Fighting Public Sector Corruption in Ghana: Does Gender Matter?

Abstract

In pursuit of a sustainable anti-corruption strategy the development community has injected a plethora of reform ideas into the public sector of many African countries. Spearheaded by the World Bank, these attempts have met with modest results at best, as evidenced by the fact that current data suggests entrenched corruption in many African countries. More recently, the failure of previous anti-corruption strategies has led to the promotion of the integration of women as a possible panacea to reducing public sector corruption. In particular, the Bank is advocating for increased participation of women in the sector as a key component of any anti-corruption strategy. However, after the failure of previous strategies, legitimate questions abound: would the new gender sensitive approach to anti-corruption work? Are women necessarily less corrupt than men? This chapter draws on findings of a study in Ghana to argue that unless corrupt opportunities and networks are restrained, women may not prove any less corrupt than men, when exposed to public sector environments characterised by opportunities for corrupt behaviour. The chapter concludes that the policy to integrate women into the public sector, which some commentators refer to as ‘gender mainstreaming’,1 will only be effective if implemented concurrently with other anti-corruption strategies.