Speaker: Dr. Ortrun Merkle, UNU-MERIT/Maastricht Graduate School of Governance
Date: 20th November 2024

“Gender and Corruption: Unveiling Hidden Patterns” delves into the complex interplay between gender norms and corrupt practices. Drawing on her extensive research, Dr. Ortrun challenges the traditional one-dimensional approach to corruption studies by highlighting the importance of understanding underlying gender norms. This talk will explore the role of women’s political participation and the gendered experiences of corruption among migrants, offering fresh insights into how these dynamics shape corruption in society.

Speaker: Mark Pieth, Professor of Criminal Law at the University of Basel
Date: 3rd October 2024

The supply chain of gold is full of challenges, ranging from conflict over slavery to serious environmental degradation. One major challenge, both in artisanal and industrial gold mining is corruption, e.g. in order to obtain mining rights or to subvert controls. These challenges and how to confront them will be discussed in the talk.

Speaker: Stefan Schembera, Assistant Professor of Business Administration at Radboud University, Netherlands; Andreas Georg Scherer, Professor of Business Administration at the University of Zurich, Switzerland
Date: 24th September 2024

In their talk, Stefan Schembera and Andreas Georg Scherer will discuss the fundamental tensions involved in the governance of corruption in a global business environment with ever more frequent transactions across diverse institutional contexts. In particular, they will focus on the trade-off between enforcing organizational compliance and achieving social ends in the governance of corruption. To identify workable solutions, they will highlight the need of understanding the dynamics underlying the interactive communicative processes of sensemaking and negotiation involving actors across different institutional contexts. Their empirical findings show that achieving desirable social ends does not necessarily imply strictly following organizational rules. Even more so, in some cases a bureaucratic application of rules may even stand in the way of achieving social ends.

Speaker: Richard Nephew, Coordinator on Global Anti-Corruption at the U.S. Department of State
Date: 22nd May 2024

The White House released the first-ever U.S. Strategy on Countering Corruption in December 2021, marshalling a whole-of-government effort to expand and intensify comprehensive efforts to combat corruption at home and around the world.  The U.S. Strategy places particular emphasis on transnational corruption, and this talk will focus on the U.S. government’s efforts to promote accountability for corrupt acts around the world.  

Speaker: Bianca Kopp, Coordinator of the GRACE initiative at the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)
Date: 29th February 2024

Corruption is one of the most serious global threats of our time with devastating economic and environmental consequences, and is linked to a crisis of democracy and growing inequalities. Tackling this complex phenomenon requires multiple and simultaneous approaches, including education programmes that empower future generations to resist and prevent corruption, as well as building a culture of lawfulness with strengthened ethical values and the capacity to act on them.
Building on the success of the Education for Justice (E4J) and Anti-Corruption Academic (ACAD) initiatives, which are globally recognised for their added value in supporting beneficiaries in Member States, UNODC has launched the Global Resource for Anti-Corruption Education and Youth Empowerment (GRACE) initiative to further promote the role of education and youth empowerment in preventing and countering corruption.
In this edition of the Integrity Talk Series, Bianca Kopp will talk about the how and why of the GRACE initiative, as well as the collaboration between the UNODC and universities to educate future decision-makers and business leaders against corruption. 

Bianca Kopp is leading the implementation of UNODC’s Global Resource for Anti-Corruption Education and Youth Empowerment (GRACE) initiative. Prior to this she has successfully led the tertiary component of UNODC’s Education 4 Justice (E4J) initiative and other children- and youth related projects. Bianca has been working for the United Nations since 2010, including for the (then) Department of Political Affairs and the UN Office for Partnerships (UN Democracy Fund)  and for various sections in the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.  Before joining the UN, Bianca worked in academia and for the Austrian Ministry of European and International Affairs. 

Speaker: Ms. Delia Ferreira Rubio, outgoing two-term global chair of Transparency International
Date: 9th December 2023

Join us as we discuss the complex intersection of corruption, crime and the COVID-19 pandemic in our special edition of the Integrity Talk Series to mark World Anti-Corruption Day 2023. The theme is a critical review of the impact of corruption amidst the backdrop of the global health crisis during COVID-19. We will explore the lessons to be learnt from navigating the pandemic, paving the way towards a more humanistic and equitable world after that.

Two hosts will join forces - the UN Global Compact Working Group on Anticorruption and the Humanistic Management Network. This collaboration promises to offer multifaceted perspectives and actionable insights to combat corruption and foster ethical practices in our societies. Ms. Delia Ferreira Rubio, outgoing two-term global chair of Transparency International is a keynote speaker for the Event.

Ms Delia Ferreira Rubis has a PhD in Law. She is an expert on and has widely consulted on anti-corruption and transparency-related issues with international organizations and NGOs, and has worked on projects promoting greater transparency and accountability in the areas of political campaign and party financing. She served as the Chair of Transparency International (2017-2023), as well as served as chief adviser to several representatives and senators at national congress, and advised the Constitutional Committee of the House of Representatives and Senate in Argentina. Author of numerous publications, including on democratic culture and political institutions, comparative politics, government by decree, public and parliamentary ethics, political financing, and electoral systems.

