Huguette Labelle was elected Chair of Transparency International at its Annual Membership Meeting in November 2005. She brings an extensive background in development, health, education, governance, and anti-corruption work. In addition to her role with TI, Huguette is Chancellor of the University of Ottawa and serves on the boards of a number of organisations, including the International Institute for Sustainable Development, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, and the African Virtual University. In April she was appointed to the Board of the United Nations Global Compact. She spoke to TI’s Director of Communications, Barbara Ann Clay, about her new role.

BAC: As the new Chair of Transparency International, what are your broad priorities for the movement?

HL: TI’s first 13 years have provided a strong foundation to prepare us for a successful and productive future. As a movement, we can really rejoice in what we have accomplished together.

My priorities start with anti-corruption conventions. First we had to get them agreed by many governments with very different views, and this was a tough challenge. But we did it. Now they must be ratified, implemented and monitored. Monitoring is particularly important, because a successful movement learns continually from experience and reassesses what needs to change. These conventions must remain dynamic over time, with room for new areas to be added.

We also need to take stock of the work we have done in the private sector, deepen our efforts in sectors where we are already present, such as the construction industry, and move into new sectors where the climate is ripe for corruption, for example bio-medicine. Areas such as banking, money-laundering and fiscal havens are particularly important, more so because they are closely related to violence and crime, which can all too quickly become self-perpetuating. We also need to help employers build ethics and integrity. Codes of conduct and conflict of interest statements are often created but seldom tailored to a particular workplace. Once people truly understand how codes apply to them, to their work and their behaviour, they are better able to embrace and implement them.

TI has also done tremendous work in the public sector, with our National Integrity System studies identifying key areas for reform in many countries. We have already seen that political parties, the justice system and customs are particularly prone to corruption in many countries. We have also discovered that no sector is immune from corruption. Several chapters have conducted in-depth studies of sectors such as health and education - Senegal, for example, studied the health sector last year. These studies demonstrate how corruption works throughout a system, from the ministry to the local delivery point. They help us bring together everyone involved in each system, including the recipients of services, to work together to prevent corruption or tackle it promptly when it does appear.

Preventing corruption can start with using the education system to teach children the importance of ethical behaviour from an early age, and to continue that process throughout their education. This is a very practical way to introduce greater integrity and anti-corruption knowledge to a new generation. And it is a concept that spreads. Imagine introducing greater integrity and anti-corruption content across the faculties of engineering, law and education. These are industries where, down the road, a corrupt individual can do immense damage, or conversely, an individual of strong integrity can make a great difference. For example, a corrupt engineer can bring down a building and kill hundreds by using inferior materials in its construction. But if he learns to act with integrity those lives are saved. Each graduate from the faculty of education – schooled in ethics - can carry a message of integrity to some 30 children each year.

BAC: Your priorities cast an extremely wide net.

HL: Well, corruption is a large and challenging topic.

BAC: What are some of the challenges you, and TI, have faced so far in 2006?

HL: Despite our successes in developing and publishing solid indices, tools and reports, we have not yet reaped their full benefit. We need to make sure these products - so rich in content - have the maximum impact. With the Global Corruption Report in particular, more can be done to increase its influence over the entire year. We have seen a lot of improvement with the visibility and promotion of the GCR 2006 on corruption and health. Developing next year’s report on the judiciary should involve the judiciary in a big way, well before the launch. In 2006 we are also turning our attention to TI’s new global priority of poverty, development and corruption - a subject that is crucially important to millions of people struggling for survival around the world.

BAC: I detect that underneath your business-like exterior, you are really an optimist. Is that true?

HL: I am an optimist. I have seen the devastation of corruption, but I have also seen the amazing group of people around the world dedicated to fighting it. When you combine the two, how can you not be optimistic? I believe we can make a difference - that we are making a difference - but we can’t sit back. If we stand still, we move backwards.

BAC: We see anti-corruption governments elected around the world, and yet sometimes they fail to deliver on their promises, or fall back into corrupt or unethical behaviour. What is your view of these new anti-corruption governments - for example, Liberia’s recent election of President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf?

HL: It is very disappointing when new governments fail to deliver, even more so for the people of those countries, because their lives are at stake; they had been offered hope that was then yanked away. There are always considerable pressures on a new government to conform to the existing system. If that system is corrupt, the threat to their commitment is very powerful. As John Githongo has indicated, embedded systems are very difficult to deal with and are highly resilient. They fight back.

