Abstract
Corruption is recognized by the global community as a threat to development generally and to achieving health goals, such as the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal # 3: ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all. As such, international organizations such as the World Health Organizations and the United Nations Development Program are creating an evidence base on how best to address corruption in health systems. At present, the risk of corruption is even more apparent, given the need for quick and nimble responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, which may include a relaxation of standards and the rapid mobilization of large funds. As international organizations and governments attempt to respond to the ever-changing demands of this pandemic, there is a need to acknowledge and address the increased opportunity for corruption.In order to explore how such risks of corruption are addressed in international organizations, this paper focuses on the question: How are international organizations implementing measures to promote accountability and transparency, and anti-corruption, in their own operations? The following international organizations were selected as the focus of this paper given their current involvement in anti-corruption, transparency, and accountability in the health sector: the World Health Organization, the United Nations Development Program, the World Bank Group, and the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Our findings demonstrate that there has been a clear increase in the volume and scope of anti-corruption, accountability, and transparency measures implemented by these international organizations in recent years. However, the efficacy of these measures remains unclear. Further research is needed to determine how these measures are achieving their transparency, accountability, and anti-corruption goals.
Highlights
The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights has underscored that corruption is an “enormous obstacle to the realization of all human rights,” and has stated that transparency, accountability, non-discrimination and meaningful participation are effective means to fight corruption [1]
Search strategies were utilized with a combination of the following keywords: (“United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)” OR “World Health Organization (WHO)” OR “World The World Bank Group (Bank)” OR “Global The Global Fund to Fight AIDS (Fund)”) AND (“corruption” OR “anti-corruption” OR “transparency” OR “accountability” OR “good governance”)
While this paper provides an initial overview of such efforts employed by the UNDP, the Global Fund, the WHO, and the World Bank, it is by no means exhaustive
Summary
The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights has underscored that corruption is an “enormous obstacle to the realization of all human rights,” and has stated that transparency, accountability, non-discrimination and meaningful participation are effective means to fight corruption [1]. Corruption and the health system IOs such as the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the World Bank Group (World Bank), and the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria (Global Fund) are building an evidence base on what anti-corruption, transparency and accountability (ACTA) mechanisms can best reduce corruption in the health system In doing so, they are aiming to contribute to programing that is in line with the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), such as SDG# 3 “Good Health and WellBeing” and SDG #16 “Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions,” which includes the sub-target 16.5 “(to) substantially reduce corruption and bribery in all their forms.
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