Democracy and Governance
Acknowledgements
This premier Economic Governance Report was prepared under the leadership of Vera Songwe Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa with oversight by Adam Elhiraika Director of the Macroeconomics and Governance Division (MGD) and Bartholomew Armah Officer-in-Charge for the MGD.
Acknowledgements
This guidelines document is developed in the context of efforts made by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) relating to women’s economic empowerment and care economy in the Arab region led by Rouba Arja Social Affairs Officer Gender Justice Population and Inclusive Development Cluster under the overall guidance of Mehrinaz el Awady Cluster Leader. It is prepared under a global Development Account project on strengthening social protection for pandemic responses coordinated by Nada Darwazeh Director ESCWA Centrer for Women. The present document primarily builds on a draft prepared by Ruchika Chaudhary (consultant). Ghada Tabbah (consultant) provided substantive inputs to the guidelines.
Foreword
The international community is increasingly adopting intergovernmental frameworks at the global level such as the World Programme for Human Rights Education (from 2005 onwards) which aim at encouraging the development of sustainable national strategies and programmes in human rights education. In particular the Plan of Action for the first phase (2005-2007) of the World Programme which is contained in this booklet focuses on the integration of human rights education in primary and secondary school systems.
Anti-corruption measures to curb illicit financial flows
This chapter assesses whether African government corruption-fighting measures and institutional architecture are adequate to curtail IFFs. It adopts a conception of corruption covering a broad range of actions actors motivations and machinations involved in internationalizing corruption. The chapter proposes a conceptual framework that relates corruption to IFFs reviews the effectiveness of existing legal instruments and institutional frameworks for fighting corruption and curbing IFFs and presents recommendations for strengthening these measures.
Foreword
Human rights education is a lifelong process that builds knowledge and skills as well as attitudes and behaviours to promote and uphold human rights. This definition guides the World Programme for Human Rights Education a global initiative of the United Nations which since 2005 has encouraged concrete measures to integrate human rights education in all sectors.
Conclusions and policy recommendations
This Economic Governance Report building on earlier work by the Mbeki Panel and others have assessed measures African governments can take by themselves or by drawing on international cooperation opportunities to combat illicit financial outflows. It has reviewed the readiness of African governance institutions to do so including their legislation and regulatory frameworks and their activities and coordination capacities. In each of the illicit financial flow (IFF) channels and motivations addressed by the report—tax evasion and tax planning for avoidance purposes trade pricing manipulation the banking system and money laundering strategies as well as corruption-related IFFs—institutional activities and capacities are described and examples from the continent are given. Based on these examinations the report stresses the need for African countries to double up: to build strong effective and accountable institutions for curbing IFFs while standing behind those institutions with political leadership at the highest levels. This concluding chapter highlights a selection of the report’s recommendations.
Acknowledgements
This report was prepared by the Governance and Conflict Prevention Cluster based on a background paper written for the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) by the lead consultant for this project Mohammad Samhouri under the direction of the Cluster Leader Tarik Alami with the contribution and coordination of Rabih Bashour the research and input of Anas Diab and the administrative support of Ghada Sinno.
Issues and Challenges
In one way or another many countries face the challenges of exclusion corruption and inefficiency in public service delivery. Worldwide civic engagement in public governance is evolving into an increasingly important tool to address these deficiencies. Various participation options offer opportunities for equitable and sustainable growth deepening democracy building trust mainstreaming social concerns into economic processes and ensuring accountability in public governance.
Civic Engagement in Budgeting, Service Delivery and Accountability
Within a broad commitment to pro-poor development and social inclusion many participation initiatives have evolved to ensure better accountability and transparency in public governance. At the same time they seek to influence processes that affect public finance notably budgeting service delivery and accountability.
Acknowledgements
The World Public Sector Report (WPSR) 2008 People Matter: Civic Engagement in Public Governance is a product of the collaboration and contributions of many individuals.