Transcript The NBAA and Good Governance in Tanzania

Leadership and Ethics in the Public Sector
Seminar Series
Considering Corruption:
What Can
Development Ethics Offer to
Development Practitioners?
Presenter: Chloe Schwenke, Ph.D.
Management Systems International
Chair: Stephen Ndegwa, Ph.D.
World Bank ~ PRMPS
May 2, 2005
12:30 pm - 2:00 pm
MC 5-500
Presentation Summary
The shape and significance of “anti-corruption” now
• The analytical focus
• Corruption’s nature and impact
• “Corruption” or “integrity” (“slavery” or “freedom”)?
Using a moral lens to consider corruption
• The Capability Approach
The moral response to corruption
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Balance the focus
Strengthen motivation
Heighten public awareness
Raise expectations
Leadership and Ethics in the
Public Sector ~ Seminar Series
Analyzing corruption
Anti-corruption assessment initiatives
around the world:
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Public Integrity Index (Center for Public Integrity)
ADB/OECD Anti-Corruption Action Plan Stocktaking Reports for Asia and the Pacific
UNDP Country Assessment in Accountability and Transparency (CONTACT)
OECD Survey of Prevention Measures for Public Sector Corruption (1999)
OECD Trust in Government – Ethics Measures in OECD Countries (2000)
Integrity Development Review (DAP/USAID) ~ combination of the Corruption
Resistance Review (CRR) and the Corruption Vulnerability Assessment (CVA)
OAS Follow-Up Questionnaire ~ Implementation of the Inter-American Convention
Against Corruption
Transparency International National Integrity Systems Country Studies
GRECO (Group of States Against Corruption) Peer Evaluations
OSI’s EU Monitoring and Advocacy Program (EUMAP) – Corruption Methodology
USAID Country Assessments
World Bank Governance Indicators Framework
Leadership and Ethics in the
Public Sector ~ Seminar Series
The current art of
“anti-corruption” ~ 1
Measuring situational factors that either
facilitate or inhibit corruption
Analyzing diverse data sources
• court statistics, citizen awareness and perceptions
(Corruption Perception Index), legal structures, “good
governance” institutional structures and processes (Control
of Corruption Index), transparency (Opacity Factor),
inappropriate influence of business interests (State
Capture Index)
Evaluating the political economy of corruption
• support for and opposition to corrupt systems of
governance; opportunities for corruption; possible reforms
Leadership and Ethics in the
Public Sector ~ Seminar Series
The current art of
“anti-corruption” ~ 2
Political economy: Understanding the
dynamics of corruption
• The governance lens: do institutions (public,
private, civil society) deliver efficient, transparent,
accountable services within the law?
• The economic lens: to what extent (if at all)
should the government intervene in the market to
constrain corruption?
The moral lens???
Leadership and Ethics in the
Public Sector ~ Seminar Series
What about integrity?
All of the leading anti-corruption assessment
initiatives focus on corruption, or “integrity
systems”
• The immoral presumption ~ if people think they can get
ahead (or get by) through corrupt means, they’ll do so.
• Are human beings – and their institutions - morally
deficient, if not degenerate, by nature?
• Do people aspire towards integrity and virtue?
• Do people “accept” corruption?
Question: Why do we concentrate on
constraining corruption and not on fostering
(and celebrating) integrity?
Leadership and Ethics in the
Public Sector ~ Seminar Series
What can ethics tell us about
corruption?
Our focus is too heavily weighted
towards effective mechanisms to
measure corruption – rather than
considering corruption itself
• measurement systems fail to capture
many of the qualitative impacts of
corruption
Can we think about corruption – and
its impact – through a moral lens?
Leadership and Ethics in the
Public Sector ~ Seminar Series
One moral lens – the Capability
Approach ~ 1
Pioneered by Amartya Sen,
Martha Nussbaum, David Crocker,
Sabina Alkire, and others.
The Objective of Economic Development:
• Takes human beings - improving human wellbeing and agency – as its end
• Is to expand capabilities or valuable
freedoms.
• People's capabilities are what they are
actually able to do and to be, that is, their
freedom to enjoy valuable beings and doings.
