Effectiveness of anti-corruption agencies in southern Africa

"The Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA) in partnership with the Africa Regional Office (AfRO) commissioned a study on anticorruption bodies (ACBs) with the aim to investigate in depth the reasons for the successes and failures of dedicated anti-corruption bodies in Southern Africa. This report was be launched at Garden Court OR Tambo International Hotel in Johannesburg, South Africa on 22 March 2017.

The study assesses the contribution of anti-corruption agencies and mechanisms to good governance and democracy. Based on interviews, field research, review of relevant literature, current debates and discussions, the study examines the following issues: legal framework and historical/political background; institutional framework; powers of anti-corruption bodies; comparative assessment of the independence of ACBs; anti-corruption monitoring; country context specific issues; and relationship/s between ACBs at regional, continental and international structures. The study was commissioned across the region in Angola, Botswana, DRC, Lesotho, Namibia, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe, with a view to strengthening anti-corruption efforts on the continent.

OSISA's focus on corruption trends and impact lies in lending support to the fight against corruption by supporting advocacy work and the development of laws, policies and institutions to effectively deter, detect and punish corruption. This work falls under the Democracy and Governance Cluster's Private and Public Sector Accountability Programme. The desire to address the demand and supply sides of interventions to curb the cancer that is corruption underpins Study. It seeks to find out as much as possible on the constitutional and legal frameworks, institutions, systems and processes underpinning the fight against corruption in southern Africa.

The spotlight on ACBs will point to their relevance, roles, means necessary and preconditions for their performance and the possible needs for alternative and/or complementary measures/mechanisms in the SADC region. It is hoped that the findings of the study will improve anti-corruption efforts nationally and the region at large"--Publisher's website.