margin of victory
in the previous mayoral election is about eight per cent.
316
Such analysis also suggests that local
politicians in Brazil have their nger on the pulse of public opinion, as the proportion of woman
candidates rises when lottery audit reports detail corruption under male mayors in municipalities
with radio stations. Under these circumstances, either more women are willing to stand for mayoral
oce, or more local party selectors are willing to eld a female candidate, or both. is change in
the frequency of women’s candidacies happens over approximately the same period in the electoral
cycle that the audit reports were able to nudge citizens towards voting for a woman candidate.
317
Rerun local elections in Brazil appear to set o similar mechanisms. An election is rerun when the
original attempt to hold it encountered some kind of problem, which led the electoral courts to
nullify the results. While a residual phenomenon, where mayoral elections in Brazil are rerun, it is
oen because evidence emerges of illegal activity, such as vote buying. Having to rerun an election
because the disqualied incumbent purchased support appears to prompt citizens to demand
someone cleaner to head the local government.
318
Indeed, in such rerun elections, and where a
disqualied male winner of the original election does not compete, typically because he is banned
from doing so, women running for oce do especially well at the ballot box. e original winner’s
absence from the rerun race in itself appears to indicate culpability to voters.
319
Interestingly, Brazilians do not view all female mayoral candidates in rerun elections to be equally
incorruptible. Although the authorities have clamped down on the practice,
320
the wives of
disqualied male mayors sometimes compete in rerun elections. Generally, these female rerun
candidates do not poll well, as citizens view these women largely as extensions of their husbands.
is nding also indicates that not all women are perceived in the same way even though when
interviewed, many people in Brazil state that women are more honest by nature.
321
is shows how
sex-disaggregated data only hints at one aspect in a multi-layered reality of intersectionality, and
as such simply does not reect lived realities.
322
316 Specically, 7.9 per cent across the electoral years 2000-4 and 2004-8.
317 However, inside the electoral year this eect dissipates. By that stage, candidates have been chosen and
campaigns are already underway, so an audit report released then is too late to aect candidate options.
318 Petherick, A., Revising Supply and Demand:Women’s Electoral Participation and Performance WhereParties
are Diverse, Personalism Prevails, and Corruption isCommonplace, DPhil esis, University of Oxford, 2019.
Available upon request to the author.
319 Ibid. If instead he were allowed to run, the signal to voters would be that the evidence against him was weak,
or that the extent of his wrongdoing was negligible.
320 Petherick, A. Revising Supply and Demand:Women’s Electoral Participation and Performance WhereParties
are Diverse, Personalism Prevails, and Corruption isCommonplace, DPhil esis, University of Oxford, 2019.
Available upon request to the author.
321 Ibid.
322 Hankivsky, O. and Cormier, R., Intersectionality and Public Policy: Some Lessons from Existing Models,
Political Research Quarterly, March 2011, Vol. 64, No. 1 (MARCH 2011), p.219.
99
CASE STUDIES
CONCLUSION
e Brazil case study shows how uncovering corruption and widely held gender stereotypes can
inuence the outcome of local elections in the favour of more women being elected in lieu of
male incumbents who are perceived — or shown — to be corrupt. While the role local media
plays in spreading the information could be considered to fuel and promote such changes, the
fact remains that some female elected ocials are still not re-elected for a second term despite
ousting a male corrupt incumbent the rst time. e initiative of the CGU to link their random
selection of local administrations to be audited with the numbers drawn in Brazil’s national
lottery is innovative. Not only does the initiative keep local administrations on their toes, but as
these audits are concluded relatively rapidly and then widely publicized, they have the potential
to have a real impact — and in many cases to the benet of female candidates.
100
THE TIME IS NOW — ADDRESSING THE GENDER DIMENSIONS OF CORRUPTION
CASE STUDY: INDONESIA
Image Courtesy: Tropenmuseum, part of the National Museum of World.
Every April, Indonesia celebrates the life and work of Raden Ayu Kartini, known across the
country simply as Kartini — 21 April is women’s emancipation day. Born in 1879, Kartini was a
Javanese aristocrat who soon came to defy the strict social norms that surrounded her. While
one of the first Indonesian women to gain entrance to a European school in Indonesia, Kartini’s
father objected to her continuing on to secondary school. She subsequently became a vigorous
advocate of universal education, gender equality, and equal access to opportunity, the lack
of which she attributed to “oriental despotism”. Her thoughts and ideas continue to play an
important part in Indonesian society, as her letters where she laid out her views have been
preserved for posterity.
101
CASE STUDIES
INTRODUCTION
One-size-ts-all approaches to empowering women and tackling corruption are unlikely to
succeed. is is particularly true in a country as diverse and as large as Indonesia that is composed
of 16,056 islands, 1,340 recognized ethnic groups, and 718 languages which have more than a
million speakers each. Gender intersects with many other aspects of identity — including and
not limited to ethnicity, wealth, marital status, education level, and age — to aect how women
are exposed to and aected by corruption. is suggests that ‘women’s interests’, comprise an
especially diverse set of needs and preferences in Indonesia. Similarly, the concept of corruption is
understood dierently across Indonesia.
Indonesia has institutions devoted to cutting corruption and improving gender equality, with
achievements to point to in both areas. In 2000, Indonesia switched the name of its Ministry for
the Role of Women to the State Ministry for the Empowerment of Women.
323
In 2009, a so-called
‘zipper’ requirement was added to the 30 per cent gender quota for political parties’ candidate lists
in legislative elections, a provision intended to increase the quota’s eectiveness at getting women
elected.
324
e ‘zipper’ provision required party lists to be ordered such that there is a woman
among every three nominated candidates going down the list. Despite this, the quota has had
limited impact,
325
and signicant structural barriers oen stand in the way of women unaliated
with the frequently patriarchal political hierarchies from competing and winning power. Indeed,
many of the women who stood in regional elections in 2018 were wives, daughters, sisters, or
nieces of male incumbents who had reached term limits.
326
Corruption, business and politics in much of Indonesia are woven together through two subtypes
of clientelism,
327
namely vote-buying and networks of patronage. is case study illustrates how
networks of patronage are structured around the deference paid by men to other men who display
a kind of dominant masculinity, oen as a sign of loyalty and manage the benets of patronage. It
also shows how intersectional identities may be associated with experiences of corruption among
women, and with opportunities available to women who run informal businesses. Finally, this case
study looks at an important success story that Indonesia has to oer, namely the SPAK network.
323 Graham Davies, S., Women in Politics in Indonesia in the Decade post-Beijing. UNESCO, 2005. e ministry
is now called the Ministry of Women Empowerment and Child Protection.
324 e law also requires parties to include 30 per cent women in their organizational structure at the national level.
325 Hillman, B. e Limits of Gender Quotas: Women’s Parliamentary Representation in Indonesia. Journal of
Contemporary Asia 48, no. 2 (15 March 2018): pp.322–338.
326 Kenawas, Y. C., Urgency of quota system for women in regional elections. e Jakarta Post. 15 March 2018.
327 Stokes, S. C. Political Clientelism. Oxford University Press, 2011.
102
THE TIME IS NOW — ADDRESSING THE GENDER DIMENSIONS OF CORRUPTION
DECENTRALIZATION — FROM VERTICAL TO HORIZONTAL
Since its independence in 1945, Indonesia has been ruled by successive authoritarian regimes, which
exercised centralized control. Decentralization and reforms began aer the collapse of the military rule
in 1998. Subsequent democratization went hand in hand with decentralization. is had important
consequences for how corruption operates in the country, and especially for how it is organized.
Decentralization meant direct local elections, greater proportions of state funds allocated to local
governments, and an established formal role for the customary common law (known as adat).
328
Indonesia has oen been labelled a ‘patronage democracy’,
329
meaning that elected ocials have
wide discretion over how state jobs and services are given out. is gives a civil servant, pegawai
negeri sipil or PNS, considerable power and in certain parts of Indonesia is a career aspiration
among young people, as the state provides so many jobs and services.
330
For instance, even a
low-ranking PNS has the power to negotiate, placement in the PNS recruitment process, provided
they have a good relationship with a higher-ranked ocial. A person who oers this connection
and service are known as ‘calo’ (middleman) and have at times been the subject of bribery
allegations.
331
e patronage networks that connected money and power also decentred as they moved with these
changes.
332
Scholars have argued that the most dramatic political consequence of decentralization
was an explosion of local-level rent seeking.
333
Over 160 new districts have been established since
democratization.
334
While some claim the decentralization eort was largely motivated by desires
for more patronage,
335
the move away from a centralized government led to lucrative construction
contracts for new local government buildings, where family and friends could nd newly created
civil service jobs. One study of the consequences of local networks of patronage found that
mediocre and incompetent people are oen recruited and promoted in the government-provided
health care system, because they are loyal friends, co-ethnics and family to those in power.
336
328 Simandjuntak, D. Gis and Promises: Patronage Democracy in a Decentralised Indonesia. European Journal of
East Asian Studies 11, no. 1 (2012): pp.99–126. Plural legal systems therefore exist in much of the country —
that is, traditional systems sit alongside the national system of laws.
329 Berenschot, W. e Political Economy of Clientelism: A Comparative Study of Indonesia’s Patronage
Democracy. Comparative Political Studies 51, no. 12 (October 2018): pp.1563–1593.
330 Chandra, K. Why ethnic parties succeed: Patronage and ethnic head counts in India. Cambridge, UK:
Cambridge University Press, 2004.
331 Minza, W. M., In search of Middle Indonesia : middle classes in provincial towns, Ethnicity and Young
People’s work aspirations in Pontianak, Verhandelingen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land en
Volkenkunde, (volume 292) (Power and place in Southeast Asia; volume 4).
332 Aspinall, E. A Nation in Fragments: Patronage and Neoliberalism in Contemporary Indonesia. Critical Asian
Studies 45, no. 1 (March 2013): pp.27–54.
333 Hadiz, V. R. Power and politics in North Sumatra: e uncompleted reformasi. In Local power and politics in
Indonesia, Edited by: Aspinall, E. and Fealy, G. 119–31. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2002.
334 In 1998, Indonesia had 341 districts. In 2017, it had 508.
335 Aspinall, E. A Nation in Fragments: Patronage and Neoliberalism in Contemporary Indonesia. Critical Asian
Studies 45, no. 1 (March 2013): pp.27–54.
336 Blunt, P., Turner, M., and Lindroth, J. Patronage, Service Delivery, and Social Justice in Indonesia
International Journal of Public Administration 35, no. 3 (February 2012): pp.214–220.
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CASE STUDIES
Patronage networks
In the years immediately following Indonesia’s decentralization eorts, corruption hotspots
appeared throughout the archipelago state. A comparison of administrative records of a welfare
programme, which detailed exactly how much heavily subsidized rice was allocated to dierent
districts and villages, with house-to-house surveys about who actually received it, revealed that
18 per cent of the rice disappeared. Most of the missing rice was lost on its way to just 10 per cent
of the villages,
337
where it was allegedly intercepted by village heads and ocials who resold it on
the private market.
338
is was enough to cancel out the programme’s overall potential welfare
gains.
While the study on the rice distribution was conducted in 2005, 15 years later, substantial
geographical variation still exists in the extent to which citizens perceive that politics is driven
by patronage networks. Perceptions of clientelism are much higher in state-dependent provincial
capitals, and in central Kalimantan — where the economy is highly dependent on palm oil and
mining — for example, than in rural Java.
339
What appears to be driving these occurrences and
variations is the extent to which economic activities are concentrated in the hands of a few.
340
Collusion between business and politics is easier when an especially small cadre of local business
engages with political power that is held tightly by a small clan.
Becoming an elected ocial requires deal-making with local elites who can deliver votes, and,
in turn, being able to pay for vote-buying and expensive rallies and campaign advertising, oen
by promising privileged access to nancial backers when it comes to business licenses and
government contracts. In this way, the networks that connect money and power through quid pro
quo loyalty tend to be hard to disrupt, even while the development impacts of the equilibrium may
be palpable. Wide-spread corruption has been blamed for holding back electricity generation and
transmission, the proper construction of roads and bridges, and the provision of clean water in
some parts of the country.
341
To be invited into a collusive group or patronage network, it helps to have access to tools that enable
the network to maintain its power, for example having money to pay for votes, or having certain
kinds of administrative discretion at one’s ngertips. When these networks emerge and maintain
their dominance through illegal and semi-legal activities, they place a premium on secrecy
and predictability. To indicate predictability to others in the network, members oen display
337 Typically, the villages with the most ethnic heterogeneity.
338 Olken, B. A. Corruption and the Costs of Redistribution: Micro Evidence from Indonesia. Journal of Public
Economics 90, no. 4–5 (May 2006): pp.853–70.
339 Berenschot, W. e Political Economy of Clientelism: A Comparative Study of Indonesia’s Patronage
Democracy. Comparative Political Studies 51, no. 12 (October 2018): pp.1563–1593.
340 Ibid.
341 Bertelsmann Stiung, BTI 2016 — Indonesia Country Report. https://www.bti-project.org/content/en/
downloads/reports/country_report_2016_IDN.pdf.
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THE TIME IS NOW — ADDRESSING THE GENDER DIMENSIONS OF CORRUPTION
particular gender norms that come to be favoured within the group.
342
ese oen-subliminal
understandings of appropriate ways of behaving become an important part of the social glue that
seals within-group trust. As discussed in chapter 1, the social norms are strongly gendered because
people nd the behaviours of members of their own sex easier to anticipate.
343
WOMEN IN THE INFORMAL SECTOR
Diversity among the interests of dierent groups of women is obvious in preferences for
formalizing the informal sector. While women make up the majority of informal sector workers
in most countries in the world, in Indonesia, there is little dierence at the aggregate level, though
individual sectors and regions show wide variation.
344
Women who are formally employed oen
work in the manufacturing industry, especially in producing textiles and tobacco products. Women
who are informally employed oen run small owner-operator businesses that operate out of their
homes or are paid in kind or informally in cash for restaurant and hotel jobs.
In the formal sector, businesses are registered companies and therefore subject to labour regulations
including the obligation to pay taxes. Benets include greater access to regulated lines of credit.
Informal businesses may avoid the regulatory and tax requirements placed on formal rms, but
they typically have to pay more bribes to enable them to continue carrying out their business.
Informal businesses tend to get credit from loan sharks, exposing their owners to various forms
of extortion.
345
is is why most policymakers and business analysts argue that the only solution
is to ‘formalize’ the informal. Indeed, the Sustainable Development Goals even include a target to
promote formalization (SDG 8.3) as a proxy for decent work.
In 2019, Babbit et al studied how intersectionality among female entrepreneurs with informal
businesses in East Java and Northern Sumatra is associated with their preferences for formalization.
346
ese researchers found that the women with the strongest preferences for formalization tended
to be older, married and living in rural areas. Women with dierent intersectional characteristics
tended to have dierent preferences around formalization. e intersection of gender and the
rural-urban divide was particularly predictive. Women rural entrepreneurs had a 20 per cent
higher probability of wanting to formalize their rms than their male counterparts, aer taking
into account other aspects of the entrepreneurs’ individual characteristics, and the sector and size
342 Which is sometimes referred to as ‘expressive resources’. See: Bjarnegård, E. Focusing on Masculinity and
Male-Dominated Networks in Corruption. In: Stensöta H., Wängnerud L. (eds) Gender and Corruption.
Political Corruption and Governance. Palgrave Macmillan, 2018.
343 Ibid.
344 Mazaheri, N., Associate Professor, Tus University. Personal commentary, 14 October 2019.
345 Nimah Mazaheri, Associate Professor, Tus University. Personal commentary, 14 October 2019. Informal
sector businesses may also struggle to enforce business contracts, and sometimes to access public goods
like electricity. ese bribes might be necessary to get permits essential to operations, or to pay-o low level
ocials who conduct surveillance tours of small businesses, looking for those that are not formally registered.
