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Prioritising governance for sustainable development

Around the world people remain poor and the planet is damaged when corruption is not tackled.

We see this in resource-rich countries where the majority of citizens live in poverty because too much money is lost to corruption. We see this in war-torn lands, where corruption feeds insurgency and the rule of law is absent. We see this in rich countries where corruption has been used to capture public policy decisions and bribes become part of public procurement.

That is why more than 70 organisations and companies from over 20 countries around the world have come together with Transparency International to remind governments that to end poverty, you must end corruption.

We are doing this now as talks are under way in New York to establish what priorities the United Nations with adopt in September 2015 to take forward the fight against poverty that was started in 2000 with the Millennium Development Goals.

Transparency International and its partners are urging all those who have been contributing to the intergovernmental talks in New York from 19 to 21 January to prioritise fighting corruption and endorse a stand-alone goal for good governance.

In order to eradicate poverty and ensure sustainable development, governments, companies and civil society must collaborate to strengthen transparency, participation and accountability. We should promote open societies, a free media and freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly, legal empowerment and the rule of law. We should also join forces to implement anti-corruption measures that enable effective and inclusive economic, social and political institutions at all levels of society.”

– Open Statement: Why Strong, Accountable Institutions Matter Beyond 2015. Click here to read it.

This statement amplifies the call made by more than seven million people from 194 countries who have said that “an honest and responsive government” is among their top four concerns for themselves and their families.

We believe governments, companies and civil society must come together to ensure that transparent, accountable and inclusive institutions are the norm and not the exception in all countries. This is a call that wealthy and developing countries alike must heed.

Those who have signed the statement include Oxfam International, the global anti-poverty organisation, the Global Organisation of Parliamentarians against Corruption (GOPAC), an international movement of parliamentarians in over 50 countries working to fight corruption, and leading telecommunications giant Ericsson from Sweden and mobile operator Safaricom in Kenya.

Take action now

By putting governance at the centre of these new commitments, collectively called the post-2015 development goals, the world will ensure that the development promises made in September 2015 are realised by 2030 for all people. The stand-alone governance goal must have targets that are ambitious and good indicators that can be universally measured.

It is time to take action in 2015 to end poverty and to ensure the sustainability of our planet for future generations. It is time to end corruption together with Transparency International.

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