Our director Mark Pyman will take part in a conference on defence procurement organised by Transparency International India. The panel includes both authorities from India's Ministry of Defence and armed forces, and Indian defence companies.

The event will host discussions on improving anti-corruption practices in defence companies, improving India's defence procurement, offsets integrity, and integrity pacts.

Our director Mark Pyman will provide an introduction to the issue of corruption in ministries of defence and armed forces, and what to do about it. He will then present our new Government Defence Anti-Corruption Index which reviews corruption risk and vulnerability in defence ministries and armed forces around the world.

The seminar will be chaired by Nicholas Marsh of PRIO. For more information and/or to register please visit: http://www.prio.no/Events/Event/?x=8158#.

Our team, together with the Lebanese Transparency Association, is launching its Government Defence Anti-Corruption Index report focusing in the Middle East and North Africa region in Beirut, Lebanon. Our director Mark Pyman will present the results in the region and describe the methodology of the study.

You are cordially invited to the annual Anti-Corruption Lecture organised by Transparency International UK to mark the United Nations International Anti-Corruption Day.

The lecture will be delivered by John Githongo who is probably best known for his work exposing large-scale corruption within the Kenyan Government during his time working as a journalist and as a government official. He fled to the UK in 2005 after fearing for his safety. John returned to Kenya in 2008 and founded an organization called Inuka Kenya Trust, a grassroots advocacy group aimed at creating an informed citizenry. He is a member of the UK’s Independent Commission for Aid Impact (ICAI), which scrutinises the effectiveness of British aid spending, and has held a number of other roles including member of Transparency International’s Board of Directors and Executive Director of Transparency International-Kenya.

There will be an opportunity to put questions to John Githongo after he delivers the lecture. The event will be followed by a drinks reception.

Agenda

If you'd like to attend, please register here.

Indexes play a crucial role in the fight against corruption, as credible evidence on identifying corruption risks are essential in providing a road map of which strategies are most effective in mitigating these risks.

This workshop within the International Anti-Corruption Conference (IACC) addresses the theme of “Defining Our Future: Collectively Shaping the Global Governance Agenda” as it seeks to encourage discussion around recent local and sector-specific indexes that we consider very valuable tools in the field.

Our director Mark Pyman will be part of the panel and will explain our programme's approach towards the Defence Companies Anti-Corruption Index that we released in October and the upcoming Governments Defence Anti-Corruption Index to be launched in January.

You can follow a live stream of the session here.

Andrew Feinstein has been invited to give Transparency International UK's (TI-UK) first London lecture of the year, focusing on corruption in the arms trade. Feinstein is a former South African politician and was elected an ANC member of parliament in South Africa's first democratic elections in 1994. He resigned in 2001 in protest at the ANC government's refusal to allow an unfettered investigation into a £5bn arms deal that was tainted by allegations of high-level corruption.

His political memoir, After the Party: A Personal and Political Journey Inside the ANC, was published in 2007 and became a bestseller in South Africa.

His recent book, The Shadow World: Inside the Global Arms Trade, exposes in forensic detail both the formal government-to-government trade in arms and the shadow world of illicit weapons dealing - and lays bare the shocking and inextricable links between the two.

Programme

Transparency International's Defence and Security Programme (TI DSP) continues its efforts to push for a strong anti-corruption mechanism in a robust UN Arms Trade Treaty (ATT). Our senior expert Rob Wright and project officer Tobias Bock have been in New York since the beginning of the ATT Conference to encourage diplomats and ministers from around the world to negotiate a robust Arms Trade Treaty.

TI DSP works with civil society (Oxfam, Saferworld, the Arias Foundation, and many others), governments, and the defence industry to illustrate the benefits of addressing corruption risks at all stages of an arms transfer and to demonstrate options as to how anti-corruption provisions can best be practically implemented.

Read more on the UN Arms Trade Treaty (ATT).

Our Arms Trade Treaty Project Officer Tobias Bock will take part in a EU Parliament expert hearing on the upcoming UN Arms Trade Treaty Conference in New York. Tobias will present Transparency International's Defence and Security Programme's stand that strong anti-corruption provisions are essential for the UN Arms Trade Treaty to be robust.

Our senior advisor Air Commodore Alan Waldron, together with our ATT project officer Tobias Bock will take part  in the conference “The United Nations Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) – Tackling Corruption, Saving lives” organised by Transparency International (TI) Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur on 19 April. They will highlight the importance of strong anti-corruption mechanisms for a robust ATT and discuss all the other elements that would be needed for a bulletproof ATT.

This half-day conference will focus on the implications of the ATT process for Malaysia and the ASEAN region. TI Malaysia is inviting representatives from the relevant Malaysian government departments, the Parliament of Malaysia, the defence industry, academia, the media, the embassies and high commissions in Kuala Lumpur, and civil society. 

The government of Malaysia (as well as the governments of Indonesia and Singapore) have been rather sceptical of including anti-corruption in an ATT. TI Malaysia have already challenged this position in op-eds etc., and one key focus of the seminar is to get civil society to lobby for a robust ATT, including strong anti-corruption measures, in the run-up to the July negotiations.

