Against the backdrop of crises in the financial markets, oil, food and the ongoing tragedy of mass poverty, all raising fundamental governance questions, the global anti-corruption community met to give special attention to the challenge corruption poses to sustainable and equitable development”, for the 13th biennial International Anti-Corruption Conference (IACC) from 30 October to 3 November, 2008 to share ideas and map out the way forward.

Under the banner “Global Transparency: Fighting corruption for a sustainable future”, more than 1500 conference participants discussed the challenges corruption poses to sustainable and equitable development. Check out the IACC Newspapers for highlights of the conference and interviews of major participants.

Mission
The International Anti-Corruption Conference is the leading forum for the anti-corruption community. The conference aims to foster cooperation and innovation in developing tools to tackle corruption and provide a forum for discussion.

History
The IACC conference series originated as a collaboration among law enforcement agencies including Hong Kong’s Independent Commission Against Corruption, the Washington D.C. Inspector General and the New York City Department of Investigation. As participants developed strategies for deterring and investigating official corruption, the conference refined its focus. Since the first meeting in Washington in 1983, the IACC has grown exponentially, now regularly attracting over 1000 leading practitioners and thinkers from all corners of the globe.

Target audience
The conference attracts a diverse audience including heads of state, the private sector, the judiciary, compliance experts, government representatives, academics, law enforcement, the media and civil society. This year, 1,600 delegates from around the world enjoyed workshops and networking events that provided opportunities for experts in different fields to learn from each other and develop new approaches to corruption.

The theme of 2008’s conference is “Global Transparency: Fighting Corruption for a Sustainable Future”. This served as a starting point for exploring the nexus between resources, development and the environment and how corruption affects them all.

Population growth and environmental change will keep sustainable development at the top of the global agenda in the coming years. The conference will examine sustainability as a governance challenge and will seek to find development solutions that will lessen the burden on the environment and on the poor, who remain the most vulnerable.

Streams
The conference featured four themes reflecting crucial aspects of sustainable development and corruption: peace and security, corruption in natural resources and energy sectors, climate change and corruption, and sustainable globalisation. Every speech, presentation and workshop at the IACC came under one of these four themes or “streams”.

Plenary sessions
Each day featured a plenary session dedicated to one of the key themes and facilitated by a professional journalist. A full schedule of the events is available here.

On Thursday, Ecumenical Patriarch Vartholomeos of Constantinople and the Secretary General of Amnesty International, Irene Khan, participated in a panel discussion on corruption, peace and security.

On Friday, speakers included former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson and founder of Transparency International Peter Eigen, who addressed corruption in natural resources and energy markets. The session was moderated by Michael Peel of the Financial Times.

Saturday’s plenary session featured recent Mo Ibrahim Award winner and former president of Botswana Festus Mogae and the chief executive of WWF UK David Nussbaum on a panel, which addressed corruption and climate change.

And the International Herald Tribune’s global economics columnist Daniel Altman moderated a panel on sustainable globalisation on Sunday.

An additional session on Sunday afternoon featured Prince El Hassan Bin Talal of Jordan, African Development Bank president Donald Kaberuka and Cobus de Swardt, Transparency International’s managing director, among others, speaking on the road forward in the fight against corruption and for sustainable development.

All plenary sessions were simultaneously translated into the six official languages of the UN to make the proceedings as inclusive possible.

Workshops
Workshops Conference participants could choose to partake in more than 40 workshops. They are listed in detail here.

Highlights included: “Climate change, governance and corruption risks”, “Transparency in education management”, and “Preventing corruption in humanitarian aid”. “Transparency in resource rich perilous states: getting out of the resource curse” and “Financing for climate change”. The workshop "Accountability 2.0: Using Social Media in the Fight Against Corruption" is accompanied by a blog (http://socialtransparency.wordpress.com) to gather innovative solutions, links and ideas that will feed into the workshop itself.

The participants included representatives of government, academia, the private sector and civil society.

