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Expert Meeting on Corruption Prevention in Tsunami Relief

A meeting organized jointly by Asian Development Bank (ADB), Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and Transparency International (TI), in cooperation with the Government of Indonesia

The purpose of the meeting is to identify concrete priority measures to be taken by each stakeholder, including governments, donor agencies, and civil society and private sector organizations involved in aid delivery and reconstruction work, to prevent and curb corruption in service delivery and procurement related to the tsunami relief.

Priority will be given to measures maximizing the effectiveness of existing laws and procedures to minimize and deter/reduce corruption in tsunami relief and reconstruction, as well as other measures that can assist when such laws and procedures are considered to be inadequate or inappropriate to the special circumstances of the disaster.

The meeting will seek to address the roles and responsibilities of each stakeholder group in curbing corruption in the tsunami relief and reconstruction effort, including:

• Donors: Ensuring local ownership; setting clear governance requirements; funding for governance activities; funding for CSO governance activities.
• Recipient governments: Establishing political leadership; ensuring transparent procedures; consultation; strong management systems with governance provisions.
• Non-governmental sector: Promoting access to information; developing appropriate monitoring tools; participation in process/decision making; mobilizing public support for transparency.

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At the end of the training seminar, participants will have:

• identified concrete priority measures to be taken by each stakeholder to prevent and curb corruption in tsunami relief operations
• discussed relevant tools and practical measures to curb corruption in disaster relief, and special provisions needed in affected conflict areas
• developed specific and consensus-based recommendations on activities for corruption prevention in aid operations, service delivery and procurement related to tsunami relief as basis for the development of guiding principles on countering bribery in humanitarian relief.

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• a comprehensive report covering findings of the discussion on concrete priority measures to be taken by each stakeholder to prevent and curb corruption in tsunami relief operations
• identified tools and practical measures to curb corruption in disaster relief, including special provisions needed in affected conflict areas
• a manual containing the recommendations, measures, meeting conclusions, and background papers in English and in selected local languages which form the basis for the development of guiding principles on countering bribery in humanitarian relief.

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The 2-day meeting will bring together representatives of the three stakeholder groups from the six affected countries (India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Maldives, Sri Lanka, and Thailand).

Experts will be invited from the following stakeholder groups:

• Government agencies in affected countries responsible for delivery or coordination of the disaster relief and reconstruction as well as for anti-corruption policy, including control/audit agency representatives.
• Bilateral aid agencies (both representatives from local bureaus and headquarters) and multilateral donor organisations involved in funding and/or delivery of aid as well as in monitoring of aid distribution.
• Organisations representing private sector companies involved as suppliers or contractors
• Civil society groups involved in aid delivery in those countries and/or monitoring this, including citizens' groups representing affected communities.
• Regional and international experts as resource persons.

The organizing committee will obtain a balance among participants between governments, donor agencies, local and international civil society, private sector and international organizations.

View list of participants [ PDF: 135kb | 12 pages ]

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• Jakarta Expert Meeting Identifies Measures to Prevent Corruption in Tsunami Assistance