KickBack - The Global Anticorruption Podcast KickBack

Huma Yusuf speaks to Tom Shipley about the links between business integrity and environmental, social and governance (ESG). Huma is Director of Business Integrity at British International Investment, an impact investor, and a key public commentator on climate change in Pakistan. In this podcast, Huma describes how anti-corruption and business integrity fit into the global business agenda on ESG, breaking down some of the key concepts and debates in this area. She also talks about working with businesses in emerging markets on these topics and some of the key challenges that arise.

Links to reports cited in the podcast are here:

Transparency International (2022) "Investing with integrity",https://www.transparency.org.uk/sites/default/files/pdf/publications/Investing%20with%20Integrity%20-%20Transparency%20International%20UK.pdf

World Economic Forum (2022) "Investing in integrity in an increasingly complex world: the role of anti-corruption amid the ESG revolution", https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Investing_in_Integrity_GFC_2022.pdf

This is the second episode of the 'Introduction to' series in which experts provide an overview of some of the key issues in the corruption field. In this episode Liz Dávid-Barrett, Dan Hough and Sam Power (all Centre for the Study of Corruption) discuss the leading theories for corruption analysis, including rational choice, collective action and social norms approaches. This is a valuable overview for researchers new to these topics. Further links to Kickback episodes with some of the leading theorists referenced are provided below.

Susan Rose-Ackerman on the principal-agent theory of corruption, https://soundcloud.com/kickback-gap/1-episode-susan-rose-ackerman

Bo Rothstein on corruption as a collective action problem: https://soundcloud.com/kickback-gap/5-episode-bo-rothstein

Diana Chigas and Cheyanne Scharbatke-Church on social norms: https://soundcloud.com/kickback-gap/49-diana-chigas-and-cheyanne-scharbatke-church-on-social-norms-approaches-to-anti-corruption

https://soundcloud.com/kickback-gap/49-diana-chigas-and-cheyanne-scharbatke-church-on-social-norms-approaches-to-anti-corruption

And for the first 'introduction to' episode on corruption measurement, see: https://soundcloud.com/kickback-gap/93-introduction-to-corruption-measurement-debates

Michela Wrong, journalist and author of It's Our Turn to Eat, speaks to Dr. Sam Power, Senior Lecturer in Politics at the Centre for the Study of Corruption. Named as the top book on corruption by The Guardian in 2023, It's Our Turn to Eat tells the story of John Githongo, the Kenyan activist and whistleblower interviewed in Episode 96. Michela talks to Sam about the issues raised in the book as well as her other writing including Do Not Disturb, her latest book on the abuse of power by the Kagame regime in Rwanda.

The Kenyan anti-corruption campaigner and activist, John Githongo, speaks to Liz Dávid-Barrett (Centre for the Study of Corruption). The episode covers key moments in John's career including his involvement in the formation of Transparency International and time spent as Permanent Secretary for Governance and Ethics in the Kenyan government in the early 2000s. John and Liz further discuss what lessons can be taken from Kenya's fight against corruption and the particularly the role of anti-corruption institutions.

Dr. Magnus Öhman, senior political finance adviser at the International Foundation for Electoral Systems, speaks to the Kickback team. Magnus discusses the challenges of corruption and political trust against the wider global context of increased democratic backsliding. There is specific focus on approaches to tackling the problem of illicit finance in politics, including the potential of artificial intelligence for improving transparency.

Grant Walton, Associate Professor at the Crawford School of Public Policy (Australian National University, speaks to Dan Hough about his research on corruption in Papua New Guinea (PNG). A key focus for Grant has been to explore what people understand by corruption in PNG and how this compares to Western understandings of the term. The disconnection between the two has implications for how we approach messaging on countering corruption which risks being ineffective or even backfiring if it does not account for local understandings. Grant also outlines the formal state anti-corruption institutions in place in PNG, leading to discussion on the appropriate roles for external actors in supporting these institutions.

Publications mentioned by Grant in the podcast can be found on his research profile, here: https://crawford.anu.edu.au/people/academic/grant-walton?tb=publication