AP-INTACT

Meyers, Mary. Is There a Link Between Digital Media and Good Governance? What the Academics Say - A Report to the Center for International Media Assistance . Washington, DC: Center for International Media Assistance, 19 June 2013. This study from the Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA) focuses on academic thinking on good governance and digital media, taken to mean "all the various types of new information and communication technologies such as the Internet, social networking tools such as Facebook and Twitter, blogs, podcasts, SMS [text messages] and mobile phones.... The report is organized into two main parts. The first presents the overarching theory and debate from two opposing standpoints that can be crudely characterized as the techno-optimists versus the techno-pessimists....The second part looks at some empirical research and country case studies by a number of academics from different disciplines; law, political science, and anthropology." Read the ...

Citing an Australian news report, Reuters says Papua New Guinea's Prime Minister Peter O'Neill has disbanded the country's main anti-corruption body, Taskforce Sweep, which earlier served an arrest warrant on O'Neill over corruption allegations. Taskforce Sweep had been politically compromised, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported O'Neill as saying. Read the report by Jane Wardell, Reuters.

[Facilitator's note: Contributed with thanks by Adhi Setyo Tamtomo, International Cooperation Specialist, Komisi Pemberantasan Korupsi, Indonesia.] Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) prosecutors called for a 17-year prison sentence for a former Bank Indonesia deputy governor for his alleged role in the bailout of Bank Century in 2008, which resulted in state losses of over US$592 million.?KPK prosecutors said that Budi and his colleagues abused their authority by channeling short-term financial assistance to keep the bank afloat. They falsely claimed that Bank Century posed a systemic threat to the banking sector, making it eligible for a government bailout. Read the story by Haeril Halim, in The Jakarta Post.

[Facilitator's note: Thank you to Diana Torres, Anti-Corruption Research Analyst, UNDP New York, for sharing this information.] ETICO , a unique new portal aimed at fighting corruption in education systems around the world, was launched 16 June 2014 by UNESCO's International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP-UNESCO). Corruption is often hard to track and measure, but is found at different levels in countries’ education systems and is hampering access to education and children’s learning. It results in children being denied a good-quality education. Examples of corruption in education range from ghost schools and fake diplomas, to missing textbooks, stolen school supplies, absent teachers and misallocation of school grants. For example, surveys carried out by IIEP partners tackling corruption estimate that the salaries of absent or ghost teachers may account for 15-20% of payroll costs in some countries; in some cases this is equal to half of the funds allocated to improv...

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has completed a project to provide global web access to African governance data. The project includes the  AfriGAP Data Portal  and the  AfriGAP Open Data Platform . Both consolidate quantitative indicators on the quality of governance and democracy in African countries, and provide users with simple tools to analyze this data. The AfriGAP Data Portal provides policymakers, analysts, researchers, experts in social and political science and other specialists with a one-stop-shop platform to navigate and also compare indicators on various themes of governance (corruption, citizen participation, human rights, natural resources, conflict, etc.), from both African and international sources. It offers customized tools for data management, analysis and display, including keyword search for finding relevant information within a fraction of the usual time. The solution's interactive maps, charts and diagrams graphi...

ETICO , a unique new portal aimed at fighting corruption in education systems around the world, was launched today by UNESCO's International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP-UNESCO). Corruption is often hard to track and measure, but is found at different levels in countries’ education systems and is hampering access to education and children’s learning. It results in children being denied a good-quality education. Examples of corruption in education range from ghost schools and fake diplomas, to missing textbooks, stolen school supplies, absent teachers and misallocation of school grants. For example, surveys carried out by IIEP partners tackling corruption estimate that the salaries of absent or ghost teachers may account for 15-20% of payroll costs in some countries; in some cases this is equal to half of the funds allocated to improving school buildings, providing better class equipment and buying school textbooks, etc. The ETICO database, which house...

"The World Bank has been an active supporter of customs reform across the world for the past 20 years, having supported roughly 120 such programs. The Bank works closely with national reformers and has piloted a number of new, innovative strategies. "Two of these, in Cameroon and Afghanistan, deserve special mention. "Their approaches are relatively unique, reflecting very different circumstances. But they may have application in other countries." Read the commentary by Gerard McLinden and Miles McKenna, in The Trade Post, a World Bank blog page.