346 Babbitt, L. G., Brown, D. and Mazaheri, N. Gender, Entrepreneurship, and the Formal–Informal Dilemma:
Evidence from Indonesia. World Development 72 (August 2015): pp.163–74.
105
CASE STUDIES
of their businesses. Rural women’s relative enthusiasm for formalization hinged on how much
they sought to avoid paying informal fees to organized, corrupt networks and to the police, on
how much they wanted greater security over contracts, and greater access to business associations,
cooperatives and to credit.
Babbit et al do not delve deeper to provide explanations as to why the dierence in preference for
or against formalizing the informal sector. However, compared to men, it is possible that women
in rural areas may nd it harder to tap into and to cultivate business contacts with more powerful
individuals. ese ndings are important in understanding Indonesian women’s diverse needs and
aspirations, where more and more of the female population is setting up small businesses. Between
2006 and 2013, this percentage grew from 18.7 per cent to 25.1 per cent, making Indonesia the
Southeast Asian country with the highest percentage of women entrepreneurs,
347
and where
women’s entrepreneurship is growing fastest.
2017 LOCAL ELECTIONS AND WOMEN BROKERS IN ACEH
Rural Indonesia is home to many patriarchal societies, but also to some societies in which
women have more power than men.
348
In theory, any gendered system of structuring power
could become bound up with clientelism, yet virtually all of the cases that researchers have
studied in the world have been patriarchal.
349
In ai politics (to which Indonesian politics is
sometimes compared),
350
those who do not conform to the form of hegemonic masculinity that
is expressed as part of a clientelist network’s accepted norms, do not have access to power because
347 Ibid.
348 Blackburn, S. Review Article: Two Views of Indonesian Women: Matriarchy vs Patriarchy. Australian Feminist
Studies 19, no. 44 (July 2004): pp.241–243.
349 Szwarcberg Daby, M., Género y Clientelismo: Lecciones del Caso Argentino, Revista SAAP, vol. 10, no. 1,
Mayo 2016: pp. 123–140.
350 Aspinall, E. A Nation in Fragments: Patronage and Neoliberalism in Contemporary Indonesia. Critical Asian
Studies 45, no. 1 (March 2013): p36. However, political parties in Indonesia have a lesser role in structuring
political competition than in ailand. In ailand, candidates tend to be those who have risen within the
party ranks. In Indonesia, parties oen nominate candidates from outside of party ranks, with their own
networks largely established. Sometimes candidates pay parties for their nomination. See also: Aspinall, E.
and Mas’udi, W., ‘e 2017 Pilkada (Local Elections) in Indonesia: Clientelism, Programmatic Politics and
Social Networks.’ Contemporary Southeast Asia: A Journal of International and Strategic Aairs, 39 no. 3, 2017:
pp.417–426.
Patriarchal / peɪtrɪˈɑːk(ə)l /
adjective ~
Def.
Relating to or denoting a system of society or
government controlled by men.
106
THE TIME IS NOW — ADDRESSING THE GENDER DIMENSIONS OF CORRUPTION
they are not trusted in sensitive exchanges.
351
While little research has focused on the gender
norms of clientelist exchanges in Indonesia, the vast majority of these patronage networks are
also known to be male-dominated,
352
providing reason to believe that the role of masculine norms
may be analogous.
353
More broadly, research into hierarchies among Indonesian men concludes
that deference paid by young men to senior men is a core element of masculine appropriateness.
354
Studies of dominant forms of masculinity in Indonesia describe a kind of aspirational paternalism
known as ‘bapakism’, which has been widely promoted and perpetuated in popular culture.
355
Post-tsunami relief efforts — gender mainstreaming gone wrong
Research into gender and corruption broadly concludes that clientelism is bad for women’s
empowerment. Yet the 2017 local elections in North Aceh seem to run counter to that conclusion.
Some 13 years earlier, the tsunami of 26 December 2004 had killed more than 200,000 people
across ve countries, of whom 120,000 were in Aceh, and led to the displacement of at least 700,000
Acehnese.
356
Eight months aer the tsunami, the central government reached a landmark peace
agreement with the Free Aceh Movement, ending a 29-year slow-burning armed conict.
357
e
eorts that sought to both build peace and to rebuild Aceh’s infrastructure also saw the allocation
of vast amounts of funding.
358
With such resources pouring in, new patronage networks were
established, as all social ties that structured society had been shaken. It was in the aermath of this
that the 2017 elections occurred, in a context that had seen new social spaces open up following
vast disruption and subsequent reconstruction eorts.
e post-tsunami disruption fuelled corruption
359
and at one point prompted humanitarian
organizations such as Oxfam to suspend its reconstruction operations in Aceh.
360
e aermath of
this unprecedented natural disaster also saw contestation over gender roles and gender’s symbolic
351 Bjarnegård, E. Gender and Politics: Explaining Male Dominance in Parliamentary Representation. Gender and
Politics Series. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.
352 Edward Aspinall, Professor of Politics, Department of Political & Social Change, Coral Bell School of Asia
Pacic Aairs, Australia National University. Personal Commentary, 22 October 2019.
353 Ibid.
354 Nilan, P. and Demartoto, A. Patriarchal Residues in Indonesia: Respect Accorded Senior Men by Junior Men.
European Journal of Social Sciences, 31, no.2 (2012): pp.279–293.
355 Eliyanah, E. Reconguring Ideal Masculinity: Gender Politics in Indonesian Cinema. PhD esis, Australian
National University, 2019.
356 Jauhola, M. Post-Tsunami Reconstruction in Indonesia:Negotiating Normativity through Gender Mainstreaming
Initiatives in Aceh. Routledge: 2013.
357 Ibid.
358 Masyrafah, H. and McKean J. M. J. A. Post-tsunami Aid Eectiveness in Aceh: Proliferation and Coordination
in Construction. Wolfensohn Center for Development at Brookings, 2008.
359 Horgan, P., In the Wake of the Tsunami: An evaluation of Oxfam International’s response to the 2004 Indian
Ocean Tsunami. Oxfam International Tsunami Fund, Monitoring and Evaluation, December 2009. https://
www-cdn.oxfam.org/s3fs-public/le_attachments/oxfam-international-tsunami-evaluation-summary_3.pdf.
360 Gelling P., Oxfam Says 22 Will Face Discipline in Fraud. New York Times, 4 May 2006. https://www.nytimes.
com/2006/05/04/world/asia/04iht-oxfam.html.
107
CASE STUDIES
representation in Acehnese society. e Indonesian government agency that coordinated the
reconstruction (the Badan Rehabilitasi dan Rekonstruksi, or BRR) developed checklists to encourage
reconstruction programmes to incorporate gender mainstreaming practices. A Gender Working
Group was set up to coordinate the gender mainstreaming eorts of international organizations,
local and central government, and NGOs involved in reconstruction.
361
But despite their best
intentions, some of the post-tsunami reconstruction eorts were critiqued for stereotyping Muslim
women, and in a few areas, their gender mainstreaming eorts were found to have backred.
362
In
retrospect, some academic circles criticized the peace process for failing to reect a ‘problematic
elite-masculinist agenda.’
363
At an international level, these shortcomings led to a shi in thinking
from ‘feminism and disasters’ to ‘feminism and development’,
364
as a way of encouraging fuller
consideration of the intersectionality of men and women’s experiences, voice, and opportunities
during and aer natural disasters.
Not all networks are male
Amid the upheaval and gender contestation of the time, many women assumed new leadership
roles in their families and communities and embraced civic organization. Darwin has studied how
women came to exercise agency within the clientelism of North Aceh, which had been the centre
of the secessionist movement.
365
In the 2017 local elections, the two candidates with the most
votes deployed women-centred networks of brokers, unlike the other candidates. is strategy
was especially successful because these networks were highly organized and found it easier to
operate in areas dominated by political rivals. One candidate’s team had a head, a secretary, a
treasurer — all women — and 27 coordinators of the women brokers that operated in the villages.
e brokers on the ground fed information about village needs up the chain to the candidate. ey
issued money for village development, shoes for village children, and handfuls of cash (just over
US$ 2.20) to each person that they met on walkabouts — all the time promoting the candidate.
e women brokers also mobilized voters to attend large political rallies, oen through payment.
Darwin found that these women, who had forged their own clientelist networks, leveraged their
ability to deliver votes to press candidates into campaigning for more women-friendly policies.
361 Lee-Koo, K. Gender at the Crossroad of Conict: Tsunami and Peace in Post-2005 Aceh. Feminist Review 101,
no. 1 (July 2012): pp.59–77.
362 One such example was land titling, where Achenese women were occasionally le worse o than they would
have been under local, customary adat rules.
363 Ibid.
364 Hyndman, J. Feminism, Conict and Disasters in Post-Tsunami Sri Lanka. Gender, Technology and
Development 12, no. 1 (January 2008): pp.101–21.
365 Darwin, L. R. e Power of Female Brokers: Local Elections in North Aceh, Contemporary Southeast Asia,
39(3): pp.532–551 (2017).
108
THE TIME IS NOW — ADDRESSING THE GENDER DIMENSIONS OF CORRUPTION
I AM A WOMAN AGAINST CORRUPTION: SPAK
Since 2004, the Corruption Eradication Commission (Komisi Pemberantasan Korupsi or KPK) has
been at the forefront of the ght against corruption in Indonesia.
366
Its investigations have led to
the conviction of many high-ranking ocials
367
and it has also signed a number of Mutual Legal
Assistance Agreements with other countries, such as with Switzerland and Singapore, enabling it
to recover state assets from abroad.
368
In 2014, KPK and the Australian Government
369
launched
an initiative called Saya Perempuan Anti-Korupsi (SPAK) — ‘I am a Woman against Corruption’,
commonly referred to by its acronym SPAK.
“Melalui Gelap menuju ke Penerangan,
melalui perang menuju kemanangan,
melalui susah menuju kesenangan.”
(R. A. Kartini)
Kekuatan Perempuan Inspirasi Perubahan
“rough darkness to illumination,
through war to victory,
through hardship to pleasure.”
e Power of Women Inspires Change
e creation of SPAK responded to concerns identied on KPK survey in 2012–2013 of citizens
in the cities of Solo (Central of Java) and Yogyakarta which shows that only 4 per cent of parents
teach honesty to their children, in terms of how it should be practiced in daily life. SPAK responded
to the need to empower women to strengthen the anti-corruption education, as Indonesian
mothers are still considered the central gures in providing the moral education within the family.
Women social activities in Indonesia (such as pengajian, social gathering, school parent meeting,
cooking/knitting courses) and home-based businesses were all prospective forums to spread the
anti-corruption discourse. Later, SPAK encouraged women law enforcement ocers to suggest
366 Bolongaita, E. P. An exception to the rule? Why Indonesia’s Anti-Corruption Commission succeeds where
others don’t — a comparison with the Philippines’ Ombudsman. U4 Issue August 2010 No 4.
367 Ibid.
368 See the press release of the House of Representatives of Indonesia: http://www.dpr.go.id/en/berita/detail/
id/29280/t/javascript.
369 As one element of a ve-year partnership (2011–2016) called the Australia Indonesia Partnership for Justice 1
(AIPJ1) and its continuation (2017–2022) called the Australia Indonesia Partnership for Justice 2 (AIPJ2).
109
CASE STUDIES
internal reforms within their agencies and addressing the opportunities for corruption they had
identied. e success of the programme was recognized by Indonesian police institutions, which
provided awards recognizing the role of women in institutional improvements and innovative
systems to ght corruption. Ever since its inception, SPAK has expanded rapidly recognizing
the diversity of women’s experiences with corruption and has developed a bespoke approach to
educating and empowering dierent groups of women. Today, SPAK Indonesia has grown into a
national movement and is registered as an independent association.
SPAK has developed a way of simultaneously addressing nuances in what women’s empowerment
entails for dierent groups of women, and in how people across this large country make sense
of corruption in their daily lives. Researchers unconnected to SPAK recently examined the
divergence in how people across Indonesia understand corruption through a survey.
370
When over
2,000people across four dierent provinces — West Kalimantan, North Sumatra, North Sulawesi
and Jakarta — were asked the open-ended question, “If you hear the word ‘corruption’, what comes
rst to your mind?” respondents’ answered in various ways. A frequency analysis of the words
in the responses identied several common elements to how Indonesians from these provinces
cognitively represent corruption. To Indonesians, ‘corruption’ entails harm done to others, to
all forms of stealing (whether or not what is stolen was an ‘undue advantage’).
371
It is motivated
behaviour, as the analysis indicated little conceptual space for structural forces that pressure
people into committing corrupt acts. It is also loss of state funds; so ‘grand corruption’ featured
prominently in people’s minds, while ‘petty corruption’ was little recognized as corruption.
SPAK ghts corruption by delivering three-day training workshops to groups that are usually made
up of entirely women.
372
A popular element of the training is playing common Indonesian games
that have been altered to become learning tools that clarify what kind of everyday acts constitute
corruption. e training is adapted to appeal to dierent kinds of women, and is sensitive to
dierent understandings of corruption. As per the results of the aforementioned survey, Maria
Kresentia, Director, SPAK, nds that when she asks women what corruption is at the start of the
training, they refer to “the big sh, billions missing, something that is far away from them”. ey
almost never refer to situations in daily life, like bribing a police ocer to avoid a trac Oence.
SPAK therefore introduces the term ‘corruptive behaviour’ to describe petty corruption and leaves
the word ‘corruption’ to mean what the trainees understand it to mean. e games are designed to
clarify what constitutes corruptive behaviour versus anti-corruptive behaviour, and involve quiz
questions about vote-buying, inappropriately using public resources, and so on. Incorrect answers
lead to a punishment card, on which there is a dierent kind of question, for example, probing
knowledge about how to report corrupt police ocers.
SPAK has now developed seven games, most the results of trained SPAK ‘agents’ (as those who
have completed the training are known) communicating that a new approach is needed to appeal
370 Abraham, J. and Pradipto, Y. D. Corruption: Its Representations and Psychology in Indonesia. Working Paper
Presented at e Asian Conference on Psychology and the Behavioral Sciences 2016.
371 UNCAC Article 15 a.
372 Although the games are designed for women’s groups, SPAK does not stop men joining or supporting the
initiative. Maria Kresentia, Personal Commentary, 18 October 2019.
110
THE TIME IS NOW — ADDRESSING THE GENDER DIMENSIONS OF CORRUPTION
to a new group. “We created a game about village budgets aer input from an agent in a particular
region — a game for village heads and village ocials,” says Kresentia. “e agent said that people
do not understand what the purpose of the village budget is and how to participate in monitoring
its management.” Independently, research into Indonesia’s decentralization process has found that
political patronage networks has led to village heads and other local elites capturing o-books
revenues, and that there is little oversight of village budgets.
373
e latest game to be developed is
about identifying corruption in marriage licensing that enables child marriages. is occurs when
ocials (starting with the head of the neighbourhood) accept bribes to record children’s ages as
old enough to marry, when in fact they are not.
SPAK Indonesia has become an independent organization and expanded rapidly. As of February
2020, it had trained 2,430 agents, and has reached many more Indonesians through its games.
Much of its success comes from tailor-making its games for its audiences, and in emphasizing fun.
Most days of a training course start with singing and dancing. Some of the games involve role-
play, and trainees oen wear fake moustaches, which gets everyone laughing. e idea is to create
a form of anti-corruption training that trainees will want to share aerwards. e nal day of the
SPAK training course focuses discussion on how to disseminate the games. ree months later
trainees are brought back together to share experiences about the successes and challenges they
faced in doing this. ere are numerous micro-examples of the training leading to changes in the
real world. One judge from East Java went back home and created a ticketed queuing system for her
court, replacing the brokers who accept bribes for ddling the court schedule. “We want to use this
example to train other women judges in East Java,” says Kresentia. SPAK has trained policewomen,
women with small, informal businesses at home, women from religious communities. “In the
future, we want to be able to reach more women from more regions and sectors in Indonesia and
create tailor-made training for them.”
