Takeaways on Grand Corruption in the Land Sector - an IACC 2024 workshop

Speakers: Rukshana Nanayakkara, Global Policy and Advocacy Expert at International Land Coalition and Claudia Baez-Camargo, Head of Prevention, Research and Innovation at Basel Institute on Governance. Moderator: Daniela Patiño Piñeros, Programme Lead Public Resources at Transparency International

• Land is complex in terms of governance and we need a political economy lens to deconstruct grand corruption. Key messages revolved around the need to build and empower networks while harnessing cross-sectoral collaboration and breaking the silos. Political economy analysis has been helpful in other scenarios such as illegal wildlife trade (IWT) cases.

• Free Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) can prevent corruption but is also vulnerable to capture by elites. Corruption in land management contributes to kleptocratic capture of land policies, unfair allocation, and the use of land for political patronage. Land is complex and this is why it’s important to break the silos between sectors and refresh the anti-corruption approaches.

• The Countering Environmental Corruption Practitioners Forum and its Land Corruption working group were featured as a good example where the conservation and anti-corruption communities come together for knowledge sharing and better solutions.

• The experts called for a structured policy response, in line with the TI written submission on “Understanding and Addressing Corruption in the Land Sector” to the 10th UNCAC CoSP.

The full recording of the 21 June IACC 2024 workshop is available here: