wirestock/Freepik
TI IPP STRONGG Phase II 2024 – 2029 aims to contribute to reduced corruption in the Indo-Pacific region by empowering a resilient and independent civil society voice and network that mobilises action for increased accountability of public and private institutions nationally and regionally.
The project builds on a previous phase of IPP STRONGG, implemented from 2020 to 2024.
What's at stake?
One of the most diverse and populous regions in the world, corruption remains a common challenge faced by most, if not all, countries in the Indo-Pacific region. The Transparency International 2023 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) shows levels of corruption stagnating across the region. Along the CPI scale of zero (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean) the Indo-Pacific average holds at 45 for the fifth consecutive year, with over 70 per cent of countries ranking below 50. The 2020 Global Corruption Barometer Asia and 2021 Global Corruption Barometer Pacific Reports both found that corruption is a significant concern for citizens. In fact, 74% of survey respondents in Asia, and 61% in the Pacific think government corruption is a big problem in their country, with many citizens experiencing corruption directly in the form of bribery, sexual extortion and vote-buying.
Where corruption and weak governance characterize a State, the rule of law is constantly under threat, people’s trust in institutions are eroded, environmental degradation speeds up, and while the elite amass their ill-gotten wealth, women and men are increasingly living in poverty, unable to access vital services. Socially disadvantaged groups, that should be prioritized and protected, are invariably the hardest hit and further marginalized as a result of corrupt behaviours and poor governance. Corruption is not gender-neutral, with women and girls being affected more than their male counterparts and they are often disproportionately affected by intrusive forms of corruption such as sextortion and human trafficking (38% of Pacific respondents had experienced or observed sextortion in the last 5 years; the regional average for Asia is 8%).
Across the Indo-Pacific, governments have committed to tackle corruption; most have signed on to international anti-corruption commitments such as the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC). Most countries have made good progress establishing the legislative and institutional frameworks for anti-corruption, but implementation and enforcement have not yet achieved the desired results. The deficit in accountability observed here is characterized by a multifaceted range of enabling and inter-related factors including state capture, excessive power of the executive, lack of public oversight, ineffective bureaucracy, collusion, and other corrupt business practices. These challenges increasingly extend beyond national borders, and illicit financial flows are a transnational issue closely linked with corruption.
What we're doing about it
As a civil society organisation, TI plays a key role in empowering people to be informed, aware, and equipped to act against corruption. The project focuses on leveraging TI’s added value as an anti-corruption movement with national, regional and global presence, to strengthen civil society’s ability to influence and actively participate in efforts to strengthen good governance in the Indo-Pacific region towards:
- Informed, engaged and local public demand for accountability - people, including women, youth, people with disabilities and socially disadvantaged groups, need to be informed and engaged in holding their governments to account. TI will use its strong position of access to transmit public demand for accountability to institutions in question and will facilitate social accountability mechanisms to promote active citizen engagement in the implementation of anticorruption efforts, transparency in institutional practice, and enforcement of legislation.
- Inclusive, responsive, and accountable governance frameworks need to be in place – public and private institutions need to be transparent, accountable and responsive to the needs of their constituencies, including those from socially disadvantaged groups. At the same time, capacity for action is needed within institutions to act on complaints or evidence of malpractice, sanction corrupt behaviour, and close loopholes to reduce opportunities for further corruption. At a regional and international level, governance frameworks need to be integrated to combat transborder crimes and curb illicit financial flows.
- Resilient, independent and active civil society anti-corruption voice in the region - to work with sufficient voice, access, and agency, the TI movement in the region needs to strengthen its foundations to connect public and private institutions with the wider public. The movement also needs to work in close collaboration with other civil society actors to protect civic spaces and to broaden approaches to social inclusion.
These three objectives are similar to the previous project phase, as they continue to be highly relevant. Based on current analysis and lessons learned, some additional dimensions have been integrated into the project framework. Firstly, the need to increase political integrity as a prerequisite to be able to support effective, inclusive, and accountable governance and anti-corruption frameworks to address root causes of corruption; secondly, the need to identify and push for justice and redress where these frameworks have not been implemented or enforced; and thirdly, the need to understand and mitigate the specific gendered impacts and experiences of corruption.
Our approach
TI believes in the need for multi-stakeholder approaches to governance and corruption challenges. No single actor will be able to create and sustain lasting positive change. The TI approach encourages strong local leadership and ownership at national level, in combination with regional and global expertise provided by a strong Secretariat.
The project aims to reduce corruption across the Indo-Pacific region by working at different levels, as enabled by the TI organisational model:
- Firstly, through national interventions by TI chapters to catalyse policy and behaviour change at national and local levels;
- Secondly, through opportunities for joint cooperation between chapters;
- Thirdly, by working at the regional level to support national and regional actions that contribute to the project objectives.
Acknowledging the inherent diversity within the Indo-Pacific and the successful approach of the previous phase, TI continues to promote a context-appropriate approach in each country and does not intend to address all objectives uniformly throughout the region. As a result, national chapters will consider the most crucial areas to address and strategize accordingly to achieve the desired results, ensuring that project activities are shaped by local insights and driven by local leadership.
At the same time, TI recognises the unique needs and opportunities for deeper engagement in the Pacific at both national and regional levels. For this reason, TI has been strengthening the support it provides to chapters through the establishment of a TI-S Pacific Team based in the region.
