Transparency International Amalia Award 2022

Earlier this year, nominations flowed in for the Amalia Award from across the Transparency International movement. Following extensive deliberations, Transparency International’s board announced the latest recipients of the award during the closing ceremony of the International Anti-Corruption Conference (IACC) 2022 in Washington, D.C.

The award is named after the late Amalia Kostanyan, who was the chair of Transparency International Armenia. She was an anti-corruption hero and exemplified the very best of our movement. In 2010, Transparency International’s membership decided to establish an award named after Amalia to celebrate and honour anti-corruption heroes within our movement.

The Amalia Award is given in two categories:

• The Amalia Award for Professional Excellence recognises an individual that has made an outstanding contribution to advancing the mission of a chapter, Transparency International entity, initiative or programme, or of work within a specific topic or region.
• The Amalia Award for Extraordinary Impact recognises a team, initiative or campaign that has made an outstanding achievement in advancing Transparency International’s goals and the wider fight against corruption.

The 2022 recipient of the Amalia Award for Professional Excellence is Maíra Martini, research and policy expert on corrupt money flows at the Transparency International Secretariat.

In the 11 years that she has been with Transparency International, Maíra has numerous accomplishments. From helping to establish the Anti-Corruption Helpdesk so that our community has the evidence they need for their advocacy, to providing chapters with tactical and strategic advice at critical moments, she has been a true asset for the organisation and the international fight against corruption.

Most significantly, Maíra has built our movement’s research, policy and advocacy agenda to disrupt international flows of dirty money. It’s a testament to her professional excellence that Maíra’s expertise is in high demand: she is someone whom our movement colleagues, journalists and other partners actively seek out to help make sense of complex cases and inner workings of cross-border corruption.

Maíra is a visionary and yet practical advocate, and the evidence-based policy solutions that she puts forward are game-changing, impactful and achievable. Earlier this year, the anti-corruption community celebrated the revision of the global standard on transparency in company ownership, which means that all countries will now have to establish registers that reveal who really controls and benefits from companies. Maíra was the person to first recommend this, and she then made it happen by pushing for action by decision-makers to make this milestone possible.

Another candidate shortlisted in this category was Magaly Avila, director of the environmental governance programme at Transparency International Peru (Proética). Magaly has dedicated herself to shedding light on corruption in the Amazon region that has led to deforestation, illegal logging and human rights abuses. She has worked tirelessly to ensure the international community beyond the environmental movement acknowledges these crimes and gives it a place on the agendas for fighting corruption, organised crime and money laundering.

The 2022 recipient of the Amalia Award for Extraordinary Impact is Transparency International Ukraine.

Transparency International’s chapter in Ukraine was fully re-established at a critical moment in the country’s history – just months after the 2014 Revolution of Dignity, which saw the ousting of corrupt former president Viktor Yanukovych. Thanks to their dedication and highly impactful work, anti-corruption efforts in Ukraine have come a long way since then.

The award-winning ProZorro.Sale e-procurement system, which Transparency International Ukraine co-created, is one example of their achievements. The team at Transparency International Ukraine have also been instrumental in the establishment of new anti-corruption bodies in Ukraine – but they don’t stop there, continuing to diligently monitor the progress of such bodies.

After Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February, Transparency International Ukraine found the courage and determination to keep on going. Embracing their civic duty, our Ukrainian team initially pivoted to humanitarian support for those most in need. But the ongoing war hasn’t stopped them from working towards their crucial mission. As part of the RISE Ukraine coalition, Transparency International Ukraine has teamed up with other domestic and international organisations and agencies to ensure that corruption does not derail efforts to rebuild the country.

Two other candidates were shortlisted in this category:

• The Daphne Caruana Galizia Foundation, Transparency International’s national contact point in Malta. They have been the driving force behind the public enquiry into a prominent Maltese journalist’s tragic assassination – an anti-corruption hero in her own right. The team has also been instrumental in advocating for the 2022 EU's anti-SLAPP directive as part of the coalition against frivolous and vexatious libel suits. Their small team has worked relentlessly to improve good governance, transparency, political integrity and public accountability, and to stop Malta from offering safe haven to the corrupt from around the world.
• The Transparency International Secretariat team working on beneficial ownership transparency. They made the case, mobilised partners and allies, and ensured that beneficial ownership registers were on the agenda of every major international gathering in 2021 – from the UN General Assembly Special Session against Corruption to the Summit for Democracy. This campaign culminated in a success in March 2022 when the Financial Action Task Force agreed to revise the global standard, now requiring that every country sets up a beneficial ownership register or sufficient alternative.