Practitioners Discuss Anti-Corruption Education and Youth Empowerment in Bosnia and Herzegovina

19 July 2023, Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina: Young people play a key role as agents of change in creating a culture of rejection of corruption. Schools and universities in turn are essential to empower youth and instil in them a well-rounded understanding of respect, ethics and integrity.

In South-Eastern Europe, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has been reaching out to national anti-corruption authorities, ministries of education, civil society, and education practitioners to organize brainstorming and awareness-raising roundtables about available tools for anti-corruption education and how they could be integrated and rolled out at the national level.

On 19 July, UNODC brought together a group of over 30 academics and other education and anti-corruption stakeholders for such a roundtable in Bosnia and Herzegovina. During the event, participants discussed corruption risks in the educational sector and shared experiences in designing and delivering anti-corruption education and strengthening partnerships. In addition, a new memorandum of cooperation was signed on the day of the workshop between the Agency for Prevention of Corruption and Coordination of the Fight Against Corruption (APIK) and the University of Mostar.

The workshop offered an opportunity to share examples of good practices in the fight against corruption in education across Bosnia and Herzegovina and to frame key issues to expand anti-corruption education. It was agreed to organize a follow-up meeting to review available global tools for anti-corruption education in more detail and develop a community of practice on anti-corruption education in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

UNODC facilitated this workshop on anti-corruption education in Bosnia and Herzegovina with financial support from the Government of Germany. Recommendations from the workshop will feed into a regional event to be held later this year to review existing experiences with anti-corruption education in all the Western Balkans jurisdictions. Preparation of a compendium of good practices and experiences from the region on anti-corruption education is also foreseen.