Organisation name: Transparency International
Name of organisation’s representative: Gillian Dell
Website: www.transparency.org
Email: email hidden; JavaScript is required
Country: Registered in Germany
Which seat are you nominating for? International member organisation

Organisation Profile

From villages in rural India to the corridors of power in Brussels, Transparency International gives voice to the victims and witnesses of corruption. We work together with governments, businesses and citizens to stop the abuse of power, bribery and secret deals. Transparency International, the global civil society organisation leading the fight against corruption, brings people together in a powerful worldwide coalition to end the devastating impact of corruption on men, women and children around the world.

Through its International Secretariat in Berlin, Germany, and national chapters in over 100 countries around the world, Transparency International works at the national and international levels to create change towards a world free of corruption. The TI Secretariat focuses on the global and regional fight against corruption and assists national chapters in enhancing their anti-corruption skills. It coordinates initiatives within geographical regions and provides methodological support on the tools and techniques to fight corruption. It also serves as the driving force on international issues such as anti-corruption conventions, and other cross-border initiatives. It serves as a knowledge management centre, capturing and disseminating best practice and developing new approaches to tackle corruption.

Information about TI’s mission, vision, values and guiding principles can be found here.

Organisation Experience

The TI Secretariat (TIS) acted as the secretariat for the UNCAC Coalition from the Coalition’s creation in 2006 until the Coalition’s Vienna Hub was established in mid-2018; it now provides support to the Hub. TIS work as Coalition secretariat in the period 2006–2018 included:

• support to CSOs preparing written reports for the first cycle of UNCAC reviews
• coordination of the Coalition’s advocacy work, including advocacy to achieve a transparent and inclusive review mechanism and on a range of other issues
• collaboration with UNODC on trainings for CSOs and multi-stakeholder trainings
• development of written guidance and training videos about the UNCAC review process;
• communications work including development of the website content, twitter feed and updates to the Listserv
• servicing the UNCAC Coalition Coordination Committee and organising the elections to the committee as well as selection and oversight of regional coordinators
• fundraising for Coalition work and reporting to donors
• outreach to UNODC and States Parties about UNCAC issues;
• coordination of the Coalition’s work at the UNCAC Conference of States Parties in 2006, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015 and 2017, including preparation of written submissions, organisation of CSO briefings and side events; also coordination of the Coalition’s work around the IRG briefings for NGOs and UNCAC working groups;
• preparation of the registration of the Coalition as an independent association in October 2015 and organisation of its transition to an independent status

Top Three Priorities to Achieve for the Coalition

• Mobilise the membership: This should include involvement in developing and carrying out our global advocacy strategy in key areas as UNCAC review mechanism, grand corruption, beneficial ownership transparency, victims’ remedies, corruption and human rights and asset recovery. It should include building up the team of regional coordinators and the topical working groups working with the membership. It should also involve more active support to member groups in the UNCAC review process, including help desk advice, new guidance materials and trainings.
• Expand outreach: This should include outreach within and outside the Coalition. It should involve development and implementation of a communications strategy both for communications within the Coalition as well as external outreach, including upgrading the website, twitter feed, other social media work and building up press work. More outreach should be done to country delegations in Vienna as well as to the Geneva human rights bodies and to other communities such as OGP, SDG16, UNTOC.
• Scale up: This involves expanding the existing systems and processes for the Vienna Hub, the CCC and the Coalition as a whole. With new funding secured, the UNCAC Coalition’s Vienna Hub is in a position to establish itself as a small but strong support team and also bring in regional coordinators, provide grants to member groups and more.

Representative Profile

Gillian Dell studied law at the University of California-Berkeley (JD) and at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (Licence Speciale) and has a BA degree from Oxford University. Prior to joining Transparency International (TI) in 1997, she worked as a lawyer in a New York law firm; as a research fellow on international trade law issues at the Freie Universität Berlin; as a consultant at the United Nations; and as a law lecturer and administrator at an American university study centre in Berlin. She has also worked with several human rights organisations.

At the TI Secretariat she has managed the TI International Conventions work for over 20 years, covering international anti-corruption instruments including the UN Convention against Corruption. In 2006, together with Kirstine Drew of UNICORN, she co-convened the UNCAC Coalition (originally called the Coalition of Civil Society Friends of the UNCAC) and continued to serve as convenor up to the election of the first Coordination Committee in April 2011.

From 2006 – 2018 she led the TIS work as UNCAC Coalition secretariat, described above. She is the author of articles and opinion pieces on international trade, UNCAC and foreign bribery. From 2005 to 2013 and again in 2018 she co-authored TI’s progress report on OECD Convention enforcement, now called the Exporting Corruption Report.

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