We have to better understand what causes a government that begins with political will, with the commitment to fight a legacy of corruption, to back off that commitment within a year or two of taking office. We cannot yet explain the dynamic. I hope that in the future, newly elected presidents such as the president of Liberia will be able to sustain themselves against the considerable counter pressures.

BAC: There is a school of thought that humanitarian assistance is money wasted, because it only ends up lining the pockets of corrupt individuals. What is your take on this?

HL: Humanitarian assistance is vital. It protects the lives of millions around the world. It is especially important in situations of starvation, violent conflict and natural disaster. I know from personal experience that a great deal of assistance does reach its target. The real problem arises when there is a sudden increase in assistance flows, when people are desperate and need the money to arrive immediately. When the systems are not yet in place to monitor and track the flow of money, it is very easy for some of it to be diverted, for supplies to be sold on the black market for personal benefit.

BAC: What can we do at TI to make a difference in this area?

HL: We must continue to work on stemming corruption in emergency situations and in disaster relief. We started this process following the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami, and we have followed up with a solid response to the horrific earthquake in Pakistan. We must work with donors, humanitarian aid agencies and governments to establish and reinforce anti-corruption systems, oversight and monitoring so they can be adopted quickly when a crisis arises. TI’s work in mapping corruption hotspots will be an important contribution to preventing corruption in these circumstances.

Reconstruction is as important as humanitarian assistance, because even more money goes into rebuilding a country, for example, after a violent conflict.

BAC: What inspired you to join the fight against corruption, and what inspires you now?

HL: In my early days at the Canadian International Development Agency, I saw the effects of corruption first hand; I saw so much money being lost, being diverted from people who depended on it to improve their lives. Countries rich in natural resources were exploiting these resources and yet their people remained painfully poor, struggling to survive at the bottom of the poverty spectrum. So you know that money was going somewhere. When you see illness, death, a poor quality of life, you see that fighting corruption is vital to the future of these people.

And what inspires me now? The more you hear about corruption’s devastating effect on ordinary people, the more you learn about how insidious corruption is, the more it motivates you to fight back. That is what inspires me now.

BAC: Does it make you angry?

HL: No, actually it makes me sad. Indignant is also a good word. It shouldn’t happen.

BAC: The World Bank plays an important role in the fight against corruption, and has now established an Institutional Integrity Department. How do you think it has changed since Paul Wolfowitz became president?

HL: [Former World Bank president] Jim Wolfensohn started to speak openly about corruption and to introduce institutional change in the 1990s to deal with it. This was very important. Paul Wolfowitz arrived with an immediate motivation to tackle it.

In January I had the opportunity to have an introductory meeting with Paul Wolfowitz, and I indicated how important Transparency International views the World Bank in the fight against corruption, especially in how it delivers its programmes. The Bank has a number of criteria that must be reviewed at the project proposal stage, and a corruption risk analysis is not yet part of that. I introduced the idea that the Bank should institute such an analysis before a project is approved. Another positive step would be to use the Institutional Integrity Department, already a forward-looking initiative, as a source of motivation for other units and individuals about the importance of considering corruption in project proposals.

BAC: You are the chair, not of a corporation, but of a global movement. How can we make this movement stronger?

HL: We are only as strong as each of our elements. We must get chapters to support each other more, to give each other strength, and ensure greater attention to chapters that need it. One way would be by “twinning” chapters - a way for them to work more closely to reinforce their strengths and find common solutions to weaknesses. TI’s Secretariat should look at new ways of supporting chapters when this could be most valuable. For instance, we might have a chapter in formation that lacks experience, or a chapter where many experienced staff have moved on, leaving it without the expertise to carry on its work.

BAC: Let me ask one last question: what is your most important message to TI’s chapters, to the anti-corruption movement around the world?

HL: My message to our movement is clear: you have already made a difference. In 13 short years, through your dedication and hard work, TI has brought corruption out of the shadows and onto the world stage, and developed constructive and practical solutions to stop it. This organisation is respected around the world; we have credibility. We have reached this point through the high calibre of TI’s work, both in the chapters and in the Secretariat.

But this is only the beginning of what we must do together. We must expand our reach: break new ground, be more creative and develop new methods, to continue to lead this fight. We must increase our focus on prevention, and on implementing our programmes and improving enforcement of laws, rules and codes. Our movement is strengthened not just by the common mission that binds us together, but by the diversity of views and experiences that distinguish us. Together we have the skills, the knowledge, the experience and the tools, and we have considerable successes to build on. Now we must replicate these successes around the world. And I believe that together, we will.