CONCLUSION
Indonesia demonstrates the diversity of women’s experiences with corruption and reminds us
how the gender dimensions of corruption are complex and multidimensional. e case study
highlights this variation by examining how patronage networks collude and exclude for private
gain and limited benet. Such networks are usually predominantly male, but the case study gives
an example of a situation where women formed clientelist networks to inuence local elections
in 2017. Most importantly, the SPAK initiative shows how women can be active agents of change
by mobilizing their communities to ght corruption, an innovative approach that can serve as
inspiration to many other countries.
373 e village head of Ladang Palembang in Bengkuku province, Sumatra, demanded kickbacks of up to
20 per cent of forests conservation project budgets, and additional payments from community members
who were supposed to access poverty alleviation, such as gas cookers and solar panels, benets for free.
See: Kirya, M. Gender, Forestry and Corruption: Promoting a Gender-sensitive Approach to Corruption in
the Forestry Sector, U4, 2019.
111
CASE STUDIES
Image Courtesy: Electronic Publishing Unit, United Nations (Vienna).
Case study: Ghana
112
THE TIME IS NOW — ADDRESSING THE GENDER DIMENSIONS OF CORRUPTION
INTRODUCTION
Ghana is oen praised within development circles for its political stability and steady economic
growth. Indicators such as rates of enrolment in primary school and life expectancy, which have
both shown large gains since at least the turn of the millennium,
374
suggest that the benets of
improved governance have been trickling down. Nevertheless, governance assessments of gender
equality,
375
the rule of law,
376
and of corruption
377
nd that the eorts to root out corruption have
been less eective.
At the same time, Ghana is home to innovation in policies that simultaneously promote gender
equality and seek to prevent and curb corruption. Its National Anti-Corruption Action Plan
(NACAP) and several civil society initiatives, some of which are highlighted in this case study,
aim to address both issues together. Ghana illustrates several broader points about the subtleties
of how gender and corruption can interact. e evidence points to a disconnect between Ghanaian
women’s actual attitudes towards corruption, which appear to be similar to the attitudes of
Ghanaian men, and traditional gender stereotypes that paint the female sex as less corruptible.
It seems Ghanaian women face a dichotomy: the relative absence of women among local ocials
and the societal expectations they face on the one hand, and the unconditional pressure to behave
corruptly with the implied threat that if they do not comply, they might be sent to work in a far-o
district on the other.
is case study begins by describing the NACAP, which may be unique among national strategies
to tackle corruption in acknowledging the “disproportionate negative impact of corruption on
women, children and other ‘equity-seeking groups’ such as persons with disability and other
vulnerable groups”
378
. is anti-corruption plan explicitly states that bribery oen occurs in the
form of sexual favours,
379
and that “the design, implementation and monitoring of anti-corruption
initiatives must take account of the unique dierences, needs, concerns, priorities and experiences
of women and men”.
380
374 World Bank Data, Ghana. https://data.worldbank.org/country/GH.
375 Freedom House Country Report 2019, Ghana, states that: “despite equal rights under the law, women suer
societal discrimination, especially in rural areas… people with disabilities and LGBT persons also face
societal discrimination. Same-sex sexual activity remains criminalized, encouraging police harassment and
impunity for violence.” https://freedomhouse.org/country/ghana/freedom-world/2019.
376 Rahman, K. Overview of Corruption and Anti-corruption in Ghana, U4 Helpdesk Answer 2018:21,
11September 2018.
377 Ghana Integrity Initiative Judicial Corruption Monitoring Exercise (August 2007). In 2015, 180 judicial
ocials, 34 judges and many prosecutors and state attorneys were found to be accepting bribes in exchange
for favourable rulings. Freedom House, 2016. In a 2018 survey by e STAR Foundation to assess reasons
for bribe-paying in Ghana, the police were reported to be the most corrupt sector. Social Norms and Petty
Corruption in Ghana, 7 June 2018. https://www.star-ghana.org/stories-of-change-2/275-social-norms-and-
petty-corruption-in-ghana
378 NACAP, p. 9. https://tinyurl.com/y43h4dzl.
379 Ibid. p. 34.
380 Ibid. p. 38.
113
CASE STUDIES
In addition to focusing on local administration, this case study describes how gender inequality
and corruption are linked in land administration. Although there is little distinction in the
frequency of men and women’s bribe payments relating to land rights in Ghana, the reasons that
men and women pay these bribes dier. erefore, eective policy solutions to reduce corruption
in the sector are more likely to be successful if they take into account the ways in which incentives
for bribery will impact women and men dierently. Amongst a vibrant and vocal civil society
scene, one of the organizations has shied the emphasis of its activities away from solely criticising
corruption and towards celebrating integrity, with the recent launch of an awards programme for
integrous institutions as well as integrous individuals.
THE WOMEN’S MANIFESTO FOR GHANA
In postcolonial Ghana, women traders dominated the informal economy
381
under an apparent
consensus that being an informal trader is “a ‘natural’ and convenient way for women to
full the social expectation of combining mother- and wifehood with income generation”.
382
According to a report by ActionAid, the informal sector in Ghana employs approximately
86.7 per cent of the population, the majority being women.
383
By the late 1970s, women traders
in the informal sector, through the creation of associations, became powerful economic actors
and were viewed as a threat to male dominance. During the period of military coups that
took place in the late 1970s and 1980s, women traders were victimized by the military amidst
accusations of being corrupt and responsible for the economic challenges facing the country.
384
is culminated in the military regime destroying Makola market in 1979, which was viewed
as a symbol of the corrupt dominance of women in the economy, but which at the time was
also Accra’s main wholesale and retail marketplace and the epicentre of trade in the country.
385
Manuh and Anyidoho
386
point out that while “women were expected to be industrious, they
were also expected not to pose a challenge to men’s power”.
381 e anthropologist Keith Hart referred to the informal economy as “the mass of economic transactions that
takes place beyond eective state control” (Hart 2000: 98).
382 Overå, R. (2005) Money has no Name: Informalisation, Unemployment and changing Gender Relations in
Accra, Ghana, WP 2005: 7, Chr. Michelsen Institute.
383 https://actionaid.org/sites/default/les/publications/actionaid%20brieng%20paper%20nal%20dra_
march%204.pdf.
384 British Council Ghana. (2016) Shakespeare lives in Ghana: roles, representations and perceptions of women
in contemporary Ghanaian society. e Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER),
University of Ghana.
As widely reected in the press, Rawlings admitted as much in a speech at Adidome High School in 2014,
when he described how he had instructed his fellow commandants to destroy the Makola Market, in his
view the epicentre of Ghanaian corruption at the time. See for instance: https://www.modernghana.com/
news/538963/1/rawlings-destroys-makola.html.
385 Ibid.
386 Manuh, T. and Anyidoho, N.A (2015) To Beijing and back: Reections on the inuence of the Beijing
Conference on popular notions of women’s empowerment in Ghana. IDS Bulletin. 46(4): pp.19–27.
114
THE TIME IS NOW — ADDRESSING THE GENDER DIMENSIONS OF CORRUPTION
In 1993, Professor Kenneth Attafuah
387
published his doctoral thesis detailing punishments that
women, accused of corrupt behaviour and collaboration with the previous regime, faced in Ghana
during the period 1979 and 1982–1992.
388
ese so called “high-time” women were urban, well-to-
do entrepreneurs who were viewed as having exploited the Ghanaian economy for their personal
gain. Public tribunals (labelled by Attafuah as kangaroo martial courts), would pronounce their
verdict and sentencing would be executed immediately — all their assets would be conscated and
the high-time women were stripped naked and paraded through the streets, or worse.
389
Against that backdrop, gender equality was enshrined in the 1992 Constitution and the Ministry
of Women and Children’s Aairs (MOWAC) was established in 2001. In response to an increase
in violence against women and a lack of responsiveness from the law enforcement, the judiciary
and the government, Ghanaian women activists took to the streets on 5 July 2000 in protest,
marking the starting point of a movement, the Coalition on the Women’s Manifesto for Ghana.
At the same time, the Ghana branch of the Federation of International Women Lawyers wrote to
President Jerry Rawlings as well as to the legislature asking them to treat the situation as a national
crisis.
390
Nevertheless, as reported to the United Nations in 2004, Ghanaian women continued to
be politically and economically marginalized.
391
e Coalition started an inclusive and participatory process tackling ten areas of gender inequalities
and practices eecting Ghanaians, ranging from land rights to politics, decision-making
and public life, and discriminatory cultural practices. Based on a consensus reached, the agreed
result was published as the Women’s Manifesto for Ghana
392
and launched at the Accra Conference
Centre on 2 September 2004. Appearing ahead of the elections in December 2004, the Manifesto
also sought to empower women to use their votes as bargaining tools and to hold the elected
ocials and political parties accountable based on the agenda the Manifesto provided. For “despite
multi-party constitutional rule and good governance conditionalities, corruption, lack of
accountability and denial of access to decision-making continue to exclude the majority of
the people…”.
393
Since the Manifesto was issued in 2004, Ghana’s legislature has enacted the
Domestic Violence Act, the Human Tracking Act, the Disability Act, and has banned female
genital mutilation. Not least, MOWAC established the Fund for Women’s Participation in Local
Government.
394
While the Manifesto has been criticized for not delivering a result matching its
387 Head of the National Identication Authority, Ghana.
388 Attafuah, K. “Criminal Justice Policy, Public tribunals and the Administration of Justice in Rawlings’ Ghana
(1982–1992): A study on the Political Economy of Revolutionary Social Change and Criminal Law Reform”,
DPhil esis, Simon Fraser University, 24 September 1993.
389 Id. Attafuah recorded an eyewitness account how women were also stretched naked “on a table and whipped
mercilessly with cane, belt or leather strap.”
390 “Fury over women’s killings in Ghana”, By Kwaku Sakyi-Addo; Wednesday, 5 July, 2000, http://news.bbc.
co.uk/2/hi/africa/819744.stm.
391 Ghana’s second progress report on the implementation of the African and Beijing Platform of Action and
Review Report for Beijing +10, September 2004. https://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/Review/responses/
GHANA-English.pdf.
392 e Manifesto can be accessed here: https://library.fes.de/pdf-les/bueros/ghana/02983.pdf.
393 e Women’s Manifesto for Ghana, p.55.
394 Quaicoe-Duho, Rebecca. Five years aer ‘Women’s Manifesto’, Daily Graphic, 1 September 2009, p.11
accessed via http://pathwaysghana.blogspot.com/2009/09/ve-years-aer-womens-manifesto.html.
115
CASE STUDIES
high ambition, it continues to be a point of reference and as such has rmly entrenched gender
inequality and women’s empowerment on the Ghanaian agenda.
395
GHANA’S NATIONAL ANTI-CORRUPTION ACTION PLAN
Ghana’s anti-corruption strategy, the National Anti-Corruption Action Plan (NACAP) was
developed in 2010 and 2011 through a multi-stakeholder consultation process that involved
women’s groups among many others.
396
e initiative to bring a gender-sensitive perspective to
the development of the document primarily came from one of its draers, Professor Ken Attafuah,
who pushed for the NACAP to recognize the dierent ways that corruption can aect men and
women in light of Ghana’s history of brutal, gendered sanctioning.
e NACAP describes a 10-year strategy to curb corruption, running from 2015 to 2024. Part of its
value, from the standpoint of Charles Ayamdoo, Director,Anti-Corruption, Ghana’s Commission
on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), has been to change perspectives among
public ocers and the public at large, on the various strategies to address corruption.
397
Prior
to the NACAP’s development, most Ghanaians considered reducing corruption to be the
responsibility of just a few institutions that were set up to monitor and tackle the problem, says
Ayamdoo. But the process of developing and adopting the NACAP in parliament generated a
greater sense of collective responsibility
.398
Aer the NACAP’s adoption in 2014,
399
the CHRAJ
quickly set about training 35 ethics and integrity compliance ocers.
400
Today, more than 160
institutions in Ghana submit reports through an online platform, detailing their progress towards
curbing and preventing corruption
401
. e CHRAJ coordinates this process, and issues annual
reports about the extent of implementation. ere are signs that the NACAP is mobilizing some
organizations to take sexual corruption more seriously. e NACAP’s 2017 Implementation
Report
402
states that 27 institutions had developed and published sexual harassment policies for
their workplaces, compared to 21 in 2016. Continued improvements have since been reported in
the press.
403
Under the NACAP, every public agency is supposed to develop a sexual harassment
policy. Ayamdoo says that the CHRAJ is particularly interested in this area because in 1995, it
investigated complaints of sexual harassment at the workplace by two female employees against
395 e Manifesto is for example referenced in the Ghana National Gender Policy, 2015, accessed at:
https://www.ilo.org/dyn/natlex/docs/ELECTRONIC/103987/126660/F-515436150/GHA103987.pdf
396 Ken Attafuah. Pers. Comm. 2 October 2019.
397 Charles Ayamdoo. Pers. Comm. 14 October 2019.
398 Ibid.
399 NACAP Progress Report 2016. http://sia.arapghana.eu/web/uploads/documents/NACAP_PROGRESS_
REPORT-2016.pdf.
400 Charles Ayamdoo. Pers. Comm. 14 October 2019.
401 Ibid.
402 is is the most recent of such reports that details progress on this front. See: http://sia.arapghana.eu/web/
uploads/documents/NACAP-Informe-2017.pdf.
403 Fight against corruption is achievable — Mr Quayson, Business Ghana, 11 December 2019. https://www.
businessghana.com/site/news/general/202186/Fight-against-corruption-is-achievable-Mr-Quayson.
116
THE TIME IS NOW — ADDRESSING THE GENDER DIMENSIONS OF CORRUPTION
the Managing Director of a company. e outcome of the investigation conrmed that sexual
harassment was a growing problem in the country, which needed serious attention.
404
Developments in public agencies’ sexual harassment policies are occurring alongside growing
awareness of the extent of sexual harassment in Ghana, especially in institutions of higher
education. Recent media stories have demonstrated the pervasiveness of sexual corruption to the
general public. In October 2019, BBC Africa Eye aired the results of a year-long investigation into
sex for grades at the University of Ghana (as well as the University of Lagos in Nigeria), for which
it had sent undercover reporters to pose as students, and to lm professors’ propositions.
405
e
investigations led to several academics losing their jobs.
406
Despite progress in some areas, the pace of NACAP’s implementation has been criticized.
407
In 2016, 51 per cent of institutions with the responsibility to report did so, up from 44 per
cent in the previous year.
408
One study has examined impediments to proper implementation.
It identied insucient funding and buy-in from upper management, and limited awareness
within organizations beyond the individuals who attend an initial training activity as key
concerns.
409
Responsibility to implement the measures outlined in the NACAP has gradually extended from
the central government to local governments, Municipal, Metropolitan and District Assemblies
(MMDAs). In 2016, a number of policies and laws that had promoted decentralization were
harmonised in a law called the Local Governance Act.
410
Today, Ghana’s 260 MMDAs are
essentially in charge of local district development, and provide basic infrastructure, public works
and services.
411
To assist local administrations with proper NACAP implementation, given the
expanded mandates that decentralization has brought them, the CHRAJ has been working with
the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development and other partners to provide technical
assistance to MMDAs across the country.