Leadership and Ethics in the
Public Sector ~ Seminar Series
The Capability Approach ~ 2
Features of the Capability Approach:
• Combines ethics and economics - acknowledges value
judgments are inherent in development and social
arrangements and policies.
• Has a multidimensional objective - human well-being is
multidimensional, and should advance many different
kinds of capabilities at the same time.
• Broadens the informational base - often “noncapability” information is also very important for issues
of justice, development and policies.
• Recognizes that values differ across persons and
groups
Leadership and Ethics in the
Public Sector ~ Seminar Series
The Capability Approach ~ 3
Features of the Capability Approach
(continued):
• Involves people as participants and agents - people
need to hold governments and other sites of power
accountable.
• Is not a theory of justice: information of other kinds
(such as human rights) might also be required
• Draws attention to group disparities (such as those
based on gender, class, race, ethnicity, sexual
preference, and others), and to capability disparities
between nations.
• Not conceived as a tool to measure corruption, but it
does provide a robust assessment of human
flourishing – or lack thereof.
Leadership and Ethics in the
Public Sector ~ Seminar Series
“The List”: Articulating human
well-being using the CA
Sen & Crocker: Peoples’ values
differ, so each social group should
decide its own “list”.
Nussbaum: Peoples’ values are
sufficiently universal that a “master
list” is possible, although subject to
revision.
Leadership and Ethics in the
Public Sector ~ Seminar Series
What makes a life "truly human"?
Nussbaum ~ We should be able to
identify when "a life has been so
impoverished that it is not worthy of the
dignity of the human being."
Nussbaum ~ Identify a list of the central
capabilities "that can be convincingly
argued to be of central importance in any
human life, whatever else the person
pursues or chooses“.
Leadership and Ethics in the
Public Sector ~ Seminar Series
Nussbaum’s List ~ 1
All of equal priority, no trade-offs:
1. Life. Being able to live to the end of a human life of
normal length; not dying prematurely, or before one's life
is so reduced as to be not worth living.
2. Bodily Health. Being able to have good health, including
reproductive health; to be adequately nourished; to have
adequate shelter.
3. Bodily Integrity. Being able to move freely from place to
place; having one's bodily boundaries treated as
sovereign, i.e., being able to be secure against assault
(including sexual assault, child sexual abuse, and
domestic violence); having opportunities for sexual
satisfaction and for choice in matters of reproduction.
Leadership and Ethics in the
Public Sector ~ Seminar Series
Nussbaum’s List ~ 2
4. Senses, Imagination, and Thought. Being able to use the
senses, to imagine, think, and reason -- and to do these
things in a 'truly human' way. Being able to use imagination
and thought. Being able to use one's mind in ways
protected by guarantees of freedom of expression and of
religious exercise. Being able to search for the ultimate
meaning of life in one's own way. Being able to have
pleasurable experiences, and to avoid non-necessary pain.
5. Emotions. Being able to love, to grieve, to experience
longing, gratitude, and justified anger. Not having one's
emotional development blighted by overwhelming fear and
anxiety, or by traumatic events of abuse or neglect.
6. Practical Reason. Being able to form a conception of the
good and to engage in critical reflection about the planning
of one's life. (This entails protection for the liberty of
conscience.)
Leadership and Ethics in the
Public Sector ~ Seminar Series
Nussbaum’s List ~ 3
7. Affiliation.
• A) Being able to live with and toward others, to
recognize and show concern for other human beings,
to engage in various forms of social interaction; to
have the capacity for both justice and friendship.
• B) Having the social bases of self-respect and nonhumiliation; being able to be treated as a dignified
being whose worth is equal to that of others.
8. Other Species. Being able to live with concern for and in
relation to animals, plants, and the world of nature.
Leadership and Ethics in the
Public Sector ~ Seminar Series
Nussbaum’s List ~ 4
9. Play. Being able to laugh, to play, to enjoy
recreational activities.
10. Control over One's Environment.
• A) Political. Being able to participate effectively in
political choices that govern one's life; having the right
of political participation, protections of free speech and
association.
