The UNCAC Coalition’s Gender, Inclusion & Corruption working group seeks to:

• Influence and inspire
• Share ideas
• Advocate for better data
• Advocate for changes in international law, policy, and practice.
• Create a space for discussion and debate

Please find here more information about the background, context, aims, and expected outputs and outcomes of the working group. 

Working Group Co-Chairs:

Monica Kirya,  Deputy Director, U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Center of the Chr. Michelsen Institute.

Matthew Gichohi,  researcher, Chr. Michelsen Institute.

The Working Group hosts a dedicated email discussion list as well as several coordination calls per year.

Next Working Group Meeting: 

Wednesday, 27 November, from 15:00-16:30 (Vienna time)

Working Group Taskforces:

Sexual Corruption Legal Taskforce

• Lead by: Laura Nyirinkindi, International Federation of Women Lawyers and Elin Bjarnegård,  Professor at the Department of Government, Uppsala University.

Gender and Corruption Data Taskforce

• Lead by: Michele Coleman, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Mainstreaming Gender and Promoting Inclusion in Anti-Corruption Frameworks Taskforce

• Lead by: Zakhona Mvelase, African Women Against Corruption Network.

Selected past activities and outputs on Gender, Inclusion & Corruption:

General readings

• Report: Legal Framework on Sextortion/Sexual Corruption in South Africa, written by Professor Sope Williams, Stellenbosch University South Africa, published by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, May 2024. 
• Written Submission: The Impacts of Corruption to Vulnerable Groups: The Role of Women and Youth People in the Eradication of Corruption, Indonesia Corruption Watch, 2024.
• Written Submission (Spanish): Gender Perspective, Human Rights and Anticorruption, a sample of the democratic regression in Mexico, Mexiro, 2024.  
• Blog: The impacts of corruption on women and their role in preventing corruption, Matthew Jenkins, August 2024.
• Report: The Chandler Papers: Sexual Corruption, Anna Petherick, Monika Bauhr and Bolaji Owasanoya, May 2024.
• Report: Global Progress Report on SDG 16, DASS, UNODC, OHCHR, Oslo Governance Centre and UNDP, September 2023.
• Blog: Sexual corruption is abuse of power – and there’s more to it than ‘sextortion’ alone, Elin Bjarnegård, Dolores Calvo, Åsa Eldén and Silje Lundgren, June 2024.
• Paper: The Chandler Papers: Sexual Corruption, Anna Petherick, Monika Bauhr and Bolaji Owasanoye, May 2024.
• Article: When sex is demanded as payment for health-care services, Michele L Coleman, Manuela Colombini, Sarah Bandali, Tom Wright, Maryam Chilumpha, Dina Balabanova, May 2024.
• Blog post: Sexual Corruption is abuse of power – and there’s more to it than ‘sextortion’ alone, U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre, June 2024.
• Blog post: Gender and corruption resolution at UNCAC-CoSP: Progress underway, yet paths to inclusion remain, U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre, March 2024.
• Advocacy Toolkit: Ensuring Effective Reparation to Victims of the Harm caused by Corruption, UNCAC Coalition Working Groups on Asset Recovery; Gender, Inclusion and Corruption; Grand Corruption and State Capture; and Victims of Corruption, November 2023.
• Gender Toolkit: Promoting a Gender Sensitive and Inclusive Approach to Anti-Corruption, November 2023.
• Open Letter (EN): A Call for Action at the 10th UNCAC Conference of States Parties in Atlanta in December 2023 to Ensure Effective Reparation to Victims of the Harm caused by Corruption, 31 October 2023. 
• Open Letter (ES): Carta abierta a los Estados Parte de la CNUCC: Llamamiento a la acción en la 10ª Conferencia de Estados Parte de la CNUCC, que se celebrará en Atlanta en diciembre de 2023 Garantizar una reparación efectiva a las víctimas de los daños causados por la corrupción, 31 October 2023. 
• Open Letter (FR): Lettre ouverte aux États parties à la CNUCC : Un appel à l’action lors de la 10e Conférence des États parties à la CNUCC à Atlanta en décembre 2023 pour garantir une réparation effective aux victimes des préjudices causés par la corruption, 31 October 2023. 
• Gender, Inclusion and Corruption Working Group Submission to the CoSP10: Promoting a gender-responsive and inclusive approach to anti-corruption, 20 October 2023
• Written submission: Consequences of Corruption: The Right of Victims to Participation and Reparation in Corruption Cases Submission, UNCAC Coalition Working Groups on Victims of Corruption, on Asset Recovery, on Grand Corruption and State Capture, and on Gender Inclusion & Corruption, 17 October 2023.
• Blog: Bribe to survive: sextortion and LGBTQ discrimination, Victoria Abut, June 2022.
• U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre: Gender and Corruption – Basic Guide.
• Camacho, G.; (2021) Corruption and gender equality: a summary of existing research. Bergen: U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre, Chr. Michelsen Institute (U4 Helpdesk Answer 2021:9) 
• Transparency International Submission to the 8th UNCAC CoSP
• Bauhr, M. et al., 2018. Close the political gender gap to reduce corruption, U4 Brief. 
• Report: A gender perspective on corruption encountered during forced and irregular migration, Ortrun Merkle, Julia Reinold and Melissa Siegel, September 2017.