412
However, expectations of rapid adoption across the board may be unrealistic. “We can actually see
some huge progress,” said Linda Ofori–Kwafo, Executive Director, Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII),
which is working with implementing partners to build capacity. In October 2019, GII was involved
404 Reference: Tetteh v. Novor [2001-2002] 1 GLR 78]; Manso v. Nornor [1994–2000]. Decisions of the
Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice — Ghana (1994–2000), p.12.
405 Sex for Grades: undercover inside Nigerian and Ghanaian universities. BBC Africa Eye Document, 7 October
2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=we-F0Gi0Lqs.
406 Two Ghanaian lecturers suspended aer BBC Africa Eye ‘Sex For Grades’ lm, BBC News, 9 October 2019.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-49993588.
407 Rahman, K. Overview of Corruption and Anti-corruption in Ghana, U4 Helpdesk Answer 2018:21,
11September 2018.
408 Charles Ayamdoo. Pers. Comm. 14 October 2019.
409 Making the NACAP Work. Policy Brief. Ghana Anti-corruption Coalition. https://tinyurl.com/yxdvtwdq
410 https://ghalii.org/gh/legislation/act/2016/936.
411 Brierley, S. Unprincipled Principals: Co‐opted Bureaucrats and Corruption in Ghana. American Journal of
Political Science 64, no. 2 (April 2020): pp.209–222.
412 Charles Ayamdoo. Pers. Comm. 14 October 2019.
117
CASE STUDIES
in stakeholder consultations with traditional leaders, the head chiefs across ten regions of the
country.
413
e objective of these meetings is to disseminate the NACAP and clarify what it implies
for dierent groups and organizations’ roles and responsibilities. “e NACAP is helping, but we
have a long way to go. It is such a big country, and many people have dierent rules,” she added.
GENDERED DISPARITIES IN LOCAL ADMINISTRATIONS
Despite various policies to reduce it, gender disparity in the Ghanaian civil service exists. At the
time of independence from Great Britain in 1952, the civil service was largely white and male, and
in line with the rules and regulations governing the British civil service, women had to resign if
they intended to marry. In 1965, the Industrial Relations Act banned all forms of discrimination
against women in employment and the workplace.
414
Ghana’s 1992 Constitution requires the
government to ensure fair treatment of men and women. e general failure to give women equal
space in public life has prompted the adoption of an Armative Action Policy in 1997 with a goal
of 40 per cent female representation in the management of all public institutions and oces.
415
However, as it is only a policy, it does lacks the enforceability of law, this has led senior women
in the civil service to refer to it as a ‘paper tiger’.
416
Nevertheless, the Armative Action Policy
remains the guiding document to date.
417
Ghana’s local administration is centrally organized. Public ocials are recruited through
meritocratic examinations, which, in theory, should reduce the potential for corruption in the
civil service, by facilitating civil servants speaking truth to power.
418
Recruitment via public
examination should also, in theory, promote gender equality within the civil service.
419
Yet those
who study Ghana’s administration point to manifold indicators of gender bias.
420
413 Linda Ofori–Kwafo. Pers. Comm. 14 October 2019. GII is the local chapter of Transparency International.
414 Ibid.
415 Ibid.
416 Ibid.
417 e Ghana National Gender Policy, 2015, p. 10 e Armative Action Policy formulated in 1998 by
the Government aer Beijing Plan of Action set targets of 40% representation of women at all levels of
governance, on Public Boards, Commissions, Councils, Committees and Ocial Boards including Cabinet
and Council of State. Accessed at: https://www.ilo.org/dyn/natlex/docs/ELECTRONIC/103987/126660
/F-515436150/GHA103987.pdf.
418 Dahlström, Carl, Victor Lapuente, and Jan Teorell. e Merit of Meritocratization: Politics, Bureaucracy, and the
Institutional Deterrents of Corruption. Political Research Quarterly 65, no. 3 (September 2012): pp.656–668.
419 As noted in Helena Stensöta et al’s comparison of corruption levels, with the proportion of women in
legislatures and bureaucracies, described in chapter 1.
420 Ofei‐Aboagye, Esther. Promoting Gender Sensitivity in Local Governance in Ghana. Development in Practice
14, no. 6 (November 2004): pp.753–760. In 2006, Ghana’s CEDAW article 18 report indicated “e major
contributory factors to women’s low participation in national decision-making include lack of education
and cultural perceptions of women’s roles in the society. Illiteracy among women is the result of the tacit
belief that men are superior and should be given the rst option in the allocation of limited family resources.
Few women stand for election because they know very little about Constitutional provisions. ey are more
informed about their cultural and religious obligations.” Combined third, fourth and h periodic report of
Ghana ( CEDAW/C/GHA/3-5 ; CEDAW/C/GHA/Q/5 and Add.1).
118
THE TIME IS NOW — ADDRESSING THE GENDER DIMENSIONS OF CORRUPTION
Studies of women’s progress within the public administration nd a strong glass ceiling eect.
421
Women’s under-representation grows more acute higher up the ladder. Only 32 per cent of civil
service positions are lled by women, and only 12 per cent of positions with decision-making
power.
422
is means that most women in the civil service retain lower, less inuential posts, such
as secretaries and clerks. e pattern would indicate that gendered eects in the process of design
and in the implementation of public policy are less anticipated.
423
It would also seem to have a
negative impact on women’s representation in Ghanaian politics, despite women who reach senior
positions in public service performing better in politics than other women who attempt a political
career.
424
ere are many reasons why women are poorly represented in the public service, especially
in its upper echelons. Some of the reasons that have been identied by researchers
425
include
a lack of systematic mentoring programmes, the tendency of ministries to conduct important
activities during aer-work hours when women oen face additional pressures to return home,
and perhaps even the bringing together of ‘women’ and ‘children’s aairs’ in the creation of a
‘Ministry of Women and Children’s Aairs’ — reinforcing women’s unequal care responsibilities
in the home.
A recent study indicated that much of the hesitation amongst women in rural Ghana in contesting
for public oce could stem from a misunderstanding. e study revealed how potential women
candidates oen thought that their lack of education would not favour them because they did
not have adequate prerequisite experience of public speaking and use of the “Queens” language,
i.e. English.
426
Amponsah et al. in clarifying that uency in English was in no way a requirement as
proven by citing section 54 of the Local Government Act (Act 462) (emphasis added):
“A district should organize its assembly sessions in English or any Ghanaian language
common to the district assembly members.”
Nonetheless, the study also revealed that the standing order and other reports of the assembly
are deliberated in the English language during assembly sessions. e authors concluded that this
persistently posed a problem to assembly members who could neither read, write nor speak the
English language.
421 at this eect can be found exemplies the benets of sex-disaggregated data recorded for dierent levels of
organisational hierarchy. See: Kwaku Ohemeng, Frank L, and Augustina Adusah-Karikari. Breaking rough
the Glass Ceiling: Strategies to Enhance the Advancement of Women in Ghana’s Public Service’. Journal of
Asian and African Studies 50, no. 3 (June 2015): pp.359–379.
422 Adusah-Karikari, Augustina, and Frank Louis Kwaku Ohemeng. Representative Bureaucracy in the
Public Service? A Critical Analysis of the Challenges Confronting Women in the Civil Service of Ghana.
International Journal of Public Administration 37, no. 9 (29 July 2014): pp.568–80.
423 Ibid.
424 Ibid.
425 Kwaku Ohemeng, Frank L, and Augustina Adusah-Karikari. Breaking rough the Glass Ceiling: Strategies to
Enhance the Advancement of Women in Ghana’s Public Service. Journal of Asian and African Studies 50, no. 3
(June 2015): pp.359–379.
426 Amponsah, Ellen Owusu; Opoku, Prince; Amankwa, Mark Opoku; Dagba Gershon. Improving women
participation in local government in Ghana: an empirical study, June 2017.
119
CASE STUDIES
THE GENDERED DIMENSIONS OF PUBLIC PROCUREMENT
However, in local administrations at least, there may be additional, subtle pressures relating to
corruption. As local governments are responsible for public works and services, they frequently
engage local companies in procurement. Recent research into corruption in local administrations
in Ghana has revealed that ocials enable bid rigging in public procurement largely because
they believe local politicians have the power to move them to another district, and can punish
non-cooperation in this way.
427
For bid rigging to work, mayors rely on the secrecy and competency
of civil servants. e more strongly local ocials believe that local politicians have the power
to move them to another district, the less likely they are to report corruption.
428
Given the
aforementioned care responsibilities that women oen face, there are reasons to suspect that this
might have gendered impacts.
e public procurement process for local governments is outlined in the Public Procurement
Act of 2003.
429
Although Ghana’s decentralized procurement process includes over 1,000 entities,
the process remains the same across the country. Requirements include widely advertising a new
project with instructions about how companies can apply and purchase tender documents from
the Government. Bids are supposed to remain secret until they are opened in public. A committee
of three or four ocials reads the details of each bid, and has responsibility for ranking them.
Although this is what is supposed to happen, implementation of the ocial process tends to be
weak and the recommendations of the local procurement committee is not always taken into
consideration.
430
Furthermore, companies that are found guilty of corrupt activity in procurement
are supposed to be banned from bidding for government contracts for ve years, yet this rarely
happens.
431
Brierley’s research has found that two methods of bid rigging are common.
432
One method
restricts the number of companies that can apply for a procurement contract. is happens when
bureaucrats print a small number of tender documents, and sell them all to the mayor’s preferred
contractor. When this happens, and tender documents are submitted, it may appear as though
they come from dierent rms, but in fact the same person owns all of the companies competing,
or close friends or relatives do.
433
e second bid-rigging method involves the mayor’s preferred
contractor receiving privileged information, which ensures that this contractor can submit the
most attractive bid.
427 Brierley, Sarah. Unprincipled Principals: Co-opted Bureaucrats and Corruption in Ghana. American Journal
of Political Science 64, no. 2 (April 2020): pp.209–222.
428 Ibid.
429 https://www.ppaghana.org/documents/ACT663_RePrinted.pdf.
430 Brierley, Sarah. Unprincipled Principals: Co-opted Bureaucrats and Corruption in Ghana. American Journal
of Political Science 64, no. 2 (April 2020): pp.209–222.
431 Rahman, K. Overview of Corruption and Anti-corruption in Ghana, U4 Helpdesk Answer 2018:21,
11September 2018.
432 Brierley, Sarah. Unprincipled Principals: Co-opted Bureaucrats and Corruption in Ghana. American Journal
of Political Science 64, no. 2 (April 2020): pp.209–222.
433 Ibid.
120
THE TIME IS NOW — ADDRESSING THE GENDER DIMENSIONS OF CORRUPTION
Brierley recently ran a survey to assess local ocials’ perceptions of what might lead them to
be sent to another district. Whistleblowing on bid-rigging in procurement was high on the list:
58 per cent of local civil servants thought that it would lead to them being transferred.
434
e
ocials answering the survey also believed that the mayor had the power to do this. e results
also showed that the more civil servants believed these pressures to be real, the less likely they
were to call out corruption.
435
To be sure, being moved to another district is likely to mean familial
disruption, or even having to move away from family, in addition to potentially living somewhere
less desirable. Generally speaking, civil servants in Ghana want to avoid being sent to rural, less
developed parts of the country, which suggests that the implied threat of transfer is a more potent
pressure on those with jobs in urban districts.
ere is no direct evidence that this threat exerts more pressure on women in local administrations
than on men. However, taking into the consideration the traditional duties of family care that have
been referenced earlier in this case study, the impact of transfer on family dynamics would mean
that it likely would impact women dierently than men. As women oen have more domestic
responsibilities than men, and may be sanctioned more strongly for going against the expectation
that they should be caring and prioritize familial responsibilities, the fear of being sent to another
district is likely to be more acutely felt by female than by male local ocials. Even though Brierley
surveyed about 800 civil servants,
436
there were too few women in the sample to reliably investigate
dierences between men and women.
437
In Ghana, as elsewhere, survey data suggests that gender
stereotypes pertaining to corruptibility are widespread.
438
which in turn suggests that women
ocials who fail to blow the whistle and are later found to have knowingly facilitated corrupt
practices may receive harsher social sanctioning than men in the same situation. Taken together,
these social ingredients may discourage women’s rise in the civil service. Women local ocials
oen nd themselves in a vicious circle: if they go along and enable corruption, they risk greater
punishment if caught; yet, if they don’t facilitate local level corruption, the looming threat of family
disruption due to a possible transfer is not an acceptable option alongside traditional expectations
of women as homemakers.
434 Ibid.
435 Ibid.
436 is study rst included bureaucrats from to ve southern regions, containing 126 districts. Within these,
a stratied, random sample of 80 districts were selected. e civil servants surveyed held the positions of:
District Co-ordinating Director, Assistant Director, Budget Ocer, Finance Ocer, Auditor, Planning Ocer,
Procurement Ocer, District Engineer, Head of Education, Head of Health, Head of Works, and Head of
Social Development.
437 Sarah Brierley, Pers. Comm. 11 October 2019.
438 A 2014 survey by the local chapter of Transparency International, the Ghana Integrity Initiative reported that
81.5% of respondents think there would be less corruption if more women were in positions of authority,
compared to 6.2% who thought there would be more corruption if this happened. https://www.tighana.org/
dmsdocument/33.
121
CASE STUDIES
The gendered impact of corruption in land rights
Even though studies of gender stereotyping in Ghana show that citizens view women as less
corruptible than men, a study that probed men and women’s attitudes towards whether certain
corrupt acts are justied found no dierence. In 2007, Alhassan-Alolo assessed attitudes towards
three activities that contravened Ghana’s anti-corruption laws. is survey asked
439
whether it was
acceptable for:
1. an ocial to receive a gi in return for expediting a passport application;
2. a government agency to form a ‘solidarity group’ for the purposes of
inappropriately supplementing their incomes; and
3. whether it was justied for the Chief Director of the Ministry of Foreign
Aairs to succumb to pressure from kinship networks to inuence travel
visa decisions.
For all three activities, there was no signicant dierence in the average responses that Ghanaian
men and women gave. In fact, slightly more women strongly agreed that the rst item, oering a
gi in return for speeding up the passport application process, was justiable behaviour. Although
this dierence was not statistically signicant, it suggests (as Alhassan-Alolo proposes in a separate
study
440
) that raising the prominence of other gendered expectations could prompt women to
behave more corruptly than men.
The underlying reasons for land corruption
In Ghana, corruption is fairly widespread in the land sector.
441
Land corruption comes in many
forms and can involve land ocials or traditional leaders demanding bribes, for example, or
big companies grabbing land titles by underhand means. Another recent survey shows that
women in Ghana do not lack opportunities to pay land bribes. In fact, unlike women in most
sub-Saharan African countries in this survey, Ghanaian women were more likely than men to
report being asked to pay some sort of land bribe in 2016.
442
Dierences arose over the 12-month
period studied, however, in the reasons cited for Ghanaian men and women for paying bribes.
439 Alhassan-Alolo, Namawu. Gender and Corruption: Testing the New Consensus. Public Administration and
Development 27, no. 3 (August 2007): pp.227–237.
440 Alolo, Namawu. Ethic of Care Versus Ethic of Justice? e Gender Corruption Nexus: Testing the New
Conventional Wisdom. Ethics and Economics, 4(2): pp.1–17 (2006).
441 Mutondoro F., Ncube M. J. & Addah M. A. An Analysis of the Impact of Land Related Corruption on
Women: Case Studies from Ghana and Zimbabwe. Paper prepared for presentation at the 2016 World Bank
Conference on Land and Poverty, Washington D.C.
442 Arson et al. Women, Land and Corruption: Resources for Practitioners and Policymakers. Transparency
International. https://images.transparencycdn.org/images/2018_ResourceBook_WomenLandandCorruption_
EN.pdf.
