Short Abstract:

Corruption constrains public services and hobbles development. How can we work with political realities to tackle corruption, sector by sector? The Anti-Corruption Evidence Research Consortium is working to find new strategies to loosen the grip of corruption on public services and productivity.

Long Abstract:

Corruption and inequality feed off one another: as structural problems created by certain distributions of power in society they are both circular and cumulative. Corruption affects how effectively resources are used between different sectors, organisations, households and individuals. Meanwhile, inequality constrains the productive uses and development of available resources and the redistribution of organisational power, without with corruption cannot be incrementally reduced.

Developing countries, with weak enforcement of formal rules, may struggle to use top-down enforcement to address corruption. But by focusing on specific sectors, and identifying feasible strategies that work with the interests of local stakeholders, we can help create incremental progress and incentives for more productive behaviour - and less corruption. The SOAS-led Anti-Corruption Evidence Research Consortium is working with partners in Bangladesh, Nigeria and Tanzania, on cross-cutting research studies to explore evidence on new, feasible and high-impact ways to tackle corruption and reduce inequality. The panel will examine how our work on reducing resource leakages in skills training programmes can help achieve better employability and wage growth in Tanzania; and how understanding incentives for corruption in health care providers in Bangladesh can identify feasible policy changes in the political context to improve provider practice.