7 November 2024 – Cairo, Egypt
For years, UNODC has partnered with the Administrative Control Authority (ACA) in Egypt to support the fight against corruption and enhance integrity within both the public and private sectors. The focus on supporting the youth’s active role has been central to this collaboration. Since August 2024, UNODC and ACA have delivered 8 extensive training programmes on anti-corruption, with a focus on business integrity for more than 300 university students and assistant professors across Egypt in 22 faculties at 11 private and public universities from across 7 Governorates in Egypt, including Cairo, Giza, Helwan, Alexandria, Mansoura, Beni Suef, and Assiut. This was organized under the framework of the Siemens Integrity Initiative-funded project, “Global Action for Business Integrity”, in close collaboration with the Egyptian Anti-Corruption Academy, and the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research (MoHESR) in Egypt.
“Together with UNODC, we aim to equip youth across Egypt with the skills to apply integrity and anti-corruption in their future careers and daily lives. Throughout the trainings, we encourage critical thinking through interactive training materials, ensuring participants understand the concepts and apply them in real-life situations, contributing to a more transparent and ethical society,” Dr. Mohamed Salama Ahmed Ezzat, First Undersecretary of the Administrative Control Authority and Director of the Egyptian Anti-Corruption Academy.
The programmes were designed based on the UNODC-tailored Global Resource for Anti-Corruption Education and Youth Empowerment (GRACE) academic modules for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. The modules were contextualized throughout 2023 by UNODC with regional and national counterparts in Egypt, Libya, and Palestine to ensure they match the context in the MENA countries. Furthermore, the training programmes were developed to support university students with the necessary skills to promote ethical decision-making in the public and private sectors, to identify and combat corruption in various professional settings, as well as to foster a culture of integrity and accountability among future professionals.
For a sustainable approach that focuses on national ownership, the training was based on a training of trainers (ToT) mechanism. The 26 professors and lecturers trained in the past UNODC and ACA ToT in October 2023 were amongst the key experts who delivered the recent trainings to youth.
Youssef Nasser, a Law School graduate, from Alexandria University, and one of the participants mentioned “I thought that the fight against corruption is only within the public sector. I thought it was exclusive to the public sector. But now I am aware that the private sector plays a crucial role too in fighting and preventing corruption. This made me much aware of the measures I can take, and we can all take to get rid of this phenomenon.”
By integrating theoretical knowledge with practical application, the trainings aimed to foster a culture of non-tolerance towards corruption and promote ethical decision-making in the public and private sectors by providing university students with the knowledge and abilities to create an ethical mindset that they may apply in their future employment.
Zeinab Reda, a third-year student, at the College of Early Childhood Education, Cairo University, and one of the participants said “We understood some types of corruption. Some situations that might appear as usual practices turned out to be forms of Corruption.” She also added, “The training impact is lifetime, nowadays when I do something, I must consider how it is going to affect myself and those around me.”
UNODC together with ACA are jointly planning to integrate trained youth in future joint efforts and activities as top achievers and ambassadors of the GRACE initiative to empower and educate more youth within their local communities and universities to play an active role as agents of change at all levels of society.
Click here for more information about UNODC's work on enhancing Anti-Corruption Education at the regional level.