122
THE TIME IS NOW — ADDRESSING THE GENDER DIMENSIONS OF CORRUPTION
Only 7per cent of men who paid land bribes did so to avoid eviction. For women, this proportion
was 46 per cent. In the same study, 68 per cent of men said they were named on their land title,
versus 39 per cent of women. e main reasons that men reported paying land bribes were to
secure a title and to speed up a transaction.
When there is more than one recognized system of land ownership, the repertoire of corrupt
strategies tends to be bigger. Approximately 80 per cent of Ghana’s land falls under customary land
tenure agreements, which are administered by traditional authorities.
443
Disputes are commonly
due to physical boundaries in these tenure agreements being dicult hard to identify.
444
Oen,
corruption at the interface of national land ownership laws and customary law exasperates
inequalities that may exist within and be perpetuated by both systems. e interface of the two
legal systems frequently creates space for worsening gendered impacts of land inheritance.
Ghana’s constitution mandates equal rights regardless of gender.
445
erefore, either spouse of a
heterosexual union inherits the other’s estate if there is no will. Widows oen have no or minimal
inheritance rights under customary law, however, and either their husband’s family or traditional
leaders may opt to dispossess them.
446
For many women who nd themselves in this position, they
are also faced with losing their agriculture-based livelihoods. e exact nature of the customary
rules and pressures vary by community. Among patrilineal communities in the Volta region, widows
can maintain access to the land through marriage within their husband’s family.
447
If they choose
to remarry within that family, they forgo access to their own lineage land. If they refuse to remarry,
they may lose all land rights or be le with a tiny patch. Among matrilineal communities such as the
Akans, the pressures are less acute, and widows typically retain a right to lineage lands.
448
e way in which land insecurity is gendered in Ghana is an important inuence on how land
corruption is gendered. ese insights are crucial for understanding how to reduce corruption
in the sector. Rather than focus a policy response on punishing bribe-payers, another option is
to educate women in traditional communities about the law, and to raise public awareness of the
hardships that widows face. is is exactly what GII has been doing.
443 Ibid.
444 Yeboah, Eric, Linda Kwafo, Mary Awelana Addah, Annette Jaitner, and Mariya Gorbanova. Women, Land and
Corruption in Ghana: Evidence from Selected Case Studies. Accra, Ghana: Ghana Integrity Initiative, 2016.
445 e Constitution of Ghana Article 17 — Equality and Freedom from Discrimination.
(1) All persons shall be equal before the law.
(2) A person shall not be discriminated against on grounds of gender, race, colour, ethnic origin, religion,
creed or social or economic status.
e Intestate Succession Law of 1985, as amended (PNDCL 111), also makes reference only to spouse without
further qualication of biological sex.
446 Yeboah, Eric, Linda Kwafo, Mary Awelana Addah, Annette Jaitner, and Mariya Gorbanova. Women, Land and
Corruption in Ghana: Evidence from Selected Case Studies. Accra, Ghana: Ghana Integrity Initiative, 2016.
447 Duncan B. A. and Brants C. Access to and control over land from a gender perspective a study conducted in
the Volta region of Ghana. FAO: Rome. (2004) http://www.fao.org/3/ae501e/ae501e00.htm.
448 Yeboah, Eric, Linda Kwafo, Mary Awelana Addah, Annette Jaitner, and Mariya Gorbanova. Women, Land and
Corruption in Ghana: Evidence from Selected Case Studies. Accra, Ghana: Ghana Integrity Initiative, 2016.
123
CASE STUDIES
Addressing land corruption through public education
e Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), in collaboration with another NGO called Women in
Law and Development in Africa (WiLDAF) has been promoting women’s land rights in Ghana
through participatory video.
449
“We helped women to document their own story,” explains Linda
Ofori–Kwafo. “e women have been trained to take the shot, to do the lming, and then to come
and do the editing themselves.” e videos explain how land corruption works in the Upper East
region of the country. One video, called ‘Widow’s Cry’ features several widows.
450
Unless these
women agree to marry another man from their late husband’s family, usually his brother, they
are faced with losing the land that they had farmed for many years, and at best getting a tiny
corner a eld. Widows can bring cases to the local ‘tindana’, whose job it is to adjudicate customary
land disputes. Typically, the tindana ensures that widows are not le empty-handed. However,
sometimes the husband’s family sells the land to business owners, who quickly le paperwork in
the courts to formally register their ownership, referring to national rather than customary law. At
times, this happens before the matter is brought to the tindana, however, oen it happens with the
tindana’s consent due to bribery. In these cases, widows get nothing.
Participatory video has proven to be a persuasive vehicle to get wealthier southerners in Ghana to
learn about the injustices that these women experience, especially at the interface of overlapping
legal systems. “We’re trying to change the face of an NGO. We used to speak for them, but it’s more
eective when you see the passion and commitment of these women telling their own story,” says
Ofori–Kwafo.
449 Wesley Chibamba, Edward Bankoloh Koroma, Farai Mutondori, Maneno Mary Nkutawala, Michael
Henchard Okai, Ketakandriana Ratoson, Lillian Zawedde Senteza. Combatting Land Corruption in Africa:
Good Practice Examples. Transparency International 2019. https://images.transparencycdn.org/images/2019_
Guide_CombattingLandCorruptionAfrica_English.pdf.
450 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=docGVZFIMFI.
Matrilineal /ˌmætrɪˈlɪniəl /
adjective ~
Def.
Used to describe the relationship between mother and
children that continues in a family with each generation, or
something that is based on this relationship.
124
THE TIME IS NOW — ADDRESSING THE GENDER DIMENSIONS OF CORRUPTION
ASSERTIVE CIVIL SOCIETY — MAKING A DIFFERENCE
Although Ghana struggles with corruption and gender inequalities, surveys show that its citizens
are willing and motivated to push for improvements,
451
and Ghana consistently ranks among the
top three countries in Africa for freedom of speech and of the press.
452
Civil society organizations
are well versed in capitalising on the free press, and in the past have successfully lobbied for
legal changes such as whistleblower protection
453
and a freedom of information act,
454
oen as
part of a coalition called the Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition (GACC), which is composed of
public institutions, journalists’ association, private sector, faith-based and NGOs. Aside from GII,
other prominent NGOs combating corruption in Ghana include Strengthening Transparency,
Accountability and Responsiveness in Ghana (STAR Ghana), the Ghana Extractive Industry
Transparency Initiative (GHEITTI), and the Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana).
Various civil society programmes in the country bring together eorts to simultaneously combat
corruption and improve gender equality. GII has long encouraged social audit clubs.
455
ese involve
bringing together about a dozen citizens to represent a community, oen through a community
election, and training them in workshops on how to monitor the delivery of local public services,
456
and in how to tell stories that eectively communicate their ndings. GII now strongly emphasises
gender mainstreaming in both club composition
457
and as part of each club’s monitoring practises.
While not every social audit club has functioned as intended in Ghana,
458
there have been some
noteworthy triumphs, such as the nding by one club in a district called Akatsi South that the
materials intended for use to build a school were of such poor quality that they crumbled upon
a mere touch.
459
is led to pressure on the district assembly to correct the problem. Other
clubs have paid particular attention to public service delivery in the area of maternal health.
460
451 Isbell T. Ecacy for Fighting Corruption: Evidence from 36 African Countries. Afrobarometer Policy Paper
No. 41 | July 2017. https://tinyurl.com/y3pl3xn5.
452 Ghana currently ranks 30th out of 180 countries assessed on the World Press Freedom Index 2020, Reporters
Without Borders. https://rsf.org/en/ranking#.
453 Although there have been criticisms of how the 2006 Whistleblowers’ Act is used. Bertelsmann Stiung
Country Report 2018. See: https://www.bti-project.org/en/reports/country-reports/detail/itc/GHA/.
454 A comprehensive Right to Information Bill was enacted by Parliament in July 2019, thereby becoming the
Right to Information Act (Act 989).
455 Indeed, it was these clubs that petitioned the government for a bespoke Freedom of Information law.
Mahmoud Farag, Social Audit in 20 Steps. Lessons from Fighting Corruption in Guatemala, Peru and Ghana.
Transparency International, 2018.
456 Note that many instances of the incomplete delivery of public goods and services in Ghana, especially where
construction is concerned, are caused by cycling political preferences rather than by corrupt practices. See:
Williams, M. J. (2017). e Political Economy of Unnished Development Projects: Corruption, Clientelism,
or Collective Choice? American Political Science Review, 111(4), 705-723. doi:10.1017/s0003055417000351.
457 Sometimes with gender quotas. Linda Ofori–Kwafo. Pers. Comm. 14 October 2019.
458 Yakubu A.-R., Donkoh, S. A., Kudadze, S. Stakeholders’ Perceptions of ActionAid’s Audit Processes in the
Northern Region of Ghana. UDS International Journal of Development, Vol. 2 (1), August 2015.
459 Ibid.
460 Linda Ofori–Kwafo. Pers. Comm. 14 October 2019.
125
CASE STUDIES
With support from STAR-Ghana, social audits have blossomed into a community scorecard
monitoring system for healthcare service delivery.
461
e most recent GII initiative is a series of integrity awards, which were given out for the rst
time in December 2019. e idea behind the awards is to encourage emulation of good practices
at the level of organizations as well as individuals. Other integrity awards schemes exist elsewhere,
but the institutional focus on GII’s approach is unusual. is awards programme accepts public
nominations to be screened by GII’s awards committee. e committee evaluates public institutions
on the basis of whether they have a service charter stating a clear mission,
462
on improvements in
the eectiveness and eciency of public service delivery, on how sustainable their improvements
are, and on whether they encourage the inclusion of vulnerable and social excluded groups.
463
In these ways, the criteria are in-sync with recent academic work re-orientating the concept of
integrity from the individual to the institutional level.
464
CONCLUSION
e Ghana case study highlights the challenges of implementing unconventional forward-looking
policies seeking to ght corruption and achieve gender equality, pointing to the complexity
of the relationship between gender and corruption. Against the backdrop of societal norms
that give women traditional gender roles, women working in local government face gendered
pressures to engage in public procurement corruption exacerbated by exclusion of women in
leadership roles in the public service. Corruption in land administration reveals how legislation,
national land ownership laws and customary law can result in gender discrimination in land
ownership. However, Ghana’s dynamic civil society has come to be a driving force behind the
gender dimensions of the anti-corruption initiatives. ese initiatives exemplify good practise
focusing on celebrating and rewarding institutions and individuals practising integrity by raising
awareness and knowledge of Ghanaian women’s rights.
461 Report on the Implementation of Community Scorecard, Ghana Integrity Initiative, STAR-Ghana/UNDP.
https://www.tighana.org/dmsdocument/32.
462 Linda Ofori–Kwafo. Pers. Comm. 14 October 2019.
463 See: https://ghanaintegrityawards.org/awards/judging-criteria/.
464 Kirby, N. An ‘Institution-rst’ Conception of Integrity, forthcoming British Journal of Political Science,
Working Paper version available from: https://integrity.bsg.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/les/integrity/documents/
media/public_institutional_integrity_conceptual_issues.pdf.
Conclusion
128
The Time is Now — addressiNg The geNder dimeNsioNs of corrupTioN
While early research and debate around the connection between gender and corruption focused
on the question whether women were the “fairer sex”, some twenty years later we have come to
appreciate that the answer is not as straightforward as originally thought. Corruption impacts
women and men dierently due to social and cultural norms that inuence how people interact
and how they access public services such as education and health care. Due to their reproductive
health care needs, women are disproportionally vulnerable to corruption in this sector.
Furthermore, women and girls are more likely to resort to acts of a sexual nature as currency
in cases of corruption. Single-sex networks inhibit progress and transparency by virtue of their
selectiveness and by entrenching the oen silent status quo. Focusing anti-corruption eorts in
particular sectors or services to take into account intersectional inequalities would lead to the
inclusion of a wider array of vulnerable groups who tend to rely upon them more than other.
It is inspiring to see how anti-corruption and gender equality eorts tend to be mutually
reinforcing and how synergies between the two can strengthen policy decisions and legal
frameworks. Examples in this publication highlight how gender equality stands to benet from a
mixed working environment, which in turn is less likely to experience corruption. Anti-corruption
eorts such as enhanced transparency in public procurement processes also benet from breaking
the status quo by the disruption of collusive networks as well as built in requirements, such as
equal pay for men and women. ese synergies can pave the way for an innovative, more inclusive
and more egalitarian stance and approach of public institutions and society as a whole.
Explore ways in which anti-corruption safeguards can be
strengthened by including gender equality measures in the
national, cultural and societal contexts where the policies
and laws are to be implemented.
Other areas that may lend themselves to further consideration include judicial integrity and
whistleblower reporting systems. e societal stigma attached to using sexual favours as a
corruption currency risks not only re-victimizing those exposed to this, but can also hinder its
eective reporting. Victim-centred reporting mechanisms, where those receiving and investigating
claims involving sexual acts or favours, have an important role to play in breaching this gap
between societal expectations and the lived experiences. To this end, addressing conscious or
unconscious gender bias in the courts can provide the equitable solution that is required to
ensure equality before the law — and thereby strengthening judicial integrity.
Strengthen judicial integrity of the judiciary and the courts
by addressing unconscious– and conscious–gender bias by
undertaking a gender audit.
129
coNclusioN
Nevertheless, the unreported gures of corruption oences, such as bribery, suer from a very
high “dark gure”, i.e. such oences are not reported to or detected by criminal justice institutions.
is is because victims or witnesses of corruption are usually less likely to report such cases than
other types of crime. In addition, as highlighted in the publication, women are particularly
unlikely to report corruption as, generally, they are more fearful than their male counterparts. It
is noteworthy that lack of protection, fear of reprisals and the level of condentiality are prioritized
amongst women when deciding on whether to report corruption or not. ese matters underscore
the importance of not only having eective whistleblower reporting systems in place, but also
ensuring that they are gender-sensitive and are accompanied by eorts to ensure that the public
knows how to access them.
Help break the taboo around sexual ‘favours’ and acts
of a sexual nature as corruption currency. Ensure that
whistleblower reporting and protection mechanisms are
gender responsive and use a victim-centred approach.
Data collection tools should go beyond the aim of
sex-disaggregation to include questions and analysis that
explores the intersectional realities lived. Such data should
also be made available to scholars and other interested
parties.
Evidence-based policymaking in the eld of gender and corruption remains far from the norm.
More reliable data about the prevalence of dierent varieties of corruption and their associated
gendered processes would greatly enable national policy creation. GRECO’s decision to make a
third of the questions gender-related in the evaluation questionnaire since the h round of its
peer evaluation process, has therefore set an important example to follow. e SDG data collection
and reporting requirements, together with initiatives such as that of GRECO, should provide an
impetus to gather this type of data. It is hoped that this will encourage Member States to collect the
data and make it available in a way that would allow scholars and interested parties to conduct an
analysis to form the evidence-base that policymaking would require.
Men and women have one lead role —
that as human beings.
~ Eva Moberg
Swedish author
130
The Time is Now — addressiNg The geNder dimeNsioNs of corrupTioN
In eect, all forms of education — be it formal schooling or a larger public education and
awareness campaigns — remain a master key to unlock solutions that can advance both the
ght against corruption and gender equality. Such solutions, in order to be equitable, must
take into consideration a variety of factors and can cater to both the specic context in which an
anti-corruption measure is developed as well as the unique cultural and societal norms that apply
and are relevant in a country. As the country examples have shown throughout the publication,
there is no standard blueprint or “one-size-ts-all” approach to address the gendered dimensions
of corruption. Just as the United Nations Convention against Corruption repeatedly foresees that
States implement its provisions “in accordance with its domestic legal system” and “subject to its
constitution and the fundamental principles of its legal system,” any gendered anti-corruption
measure will need to be tailored to and t the national context.
Civil society has an important role to play in enhancing
the access to information from the grass-root level up.
