WUNRN
WOMEN'S EMPOWERMENT
& CORRUPTION PREVENTION CAN STRENGTHEN TRANSPARENCY & ACCOUNTABILITY
By Magdy
Martinex-Soliman - 17 April 2014
A recent discussion at the 58th session of
the Commission on the Status of Women initiated by UNDP and partners
highlighted what an asset grass-roots women’s organisations can be in the fight
against corruption in their communities. The discussion was based on country
stories about how women-led strategies strengthened transparency and
accountability, leading to prevention of corruption.
By way of background, UNDP funds and supports a programme in partnership with
the Huairou Commission (a global network of grassroots women’s organisations)
that so far has mobilized 2,300 community members and trained more than 500
people on social accountability strategies in Brazil, Nepal, Nicaragua, the
Philippines and Uganda.
Not only did women lead anti-corruption initiatives, their involvement also
reaped important gender equality gains. For example, in less than a year, the
programme yielded results that speak for themselves: In
the town of Jinja in Uganda, because of women’s collective fight for land
rights, 35 women received land deeds in their names, and 120 women are in the
process of obtaining these deeds. In Brazil, since the start of the programme,
3,000 land deeds were granted to women as rightful owners.
Corruption is not gender-neutral. For example, in many developing countries,
women are often the victims of corruption in land titling processes. Through
the programme and country level projects, empowered women have been able to
strengthen anti-corruption actions by mobilizing themselves to monitor and
raise awareness of corruption threats in the land titling processes and build
trust between communities and government officials, resulting in higher
participation, transparency and accountability. Gender empowerment has proven
more effective as opposed to “gender-blind” approaches in the fight against
corruption.
One major challenge, however, is the lack of systematic identification and
prioritization of gender dimensions in corruption-prone sectors. Another area
that needs urgent attention is to take into account grassroots women’s
experiences and strategies when developing and implementing anti-corruption
policies at the global and national levels.
The evidence makes a strong case for the role of organized and empowered women
as “game-changers” in their communities in the fight against corruption. The
development community should respond positively to their call for action and
support.
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WUNRN
WOMEN & CORRUPTION - PERVASIVE
CHALLENGES IN MALE-DOMINATED SOCIETIES - ORGANIZING, & TARGETING POWER ARE
KEY
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The Impact of Corruption on Women - Strategies for Change
B Julie DiMauro - May 5, 2014
Photo courtesy of Transparency International via YouTube
Corruption is
not restricted to any geographical location or industry -- but it has some
specifically wrenching consequences for those who wield little power, such as
women in male-dominated societies.
An October
2012 United
Nations Development Programme (UNDP) survey of
women's perspectives on corruption revealed both how women interpret corruption
and have been affected by it, particularly in developing countries.
The study
focused on eight countries in Latin America, Africa and
The respondents
interpreted "corruption" to mean the giving or taking of bribes,
physical abuse, lack of access to food and other basic supplies, and a lack of
access to essential information and employment.
The survey
findings included:
- Women's experience of corruption
is concentrated in the realm of public-sector delivery. Poor women often
interface with public agencies to get basic services for their families,
and 39% of women reported having to pay a bribe to receive them.
- Women said the service area or
agency they perceived as most corrupt was their local police (20%). Coming
in second, local governments were labeled most corrupt by 11% of women.
UNDP said this likely means anti-corruption initiatives being implemented
in some regions on the federal level are not trickling down to
communities.
- Bribery was the activity women
most associated with the term "corruption," with 63% of women
reporting they have been asked to pay a bribe, typically to gain access to
public goods and services (39%).
The UNDP
authors said women in developing countries largely work in the "informal
economy," in jobs at the grassroots level, so they are particularly
subject to requests for bribery to acquire licenses or work supplies, or obtain
a small-business loan.
In the
survey, 16% of the women said they had to pay a bribe to gain access to the
official documents they needed to work, put their kids in school or use banking
services, such as birth certificates, proof of income or marriage licenses.
When asked what
they thought would contribute to a more just society, 83% of women thought
"women leaders could provide leadership that is more responsive to
grassroots communities and less subject to corruption."
Of those women who pushed back against corruption in their societies, harnessing the media (27%) was the most popular strategy to publicly expose instances of corruption.
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WUNRN
Huairou Commission
Grassroots Women's Perspectives on Corruption
“Grassroots women
experience corruption as endemic, pervasive, and as a part of everyday life
experience. ”
When grassroots women
organize at the community level to design and implement anti-corruption
strategies, they build gender sensitive governance that leads to improved
service delivery, increased access to justice, and decreasing levels of
corruption and poverty.
Corruption
is a symptom of a larger problem
Grassroots
women focus on improving governance structures to reduce corruption and
increase access to service and justice
Non-confrontational
strategies are more effective at the grassroots level
Partnering
with civil servants, service providers and government authorities to promote transparency
and accountability creates safe and sustainable mechanisms to reduce corruption
Organizing
is the key to creating incentives to stop corruption
Grassroots
women are more empowered to raise their voices against corruption if they
belong to a grassroots organization. They feel supported and confident to
address misuse of power.
Knowing the
budget is crucial for monitoring public spending and influencing service
delivery
Access to
budget information varies from country to country. When this information is
updated in real time and accessible, grassroots organizations can better
monitor and act on misuse of public money
Grassroots
women and youth are affected differently by corruption
In the case of
women, sexual demands and physical abuse are two ways that corruption
manifests; therefore, anti-corruption mechanisms focused on only bribery would
not be able to reduce corruption from the perspective of grassroots
women.
Bottom-up
and top-down approaches are complementary in reducing corruption
Grassroots
women have developed important mechanisms to improve service delivery and
access to justice.
Policy and legal reforms have the potential of creating sustainable and
responsive governance structures to recognize and scale grassroots women-led
initiatives. It is thus important to partner with policy makers.
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GRASSROOTS WOMEN'S PERSPECTIVES ON
CORRUPTION & ANTI-CORRUPTION
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