Heads of state and government ministers
H.R.H. Prince El Hassan Bin Talal, Prince of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan
Sotirios Hatzigakis, Minister of Justice, Greece
Ephraïm Inoni, Prime Minister, Republic of Cameroon
Kostas Karamanlis, Prime Minister, Greece
Mary Robinson, Former President of Ireland and Former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights

Representatives of Intergovernmental organisations
Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, Managing Director of the World Bank
Donald Kaberuka, President of the African Development Bank
Siim Kallas, Vice-President, European Commission
Hartwig Schafer, Director of Strategy and Operations in Sustainable Development at the World Bank
Mark Pieth, Professor of Criminal Law at Basel University, Chairman of the OECD Working Group
Dimitri Vlassis, Secretary of the U.N. Conference of the State Parties

Academics
Katherine Marschall, Senior fellow at Georgetown University
Nikos Passas, Professor at Northeastern University College of Criminal Justice
on Bribery in International Business Transactions
Daphne Wysham, Senior fellow at the Institute of Policy Studies and SEEN

Private sector representatives
Ntombifuthi Mtoba, Chair of the Board of Deloitte and Touche, Southern Africa
Paul Watchman , Partner at Dewey & LeBoeuf

Civil society respresentatives
Patrick Alley, Director & Co Founder of Global Witness
Costas Bakouris, Chair, Transparency International Greece
Claribel David, Executive Director of the Asia Fair Trade Forum
Peter Eigen, Chair of Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative
Irene Khan, Secretary General of Amnesty International
Huguette Labelle, Chair of Transparency International
Karin Lissakers, Executive Director of the Revenue Watch Institute
Richard Samans, Managing Director of the Centre for Public-Private Partnerships at the World Economic Forum
Ingrid Srinath, Secretary General of CIVICUS
George A. Papandreou, President of Socialist International, President of PASOK
Jacob Werksman, Program Director at the World Resources Institute

The International Anti-Corruption Conferences are overseen by the IACC Council, which is responsible for assisting and advising the hosts and ensuring that the conference is carried out in accordance with its mission principles. Transparency International serves as secretariat to the Council, which was established in 1996.

The Council is currently chaired by the Hon. Justice Barry O’Keefe, a former judge of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, Australia, and commissioner of the state’s Independent Commission Against Corruption until 1999. He currently serves as an adjunct professor at the Sydney School of Law and as a consultant to international law firm Clayton Lutz.

The director and acting secretary of the Council is Miklos Marschall, regional director for Europe and Central Asia at Transparency International.

The twelve previous International Anti-Corruption Conferences have generated important changes in the anti-corruption agenda.

2006 - Guatemala City
“Towards a Fairer World. Why Is Corruption Still Blocking the Way?”
The 12th conference put special emphasis on the rule of law, and urged governments to move from words to concrete action against corruption by setting up strong legal frameworks. In addition, declarations were adopted that affirmed the need to educate and engage youth.

2003 - Seoul
“Different Cultures, Common Values”
The 11th IACC affirmed that corruption can be overcome everywhere and resolved that “there is absolutely no substance in the myth that corruption is a matter of culture. Rather, it offends the beliefs and traditions of us all"

2001- Prague
“Together Against Corruption: Designing Strategies, Assessing Impact, Reforming Corrupt Institutions”

1999 - Durban
“Global Integrity: 2000 and Beyond – Developing Anti-Corruption Strategies in a Changing World”

1995 - Beijing
1993 - Cancun
1991 - Amsterdam
1989 - Sydney
1987 - Hong Kong
1985 - New York
1983 - Washington DC

13th International Anti-Corruption Conference
Global Corruption Report 2008: Corruption in the Water Sector
The IACC Forum blog (iaccforum.wordpress.com)
Is corruption bad for environmental stability? A cross-national analysis. Ecology and Society
Transparency International Hellas
Transparency International Working Paper on Human Rights and Corruption

Corruption must be fought to secure the world’s future
Athens, 2 November 2008

World leaders, visionaries, advocates meet to find solutions to scourge of corruption
Athens, 29 October 2008