States should also ensure that information is made easily
available and accessible and accompanied by public
information campaigns.
Gender mainstreaming means nding equitable solutions for all persons in a society, regardless
of biological sex and gender identity or social position. From the UNODC’s perspective, more
should be done to ensure that gender is truly mainstreamed within the anti-corruption
programming and technical assistance delivery the Oce provides. Donors should also make
gender mainstreaming a standard requirement in all funding agreements. Furthermore, States
parties to the United Nations Convention against Corruption should also mandate the UNODC to
increase its work in the area of gender and corruption by inscribing it in the resolutions
465
that
are adopted at the biennial Conference of the States parties to the Convention (the Conference).
As of 2019 and the eighth session of the Conference
466
, only three resolutions contain the word
gender or make a reference to the dierent ways in which corruption impacts men and women.
e upcoming General Assembly Session (UNGASS) against Corruption 2021 and its resulting
declaration is a good opportunity to feature gendered aspects of corruption, along with specic
actions on how this can be addressed.
Donors should ensure that funding is available to increase
the efforts to work to explore the gender dimensions of
corruption.
465 To date the following resolutions of the Conference mention gender: Resolution 6/10 Education and training
in the context of anti-corruption; Resolution 7/8 Corruption in sport; and, Resolution 8/4 Safeguarding sport
from corruption.
466 e next conference is planned in 2021–22 in Egypt.
131
coNclusioN
States parties to the UNCAC should ensure that the
resolutions that are adopted by the Conference includes
languages that also acknowledges the disproportionate
impact of corruption on women and girls.
Member States of the United Nations, civil society and
private sector actors to ensure the UNGASS political
declaration includes action-oriented language on
measures to address the gender dimensions of corruption.
UNODC, as the guardian of the United Nations Convention against Corruption, will use this
publication as a basis to harness the gender element with a view to supporting States by nurturing
and envisioning a more inclusive ght against corruption and their implementation of the
Convention. We remain available for further discussion and programmatic initiatives.
If not us, then who?
If not now, then when?
~ John R. Lewis
Statesman and Civil Rights Leader, United States of America
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134
The Time is Now — addressiNg The geNder dimeNsioNs of corrupTioN
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Annex
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OUTCOMES OF THE EXPERT MEETING
ON GENDER AND CORRUPTION
19–20 September 2018, Bangkok, ailand
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Introduction
Background
Objectives
2. Workshop Session Outcomes
Key Outcomes Day 1
Session 1: Vulnerabilities and opportunities
Session 2: Criminal justice integrity
Session 3: Private sector
Key Outcomes Day 2
Session 4: Civil society
Session 5: Public services
Annex I: Agenda
Annex II: List of participants
Annex III: Other examples of initiatives in thematic areas
157
aNNex
1. INTRODUCTION
e United Nations Oce on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), with support from the Swedish
International Development Cooperation Agency Sida, organized the Expert Meeting on Gender
and Corruption on 19 and 20 September 2018 in Bangkok that brought together 26 participants
from United Nations agencies and other international organizations, anti-corruption authorities
and other national criminal justice practitioners, as well as civil society and academia, with the
aim of exploring actionable ideas on how to mainstream gender in anti-corruption programming.
Together, experts and practitioners shared and discussed perspectives and experiences from their
diverse sectors and countries.
One specic outcome of the workshop was a set of initial yet actionable key points and
recommendations, emerging from the discussions and participants’ inputs in relation to each of the
discussed thematic areas. ese recommendations should not be seen as denitive, but rather as a
rst step towards the development of guidance materials and the identication of good practices
in mainstreaming gender into anti-corruption programming in the year to come. UNODC will
develop a more detailed publication on gender and corruption in 2019.
Background
Gender relations inuence and structure cultures and societies: gender commonly delineates
divisions of labour, control over resources and decision-making from the context of domestic life
to the top echelons of government. Like poverty and vulnerability, corruption aects men and
women dierently.
1
For example, in many societies women remain the primary caretakers of the
family, and, thus, are regularly confronted with corruption when dealing with education, health
and other public services. Girls are frequently the ones to drop out of schools or be deprived of
schooling altogether when families nd themselves unable to meet the costs of schooling which
may be articially increased through the demand of bribes. Corruption and clientelism have also
been found to discourage or even prevent women from participating in political processes and
public life.
2
1 See for example:
Seppänen, M and Virtanen, P. (2008). Corruption, Poverty and Gender.
UNDP, UNIFEM (2010). Corruption, Accountability and Gender: Understanding the Connections.
Transparency International (2014). Gender, Equality and Corruption: What are the linkages?
Sundstrom, A. and Wängnerud, L. (2013). Women’s political representation in the European regions: the
impact of corruption and bad governance.
Nyamu-Musembi, C. (2007). Gender and corruption in administration of justice: Global Corruption Report.
2 See for example:
Franceschet, S. and Piscopo, J. M. (2014). “Sustaining Gendered Practices? Power, Parties, and Elite Political
Networks in Argentina.” Comparative Political Studies 47(1): 85–110.
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At the other end of the spectrum, more recent studies have outlined how gender dynamics
interplay with accountability and transparency in public institutions. For example, several studies
have found that countries with higher participation of women in politics and the formal economy
show lower levels of corruption
3
. While the correlation between a better gender equality in politics
and economy and lower levels of corruption appears to have become more generally accepted, the
underlying mechanisms of this correlation are less well understood.
Some anti-corruption initiatives have sought to build on these gender dynamics to create more
transparent and accountable public institutions and decision-making processes. Such eorts may
include increasing the representation or roles of women in law enforcement or strengthening the
participation of women in community decision-making or in Parliament.
UNODC has been tasked with supporting States parties in their implementation the United
Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC or the Convention). e Convention includes
a wide array of anti-corruption provisions ranging from preventive measures to law enforcement
and criminalization, international cooperation and asset recovery. Along with other bilateral and
multilateral technical assistance providers, UNODC provides a comprehensive range of anti-
corruption programmes and initiatives, including capacity-building of anti-corruption authorities,
training for law enforcement ocers and prosecutors, and support to develop anti-corruption
legislative frameworks, policies and strategies. Ensuring that a gender dimension is incorporated
into ongoing as well as new programmes can only enhance their eectiveness and sustainability.
While there is some empirical and theoretical research exploring the dimensions of gender and
corruption, mainstreaming gender in anti-corruption programming remains the exception and
not the rule.
e Guidance Note on Gender mainstreaming in the work of UNODC
4
denes gender
mainstreaming as “looking at the human implications of any activities, highlighting the dierences
between women and men and thus the potential dierential impacts and designing the activity to
ensure that both men and women will benet equally. It is a strategy to achieve gender equality.”
It further explains how gender should not be viewed in isolation, but “should be considered at
every stage of the programming cycle — from planning to implementation and evaluation.”
3 See for example:
Michailova, J. and Melnykovska, I. (2009). Gender, corruption and sustainable growth in transition countries.
Christian-Albrechts University and Kiel Institute for the World Economy.
Bauhr, M., Charron, N., and Wangnerud, L. (2018). Close the political gender gap to reduce corruption. How
women’s political agenda and risk aversion restricts corrupt behaviour. U4 Brief 2018(3).
4 UNODC (2013). Gender mainstreaming in the work of UNODC: Guidance Note for UNODC Sta.
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Objectives of the meeting
With the starting point that women and gender mainstreaming are powerful agents of change in
the ght against corruption, the participants set out to:
1. Take stock of the existing knowledge and understanding of the linkages
between corruption and gender, seeking to understand impact and
vulnerabilities with a view to identify how anti-corruption programming
can benet from the inclusion of a gender dimension.
2. Have an in-depth discussion of the impact of gender in select thematic
areas.
3. Propose practical solutions and identify good practices on how the
identied challenges can be addressed and opportunities exploited
through anti-corruption programming in order to achieve an enhanced
and gendered impact.
2. WORKSHOP SESSION OUTCOMES
e meeting was conducted in an interactive manner throughout two days highlighting ideas and
initiatives on how the inclusion of a gender dimension can enhance anti-corruption programming
in four thematic areas: criminal justice, private sector, civil society and public services. At the end
of the second day, participants were divided into groups and brainstormed on the take-away from
each thematic area, leading to a set of concrete recommendations for action. e summary of each
session below reects both the presentations made by the participants as well as the subsequent
working group discussions and conclusions.
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SESSION 1: Vulnerabilities and Opportunities
e rst session discussed general issues related to gender mainstreaming and anti-corruption,
as well as what opportunities arise from incorporating gender dimensions and ensuring women’s
engagement in anti-corruption programming.
Key messages
Context analysis
✳ Women and men are aected dierently by corruption: women may pay more bribes
in obtaining public services due to gender roles, and sexual exploitation is used as
a currency in corruption, violating human rights and disproportionately aecting
women. Also, female politicians pay a higher price when they are caught being
corrupt by being more heavily criticized or penalized by the public than men.
✳ Women can also be key agents for change in the ght against corruption: higher
levels of gender equality and women’s participation in public life are associated with
better governance and lower levels of corruption in many countries. Focusing on
empowering women is an important part of the anti-corruption agenda.
✳ ere is a lack of data and primary research on how gender dynamics interplay
with accountability, transparency and power structures. e current analysis is
mostly based on sex-disaggregated data; qualitative data is scarce, and one is le
assuming the equivalence between sex and gender. “Relying on numbers can leave
us blinkered to important causal processes- and yet eective policy-making requires
understanding these processes”, highlighted Ms. Anna Petherick.
✳ Measuring the interplay between corruption and gender is complex. Most
common measurements of corruption itself such as the Transparency International
Corruption Perception Index present shortcomings, notably because they are based
on perceptions of corruption rather than by measuring corruption itself, which
poses limitation to their use for gender-sensitive policy-making and designing
countermeasures.
✳ Beyond simplistic assumptions that women are less corrupt than men or that
increasing the proportion of women in positions of power will automatically reduce
corruption, it is the institutional context that matters. Women are not inherently the
fairer sex, although socialization leads women to internalize injunctive stereotypes,
i.e. public expectations of women as the fairer sex and a fear of stronger social
sanctioning for women when they are found to be corrupt. is may explain why
women oen appear to act as the “fairer sex” in practice. At the same time, it has been
established that striking a gender balance in the workforce creates internal dynamics
of checks and balances with benecial outcomes for the quality of team work and
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accountability. is suggests that increasing the share of women in male-dominated
work places can disrupt corruption embedded in the institution. It is not yet known,
however, to which extent this would be the case.
✳ It might be thought that a higher representation of women in Parliament and a higher
representation of women in administration should reect similar patterns in relation
to the prevalence of corruption but they don’t: this highlights the importance of the
role of gender norms in each given environment.
✳ e Manual on Corruption Surveys that was published by UNODC, UNDP and
the UNODC-INEGI Center of Excellence in Statistical Information on Government,
Crime, Victimization and Justice provides specic guidance on collecting
gender-specic data
5
.
Lessons learnt, initiatives and practical solutions
An example of accurate measurement of corruption is randomized auditing. In 2003 in Brazil, sixty
municipalities were selected and within a week, a team of auditors from the Controller General’s
Oce came with a checklist to inspect public facilities such as public toilets or equipment in
hospitals. e report revealed gendered-impacts of corruption. For example, there was an increase
in women’s participation in elections in locations where radio stations were operating because
they had disseminated the audits ndings that a male mayor had been corrupt. “When no local
broadcasters are present, however, corruption tends to shut women out of political life, quelling
both their eagerness to run for oce and their electoral success.”
6
ere are many examples of situation where empowering women can reduce corruption at the
same time. For instance, women excluded from opportunities and jobs in Zimbabwe were trained
as rangers to patrol national parks and protect wildlife. Taking on this role, they have gained
greater responsibility and respect from their community, acting with integrity and being perceived
as role models against corruption in their community.
7
5 UNODC, Manual on Corruption Surveys: Methodological guidelines on the measurement of bribery and
other forms of corruption through sample surveys, 2018, pp. 42–44, accessed at: https://www.unodc.org/
documents/data-and-analysis/Crime-statistics/CorruptionManual_2018_web.pdf.
6 Anna Petherick, Brazil and the Bloodsuckers, Foreign Policy, accessed at https://foreignpolicy.
com/2015/08/14/brazil-and-the-bloodsuckers-corruption-lottery/#.
7 https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-africa-44074292/akashinga-the-armed-women-protecting-zimbabwe-s-
elephants.
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Points for action and recommendations discussed
✳ ink carefully about patterns of the relative frequency of men and women in
dierent arenas.
✳ Ask what these patterns really say about how gender is intertwined with the
institutional logics.
✳ Complement sex-disaggregated data with qualitative investigation and
information on processes behind the data.
✳ Improve inclusiveness within a given social environment and break the so-called
‘closed circles’ to reduce corruption: sex balance is not the primary goal, but
mainstreaming should aim to bring in individuals who have been outsiders to
power due to corrupt (and gendered) practices.
✳ Re-conceptualize integrity at the institutional level and not only at the individual
level.
✳ Development agencies should systematically publish their evaluation results for
gender analysis.
✳ Promote women empowerment while promoting anti-corruption and
strengthening integrity.
✳ Solutions need to t the institutional context, where the intersectionality of
gender, ethnicity and other social norms within a given environment are
considered.
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SESSION 2: Criminal Justice Integrity
is session discussed gender in the context of the criminal justice sector, with an emphasis on how
gender dynamics interact with promoting integrity in the criminal justice sector.
Key messages
Context analysis
✳ Gender norms in the criminal justice sector remain strong and substantial eorts are
required to counter gender stereotypes: in many countries, for instance, the law is oen
portrayed as a ‘masculine’ issue and criminal justice institutions are dominated by men.
✳ e role of women in police and other law enforcement authorities is crucial.
Some functions may benet by being carried out by women, such as investigating,
prosecuting or adjudicating gender-based violence and sex crimes, including bribery
with sex as the currency of the bribe. Having fewer women in law enforcement
authorities can reduce the attention given to sexual assault cases and other issues
involving women or children.
Indonesia and the SPAK movement
✳ Women in law enforcement positions themselves can be agents for change against
corruption. is is well illustrated with the initiative presented by Indonesia. “Since
1998, reforms in the country have been initiated by government institutions with the
aim to reduce corruption in national institutions, with the use of Standard Operating
Procedures, for instance, but reforms have not reached the expected outcomes”, noted
Ms. Yuyuk Andriati Iskak of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK). Within
this context, KPK has focused its eorts on individuals and behavioural change,
training women to become anti-corruption champions through the ‘SPAK movement’.
✳ Under this programme, women law enforcement ocers became internal reformers
within their agencies. e success of the programme was recognized by Indonesian
police institutions, which provided awards recognizing the role of women in
institutional improvements: women have brought innovative measures against
anti-corruption within the agencies in which they work, such as an electronic
queuing system initiated by a judge in a court, or a police women putting up a banner
to inform the public that getting the evidence in case of a trac violation is free
to ensure that people would no longer be forced to pay extra to get the evidence.
Women have also brought about system innovation: for example, a women police
ocer who is a SPAK agent created an online system to monitor public satisfaction
on police service in Yogjakarta.
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Lessons learnt, initiatives and practical solutions
Regardless of the culture, having gender parity is in itself a good preventive measure against
corruption. ere is a risk of ‘closed circles’ within the criminal justice system and gender-balanced
environments are less likely to be corrupted. In the case of Azerbaijan, women representation in
criminal justice institutions remains low (29.2% in civil services). “When a new law was passed on
investigative measures that have to be carried out by women, recruitment policies were adapted
to promote women’s representation in law enforcement agencies, notably with dierent physical
requirements. With the introduction of women ocers, it was noted that corruption is decreasing
and that women are taking stricter punishments”, highlighted Mr. Elnur Musayev, a senior
prosecutor from Azerbaijan.
