{"id":6433,"date":"2021-07-05T14:05:37","date_gmt":"2021-07-05T14:05:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tapnetwork2030.org\/?p=6433"},"modified":"2021-07-05T14:18:39","modified_gmt":"2021-07-05T14:18:39","slug":"tap-storytelling-guest-blog-by-transparency-international","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tapnetwork2030.org\/tap-storytelling-guest-blog-by-transparency-international\/","title":{"rendered":"TAP Storytelling: Guest Blog by Transparency International"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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5 July, 2021<\/h2>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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TAP Storytelling: Guest Blog by Transparency International \u2013\nTackling Corruption as a Cornerstone of Sustainable Development\n<\/h2>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Transparency International<\/em><\/a> is a global movement working to end corruption. In more than 60 countries, Transparency International\u2019s <\/em>Advocacy and Legal Advice Centres<\/a> (ALACs) <\/em>are trusted partners for people wanting to speak up, empowering individuals, families and communities to safely report corruption when they see it happen. Over 280,000 people have contacted ALACs since 2003. <\/em><\/span><\/p>

ALACs provide free and confidential advice and support to victims and witnesses of corruption, enabling them to assert their rights, seek redress and stand up for justice. While ALACs serve the people, their impact goes beyond simply providing individual support. Transparency International gains invaluable insight from working with ALAC clients and analysing ALAC cases, which in turn, helps it to challenge systemic corruption and its causes.\u00a0 <\/em><\/span><\/p>

Transparency International\u2019s work, however, is not limited to achieving SDG target 16.5, to \u201csubstantially reduce corruption and bribery in all their forms.\u201d Many of its ALAC cases involve corruption increasing poverty, hunger, gender inequality and other deprivations. By tackling corruption, it helps remove barriers to development. This underlines that corruption, like the other issues of SDG16, is deeply and intrinsically related to all the SDGs.<\/em><\/span><\/p>

Read below an excerpt from Transparency International\u2019s newest publication, being launched today, 5 July 2021, titled \u201cSpeaking up Locally, Driving Change Globally: True Stories of Tackling Corruption to Build a Sustainable Future<\/a>\u201d.\u00a0 The section featured below specifically addresses how fighting corruption can work hand in hand with progressing the 2030 Agenda. In reading this section, one thing is clear: \u201cWhen people challenge corruption in their daily lives, they play a vital role in helping achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Ending <\/em><\/strong><\/span>corruption to enable development <\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>

Like many policy frameworks, the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) can sound remote from ordinary people\u2019s lives. An urgent call to action for all countries, the 17 goals are designed to deliver peace and prosperity for people and the planet. Yet daily life is exactly what they\u2019re all about \u2013 from having enough to eat, to getting quality education and medical care, to earning a decent living.<\/span><\/p>

But every day around the world, corruption is a clear barrier to this progress. This makes fighting the corruption that people encounter as they try to live, work and learn crucial to realising the SDGs.<\/span><\/p>

From ending poverty to tackling climate change, corruption is a cross-cutting issue. Left unchecked, it seriously undermines efforts to achieve the goals that world leaders have committed to and that are crucial for a sustainable future. Where corruption exists in hospitals, progress towards targets on health care will be limited. Where corruption affects schools, targets on education are unlikely to realised. Where corruption undermines service delivery, goals on poverty eradication, clean water and affordable energy will be almost impossible to achieve. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>

But when people are able to tackle the corruption they encounter, they can create immediate, positive progress towards delivering the SDGs \u2013 as the stories in this report show.<\/span><\/p>

Small steps towards big goals<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>

In Sri Lanka, for example, villagers contacted the Advocacy and Legal Advice Centre (ALAC) after local officials failed to deliver relief funding<\/a> during the COVID-19 pandemic, depriving them of much-needed income. Supported to contact the higher authorities, they soon received the benefits they were entitled to, helping prevent hunger and poverty during lockdown.<\/span><\/p>

In Palestine, a whistleblower who exposed potential fraud<\/a> in his work at a government ministry was arrested and forced to resign, but the local ALAC helped him publicly challenge his treatment. The case put pressure on the government to adopt the country\u2019s first whistleblower protection system in 2019 \u2013 encouraging more people to report wrongdoing in future.<\/span><\/p>

From daily life to global change<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>

Stories like these, and many others from ALACs around the world, show the positive impact tackling corruption has on progress towards the SDGs. And every time someone speaks out against a case of corruption, this creates a snowball effect. People\u2019s voices add up to take change from a local level to a global one \u2013 so that the young Zimbabwean woman who overcame bribery<\/a> aimed at blocking her court case for domestic abuse was promoting gender equality and access to justice as global norms. A woman in Papua New Guinea who reported land court officials<\/a> for demanding illegal payments in a family dispute was standing up for decent work and economic growth. And villagers who reported a candidate from Serbia\u2019s ruling party<\/a> for seemingly trying to buy their votes with the promise of a newly paved road were promoting justice and strong institutions.<\/span><\/p>

Fighting corruption is not an end in itself. It is an essential means of delivering sustainable development for all and building fairer societies in which no one is left behind. By speaking up against corruption when they encounter it, people are helping achieve the SDGs \u2013 global goals that are firmly rooted in everyone\u2019s daily lives.<\/span><\/p>

Author: Allison Matthews, ALAC Programme Lead<\/span><\/em><\/p>

Photo by Transparency International<\/span><\/em><\/p>

Links to more:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>