Today, December 13, 2021, the 9th Conference of the States Parties to the United Nations Convention against Corruption began. At ONG CCRC we are extremely pleased to participate in such an important event, gathering new learnings and getting involved in better and broader efforts to deal with a phenomenon that is becoming increasingly complex. From the city of Sharm el-Sheikh we share three relevant points from the recent discussion.
A new international consensus on the fight against corruption is recognized, and it is that the different strategies and mechanisms that make up its policies must be articulated within a transversal system in which complementary perspectives of analysis are brought together and recognized. Nowadays, it is essential that both the formulation and the operation of anti-corruption policies are subject to context analysis that allow us to recognize the different variables that condition both the causes, as well as the logic and the effects of the phenomenon of corruption; among them: the gender perspective, environmentalist and human rights approaches; also including correlational analyzes between corruption and phenomena such as poverty and inequality; as well as the strengthening of instruments for international collaboration and citizen participation.
In sum, the systemic approach implies building and strengthening a new and broad anti-corruption consensus in which, decisively, different social sectors, political authorities and business actors participate.
Related to the previous point, and in line with practices currently implemented in countries of the European Union, children and youth are recognized as allies and primary executors of a long-range anti-corruption strategy. Precisely, from a systemic approach, the field of education and educational institutions appear as fertile and avant-garde spaces and instances for the effective development of prevention measures to combat corruption, which have the ultimate objective of training future generations in a new culture of citizen integrity and in early awareness of the damaging reality of corruption.
Finally, the expected consequence of an early anti-corruption training and the participation of the youngest actors in society is the empowerment of citizens. Indeed, an education policy against corruption must be accompanied by government measures that offer the necessary incentives and resources to make citizens become effective actors in the fight against corruption through participation that can be clear, achievable. , credible, concrete and meaningful.
These measures include the facilitation of spaces for dialogue, access and exchange of information, and the strengthening of the confidence of the general public in government institutions, which translates not only as an increase in citizen autonomy, but also as strengthening and adapting governance to international anti-corruption consensus and requirements.
In summary, from the city of Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt, a new horizon of broad commitments and new alliances to fight corruption can be seen.