Curbing corruption in the realm of international development : discrepancies between proposed theoretical approaches and practical implementations

Abstract

Across all fields of socio-economic interaction, the fight against corruption has experienced an increase in public attention. Public and private sector alike have been subject to ever-increasing scrutiny in their undertakings. This trend has naturally found its way into the realm of international development assistance. This thesis set out to analyse anti-corruption policies of Western bilateral development donor agencies in order to understand what these policies comprise in terms of actual concepts and measures for their utilisation within the life cycle of development assistance projects. The application of the criteria and the ensuing comparison have demonstrated that the policies have to be considered on two separate levels: on the operational and on the strategic level. Although a certain amount of convergence exists among the respective operational approaches to curbing corruption in projects, on closer consideration it becomes evident that with regard to particular aspects, not all agencies consider the anti-corruption instruments and mechanisms as equally important when it comes to implement their projects. It can be said that while a set of regulations exists with regard to development projects, the analysis revealed that many donor agencies have partly shifted their emphasis onto the more strategic perspective within development aid, represented mainly by the concept of good governance.