It was for the first time that the event, organised by the BRICS Working Group on Anti-Corruption Cooperation in line with priorities of the Russian Chairmanship, brought together anti-corruption university educators and trainers, practitioners of national authorities competent in the area of anti-corruption education and officers of international organisations working on this subject.
The round table consisted of three sessions, in the course of which speakers shared their experience and good practices in respective fields.
In session one, moderated by a Deputy Director of the International Police Unit of the Central Bureau of Investigation of India, participants discussed measures for raising public awareness about corruption implemented by their countries. For instance, Gen. Aslan Yusufov from the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation told about a virtual game created by the authority which would “make it possible to assess, brush up or deepen one’s knowledge of anti-corruption matters and compete with peers”, booklets and other materials published by the body and the international youth competition of social anti-corruption advertising Together against Corruption! organised by it.
Speakers of session two, moderated by a Doctor of Law from Beijing Normal University and Executive Director of the Research Centre on International Cooperation Regarding Persons Sought for Corruption and Asset Recovery in G20 Member States, centered on approaches towards the structure and role of anti-corruption education in universities. In particular, information about relevant programmes of the International Anti-Corruption Academy and the UNODC Education for Justice(E4J) Initiative was provided to the audience.
The concluding session, moderated by Alexey Konov, Director of Anti-Corruption Centre of the National Research University Higher School of Economics, was focused on training for anti-corruption practitioners and officials. The speakers told, in particular, about Brazil’s National Capacity Building and Training Programme to Combat Corruption and Money Laundering, and about the incorporation in curricula of China Academy of Discipline Inspection and Supervision of topics related not only to legal regulation and practical implementation of established norms but also to broader theoretical issues about political, cultural and financial context in which they are introduced.
The event demonstrated that many challenges affecting anti-corruption education in the BRICS countries are similar: high level of corruption, including petty one, large population and great number of people to be trained and taught and relatively recent anti-corruption legislation. Moreover, speakers suggested similar recommendations on how to address those challenges as further next steps. In particular, the idea to necessarily strengthen international cooperation in this area was voiced more than once. Therefore, it seems that the event may become a starting point for developing joint projects and programmes of the BRICS countries and perhaps even for establishing some regular formats of cooperation.
The video recording of the live streaming is available on the Facebook page of the Russian BRICS Chairmanship.
