Implementation of Humanitarian Aid Agencies’ Anti-Corruption Policies in their Operations in Afghanistan, Lebanon, Somalia and Guinea-Conakry: Challenges and Successes
High levels of corruption pose legal, operational, and ethical challenges to humanitarian organizations operating in areas experiencing and transitioning from conflict, crisis, and instability. This Capstone, conducted in cooperation with Transparency International (TI) Kenya, is intended to be a contextually informative tool for the organization’s to begin in-depth work identifying anti-corruption best practices in four countries.
This project focused on four countries experiencing substantial crises: long term violent conflict in Somalia and Afghanistan, the 2014 Ebola outbreak in Guinea Conakry, and the refugee influx in Lebanon. The Capstone team’s report first outlines international regulatory frameworks that govern corruption, which provide a context for examining country-specific case studies. Then each country case study highlights historical problems of corruption, identifies the domestic legal framework on corruption, and analyses the factors contributing to failures in the legal system. The report also breaks down the regulatory and bureaucratic processes related to the delivery of humanitarian aid that appear to be most susceptible to corruption. Finally, the case studies explore how humanitarian aid organizations are operating within the regulatory environment.
From these case studies, the team has drawn general recommendations for combatting corruption in humanitarian aid. Operations should be transparent and inclusive, involving all key stakeholders in a region to foster a positive perception of aid operations. Although operating outside a formal governmental framework creates challenges, it may also provide avenues to avoid engaging with and fueling corruption in the public sector. Moreover, reducing the number of non-vital stakeholders and intermediaries involved in the logistics of providing aid alleviates vulnerability to corruption and increases the transparency of the operation within the locality.