Training women across society and law enforcement institutions to become anti-corruption
champions. As demonstrated by the example of the SPAK movement in Indonesia, women can be
trained to become anti-corruption champions. Within the SPAK movement, the role of women in
law enforcement positions has been particularly relevant in the ght against corruption. Women
police ocers have introduced institutional improvements, innovation and better public service
delivery systems against corruption, which were recognized by the law enforcement institutions
through awards and higher ranking positions.
Public policies supporting women’s representation in the criminal justice sector. Some existing
policies or practices may discourage women from joining criminal justice professions: women
police ocers, for instance, may be given uniforms deemed inappropriate for their activities, not
be allowed to marry or be prohibited from working at night which may be necessary to obtain
career advancement.
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Points for action and recommendations discussed
✳ Develop a gender-analysis of anti-corruption initiatives in the criminal justice
sector and an action plan based on the ndings.
✳ Instead of creating new anti-corruption programmes with a gender component,
consider integrating a corruption component into existing programmes targeting
women.
✳ Ensure human rights, anti-corruption and gender-specic training as part of in-
house training for criminal justice ocers and improve institutional cooperation
frameworks with anti-corruption authorities.
✳ Highlight female anti-corruption champions within law enforcement networks
and educate women in these sectors on how to instil institutional change and
how to protect themselves against corruption networks; training methods could
include games and possibly be administered with the oversight of the anti-
corruption authority.
✳ Support initiatives to increase women’s representation in law enforcement
criminal justice institutions (e.g. review recruitment and sta policies and
practices, awareness-raising campaigns against gender norms).
✳ Find ways to strengthen accountability mechanisms by bringing greater diversity
to institutions and changing the team dynamics.
✳ Target the beneciaries and raise awareness on women’s rights in receiving public
services.
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SESSION 3: Private Sector
is session explored how corruption impacts women in the business sector and what role women’s
networks and entrepreneurs can play in addressing corruption in the private sector.
Key messages
Context analysis
✳ Corruption in the business sector disproportionately aects women entrepreneurs
who have experienced petty corruption in informal trading and have a lack of
knowledge on negotiating corrupt networks; it reduces their access to markets or
credit and reinforces economic and social marginalization. For instance, land rights
and exploitation of land reveal that women are oen not included or do not receive
adequate compensation.
✳ Grassroots women ranked business and employment as the second highest service
area prone to bribes aer the public sector. According to Transparency International
and UN Global Compact, women are subjected to monetary bribes or solicited for
sexual favours in exchange for employment or operating a business, hindering their
ability to earn income and/or sustain their businesses.
8
✳ Several studies suggest that companies with a greater number of women in
decision-making positions perform better not only in terms of organizational and
nancial performance but also in terms of ethics and corruption level.
✳ Within the work on due diligence and anti-corruption in the business sector, there is
a lack of research focussing on sectors with a predominance of female employees.
✳ Many countries have adopted legislation establishing the liability of legal persons
such as corporations. Companies will now be required to establish better compliance
and anti-corruption policies and programmes. So far, there hasn’t been much analysis
of the impact of these reforms in the private sector through a gendered lens.
✳ A series of women entrepreneurs’ networks against corruption have been started in
Indonesia and Argentina and are at an early stage.
8 Corruption and gender in service delivery: the unequal impacts’, working paper 2, 2010.
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Points for action and recommendations discussed
✳ Prevention of corruption in the private sector is mandatory in UNCAC and
should incorporate gender analysis: develop a gender-analysis on how business
regulations, compliance and integrity requirements impact women’s rights
and participation and the dynamics that lead towards having more women in
leadership positions in corporations.
✳ Make a business case for improving women’s representation within
middle-management.
✳ Mainstream gender within compliance systems and support positive incentives
(e.g. awards).
✳ Raise awareness on corruption issues faced by women in the private sector
including sextortion, developing clear rules and directions with local actors such
as chambers of commerce.
✳ Provide technical assistance including adopting a gender sensitive approach in
relation to creating mechanisms to allow greater women participation and access
to economic opportunities (e.g. licensing).
✳ Support women entrepreneurs’ networks in accessing public contracts with a view
to increasing the accountability of public services.
✳ Encourage women from the business sector to join.
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SESSION 4: Civil Society
Participants explored the role of women’s civil society groups in promoting anti-corruption
reforms and raising awareness.
Key messages
Context analysis
✳ Gender is a crosscutting issue: mainstreaming gender is oen one of the dened
principles in many project strategies and yet many organizations don’t know how to
address gender mainstreaming in practice.
✳ ere is a strong need for training programmes and awareness-raising in the society
on the links between corruption and gender, especially for youth.
✳ Corruption can be a very sensitive issue and it may be addressed via other indirect
entry points such as gender-based violence, women in Parliament, good governance,
access to justice or health and climate change. For instance, the organization Triangle
Women’s Support Group has been working on corruption since 2015 indirectly via
their work on access to justice through the establishment of watchdog groups at the
community level or the provision of checklists to women to monitor corruption.
✳ e context is key (geography, culture, politics, economy).
✳ Community and grassroots level provide spaces where women can become
anti-corruption champions.
Lessons learnt, initiatives and practical solutions
Measuring the impacts of attempts to mainstream gender into anti-corruption programmes. e
joint UNODC/UNDP Pacic Regional Anti-Corruption Project (UN-PRAC) has led attempts in
mainstreaming gender into anti-corruption programming. Some eorts, including identifying
gender-focused activities to be implemented or integrating gender-specic questions in the context
of the UNCAC Implementation Review Mechanism, have not been successful given the context.
Some successes have been achieved, including enhanced gender balance amongst participants in
the activities under the programme (particularly for civil society), gender becoming a topic in
anti-corruption eorts, and increasing the number of women anti-corruption champions.
Measuring the impact of activities has been very useful to identify good practices and replicate
these.
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Integrating anti-corruption work by adding an integrity dimension to existing development
projects. e UN-PRAC project has also illustrated that working with other programmes can
also be a key entry point to carry out anti-corruption work, for instance by adding an integrity
dimension to an existing UNDP initiative on promoting women leadership in the Parliament. is
is also the aim of the UNODC anti-corruption project in Myanmar, mainstreaming integrity into
the existing gender-based violence projects.
Civil society organizations are key drivers for change and need to be particularly sensitized
on gender and corruption. e mobilization of trade unions in the Philippines has proven to
be useful in exposing large-scale corruption undertaken by senior public ocials, with falsied
books, involving forcing women into sexual slavery. e Public Service Labor Independent
Confederation PSLINK led a corruption case in 2005 against the Technical Education and Skills
Authority (Tesda) Director General, leading to a large advocacy campaign. In March 2007, the
Presidential Anti-Gra Commission formally charged the Director General with corruption
9
.
Promoting research evidenced-based advocacy to raise awareness on corruption and gender.
A pilot project in Myanmar by the Triangle Women’s Support Group focused on promoting
anti-corruption at the local level and raising-awareness: what corruption is, how it can be
countered and how to identify local leaders that will spread the word in their community.
e NGO is working closely with the Anti-Corruption Commission in Myanmar to deliver
evidenced-based advocacy.
Raising awareness to the youth by nding entry points with the most pressing issues. In the
Pacic Islands, the NGO Climate Action Network/Anti-Corruption Network in Kiribati has
found indirect entry points to work on anti-corruption by directly addressing issues that are
interesting to youth and general public, such as climate change and health, and by raising interest
and understanding on the impact of corruption and gender.
Understanding the dierent approaches of male and female anti-corruption champions and
activists. Anecdotal experience gathered through the UN-PRAC project and its partner NGO
Pacic Youth Forum’s extensive work with the Pacic youth has shown that young men and
women typically take on dierent approaches in addressing corruption. For example, while male
and female youths equally recognize the detrimental eect of corruption, male youths tend to
look at it from a national level and consider how to address the issue with politicians. Female
youth, in contrast, tend to be more focused on the community, relate the issue of corruption to
their everyday life and environmental sustainability, and discuss how the issue of corruption can
be eectively addressed at the community level in a sustainable manner. It has been observed
that female youth are more action-oriented whereas male youth typically take on a more vocal
role in the public. Eorts to better understand dierent roles and approaches of male and female
anti-corruption activists would allow for more eectively integration of these approaches into
national anti-corruption eorts.
9 http://sb.judiciary.gov.ph/RESOLUTIONS/2017/I_Crim_SB-17-CRM-0054-0056_People%20vs%20
Syjuco,Jr,%20et%20al_09_13_2017.pdf.
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Including elements of human rights-based approach and gender within education on
anti-corruption. Since 2013, the Diploma in Leadership, Governance and Human Rights at
the University of the South Pacic focuses on empowering leaders and includes a gender
approach, addressing issues relevant to the Pacic cultures and their links with corruption,
and creating awareness mechanisms to tackle corruption and gender via education. Under the
Education for Justice (E4J) initiative, UNODC has developed a university module on the Gender
Dimensions of Ethics
10
and is developing a university module on Gender and Corruption.
Points for action and recommendations discussed
✳ Find entry points by integrating anti-corruption and gender to issues of general
importance such as gender-based violence, climate change, health, strategies,
integrity platforms, education platforms.
✳ Civil society organizations need to be particularly sensitized on gender.
✳ Use both men and women leaders to raise women’s voices and increase their
visibility.
✳ Understand in a systematic manner the dierent roles and approaches taken by
male and female anti-corruption activists to more eectively integrate them into
anti-corruption eorts.
✳ Integrate anti-corruption programming into existing gender actions of women’s
organizations and networks relating to women in politics, job creation or
entrepreneurship.
✳ Raise awareness among civil society organizations on corruption and gender.
✳ Introduce a focus on gender in social audits and gender analysis in organizations
receiving funds.
✳ Use social media to reach youth and the general public and raise awareness on the
links between corruption and gender.
✳ Empowerment of women through awareness raising of corruption risks.
10 http://www.unodc.org/e4j/en/integrity-ethics/module-9/index.html.
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SESSION 5: Public Services
is session discussed corruption prevention in public services and how gender dynamics interplay
with corruption in the provision of public services.
Key messages
Context analysis
✳ Women are particularly aected by corruption in accessing public services (public
health, maternity, water and sanitation, public education). Women in poverty are
the primary users of basic public services and money paid for bribes are a larger
percentage of women’s income compared to men.
11
✳ Sexual exploitation is used as a currency in corruption, violating human rights and
disproportionately aecting women.
✳ Victims of sextortion may not categorize demands for sexual bribes as corruption or
understand that being asked for sex is a form of corruption, in which sex constitutes
the currency of the bribe. ey therefore may not even know they are victims of
corruption. e forms of corruption that men and women encounter can be dierent
and thus analysis and awareness-raising on engendered forms of corruption are
needed.
Lessons learnt, initiatives and practical solutions
Supporting access to information laws to support women’s participation in public programmes
and social audits. In Mexico, the non-governmental organization Fundar is part of the
gender-responsive budget initiative with UNIFEM and investigated the diversion of $2.4 million
from the federal budget through the use of access to information legislation. e organization
discovered that 90% of funds allocated were misused. ey presented their report to the Chamber
of Deputies and auditors have upheld the ndings. In India, Mazdoor Shakti Sangathan, a civil
society organization for landless people, exposed corruption through public audits of spending
patterns in India. e right to information campaign started in India in the early 2000s and
resulted in positive gender results. With the use of comedy theatre, the campaign has gained a lot
of exposure. e initiative was not gendered at the beginning but became gendered, as women
were the most aected by the losses.
11 For more details refer to “Progress of the World’s Women 2008/2009: Who Answers to Women?” at
http://www.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2008/1/progress-of-the-world-s-women-2008-
2009-who-answers-to-women.
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Building strong awareness-raising campaigns on corruption and gender instilling hope. In Greece,
the campaign on YouTube “Be the change you want to see” brought successful anti-corruption
messages, attracting audiences and targeting youth with positive inuencers and celebrities. ese
campaigns can change perceptions and behaviour, generating community responsibility and a
sense of agency among youth. Awareness-raising campaigns also need to bring practical hope
when delivering messages. For instance, in India the “I paid a bribe” initiative received many
awards, but could also bring about some negative consequences, such as setting the price for
bribing or creating distrust in the police.
Points for action and recommendations discussed
✳ Support initiatives to increase women’s participation in public service in the
policy design of education and health services, at the frontline of service delivery
(teachers, health workers, police, paralegals), and in local government and public
administration.
✳ Engender the governance of public service delivery, via gender-responsive
budgeting, public accountability mechanisms that include women and women’s civil
society organizations, and strategies to deliver publics services to women and girls.
✳ Strengthen transparency and access to information legislation.
✳ Analyse and strengthen anti-corruption legislative frameworks through a gender
lens.
✳ Encourage the collection of sex-disaggregated data and open data on gender and
corruption.
✳ Make anti-corruption eorts gender responsive by using social audits on women’s
access to services, enacting legislation recognizing gendered impacts of corruption,
addressing sexual extortion as a form of corruption, implementing regulations to
address sexual extortion, and having gender-sensitive complaint mechanisms.
✳ Explore how to make anti-corruption tools such as transparency, open
data, e-government, accountability and oversight, complaint and grievance
mechanisms, management of human resources, decentralization risk
management, and gender-responsive public procurement.
✳ Provide adequate training on integrity in public services, including on sextortion.
✳ Raise awareness of good practices in relation to anonymous/condential and
online reporting mechanisms.
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ANNEX I: AGENDA
Expert Meeting on Gender and Corruption
19–20 September 2018
Bangkok, ailand
Day One: 19 September 2018
08:30 – 09:00 Registration
09:00 – 09:30 Welcoming and Introduction
Session Objective: Participants will be welcomed to the Expert Meeting
and the objectives of this meeting will be explained. A brief overview of
the UNODC initiatives supporting a gendered approach to anti-corruption
will be presented including how to mainstream gender into the UNCAC
Implementation Review Mechanism.
Speakers:
Ms. Candice Welsch, Chief, Implementation Support Section, Corruption and
Economic Crime Branch, UNODC
Ms. Hanna Sands, Programme Coordinator, Policy and Inter-Agency
Coordination Team, Oce of the Director-General/ Executive Director,
UNODC
10:00 – 10:30 Group photo and coee break
10:30 – 12:00 Session One: Vulnerabilities and Opportunities
Session Objective: e session will discuss general issues related to gender
mainstreaming and anti-corruption, such as the importance of
sex-disaggregated data and analysis.
e session will also discuss what opportunities arise from gender
mainstreaming and women’s engagement in anti-corruption programming.
Speakers:
Ms. Monica Twesiime Kirya, Senior Adviser, U4 Anti-Corruption Resource
Centre, Chr. Michelsen Institute
Ms. Anna Petherick, Building Integrity Team Leader, Blavatnik School of
Government, University of Oxford
Facilitated discussion
Moderator:
Ms. Jennifer Sarvary Bradford, Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Expert,
Conference Support Section, Corruption and Economic Crime Branch,
UNODC
12:00 – 13:00 Lunch
13:00 – 14:30 Session Two: Criminal Justice Integrity
Session Objective: is session will discuss gender in the context of the
criminal justice sector, with an emphasis on how gender dynamics interact
with promoting integrity in the criminal justice sector.
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Speakers:
Ms. Yuyuk Andriati Iskak, Head of News and Publication / Department of
Public Relations, Program Coordinator “I am a Woman Against Corruption”,
Corruption Eradication Commission, Indonesia
Mr. Elnur Musayev, Senior Prosecutor, KMBI — Anti-Corruption Directorate,
Republic of Azerbaijan
Facilitated discussion
Moderator:
Ms. Candice Welsch, UNODC
14:30 – 15:00 Coee break
15:00 – 16:30 Session ree: Private Sector
Session Objective: is session will explore what role women’s networks and
entrepreneurs can play in addressing corruption in the private sector. e
session will start with a brief presentation by the speakers, followed by an
interactive discussion with all participants.