Speaker: Cristina Ritter, Head of Anti-Corruption and Governance, UN Global Compact
Date: 9th November 2023

Since the UN Convention against Corruption was adopted 20 years ago, much has changed for businesses and societies. The tightening legal framework brought about by the commitment of States to the full implementation of the Convention has created significant momentum for multisectoral cooperation.  In 2004, the Principle Ten of the UN Global Compact began challenging companies to enhance efforts in tackling corruption internally, externally and collectively. Today, Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) directives, along with rising expectations from consumers, investors, governments and employees, are raising the bar for companies to not only be more accountable, ethical, inclusive and transparent, but to also act as responsible corporate citizens, contributing to strengthening the ecosystem where they operate. However, business integrity goes beyond compliance; it's about fostering a culture of transparency, accountability and integrity in all aspects of strategy and operations. But as well as the opportunities that come with raising the bar on integrity, there are also challenges. As UNCAC reaches its two-decade milestone, what is the UN doing to facilitate the development of a new global business integrity agenda that considers lessons learned from past successes and failures, as well as emerging challenges, while promoting Collective Action to generate innovative solutions for the broader benefit of the people and the planet? Join us for this session with Cristina Ritter as she addresses these questions. 

Cristina Ritter is an attorney-at-law specialized in business administration with a professional career of 18 years in both the United Nations and the private sector. She recently joined the UN Global Compact, as the Head of Governance and Anti-Corruption (2022). Prior to this position, Ms. Ritter worked for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) since 2014, where she provided technical assistance in various continents on the international standards and tools to address corruption and money laundering, while engaging in international cooperation and asset recovery.
Over the years, she was designated Global Coordinator of the Integrity Component of CRIMJUST, a UNODC flagship programme against drug-trafficking, she became responsible for the Americas at the Corruption and Economic Crime Branch (CEB) and served as Regional Anti-Corruption Advisor twice. In this context, she engaged with chambers of commerce, compliance associations, private sector entities and companies in over twenty countries to promote business integrity. She also fostered private-public sectors dialogue, achieving the adoption of multiple anti-corruption policies, legal frameworks and national strategies. Her formal education includes an MBA in Strategic Management (Argentina / France) and a Magna Cum Laude Degree in Law and Political Science (Panama). She is fluent in Spanish, English and French.

Speaker: Dr Oksana Huss, Researcher and co-founder of the Interdisciplinary Corruption Research Network 
Date: 21st September 2023

The talk will feature different types of anti-corruption measures, based on the extensive overview of anti-corruption practices collected by the Local Research Correspondents on Corruption (LRCC) in the EU Member States. It will critically address both trends and challenges governments face in corruption counteraction, focusing on increasing digitalization and datafication of the anti-corruption sector. In an open discussion, we will question methodological approaches to define “anti-corruption” depending on context and assess which practices are “good.” 

The goal of the Handbook was to map various anti-corruption practices in EU Member States (MS) that have proved to be useful in solving corruption-related problems and which can inspire similar initiatives elsewhere. For this purpose, over 130 anti-corruption practices were clustered into eight anti-corruption approaches, and one good anti-corruption practice with positive impact aspirations in each EU Member State was selected for the in-depth analysis. This ensured an “insider understanding” of the context of each case study, integrated into a theoretical approach. 

Dr. Oksana Huss is a researcher in the BIT-ACT research project at the University of Bologna, Italy, and a lecturer at the Anti-Corruption Research and Education Centre, Ukraine. Her areas of expertise cover (anti-)corruption and social movements, as well as open government and digital technologies. Oksana obtained her doctoral degree at the Institute for Development and Peace in Germany and held several research fellowships in Canada, France, the Netherlands, and Sweden. She consulted international organizations, such as the Council of Europe, EU, UNESCO, and UNODC. Oksana is a co-founder of the Interdisciplinary Corruption Research Network and lead researcher of the Handbook of good practices in the fight against corruption published by the European Commission

Speaker: Cecilia Müller-Torbrand, CEO Maritime Anti-Corruption Network (MACN) 
Date: 10th May 2023

Cecilia Müller-Torbrand is the CEO of the Maritime Anti-Corruption Network (MACN) based in Copenhagen, Denmark, a global business network working toward the vision of a maritime industry free of corruption that enables fair trade to the benefit of society at large. She spoke about the drivers for combating corruption and strengthening integrity in high-risk markets using a multi-stakeholder approach. 

The Maritime Anti-Corruption Network (MACN) was established in 2011 by a small group of committed maritime companies. MACN and its members work towards the elimination of all forms of maritime corruption by: raising awareness of the challenges faced; implementing the MACN Anti-Corruption Principles and co-developing and sharing best practices; collaborating with governments, non-governmental organizations, and civil society to identify and mitigate the root causes of corruption; and creating a culture of integrity within the maritime community.

