Islamabad, 24 September 2018 - UNODC and UNDP with the support of the RC Office have organized and conducted a two days training workshop (18-19 September 2018) for the wide United Nations Country Team (UNCT) in Pakistan on "Integrating Anti-Corruption into the UN Programming Processes".

UNODC and UNDP teamed up and took the lead in coordinating with the UN System Staff College (UNSSC), The UN Development Operations Coordination Office (UN DOCO) and various UN agencies the development and roll-out of an anti-corruption course for UN programming processes, striving to increase the knowledge of the UNCT in applying a sustained and a standard approach in anti-corruption programming. This course has been successfully validated by two training-of-trainers and has also been successfully pilot-tested in Iraq, Moldova, Madagascar, Kenya, the Philippines, and Ukraine.

Ms. Constanze Von Soehnen, UNODC Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Officer in Vienna and Dr. Anga Timilsina, UNDP's Global Programme Advisor on Anti-corruption have teamed up to deliver this training to the UNCT.

The agenda for two days was very well structured, from the Conceptual framework of corruption and anti-corruption and linking with the actual implementation strategies while developing goals, outcomes, output and activities taking into consideration the context of Pakistan.Recently, the Government of Pakistan has pledged and shown its strong resolve in zero-tolerance towards corruption at all levels. This provides an excellent opportunity to the UN country team in Pakistan to partner with the government stakeholders in the provision of anti-corruption technical support in the different sectors. This demands that the UN agencies and its staff involved in the planning, implementation and provision of support should themselves have an understanding on the importance of integrating the anti-corruption element in their respective programmes.Given the complexity and challenges in the working environment of the development sector, emerging corrupt practices have acted as an accelerator to the effective and efficient delivery of services to the public. Corruption is not particular to one country and one sector only, it could emerge in multi-sectors particularly those vulnerable to corruption.  Therefore, it became essential to build the capacity of UN staff working in different organizations in Pakistan in view of integrating accountability, oversight and transparency in their programming, taking into consideration the related risks and the appropriate risk management strategies.

The training workshop was attended by a large group of UN staff, representing different UN agencies working in Pakistan, such as UNDP, UNODC, WHO, ILO, UNWOMEN, UNICEF, UNESCO, FAO, creating appropriate linkages, with actual planning and implementation work being carried out in the field. The fundamental outcome of the training workshop was that mainstreaming of anti-corruption in the programming is the need of hour, like it is already being done in the case of gender responsiveness and human rights. The planning and development phase of the programme is the correct stage to create right indicators and tools, so that anti-corruption mitigation strategy is imbedded from the very beginning of programme and process development by UN supporting governments in different sectors and under various initiatives.