There's a lot of buzz about Collective Action as a means to tackle corruption. But what is it exactly? What is its value? How is it good for business? Who gets involved in Collective Action initiatives and why?

This week, we will be releasing five short videos about Collective Action. Filmed during the International Centre for Collective Conference in November 2018, they feature leading voices in the field of anti-corruption Collective Action.

If you are interested in the links between informal governance and corruption, you'll want to read this new publication on Human resource management practices of (anti) corruption mechanisms within informal networks. It is by Maral Muratbekova-Touron and Tolganay Umbetalijeva, our partners in a current research project on Informal Governance and Corruption funded by DFID through its Anti-Corruption Evidence Programme. 

In January 2018, the Competence Centre for Arbitration and Crime organised a first conference to analyse the state of affairs regarding allegations of corruption arising in international arbitration proceedings.

The follow-up workshop of January 2019 served to discuss specific issues in depth, based on the draft text of a "toolkit for arbitrators". The toolkit is work in progress and it is intended to be published soon.

Watch this space.

The Basel Institute was shocked and saddened to hear of the death of Rafael Merchan, the former Secretary of Transparency of Colombia, at his home over the Christmas holiday.

The Basel Institute on Governance is delighted to host the International Academy of Financial Crime Litigators. 

The Academy was created this year by Stéphane Bonifassi of Bonifassi Avocats (Paris), Lincoln Caylor of Bennett Jones (Toronto) and Elizabeth Ortega of ECO Strategic Communications (Miami).

The Basel Institute on Governance / International Center for Asset Recovery is proud to have signed an Executive Agreement with INTERPOL during a jointly organised conference on Kleptocracy in Lyon on 22 October 2009. This agreement will help both organisations to work closely together in asset recovery areas. Common projects will include training in asset recovery, exchange of experts, development of an e-learning programme, contributions to the Asset Recovery Knowledge Center.

As a result of a highly competitive tender procedure, the Basel Institute on Governance/ICAR has been awarded an Indefinite Delivery Agreement from the World Bank Group for the Stolen Asset Recovery (StAR) training program.

Since 9/11, tremendous efforts have been made and large financial sums have been invested to build up efficient anti-terrorist financing systems. Nearly eight years later, concrete results are still difficult to identify.

The Basel Institute on Governance and the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute signed a Memorandum of Understanding in March 2008.

The MoU defines terms of collaboration in the design and delivery of training courses on investigation, asset tracing and asset recovery; in the promotion of international legal cooperation and public-private partnerships to combat corruption, money laundering and the financing of terrorism; and in the provision of assistance in implementing international conventions on AML and corruption.

Prof Mark Pieth, President and Founder of the Basel Institute on Governance, has been awarded the 2007 Integrity Award by the leading international NGO anti-corruption coalition Transparency International.

He receives the award, which will be presented to him in a ceremony to be held on 21 January 2008 in Berlin, jointly with Le Hien Duc, a Vietnamese grassroots anti-corruption activist.