The African Union (AU) together with Transparency International on Wednesday renewed their partnership in a bid to strengthen efforts aimed toward fighting corruption on the continent. This partnership was sealed on the sideline of the International Anti-Corruption Conference (IACC) that is underway in Copenhagen, Denmark. The African Union, through its advisory board on corruption, signed a partnership agreement with Transparency International, a global civil society organisation leading the fight against corruption. The agreement is a renewal of the three-year partnership that the two parties have been working on to advance the fight against corruption in the region. AU Commissioner for Political Affairs Begoto Miarom exchanging documents with Transparency International Managing Director Patricia Moreira. (Photo: Julius Bizimungu) Delia Ferreira Rubio, the chair of Transparency International said there are more people on the continent who are victims of corruption, as indicated in the organisation’s Corruption Perceptions Index. This year’s index highlighted Sub-Saharan Africa as the worst performing region with an average score of 32 per cent compared to Western Europe that had an average score of 66 per cent and Eastern Europe and Central Asia with 34 per cent each. “No one can do it [fight corruption] alone. It is the role of the civil society, government and the people,” she said during the signing agreement, adding that what they are doing within the framework of the partnership is the fight for better life of people. Rubio said that more than ever, more people are exposed to corruption and majority of the countries globally have done little or nothing to end it, indicating that such a situation implies that the resources of countries and those of aid agencies, instead of going to health, education, better conditions, water sanitation, and vaccination, continue to go to the pockets of some people. “This means that people are suffering,” she noted. This particular partnership will see both the African Union and Transparency International work towards establishing a number of specific activities and programmes to combat corruption. Charity Hanene Nchimunya, the Executive Secretary of the African Union Advisory Board on Corruption, told The New Times on the sidelines of the signing event that it will raise their capacity to reach out to more African countries to encourage them to implement the African Union convention on preventing and combating corruption. “In the renewed MoU [memorandum of understanding], we are going further with our regional commitments on a number of key activities, one of which is looking at context specific methodologies for measuring corruption in Africa. Overall, it will facilitate our outreach efforts in different African countries,” she noted. According to Nchimunya, there are about 40 countries that have already ratified the African Union Convention on preventing and combating corruption. The recent three-year partnership, she said, has enabled the board to individually evaluate the level of corruption in more than 13 countries, and that the practice will continue as they renew the partnership. Meanwhile, the International Anti-Corruption Conference is bringing together government leaders, civil society members and activists. It was officially opened on Monday by Danish Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen.
