Tackling Corruption for Human Development in the Asia Pacific - Expert Panel Debate, 13th IACC, Athens, Greece.

“Cleaning up the justice, police, health, education and natural resources sectors should be a top political priority in the region. This would help to loosen the stranglehold of corruption on the lives of the poor”; this was the consensus of a hard-hitting expert panel from the Asia Pacific region at the Wimbledon of anti-corruption dialogue (the 13th International Anti-Corruption Conference). The expert panel debate was organized by the Human Development Report Unit at the Regional Centre in Colombo, as part of the global dialogue on the recently launched Asia Pacific Human Development Report (APHDR) Tackling Corruption, Transforming Lives .

The debate brought together four eminent experts with a track record on anti-corruption initiatives and was moderated by the BBC’s Nisha Pillai. The panelists were:

• Dr. Kiran Bedi (India) - The first female police officer of India; Civilian Police Advisor in the UN Peace keeping Department and former Director General of India’s Bureau of Police Research and Development.
• Mr. Kunda Dixit (Nepal) - Editor in Chief of the Nepali Times and author of Dateline Earth: Journalism As If the Planet Mattered and A People War.
• H.E Dr. M.Osman Farruk (Bangladesh) - Former Minister of Education of Bangladesh and former Senior World Bank Economist for Asia-Pacific.
• Honourable Justice Nazhat Shameem (Fiji) - Justice of the High Court of Fiji and the first and only Indo-Fijian female High Court judge and former director of Public Prosecution.

Based on the findings of the Report, the panellists argued the necessity of fighting corruption in Asia-Pacific. If corruption is a transitory phenomenon, which fades away during the process of economic growth, wouldn’t countries do better by tackling poverty and inequality head on - rather than focusing on corruption? Looking at good and bad practices from across the region, the discussion zeroed in on how efforts can be strengthened and scaled up to maximize anti corruption outcomes for developing countries. The debate concluded with concrete and practical ways forward which coincided with the 7 point agenda for change advocated by the Report. Read more