“Experts recommend holistic approach to tackling corruption in Africa”
ECA Press Release No. 23/2008
Addis Ababa – 16 October 2008 – ECA- The international conference on “ Institutions, Culture and Corruption in Africa” jointly organised by the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA), ended on Wednesday with consensus that a comprehensive package of interventions, by a cross section of stakeholders, is needed in order to systematically tackle the problem in Africa.

About the Conference
The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) are organizing an international conference on: Institutions, Culture and Corruption in Africa” from 13 th - 16 th October 2008. The conference is one of the major activities being organized to mark the 50 th anniversary of UNECA.

The issue of corruption has resonated in the discussions and policy decisions of major policy organs of the UNECA charging the institution to do more work in promoting research, knowledge generation, policy development and advocacy on the problem. In November, 2007, the Committee on Human Development and Civil Society , which is the policy organ of the ECA on governance, civil society and public sector management at its meeting in Addis challenged ECA, specifically the Governance and Public Administration Division (GPAD) to conduct more research, and upscale the discourse on corruption on the continent with a view to generating better policies and strategies for member-states to addressing the problem. Similarly, The ECA Conference of Ministers of Finance and Economic Planning , which is the overall policy organ of the ECA at its meeting in March 2008 reiterated the demand for ECA to actively engage the problem of corruption on the continent. This conference is a major response to those demands. The problem of corruption remains intractable in many African countries, which requires more innovative, creative and new strategic intellectual interrogation, which this conference aims to do. The conference seeks to promote an Africa-led discourse on the problem of corruption with a view to engendering new policy options and increasing the stock of stakeholders in the fight against corruption cutting across the spectrum of the academy, policy institutions, regional organizations, civil society and the international community.