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The Challenge:
A number of governance indicators reveal that corruption remains a significant obstacle to development in several countries of the region.
Corruption is encountered throughout the process of harvesting and manufacturing illegal wood-based products, migrant smuggling and working illegally, among other crimes. Corruption of public officials helps to fuel human trafficking and child sex tourism.
What we do:
The UN Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) provides a comprehensive framework to strengthen anti-corruption programmes in the region. Following the Convention's provisions, all countries in the region need to undergo a review of compliance composed of two review cycles.
The first review cycle covers chapters III (criminalization and law enforcement) and IV (international cooperation) of the Convention, while the second review cycle concerns chapters II (preventive measures) and V (asset recovery). Each State party is reviewed by two other States, with at least one of them being from the regional group of the State party under review. The complete list of reviewed countries, with respective report and executive summary, is available here.
Effective anti-corruption efforts require a whole-of-government and society approach, including different sectors and branches of the government, civil society groups and the private sector. Public engagement often makes a real difference.
Ongoing support to developing national and regional capacities to prevent and effectively address corruption remains an important priority for UNODC.
UNODC will continue to work with states as they introduce legal reforms and develop and implement anti-corruption strategies. The outcome of the UNCAC review process provides a solid basis for formulating anti-corruption technical assistance programmes with countries. The process helps countries to identify gaps in anti-corruption policies and frameworks as well as technical assistance needs. UNODC in turn provides technical support to countries so that they can translate the gap analysis into effective legal and policy frameworks and sustainable anti-corruption strategies.
UNODC works with Member States to enhance the capacities of their national anti-corruption bodies, through the provision of technical assistance as well as the organization of training programmes. In addition, in order to facilitate the coordination of international anti-corruption efforts. Support is offered to:
