United Nations Anti-Corruption Day 2020

Podcast - Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE)

Frank Vogl

excerpt……

Those wearing rose-colored spectacles will argue that the pandemic will disappear, vaccines will abound and the world economy will revive rapidly in 2021. Realistically, it is far from certain that any recovery – if it transpires – in the Western industrial countries will suffice to secure meaningful growth in the poorer nations. Certainly, vaccines are not going to reach the world’s poorest one billion people any time soon.

Adding to the misery, there is a rising volume of anecdotal accounts from many countries that the pandemic has provided enormous opportunities for fraud and corruption in the public procurement programs of many countries, from the over-charging for PPE, to the marketing of counterfeit medical supplies, to even massive hyping of the costs of body bags.

The Partnership for Transparency Fund has launched small, emergency COVID-19 programs to support local civil society organizations in Argentina, India, the Gambia, Ghana and Uganda, to monitor the disbursement of medical supplies for those in greatest need. Such programs need to be vastly scaled-up. Only with far greater support by official aid agencies – bilateral and multilateral – to use the knowledge and skills of local citizens can the governments of poorer nations be monitored and the supply of essential support to the poor be effective.

Citizen engagement is key to so many of the humanitarian efforts now needed. And, not just now, but for years to come. It may well take a decade to revive economic prospects for the very poor and fully overcome the damaging impact of the pandemic and economic crisis. Plans, involving major new aid programs, are needed that must run right through the 2020s.

Do not forget, the first of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals is: “To end poverty everywhere” by 2030.