International Anti-Corruption Day: Factors that attribute to corruption - In details

International Anti-Corruption Day is celebrated with an aim to raise public awareness for anti-corruption through the passage of the United Nations Convention Against Corruption.

Picture credit: UN and Pixabay

New Delhi: International Anti-Corruption day is observed every year on December 9. In an effort to increase public awareness of anti-corruption, the United Nations Convention Against Corruption has been in effect since October 30, 2003. The world is currently facing some of the biggest challenges it has seen in many generations, challenges that jeopardise global prosperity and stability. The majority of them are entangled with the corruption scourge. Every facet of society is negatively impacted by corruption, which is intimately connected to instability and conflict, jeopardising social and economic progress while undermining democratic processes and the rule of law. Corruption not only follows conflicts but is also frequently one of its root issues. It nutrition conflict and hinders peace processes by undermining the rule of law, rapidly declining poverty, enabling the illicit use of funds, and offering to finance military confrontation.

Why is this Day celebrated?

Preventing corruption, promoting transparency and strengthening institutions are crucial if the targets foreseen in the Sustainable Development Goals are to be met. It is celebrated with an aim to raise public awareness for anti-corruption through the passage of the United Nations Convention Against Corruption. International Anti-Corruption Day is a global observance and not a public holiday.

In order to increase public awareness of corruption and the Convention's role in preventing and combating it, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed December 9 as International Anti-Corruption Day. In the month of December 2005, the Convention became effective. United Nations Development Program organised the International Anti-corruption day.

According to R. Klitgaard, an American academic, corruption will occur if the corrupt gain exceeds the penalty multiplied by the likelihood of being caught and prosecuted. As per a survey study in 2017, there are some factors that are attributed to the cause of corruption. They are as follows.

• Poverty
• Low economic freedom
• Gender inequality
• The greed of money, and desires
• Political instability
• Weak property rights
• Unemployment
• Low levels of education
• Extravagant family
• Lack of proper policies against corruption
• Large ethnic divisions and high levels of in-group favouritism
• Higher levels of market and political monopolization
• Low levels of democracy, weak civil participation and low political transparency

It has been acknowledged that in a comparison of the most corrupt with the least corrupt countries, the former group contains nations with massive socio-economic inequalities, and the latter contains countries with a high level of social and economic justice

(With agencies inputs)