Informatie-overzicht Basel Institute on Governance

Civis Mundi Digitaal #111

door Gretta Ferner

Ter Inleiding

Michel van Hulten
Het bekende Basel Institute on Governance publiceerde zojuist een “boodschap” van Gretta Fenner, de managing director, ongetwijfeld mede ter promotie van haar ‘open access approach’ onder de titel Knowledge shared... New open-access research and learning opportunities at the Basel Institute. Een reeks websites is mede daardoor goed te vinden en gemakkelijk bereikbaar geworden met diverse belangwekkende documenten, gidsen en ‘wegwijzers’. Het loont de moeite haar aanwijzingen te volgen om snel meer te weten te komen over zaken als financiële fraude,  criminele zelfverrijking, corruptie en ‘wildlife’, ‘Why do people poach, trade and buy protected wildlife?’, of zoiets onbestaanbaars als ‘zero corruption’ (‘https://zerocc.org/ ), en informatie over Oost-Europa en Centraal Azië.

 

De ‘boodschap’ van het Basel Institute of Governance

Gretta Ferner
The idea that knowledge is greater the more it is shared is nothing new. But perhaps it deserves fresh attention?
In our work with anti-corruption professionals from all sectors around the world, we see all too often how certain groups find it more difficult to access information, learn new skills and share ideas. Barriers to knowledge – especially when they affect those at the front lines of fighting corruption – need to disappear.
At the Basel Institute, we have been trying hard to expand opportunities for everyone to benefit from any insights and knowledge products we can provide.
Exhibit 1 is our new open-access book, Illicit Enrichment: A Guide to Laws Targeting Unexplained Wealth by Asset Recovery Specialist Andrew Dornbierer. This is a uniquely comprehensive guide to illicit enrichment legislation, the debates surrounding it, and the use of such laws around the world to recover the proceeds of corruption and other crimes. It is freely available online, with printed copies available at cost price. We have had a hugely positive reaction so far and encourage you to share your feedback, not least at Thursday’s illicit enrichment virtual event featuring practitioner experiences from Kenya, Mauritius and Uganda.
Exhibit 2 are the numerous free learning and knowledge resources we have recently uploaded to Basel LEARN, our open platform for self-paced learning and instructor-led virtual training.
There’s for example our new eLearning course on International Cooperation and Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters. The self-paced course, which joins our five other free eLearning courses, takes participants step by step through a fictional investigation, demonstrating how law enforcement officers can collect and request information and evidence from international sources.
Basel LEARN also hosts a collection of practical guidelines on anti-corruption and asset recovery. Among these, I’d like to draw your attention to a four-part series on corruption and wildlife crime developed by our Green Corruption team, and to Claudia Baez Camargo’s new quick guide explaining the purpose, focus and value of strategic anti-corruption guidelines for development agencies. Her Public Governance team has been supporting the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) in developing these guidelines, and she explored the main ideas at the SDC’s recent week-long governance forum for global staff and partners.
Our Public Finance Management team in Peru has also neatly demonstrated how to quench a thirst for knowledge when over 860 officials from across the country completed a five-week virtual course in strategic planning. Building on previous experience conducting training during lockdowns, the team has developed an innovative model that leverages social media and peer-to-peer learning.
This brings me to another important way in which we try to share our ideas and experience as widely as possible – through forums for frank discussion. No doubt you, as we, miss the personal interaction of live conferences. But the online versions have the advantage of being easier to share with those who might otherwise not be able to attend.
This means you can simply visit YouTube to catch up with our two side events at the Special Session of the UN General Assembly Against Corruption on non-conviction based forfeiture in asset recovery (with the StAR Initiative of The World Bank/UNODC) and the power of Collective Action to build effective public-private partnerships against corruption (with the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs).
My three-minute address to delegates at the UNGASS plenary is also available in video and written form, as is my speech to Ukraine’s political leaders at the Ukraine 30 Forum and a panel I moderated at the country’s Zero Corruption Conference.
New partners in new countries as well as expanding knowledge we are always happy to expand our support to. We have recently signed partnership agreements with the Zanzibar Anti-Corruption and Economic Crimes Authority and Ecuador’s Procuraduría General del Estado covering asset recovery support and capacity building. Meanwhile, our Collective Action team is partnering with the Thai Private Sector Collective Action Against Corruption on a local certification project to raise anti-corruption compliance and ease due diligence burdens on small businesses and their larger customers.
I will stop here and hope you have time to explore our recent blogs and publications below, sign up for our upcoming events, share our current job vacancies and join me in welcoming seven new staff members to our global team.
And of course, do feel free to share your ideas and knowledge products with us on social media, by email, in person soon I hope and in any other way.


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