Sexual Corruption / Sextortion

• Reports on Sextortion by Partnership for Transparency Fund.
• Bjarnegård, Elin; Calvo, Dolores; Eldén, Åsa; & Lundgren, Silje (2024) Sexual corruption is abuse of power – and there’s more to it than ‘sextortion’ alone, U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre.
• Bjarnegård, Elin; Calvo, Dolores; Eldén, Åsa; Jonsson, Sofia & Lundgren, Silje (2023) Sex instead of Money. Conceptualizing Sexual Corruption, 2024.
• Lundgren, Silje; Eldén, Åsa; Calvo, Dolores & Bjarnegård, Elin (2023) Sextortion: Linking sexual violence and corruption in Sweden and Norway, in M. Lundqvist; K. Widegren & A. Simonsson (eds.) Re-imagining Sexual Harassment: Perspectives from the Nordic Region. Bristol University Press (Policy Press).
• Eldén, Åsa & Bjarnegård, Elin (2022) Implementing Policy Against Sextortion in Tanzania: A follow-up study, EBA Working Paper, September 2022, The Expert Group for Aid Studies (EBA).
• Bjarnegård, Elin; Calvo, Dolores; Eldén, Åsa & Lundgren, Silje (2022) Sextortion: Corruption Shaped by Gender Norms, in I. Kubbe & O. Merkle (eds.) Corruption and Gender: The Role of Norms, Edward Elgar Publishing.
• Transparency International (2022). Criminalising sextortion: Challenges and alternatives.
• International Association of Women Judges (IAWJ), 2012. Stopping the abuse of power through sexual exploitation: naming, shaming, and ending sextortion. 
• Eldén, Å., D. Calvo, E. Bjarnegård, S. Lundgren and S. Jonsson (2020), Sextortion: Corruption and Gender-Based Violence, EBA Report 2020:06, the Expert Group for Aid Studies (EBA), Sweden. 
• International Bar Association (IBA)/Sara Carnegie (2019) Sextortion. A crime of corruption and sexual exploitation. International Bar Association, London, UK. 
• GiZ, 2021. Sextortion: Understanding and addressing sexualized corruption

Mainstreaming gender in the UNCAC and anti-corruption initiatives generally

• Merkle, O.; (2018) Mainstreaming gender and human rights in anti-corruption programming. Bergen: U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre, Chr. Michelsen Institute (U4 Helpdesk Answer 2018:8) 
• Rahman, K.; (2021) Gender mainstreaming in the UNCAC . Bergen: U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre, Chr. Michelsen Institute (U4 Helpdesk Answer 2021:14) 
• Zúñiga, N.; (2020) Gender sensitivity in corruption reporting and whistleblowing. Bergen: U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre, Chr. Michelsen Institute (U4 Helpdesk Answer 2020:10) 
• Brownie, E. 2014. Gender – the power relationship that Political Economy Analysis forgot? 

Inclusion / intersectionality

• Bullock J and Jenkins M, 2020. Corruption and Marginalisation. Transparency International Helpdesk Answer 
• Jenkins, M.; McDonald, E.; (2022) Corruption and the equal enjoyment of rights for persons with disabilities. Bergen: U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre, Chr. Michelsen Institute (U4 Helpdesk Answer 2022:7)