Ahead of the Anti-Corruption Summit hosted by UK Prime Minister David Cameron, the Commonwealth Secretary-General today announced several practical measures including a new "Commonwealth Standard" to combat corruption.
Opening the 'Tackling Corruption Together' conference here, Secretary-General Patricia Scotland called on the government, civil society and business leaders to combine forces against corruption, and said collaboration between countries would be critical to this fight.
"It's going to take all of us to tackle corruption in all its forms," Scotland said.
"This isn't just about money. It's about the corruption that sees women have to trade sexual favours for access to goods and services, it's the corruption that sees children abused so they can stay in the classroom, it's the corruption that blights so many lives in so many different ways."
The Commonwealth Standard scheme will be used to identify which bodies and institutions are adhering to best practice in procurement and differentiate between those that do not protect against corruption.
Scotland said she would like to bring together partners to develop an international scheme for better procurement across the public and private sectors.
"Collaboration and cooperation between different nation states will be critical if we are to successfully meet the challenge bribery and corruption creates for us all," she said.
The conference precedes the Anti-Corruption Summit:London 2016 tomorrow, which aims to agree a package of practical steps to expose and drive out corrupt practices.
Scotland described the conference and the summit as "outward and visible signs of the fresh determination, renewed vigour and practical commitment to eliminating fraud, bribery and corruption."
Nigerian President Buhari gave the keynote speech at the conference. Other speakers included Prime Minister Joseph Muscat of Malta, Jose Ugaz from Transparency International and Mo Ibrahim, Founder of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, which assesses the quality of governance in African countries.
"Governments cannot tackle corruption alone, and we welcome the lead given by the new Secretary-General in putting corruption on the agenda, and including business and civil society as part of the discussion," Cobus de Swardt, Managing Director of Transparency International, one of the organising partners, said.
"Today's event will showcase some highly effective initiatives that show it is possible to fight corruption, often collaboratively. When the dust settles after the Summit, such partnerships will be crucial to seeing bold words turn into practical action.
