Corruption is a result of malfunctioning governance institutions in the public and
the private domains. It undermines efforts to reduce poverty, realize the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and promote human development
and human security. In the early 1990s, UNDP became one of the pioneering organizations
to develop and implement programmes that address and curb elements of corruption;
and today, it continues to be a leading provider of anti-corruption technical cooperation
within its democratic governance portfolio, and in the framework of the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC).
In the Arab states region, corruption is perceived to be a major governance challenge
that seriously impedes reform and development. Related data and information continue
to be scarce; and the public’s confidence in the State to act against corruption
remains fragile. Nevertheless, recent positive developments are creating opportunities
for change and progress. Over the past few years, the space for public debate on
corruption has grown significantly, and governments have become more engaged in
related reform initiatives. So far, 16 Arab countries have committed themselves
to implement the UNCAC. Some of them have already promulgated a series of legal
reforms to prevent and punish corrupt practices, established specialized anti-corruption
bodies, and developed and started implementing national anti-corruption strategies.
Conversely, major regulatory and capacity gaps continue to undermine the stakeholders’
ability to act effectively against corruption. Transparency levels are constantly
improving, but are still relatively low, and various key oversight mechanisms remain
in need of further development. The actual implementation of the existing legal
frameworks is, by and large, also below expectations, while the prosecution of major
corruption cases remains rare. International cooperation is considered to be slow
and challenging, and the effective participation of non-governmental actors in anti-corruption
efforts continues to be undermined by a number of political and structural challenges.
UNDP’s Programme on Governance in the Arab Region (POGAR) has been working with
Arab governments, parliaments, judiciaries and non-governmental actors to support
governance reforms for more than a decade. The focus on anti-corruption emerged
in 2003-2004 in the framework of the joint UNDP/OECD Initiative on Good Governance for Development (GfD) in the
Arab Countries. Since then, POGAR has supported the achievement of a number of key
results, which have helped increase the volume of anti-corruption cooperation in
the region, and created fresh opportunities for new steps forward on the anti-corruption
agenda. POGAR is building on these
achievements,
in the context of its new regional anti-corruption
project, to contribute to the Arab countries’ efforts in the area of
transparency, integrity and the implementation of the UNCAC, with a view to reinforcing
good governance practices and promoting human development and human security in
the region.