Prevention

Most will agree that evidence of widespread corruption is adequate cause for addressing its prevention through education.  The diagnoses for corruption through data collection and analysis, as discussed in unit three, will help in planning and designing a path to address the largest problems in a particular country or community. However, this is not ever enough. Developing a prevention scheme also requires reformers to consider the social and economic context of the nation, determine the level of government commitment to responding to and preventing the problem, determine what resources are available and needed for the prevention process. Reformers should also determine the stakeholders, and who, whether government or nongovernmental entities, should participate in the prevention strategies. Please see the box on the World Bank’s Governance and Anticorruption Agenda for as example.

Still, in order to be effective, the prevention mechanism needs a sense of order. Imagine how ineffective prevention would be if every inspired organization followed its own technique and were motivated by its own priorities; or worse, envision the consequences if no one were adequately motivated to impact change and promises were never realized.