Humanize Anti-Corruption Programs by Honoring Victims

This International Anti-Corruption Day, we should highlight the human cost of corruption

Daphne Caruana Galizia of Malta died October 16, 2017.

Miroslava Breach of Mexico died on March 23, 2017.

Bhupendra Vira of India died October 15, 2016.

What do these individuals have in common? All were brave enough to speak out against corruption in their societies, and all were murdered because of their courage.

Corruption functions best when accompanied by a mixture of incentives and fear. The incentives are limited, and are distributed to those who stand to gain the most from maintaining institutionalized graft. There are far more opportunities to spread fear — particularly in societies or local environments where the rule of law has been hollowed out to serve the needs of the corrupt elite.

That’s when it becomes dangerous to speak out, and when anti-corruption activists are subject to harassment, imprisonment, physical abuse or even murder.

Despite the many documented cases of corruption-related violence, discussion of the nexus of violence and corruption does not receive the attention it deserves. In the implementer community in particular, it is easy to become bogged down in process and jargon in our zeal to affect change on the ground, to the detriment of communicating the profound human costs of this scourge. This hurts our ability to engage the stakeholders who are crucial to making sure that implementation efforts are sustainable.

Not only does corruption erode democratic structures and norms, it harms the people most invested in making their democracies a success.

Journalists, reformist politicians and activists of all stripes are risking their livelihoods and even their lives in this fight, and they need the active support of the international community and democracy and governance implementers.

I recently had the privilege of meeting one of these activists while conducting an assessment of vulnerabilities to corruption on behalf of the International Republican Institute. When I reached out to shake this man’s hand, he raised a bandaged fist and apologized for not being able to shake my hand — he had been shot the prior week for tweeting about corruption in his local government.

It’s not just the visible opponents of corruption who are physically harmed. Corruption also often results in the death of innocent bystanders.

According to experts Nicholas Ambraseys and Roger Bilham, an estimated 83 percent of deaths caused by collapsed buildings in earthquakes over the past 30 years occurred in countries that are known to have high level of corruption — indicating that rampant corruption in the infrastructure sector likely meant that the materials and workmanship used in these buildings was sub-par, and thus vulnerable to destruction.

More recently, a school that collapsed in Mexico resulted in the death of at least 19 children, and is under investigation to determine if building codes were followed or ignored in order to skim off money from the budget for payouts. Traffic fatalities have also been attributed to corruption, caused by everything from poor drivers (who received licenses in exchange for petty bribes) to deteriorating roads resulting from stolen infrastructure funds.

As the implementer community marks International Anti-Corruption Day this weekend, it is important to recognize the power of sharing these human costs as we make the case for our anti-corruption work. This is a vital line of argument both for external and international stakeholders as well as for the local stakeholders, who must be convinced of the true costs of corruption in their societies. We can humanize the anti-corruption movement by sharing the stories of the individuals we encounter whenever possible, and by both quantitatively and qualitatively cataloguing incidents to better inform our programming.

In that spirit, let us remember Daphne Caruana Galizia, the 53-year-old journalist who exposed corruption before she was killed in a car bomb in near her home in Bidnija; Miroslava Breach, a journalist who reported on corruption and drug-trafficking before she was murdered outside her home in Chihuahua; and Bhupendra Vira, the 61-year old Indian transparency activist who was shot in the head.

These individuals gave their lives in their pursuit of a more transparent and just society. As we mark International Anti-Corruption Day, let us strive to not only commemorate their lives, but ensure that they did not die in vain.

Rima Kawas is the Director of Governance and Collaborative Learning at the International Republican Institute