Speakers:
Mr. Elnur Musayev, Senior Prosecutor, KMBI — Anti-Corruption Directorate,
Republic of Azerbaijan
Mr. Francesco Checchi, Regional Anti-Corruption Adviser, Regional Oce
for Southeast Asia and the Pacic, UNODC
Facilitated discussion
Moderator:
Ms. Zorana Markovic, Regional Anti-Corruption Adviser, Regional Oce for
Southeast Asia and the Pacic, UNODC
16:30 – 16:45 Wrap up of Day 1
Ms. Jennifer Sarvary Bradford, UNODC
Day Two: 20 September 2018
08:30 – 08:45 Registration
08:45 – 09:00 Welcome to Day 2 and Re-cap of the previous day
Ms. Candice Welsch, UNODC
09:00 – 10:45 Session Four: Civil Society
Session Objective: Participants will explore the role of women’s groups in
promoting anti-corruption reforms and raising awareness. e session will
start with a brief presentation by the speakers, followed by an interactive
discussion with all participants.
Speakers:
Ms. Khin Lay, Director/ Founder, Triangle Women’s Support Group, Myanmar
Ms. Mihaela Stojkoska, Anti-Corruption Specialist, UNDP Pacic Oce
Ms. Pelenise Alofa, Climate Action Network / Anti-Corruption Network,
Kiribati
Ms. Natasha Khan, Coordinator – Diploma in Leadership, Governance &
Human Rights, University of the South Pacic, Fiji
Facilitated discussion
Moderator:
Ms. Hanna Sands, UNODC
10:45 – 11:00 Coee break
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11:00 – 12:30 Session Five: Public Services
Session Objective: is session will discuss corruption prevention in public
services and how gender dynamics interplay with corruption in the provision
of public services.
Speakers:
Ms. Hanny Cueva Beteta, UN Women, Asia and the Pacic
Ms. Sarah Dix, Public Sector Integrity Expert / Public Governance
Directorate, OECD
Facilitated discussion
Moderator:
Mr. Francesco Checchi, UNODC
12:30 – 13:30 Lunch
13:30 – 15:00 Session Six: Recommendations on mainstreaming gender into
anti-corruption programming
Session Objective: Based on the previous discussions, participants will
identify best practices and develop recommendations with specic measures
and activities to mainstream gender eectively into anti-corruption programs.
Facilitators:
Ms. Jennifer Sarvary Bradford, UNODC
Ms. Hanna Sands, UNODC
15:00 – 15:30 Coee break
15:30 – 16:00 Session Six cont.
16:00 – 16:30 Closing of workshop and way forward
Facilitator:
Ms. Candice Welsch, UNODC
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The Time is Now — addressiNg The geNder dimeNsioNs of corrupTioN
ANNEX II: LIST OF PARTICIPANTS
Expert Meeting on Gender and Corruption
19–20 September 2018
Bangkok, ailand
LIST OF PARTICIPANTS
Name Position Agency
1. Ms. Khin Lay Director / Founder Access to Justice Initiative
(A2JI) / Triangle Women
2. Ms. Yuyuk Andriati Iskak Head of News and Publication /
Department of Public Relations
Corruption Eradication
Commission (KPK)
Republic of Indonesia
3. Ms. Christie Afriani Cooperation Specialist,
Directorate of Fostering
Networks Between Commissions
and Institution
Corruption Eradication
Commission (KPK)
Republic of Indonesia
4.
Ms. Charlotta Bredberg Counsellor, Development
Cooperation Section
Embassy of Sweden,
Bangkok
5. Ms. Elin Gidlöf Intern, Development
Cooperation Section
Embassy of Sweden,
Bangkok
6. Ms. Pelenise Alofa National Coordinator Kiribati Climate Action
Network / Kiribati
Anti-Corruption Network
7. Mr. Elnur Musayev Senior Prosecutor KMBI — Anti-Corruption
Directorate Azerbaijan
8. Ms. Sarah Dix Public Sector Integrity Expert /
Public Governance Directorate
OECD
9. Ms. Twesiime Monica
Kirya
Senior Adviser U4 Anti-Corruption
Resource Centre, Chr.
Michelsen Institute
10. Ms. Hanny Cueva Beteta UN Women Regional Advisor for
Governance, Peace and Security
UN Women Asia-Pacic
11. Ms. Lesli Davis Governance, Peace and Security
Consultant
UN Women Asia-Pacic
12. Ms. Isabella Caravaggio Governance, Peace and Security
Intern
UN Women Asia-Pacic
13. Ms. Mihaela Stojkoska Anti-Corruption Specialist UNDP Pacic Oce
14. Ms. Anna Petherick Researcher / Lecturer, Blavatnik
School of Government
University of Oxford
15. Ms. Natasha Khan Coordinator — Diploma in
Leadership, Governance &
Human Rights
University of the South
Pacic
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Name Position Agency
16. Ms. Candice Welsch Chief, Implementation Support
Section,
Corruption and Economic Crime
Branch
UNODC
17. Ms. Jennifer Sarvary
Bradford
Crime Prevention and Criminal
Justice Expert, Conference
Support Section, Corruption and
Economic Crime Branch
UNODC
18. Ms. Hanna Sands Programme Coordinator
Policy and Inter-agency
Coordination Team
Oce of the Director-General /
Executive Director
UNODC
19. Mr. Troels Vester Country Manager UNODC Myanmar Oce
20. Ms. Marie Pegie
Cauchois
Adviser (Anti-Corruption) UNODC Myanmar Oce
21. Ms. Joelle Charbonneau Consultant (Gender Based
Violence and Crime Prevention)
UNODC Myanmar Oce
22. Mr. Francesco Checchi Regional Anti-Corruption
Adviser
UNODC Regional Oce
for Southeast Asia and the
Pacic
23. Ms. Zorana Markovic Regional Anti-Corruption
Adviser
UNODC Regional Oce
for Southeast Asia and the
Pacic
24. Ms. Cornelia Koertl Anti-Corruption Specialist UNODC Regional Oce
for Southeast Asia and the
Pacic
25. Ms. Rose Poreaux Consultant, Anti-Corruption
Programme
UNODC Regional Oce
for Southeast Asia and the
Pacic
26. Ms. Kavinvadee
Suppapongtevasakul
Team Assistant, Anti-Corruption
Programme
UNODC Regional Oce
for Southeast Asia and the
Pacic
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ANNEX III: OTHER EXAMPLES OF BEST PRACTICES IN THEMATIC
AREAS
Civil Society and Media
Empowering women to become anti-corruption champions
Engagement of national authorities in supporting women’s role in the ght against corruption
can be extremely eective if supported by political will and suciently funded. e experience
of the Indonesian Corruption Eradication Commission is very signicant from this perspective.
e Commission implemented a project supporting women in institutions, local communities
and schools in becoming champion against corruption, through which more than 100 women
were trained through the utilization of board games, which, through hypothetical scenarios,
asks players to identify unsavoury behaviour. e story of a female lieutenant at the Indonesian
Sectoral Police is particularly interesting as, once she understood the detrimental consequences of
corruption, she implemented a “drawer-less-desk” policy in her oce, which means that bribes are
no longer being accepted in her police unit. Standing up against corruption as a woman eectively
helped to prevent corruption in the police.
Raising awareness on how corruption impacts men and women differently
Several studies have emphasized the need to strengthen the awareness on the dierent impact of
corruption on women and men. is can be achieved through a collaborative eort between women’s
groups, civil society organizations and national agencies. For example, participants a roundtable in
Albania on UNCAC implementation, recommended increasing awareness through educational
activities on how corruption impacts women in specic sectors such as health and education and
through curriculum modules addressing the issue for use in schools and other institutions.
Gender, Anti-Corruption and Sport
Professional women’s sports has gone through a dramatic evolution resulting in both challenges
and opportunities. Factors such as increasing professionalization and the dramatic expansion
of interest in women’s sports help highlight this. However, associated corruption risks with the
developments and which are prevalent in men’s sports, such as match-xing and illicit betting,
are not yet being addressed. is has been recognized in the context of UNCAC when the
Conference of the States Parties to the Convention adopted resolution 7/8 on Corruption in
Sport.
12
States parties expressed their concern “that the challenge posed by corruption could in
some cases undermine the potential of sports to advance gender equality and the empowerment
of women”.
12 Resolutions adopted by the Conference of the States Parties to the United Nations Convention against
Corruption on its Seventh Session. CAC/COSP/2017/14. Retrieved from http://www.unodc.org/documents/
treaties/UNCAC/COSP/session7/V1708295E.pdf#page=24.
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While there are commonly accepted factors that enable corruption in sport (e.g. risk of detection
and punishment is low, high complexity of investigating, especially cases of competition
manipulation, etc.), it could be further explored under this thematic area whether specic factors
relevant to corruption risks in women’s sports could be identied and addressed.
Understanding the different approaches of male and female anti-corruption
champions and activists
Anecdotal experience gathered through the joint UNODC-UNDP Pacic Region Anti-Corruption
project and its partner NGO Pacic Youth Forum’s extensive work with the Pacic youth has
shown that young men and women typically take on dierent approaches and roles in addressing
corruption. For example, while male and female youths equally recognize the detrimental eect of
corruption, male youths tend to look at it from a national level and how to address the issue with
politicians. Female youth, in contrast, tend to be more focused on the community, relate the issue
of corruption to their everyday life and environmental sustainability, and discuss how the issue of
corruption can be eectively addressed at the community level in a sustainable manner. It has been
observed that female youth are more action-oriented whereas male youth typically take on a more
vocal role in the public. It could be useful to attempt to better understand in a systematic manner
the dierent roles and approaches male and female anti-corruption activists typically take to more
eectively integrate them into national anti-corruption eorts.
Government and Public Institutions
Strengthening the participation of women in developing gender-sensitive
anti-corruption policies and measures
UNCAC requires States parties to develop strategies to address corruption. While it is established
practice to mainstream gender in national strategies, such as National Development Plans, or
public budgets (known under gender-sensitive budgeting), no national anti-corruption strategy
has so far thoroughly mainstreamed the issue of gender, despite the knowledge that corruption
aects women disproportionately. Since gender inequality undermines women’s ability to
participate in decision-making processes and public policies oen fail to give attention to the
specic needs of women, it is important to support women to actively participate and contribute to
the design of anti-corruption measures. UNODC aims to address this gap by supporting countries
in developing gender-sensitive anti-corruption strategies. For example, UNODC conducted
a roundtable in Albania where women’s groups presented to the Government and national
anti-corruption authorities a set of recommendations on how to address the impact of corruption
on women in the country. In the Pacic, some countries have invited women’s groups to be part of
the development of their respective national anti-corruption strategies.
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The Time is Now — addressiNg The geNder dimeNsioNs of corrupTioN
Expand the knowledge on gender and corruption in the education system
In order to strengthen the knowledge on corruption and gender, the UNODC Education for
Justice (E4J) initiative is developing university modules on “Gender Dimensions of Ethics” and
on “Corruption and Gender”. e modules are intended to serve as a resource for lecturers, and
are designed in a exible manner that lends itself to adaptation to dierent local and disciplinary
contexts. ey will be freely available online, and E4J will hold “teach the teacher” workshops to
empower lecturers to teach the modules and to integrate them into their courses. e modules
seek to enhance students’ knowledge about corruption and its disastrous eects, sharpening their
ethical awareness and decision-making capacities, building their skills to identify and manage
corruption risks, and encouraging them to consider the extent to which seemingly unrelated
policies such as gender diversity policies may reduce corruption.
Build gender-sensitive whistle-blower protection systems
While is widely known that men and women have dierent needs and that women in particular
are more vulnerable in some situations, criminal justice responses, including whistle-blower
protection mechanisms and systems, are oen gender-blind. One workstream could be to
explore how criminal justice responses, including whistle-blower protection systems, can be more
gender-sensitive and pay particular attention to the specic needs and vulnerabilities of women.
Improve data on gender for monitoring Sustainable Development Goal 16,
Peace Justice and Strong Institutions
Goal 16 of the Sustainable Development Goals is dedicated to the promotion of peaceful and
inclusive societies for sustainable development, the provision of access to justice for all, and
building eective, accountable institutions at all levels. While not explicitly mentioned, gender
inequalities are an underlying concern to all the sub-targets and indicators of Goal 16. Since the
availability of reliable and comprehensive data on gender is limited, UNODC aims to improve
the availability of data on gender to measure and monitor the implementation of the Sustainable
Development Goal 16. UNODC and UNDP are currently preparing a guide on the corruption
indicators, which will also include guidance on gender-specic data. UNODC is also exploring
to collaborate with OSCE in Bosnia to build a gender perspective into the trial monitoring and
analysis of criminal proceedings, which include corruption cases.
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Integrating Gender into the Implementation of UNCAC
Integrating gender into a multi-stakeholder approach to the implementation of UNCAC
Promoting dialogue among civil society, private sector and governmental institutions for the
implementation of specic articles of the UNCAC is extremely important, this is relevant in
particular for issues covered by Chapter II of the Convention, looking for instance at integrity
in the public service, access to information, participation of civil society in policy-making and
prevention of corruption in the private sector, just to name a few. e UNCAC Coalition (a coalition
of NGOs) promotes multi-stakeholder approaches and consultations between Governments, civil
society and the private sector to foster the implementation of the Convention. Integrating gender
into the dialogue between the various stakeholders on UNCAC implementation would allow them
to address the various practical ways in which corruption impacts women in the work place and
in their daily life.
Integrating gender into relevant questions of the Self-Assessment Checklist under the
Implementation Review Mechanism of UNCAC
UNCAC has an Implementation Review Mechanism that is mandatory for all States parties. Under
the joint UNODC-UNDP Pacic Regional Anti-Corruption Project, UNODC and UNDP started
to develop a questionnaire that asks for gender-relevant information under relevant UNCAC
articles in the Self-Assessment Checklist, in an attempt to collect information and baseline data to
assess to which extent States parties integrate gender aspects into their national anti-corruption
eorts and initiatives. is questionnaire could be expanded and applied in select countries.
Are women any less corrupt than men? Is there a relationship between gender and
corruption? If yes, what is it? Will more women in power change this equation for
the better or worse?
This publication is a first, comprehensive foray by UNODC into this complex,
multi-layered subject that affects every society and country in the world
differently. Therefore, the publication underlines the importance of understanding
how national, cultural and social norms interact and shape corrupt practices.
With the United Nations Convention against Corruption as its cornerstone, the
publication highlights how many of the gender dimensions of corruption are not
sufficiently addressed in national contexts. Using sexual favours as a currency of
corruption is far too common, yet it is still not widely understood that this is abuse
of authority. And victim-centred whistleblowing mechanisms remain exceptional.
However, there are also inspiring good practices which break the mould, such as
tackling unconscious gender bias in the courts to strengthen judicial integrity and
ensure equality before the law.
The publication examines the evolution and relevance of the key international
instruments, and emphasizes the importance of evidence-based policy making. It
also explores how gender equality policies can have a positive effect in preventing
and countering corruption and, vice versa. Finally, the publication illustrates
three country-specific case studies from Brazil, Ghana and Indonesia, each
demonstrating the country’s contextual anti-corruption landscape while focusing
on unique gender narratives and intersections.
The time is now to address the gender dimensions of corruption. For if not now,
then when?
Vienna International Centre, P.O. Box 500, 1400 Vienna, Austria
Tel.: (+43-1) 26060-0, Fax: (+43-1) 263-3389, www.unodc.org
ISBN: 978-92-1-148354-3
