Civil society anti-corruption leaders from more than 50 countries signed a letter to the World Bank in support of its ambitious Gender Strategy 2024 – 2030: Accelerate Gender Equality for a Sustainable, Resilient, and Inclusive Future. However, they warned that the goals will be unattainable without significant emphasis on anti-corruption.
The World Bank’s draft gender strategy makes no mention of corruption. The civil society leaders and anti-corruption experts who signed the letter recognize that gender-based violence yields horrendous, long-term trauma for its victims and is a crucial impediment to gender equality in all areas of economic and human development. Therefore, the roles that corruption plays in this area must not be overlooked. That is why, for example, so many of the organizations whose leaders have signed the letter are implementing important anti-sextortion projects.
The more than 90 individuals who are signatories include members of the Board of Directors and the Management Team of Partnership for Transparency (PTF), the leaders of PTF’s Asia and Europe affiliates, the Board leadership of Transparency International (TI), and the Executive Directors of more than 40 TI national chapters. In addition, the list of those signing the letter include anti-corruption scholars, as well as founders of such organizations as Accountability Lab; Centre for Social Awareness, Advocacy, and Ethics in Nigeria; and Global Financial Integrity.
The letter calls on the World Bank to deepen its partnerships with civil society activists and provide them with greater direct support, noting that their engagement is vital to secure and sustain gender rights. Further, the letter calls for the World Bank to give greater prominence in the strategy to the issue of countering gender-based violence.