Speaker: Prof. Mary Gentile, Creator/Director, Giving Voice To Values
Date: 21st February 2023

Dr. Gentile shared a ground-breaking approach to preparing business managers and leaders for values-driven leadership. Drawing on both the actual experience of business practitioners as well as cutting edge research, GIVING VOICE TO VALUES (GVV) fills a long-standing and critical gap in our understanding of how to enable ethical practice. Rather than a focus on ethical analysis, GVV focuses on ethical implementation and asks the question: “What if I were going to act on my values? What would I say and do? How could I be most effective?”

GVV was launched by The Aspen Institute and Yale School of Management; based at Babson College from 2009-2015; and is now permanently based at University of Virginia Darden School of Business. Developed by Gentile, a veteran of Harvard Business School and pioneer in both ethics and diversity management curriculum, GVV has been piloted and/or shared at well over 1345 educational and executive settings around the world.  Giving Voice to Values holds the promise to transform the foundational assumptions upon which the teaching of business ethics is based, and importantly, to equip future business leaders to not only know what is right — but how to make it happen. 

Speaker: Philip Whiteley, investigative journalist and author, as well as guest whistleblowers Alison McDermott and Peter Duffy
Date: 17th November 2022

It is well established that organizations accused of serious wrongdoing, such as fraud, health and safety breaches, pollution, discriminatory or bullying management, deploy tactics that include intimidating and discrediting those trying to report the wrongdoing, known as “whistleblowers”, who are typically former employees. Using contemporary illustrative cases as well as the experience of whistleblowers, investigative journalist Philip Whiteley will discuss six retaliatory tactics normalised within the legal profession and are often used by offending companies against whistleblower in the aftermath of an allegation. Mr Whiteley will also be joined by whistleblowers Alison McDermott and Peter Duffy, who will also share their experiences as whistleblowers and how these techniques were used against them.

Speaker: Olajobi Makinwa, Chief, Intergovernmental Relations & Africa, UN Global Compact
Date: 23rd June 2022

While one company's actions can be significant, they are insufficient to end corruption entirely. Companies must work together with governments, community-based organizations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and other enterprises to combat corruption.
Collective Action allows companies to:

• Create deeper understanding of corruption issues 
• Consolidate knowledge and financial and technical resources to achieve greater impact
• Develop solutions that are perceived as more credible, acceptable and are more sustainable
• Help ensure fair competition and a level playing field for all stakeholders
• Create a more stable and enabling business environment
• Compliment existing anti-corruption efforts in vulnerable regions and sectors, where industry or government-led regulations are not robust

The UN Global Compacts Networks are uniquely positioned to initiate and facilitate Collective Action at a local and national level. In her talk, Ms Makinwa will draw on her experiences at the UN for how corruption cna be addressed through Collectuve Action. 

Speaker: Prof. Dr. Peter Eigen, Founder of Transparency International
Date: 24th February 2022

Good-governance is the root for social, political and economic development. This is particularly true for global governance, where national governments have lost their preeminent role because of asymmetries between national capacities and the issues to be governed. Therefore, a more powerful role of civil society has to be mobilised, which is best done through multi-stakeholder processes. In his talk, Prof. Eigen will talk about the multi-stakeholder approach to good governance, and how responsible management can be fostered through antagonistic cooperation of multi-stakeholders. 
(Multi-stakeholder standards in relation to responsible management and good governance have emerged in recent years for their potential to foster knowledge exchange, build consensus and shape interest alignment.) 

Speaker: Bartosz Makowicz, Director, Viadrina Compliance Centre
Date: 18th November 2021

Whistleblowing Management Systems is not only about installing an communication channel. In order to support a speakup culture the system should be wisely integrated into the existing management scenery by adopting existing tolls, procedures and processes. Recent legislative changes such as the EU Whistleblowing Directive will have a profound impact on how companies structure their whistleblowing management systems, as well as new guidelines from ISO 37002 can foster successful and effective whistleblowing systems. In his talk, Prof. Makowicz will discuss the implications for companies of this changing landscape, as well as provide case examples of how companies can best ensure the integrity of their management systems. He will also focus on why whistleblowing is an emerging interdisciplinary field of research.

Speaker: Dr. Armando Castro, Associate Professor Bartlett, University College London
Date: 30th September 2021

In his talk, Armando Castro explored his latest publication in the Academy of Management Annals, as well as contemporary research on the topic of corporate corruption.

Speaker: Muriel Poisson, Programmspezialistin, International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP) of UNESCO
Date: 29th June 2021

Higher education institutions play a great role in shaping the leaders of the future, however in order to shape responsible future leaders, higher education institutions need to promote an integrity environment  to be able to teach RSE values. In her talk, Muriel Poisson described selected examples of policies and strategies higher education institutions can use to promote such an intgerity environment, including the adoption of Chart of ethics, codes of behavior, access to information, etc., as well as presented the role of IIEP-UNESCO in building the capacities of Member States in this area.