Re-Envisioning Anti-Corruption: Lessons from Research and Practice in the Global South
Key information
- Date
- Time
-
5:30 pm to 7:00 pm
- Venue
- Senate Chamber, Paul Webley Wing, SOAS
- Room
- S219
About this event
Corruption is one of the major constraints to development in the Global South, yet decades of well-intentioned anti-corruption programming - built around transparency, robust legal frameworks, and top-down enforcement - have often failed to produce lasting change.
Research increasingly shows that these standard approaches fall short because they treat corruption as a technical problem which can be fixed simply with better rules and tighter penalties. In reality, corruption is sustained by the power dynamics and interests of state and non-state actors who have a stake in maintaining it.
This DLD Conversation brings together political economy researchers who are advancing new frameworks for understanding and tackling corruption, alongside journalists who investigate corruption across the Global South, and train and support other reporters, activists and civil society to investigate and expose it. Drawing on academic research and field evidence from Africa, South Asia and beyond, the discussion will explore what approaches can realistically make a difference in addressing abuses of power and money within sectors such as natural resource extraction, public services and procurement, as well as cross-cutting issues such as illicit financial flows and political elite networks. It will also consider how socio-economic development is further enabled when natural wealth and public resources reach the people and purposes they are meant to serve, from health and education to infrastructure and employment.
Please note that this event is in-person only in the Senate Chamber (Room S219), Paul Webley Wing, SOAS. A recording of the event will later be published on SOAS DLD's YouTube channel.
Speakers
Pallavi Roy
- Pallavi Roy is a Professor in Political Economy at the Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy at SOAS University of London and brings multi-sector experience to issues of rent-seeking, economic development, and political economy research. She is also the Co-Director of SOAS-ACE research partnership consortium, working primarily in Bangladesh and Nigeria, as well as several other developing countries. Pallavi has overseen over 11 research projects, and has extensive experience with bilateral and multilateral donors and international organisations. She is frequently invited as an expert to lecture on governance and corruption at the International Anti-Corruption Academy at Laxenburg. Prior to academia, Pallavi was a financial journalist in India, covering politics, infrastructure and metallic commodities.
Tom Stocks
- Tom Stocks is a Senior Investigative Journalist at the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) where he reports on illicit finance and corruption. He has contributed to major investigations of banks and corporate service providers, including Cyprus Confidential, Suisse Secrets, and the Pandora Papers. His reporting also featured in the European Press Prize-winning Russian Asset Tracker. He also provides research and training support to OCCRP’s network of journalists and partner organisations.
Nick Mathiason
- Nick Mathiason is a founder and Co-Director of Finance Uncovered, which provides specialist training and support to journalists and activists to enable them to expose abuses of power and money. He has been a business and financial journalist for 30 years and has broken a sizeable number of impactful stories that have had international prominence. He was one of the first UK journalists to report on industrial scale tax avoidance. Subjects investigated include developing countries access to medicine, vulture funds, labour issues, and the growth of private equity. Formerly a business correspondent at The Observer, The Guardian, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, and the Big Issue magazine for the homeless, Nick's work has received national and international recognition, contributed to policy change, and shifts in corporate behaviour.
Header image credit: James Wiseman via Unsplash.