Laurence Cockroft (one of TI-UK trustees) will chair a panel discussion on corruption in the arms trade in Africa, in light of the forthcoming Arms Trade Treaty negotiations which will take place in the UN's New York headquarters this July. Serious Fraud Office's Director Richard Alderman, author Andrew Feinstein, journalist Paul Holden and Chatham House Fellow Knox Chitiyo will discuss how corruption in the arms trade has fuelled both conflicts  and infamous arms deals in the region (such as the South African Arms deal of 1999, or the arms deal with Tanzania). This event is being organised by the Royal African Society.

Read more about this event.

Tiffany will represent Transparency International's Defence and Security Programe in the third Symposium of the Europen Club for Countertrade & Offsets (ECCO), which will take place in Brussels on December 14 and 15. The Forum will address the enforcement of the EU Defence Procurement Directive and it will also include a workshop on best practices in offsets.

Our director Mark Pyman and our project officer Tiffany Clarke will be hosting a seminar on defence procurement and corruption at the Kellogg Centre for the Study of Governance and Transparency, University of Oxford.

Mark Pyman will provide an outline of Transparency International Defence and Security Programme's current initiatives and our approach when addressing and tackling corruption in defence procurement.

Tiffany Clarke will explain our work with the defence industry.

Tobias Bock, one of our project officers, will participate in the Third Symposium for a study project on counterinsurgency as a comprehensive civil-military effort.

The German Federal Ministry of Defence has assigned the Institute for Security Studies at the University of Kiel (ISPK) and the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) with this study, which aims is to advise the German Ministry of Defence on how to improve the effectiveness of civilian and military interaction in countering the insurgency in Afghanistan. It also seeks to prepare political recommendations for the creation of new guidelines in order to being better prepared for possible future scenarios which merge the challenges of state building and countering opposing armed militant groups.

The focus of the current symposium will be the way ahead in Afghanistan and the preparation for possible future scenarios.

Nick Seymour, one of our senior advisors, will represent our programme in the The International Association of Peacekeeping Training Centres (IAPTC) Annual Conference in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

The aim of the association if to facilitate communication and exchange of information between various peacekeeping training centres.

Peacekeeping trainers and educators use this forum to understand the increasingly complex environment, exchange well-tested practices and information, and strengthen the community of practice.

The theme for this year's conference is Evolving Peace Operations: Challenges, Requirements and Possibilities for Education and Training.

You can find more information on the IAPTC Annual Meeting's website.

Our team and The Institute for International Economic Policy at George Washington University will host a brown bag lunch to discuss corruption and conflict.

Corruption threatens the success of the international mission in Afghanistan and has been a major factor in other recent conflicts. Corrupt actors undermine the principles on which settlements are based, reduce the effectiveness of capacity and institution building and increase the costs to the international community.

Moreover, international intervention can have the unintended effect of stimulating corruption flowing from the money and resources deployed. Yet, the importance of addressing corruption when managing and resolving conflict has not been systematically recognised.

Our director Mark Pyman, together with one of our senior advisors, Sir Stewart Eldon, will talk about our programme's approach of factoring counter-corruption activities into work on conflict to allow negotiators to think more systematically about ways to reach sustainable long-term outcomes. Key to this is a full analysis of the political economy of the conflict and a coordinated international approach designed to combat and control corruption; TI is working with other interested organisations to develop tools and strategies to improve the chances of success.

Our Director Mark Pyman and our senior advisor Justine Walker will lead the workshop 'Addressing crime risks in the defence and security sectors' as part of the 29th International Symposium on Economic Crime. This University of Cambridge conference will take place from September 4 until September 11 at Jesus College.

Pyman and Walker will present Transparency International Defence and Security Programme' s typology of corruption risks. One of the team's areas of expertise is the identification of these risks in specific country scenarios, and the development of specialised tools to tackle them.

Our director has also been working on a paper uncovering the links between corruption and organised crime together with Bill Hughes, one of Britain’s most experienced counter-organised crime practitioners and former Director General of the UK’s Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA).

The annual Cambridge Symposium is a referent when it comes to understanding the issues involved in preventing and controlling economically motivated serious crime. This year the focus will be on the responsibility of those who look after other people’s wealth, or who advise or oversee those who do, to identify and manage risk.
 

Transparency International's Defence and Security Programme's Manager, Anne-Christine Wegener, is one of the keynote speakers at the Annual Security Review Conference (ASRC) hosted by the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). Anne-Christine will be talking about corruption and organised crime as drivers of conflict.

The ASRC was established by the 2002 OSCE Ministerial Council in Porto to enhance security dialogue among OSCE participating States and review the OSCE's security work. With 56 States from Europe, Central Asia and North America, the OSCE is the world's largest regional security organization. It offers a forum for political negotiations and decision-making in the fields of early warning, conflict prevention, crisis management and post-conflict rehabilitation, and puts the political will of its participating States into practice through its unique network of field missions.

Read more on the OSCE's Annual Security Review Conference.

The Embassy of Norway will launch our latest report, Codes of Conduct in Defence Ministries and Armed Forces: What Makes a Good Code of Conduct? It will be hosted by Ambassador of Norway Mr. Kim Traavik at the Ambassador's residence. Speakers at the event will be: Roger Ingebrigtsen, State Secretary, Ministry of Defence of Norway; Ray Bromwich, Inspector General, Australian Defence Forces; Mark Pyman, Director of TI's Defence and Security Programme; and Steve Shaw, Head of Contractor Responsibility at the Pentagon and Head of Debarment at the US Air Force. 

Attendance at this event is by invitation only. If you are interested in attending, please contact us.