At the United Nations, the fight against corruption becomes a pandemic priority
The global response to the COVID-19 pandemic has generated an unprecedented level of spending, with more than $ 21 trillion committed to the fight against the coronavirus so far, much of these funds have been emergency measures that bypass bureaucratic hurdles and speed up the flow of funds. The speed and scale of these expenditures have created new opportunities for corruption at the state level– ranging from fairly mundane examples, such as demand for bribes for medical services, to more systemic forms of financial malfeasance, shady procurement practices and opaque spending.
The pandemic has also drawn attention to how pervasive grafting is exacerbating inequalities in development outcomes, within and between states. Given the scale of the response to COVID-19, the United Nations has the opportunity to take meaningful action to combat corruption in order to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs.
The UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is, in principle, a powerful tool for shared action on the world’s most pressing development challenges. In this program, Goal 16 specifically calls for inclusive governance and equitable access to justice, while making specific requests to Member States to fight all forms of corruption.
Unfortunately, progress towards the SDGs has been slow and uneven, and the global financial slowdown caused by the pandemic has worsened the prospects that the world will meet the SDG benchmarks over the next nine years. In fact, corruption represents the most direct threat to achieving many of the most important goals set out in the 2030 Agenda, costing the world trillions of dollars annually which could be devoted to development.
In a recent report, a United Nations task force has warned that the pandemic could worsen inequalities between states and delay achievement of the SDGs by a decade. As President of the United Nations General Assembly, Volkan Bozkir, recently noted, the costs of the pandemic are most directly borne by poor communities. And many experts have warned that corruption exacerbates gender disparities, at a time when COVID-19 is already disproportionately affecting women and girls around the world.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres clearly recognizes the risks that corruption poses during the pandemic. He owns called for institution building enhance transparency and accountability and alleviate the vast inequalities exacerbated by this crisis. Next month, the United Nations General Assembly will hold a special session on corruption, where the impacts of COVID-19 will be high on the agenda.
However, there is a risk that this session will go in the direction of previous special sessions, issuing broad political statements without biting or simply stressing the need for more meetings. Indeed, given that many member states view corruption as a national problem to be addressed by national authorities, the risk of a senseless process at the UN remains high. But this session could be different: it is the first to directly consider a resolution on the fight against corruption, which in turn could influence the upcoming G-7 and G-20 summits later this summer.
Already US President Joe Biden has set an important example by taking a very public stand against corruption around the world. During his first few months in office, Biden’s administration imposed travel bans on powerful foreign figures because of their corrupt practices abroad. In February, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced a initiative to honor the champions of the fight against corruption. Samantha Power, the recently confirmed head of the US Agency for International Development, has written publicly about the importance of a strong anti-corruption policy. Washington’s efforts could help build traction for meaningful resolution at UN special session on corruption
Yet there is no guarantee that the next special session will move the needle. China and Russia both made early submissions ahead of the June event that say they will focus on state sovereignty and seek to limit the assembly’s mandate on corruption. To ensure that the international community makes progress on this crucial issue, we have identified five levels of action around the next special session.
Corruption poses the most direct threat to the achievement of many of the most important SDGs, costing trillions of global dollars each year that could be spent on development.
First, to show good faith in this process, the United States should use a voluntary national exam of its own progress on SDG 16, examining the transparency and accountability of US systems. This would create a solid platform to demand the same from other member states, and the humility to reflect on America’s own domestic challenges will build trust with foreign governments.
To do this, the Biden administration could follow the leadership of partner countries like Denmark and Canada, which have pioneered national efforts to tackle both the national and international components of SDG 16 and the corruption in particular. The United States could also consult with the federal agencies of some of its allies, such as Employment and Social Development Canada, which has a unit dedicated specifically to Sustainable Development Goals.
Second, the international community should seek opportunities to apply the terms of SDG 16 to the global response to COVID-19, plan specifically for a just recovery which reduces inequalities while fighting corruption by improving transparency, openness and reliability of procurement and implementation at the national level. A possible General Assembly resolution at the special session should explicitly recognize the fight against corruption as a foundation for the broader goals of the 2030 Agenda and call on member states to promote these efforts. This will require enabling partnerships within the United Nations system. While the Office on Drugs and Crime is the United Nations body that supports the special session, other United Nations entities such as the International Trade Law Commission and the Project Services Office can support the conducive environment.
Third, member states should work to ensure that the outcomes and objectives of the special session build on existing mechanisms for reporting on SDG 16. The need for such mechanisms is clear: collection mechanisms. High-quality data and accountability are critical to the success of the 2030 Agenda, but there is a long way to go on these fronts. For example, recent research from the Center for the Study of Corruption at the University of Sussex highlighted the limited extent of monitoring and evaluation systems in developing countries that would be needed to promote accountability.
Fortunately, there are many great initiatives to showcase and promote for the Special Session. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development has a compendium which brings together information on how institutions can use existing open data to prevent, detect, investigate, prosecute and reduce cases of corruption. Canada has led efforts to report on progress on the SDGs through a Sustainable Development Goals Data Hub. Latvia’s National SDG Action Plan is an example of positive efforts to increase the transparency of budget processes.
Fourth, and following on from the focus of the special session on improving data, any resolution should include specific commitments on how to report on the potential implications, both positive and negative, of the use of data. technology to fight corruption. Digital platforms associated with so-called smart city initiatives have been scrutinized for possible privacy breaches and excessive surveillance. However, technology can also strengthen user-driven systems that put citizens’ access to information at the heart of the effort. For concrete measures, the resolution of the special session could be aligned with the Technology for Integrity Platform of the World Economic Forum. The United Nations Development Program is also leading an effort to supporting technology of the framework of the 2030 Agenda and identify best practices from Member States to harness new technologies in the fight against COVID-19. Increased access to technology must also be fair, inclusive and responsive human rights concerns—Including freedoms of expression and assembly.
Finally, other multilateral bodies, such as the G-20 and the G-7, should be prepared to build on a possible UN special session resolution by improving their own systems. Collective action. They could build on the initial recommendations of a recent UN report, “Financial integrity for sustainable developmentWhich called for widespread systemic action on financial accountability in response to the pandemic. G-20 members are well positioned to implement the group’s findings. Membership of these bodies will also reflect the necessary systems and structures in place to tackle long-standing impunity linked to long-term corruption.
The current moment is one of the huge challenges: tackling corruption when it seems likely to escalate due to the pandemic and the injection of new resources to fight it. However, there is also a significant opportunity for the UN to leverage existing international commitments through the SDG agenda in support of national and international anti-corruption policies that respond to the present time.
Kristen A. Cordell is a Fellow in the Council on External Relations and International Affairs at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and affiliated with the Office of Policy Research at the United Nations University. His research does not reflect the position of his home institution.
Adam Day is director of programs at the Center for Policy Research at the United Nations University in New York. Previously, he served for a decade at the UN, focusing on peace operations, political engagement in conflict situations, mediation and the protection of civilians.