• B) Material. Being able to hold property; having the right
to seek employment on an equal basis with others;
having the freedom from unwarranted search and
seizure
Leadership and Ethics in the
Public Sector ~ Seminar Series
Introducing “James Mwangi”
Leadership and Ethics in the
Public Sector ~ Seminar Series
Corruption and James Mwangi ~ 1
Daily incidents of corruption:
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Harassment by police
seeking petty bribes
“Chai” to foreman on
construction site for site
“entry fee”
Fees to youth gang members
in slums for “protection”
Longer-term considerations:
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Saving to “buy” a place on
the permanent staff at the
construction site ~ boots,
hardhat, no daily fees,
priority
Trade unions co-opted by
employers, hence no
advocacy
Leadership and Ethics in the
Public Sector ~ Seminar Series
Corruption and James Mwangi ~ 2
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Working on an unsafe
building – bribes to building
plans reviewers to reduce
reinforcing steel standards
Corruption has undercut
“good governance” and
deeply eroded aid and
development funding to
Kenya
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Fewer (or no) improvements
to access to education,
health, job safety, microlending schemes, job
training, affordable transport,
cleaner air and water
General sense of
powerlessness – loss of hope
Leadership and Ethics in the
Public Sector ~ Seminar Series
Corruption and James Mwangi ~ 3
The Life of James Mwangi ~ CA Assessment
1. Life ~ Mwangi’s life will be shortened and difficult
2. Bodily Health ~ Mwangi will often be ill, have little access to a
doctor, no access to a dentist, and will be inadequately
housed.
3. Bodily Integrity ~ Mwangi will live in constant fear of assault,
and have no short-term prospect of intimacy and sexual
satisfaction.
4. Senses, Imagination, and Thought ~ Mwangi is poorly
educated, has little free time, is often exhausted, ill and in pain,
and is not stimulated by a wholesome environment. He has
little opportunity for or interest in political expression.
5. Emotions ~ Mwangi’s emotional development has been
blighted by the overwhelming fear and anxiety of struggling to
survive day to day.
Leadership and Ethics in the
Public Sector ~ Seminar Series
Corruption and James Mwangi ~ 4
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Practical Reason ~ Mwangi has few decisions
available, so has little incentive for critical reflection
about the planning of his life.
Affiliation ~ Mwangi’s scope for living with and
toward others is constrained by his need to survive.
He does have friends, but he often feels humiliated
by his poverty, and frequently experiences
undignified treatment. He does not think that his
worth is equal to that of others.
Other Species ~ The urban slums are harsh;
Mwangi has only a limited conception of living in
peace and harmony with the natural environment.
Leadership and Ethics in the
Public Sector ~ Seminar Series
Corruption and James Mwangi ~ 5
9.
Play ~ Mwangi still laughs and plays, but has very
modest access to – and little free time for –
recreational activities.
10. Control over One's Environment ~ Mwangi has
no time and few opportunities to participate in
political choices that govern his life; he has no
short-term or medium-term prospects of owning
property or finding a worthwhile job in the formal
sector.
Leadership and Ethics in the
Public Sector ~ Seminar Series
The moral response to corruption
Sitting with the discomfort ~ avoiding
“abstracting out” the personal narratives
Creating the environment for integrity
• Linking moral ideals with good governance
• Seeking out and celebrating integrity in
leadership
• Moral education ~ transcending Kohlberg’s
levels
• Moral dialogue ~ tapping in to public concern
• Ethical tools ~ developing better tools for
normative analysis
Leadership and Ethics in the
Public Sector ~ Seminar Series
The moral response to corruption
Pursuing justice, virtue, and caring
• Shaming ~ “frying the big fish”
• Political will ~ commitment to rule of law
• Integrity ~ Setting high ethical standards of
leadership
• Retributive justice ~ making the penalty for
corruption fit the crime
• Restorative justice ~ healing the wounds of
victims, offenders and communities
• Compassion ~ caring for the victims of
corruption
Leadership and Ethics in the
Public Sector ~ Seminar Series
Leadership and Ethics in the
Public Sector ~ Seminar Series