Liz David-Barrett and Ken Okamura discuss a recent think-in they held in Vienna about measuring illicit financial flows connected to grand corruption.
How we measure corruption shapes how we view and address the problem - but measuring corruption is also extraordinarily difficult and complex.
The Global Programme for Measuring Corruption ('GPMC') recently held a 'think-in' at their HQ in the International Anti-Corruption Academy, in Vienna, to examine one area that is particularly hard to measure – Illicit Financial Flows, or IFFs, and specifically the IFFs that arise from grand corruption.
The GPMC assembled a team of practitioners and academics to debate and discuss the topic over three days in Vienna. In this podcast, the co-organisers of the 'think-in' - Liz David Barrett and Ken Okamura - discuss why they chose the topic, what they learnt from the event and how it will inform future work.
They ask whether we have an evidence base to support the Financial Action Task Force recommendations on combatting money laundering, highlight new ways of thinking about Trade-Based Money Laundering, and suggest how lists of Politically Exposed Persons might be improved and better utilised. They also talk about the potential of Beneficial Ownership data to help address IFFs, and call for new efforts to measure the effectiveness of Anti-Corruption Agencies.
If you’d like to take a deeper dive into this topic, we also recorded one-on-one conversations with the other participants at the think-in in Vienna which will be available on this link very shortly.
If you would like to read more on the topic, here’s our key insights brief published after the 'think-in'.
If you want to find out more about the programme, visit this link:
https://www.iaca.int/measuring-corruption
And if you have specific questions please feel free to email the team: gpmc@iaca.int
Liz is Head of the Global Programme for Measuring Corruption at the International Anti-Corruption Academy. She has been researching corruption for more than 20 years and was previously Director of the Centre for the Study of Corruption at the University of Sussex, UK. Always aiming to bridge gaps between research and practice, she has engaged widely with practitioners (e.g. by authoring reports for Transparency International, advising governments on anti-corruption strategies, and supporting the private sector on business integrity).
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