Development and Cooperation


	Contributions from the Column Studies and reports Ratings agencies Global Corruption Report Peace cannot be compelled "The principle of non-intervention still prevails in Africa" Afghanistan: no development without government and civil society Genetically modified food aid for Africa? Roads to combat hunger Can research advise politics? 03/2003		Global Corruption Report The second report of Transparency International (TI) on corruption around the world (Global Corruption Report 2003), published on January 22, focuses on citizens' access to information held by governments and public administrations. Jeremy Pope, director of the TI Research Centre, writes: "The average citizen needs access to government information at every stage of his life in order to be able to exercise his rights." Without it, they are easy prey for corruption and misuse. On the whole, the report draws a positive balance. Worldwide, pressure is growing on governments to improve public access to information on action by them and their administrations and in particular to make the awarding of official contracts transparent. There are ever fewer loopholes for corruption, the report's introduction says. But, it adds, improved access to information on its own is not enough. The courage of individuals to uncover corruption will also be called for in future. A very promising development is that following the Enron scandal more and more companies are watching out for in-house irregularities. In addition, the message that combating corruption also makes good business sense is getting through. Marking the presentation of the TI report, German Development Minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul emphasised that fighting corruption played an important role in Germany's development cooperation. Going beyond bilateral regulations, international agreements were indispensable, she said. That was why the German Federal government welcomed the negotiations on a UN convention on combating corruption. The BMZ says it is promoting Transparency International in drawing up its corruption reports for the period 2001-2004 with a total of 400,000 euros. (uke) Net resources Corruption worldwide: www.globalcorruptionreport.org