Curbing Corruption
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Re-thinking corruption reform
After my mandate as an Independent Anti-Corruption Commissioner in Afghanistan ended, I founded the organisation CurbingCorruption in 2018, collaborating with Professor Paul Heywood.
The guidance and research contained in CurbingCorruption is founded on two insights. First, that preventing and reducing corruption is a different mindset from protesting against the injustices of corruption or of prosecuting corruption, requiring different strategies and the engagement of the professional organisations within each sector. And, second, that fixing, reducing or preventing corruption requires detailed disaggregation of corruption into the component issues.

Papers & Reports
Pyman, Mark and Heywood, Paul 2020 The Sector Focus and Reformulation Approach (SFRA) enabling politicians, leaders and managers to formulate practical strategies for corruption reduction. In CurbingCorruption, December 2020, here: https://curbingcorruption.com/document/pyman-and-heywood-2020-practical-strategies-for-corruption-reduction-the-sector-focus-and-reformulation-approach-sfra/. Also in Global Integrity/ACE, December 2020, here: https://ace.globalintegrity.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/GI-ACE_Research-Paper-SFRA.pdf
Heywood, Paul and Pyman, Mark 2020 Rethinking Corruption reform: Strategy, scale and substance. In CurbingCorruption, December 2020, here:https://curbingcorruption.com/document/heywood-and-pyman-2020-rethinking-corruption-reform-strategy-scale-and-substance/. Also in Global Integrity/ACE here: https://ace.globalintegrity.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/GI-ACE_Research-Paper-Corruption-Strategy.pdf
Pyman, Mark 2020 Redefining sectors: a more focussed approach to tackling corruption. In Graycar, Adam (ed) Handbook on Corruption, Ethics and Integrity in Public Administration, Edward Elgar. Accessed Sept 18, 2020 at https://www.elgaronline.com/view/edcoll/9781789900903/9781789900903.00015.xml
Pyman, Mark 2020 Tackling Defence Corruption: History of a ‘Whole Sector’ Approach. A working paper. Available here Tackling Defence Corruption: History of a ‘Whole Sector’ Approach
Pyman, Mark, Eastwood S, Hungerford J and Elliott J 2018 Analysing the anti-corruption approaches of the 26 top-ranked countries: an opportunity for a new generation of strategies, accessed August 19 2019 at https://curbingcorruption.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Pyman-et-al-2018-Analysing-the-anti-corruption-approaches-of-the-26-top-ranked-countries-copy.pdf
Bennett, Helena and Pyman M 2018 Corruption in Iran. Experience, perception and reform efforts – a literature review. Published at CurbingCorruption, accessed Oct 25, 2019 at https://www.markpyman.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=2263&action=edit
Pyman, Mark 2017 Addressing Corruption in Military Institutions, Public Integrity, 19(5), 513-528, DOI: 10.1080/10999922.2017.1285267. Accessed 23 Sept 2019 at https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10999922.2017.1285267 See Pdf here
Pyman, Mark, Eastwood S, Hungerford J, and Elliott J 2017 Research comparing 41 national anti-corruption strategies. Insights and guidance for leaders, accessed August 19 2019 at https://curbingcorruption.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Pyman-et-al-2017-Research-comparing-41-national-anti-corruption-strategies.pdf
Mustafa, Saad, Bock T and Pyman M 2016 Fighting corruption in conflict areas, Chapter 14 in Lucius and Rietjens (ed) ‘Effective civil-military integration in peace operations’, Springer International Publishing,, Switzerland. Available at https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783319268040
Blogs
Pyman, Mark 2020 International experience shows that achieving high police standards with good police morale is possible, but also strewn with failures. Curbing Corruption Trusted Policing Blog, June 15, 2020. https://curbingcorruption.com/trusted-policing-high-professional-standards-international-experience-shows-that-its-possible-but-slow/ See also pdf here.
Nygren, Birgitta and Pyman, M 2020 Where are the vices of telecoms companies on anti-corruption? FCPA Blog March 23, 2020. https://fcpablog.com/2020/03/23/where-are-the-voices-of-telecoms-companies-on-anti-corruption/ See also pdf here.
Pyman, Mark 2019 From Maersk, AEC, and Shell, inspiring stories about changing corporate behaviour. The FCPA blog, 23 July, accessed August 19 2019 at http://www.fcpablog.com/blog/2019/7/23/from-maersk-aec-and-shell-inspiring-stories-about-changing-c.htmlBoamah, Festus and Pyman, Mark (2019), ‘Usain Bolt meters: reform successes in the electricity sector can go fast, but only the failures are reported’, accessed 16 Sept 2019 at https://ace.globalintegrity.org/usain-bolt/ See also pdf here.
Pyman, Mark 2019 Broad Anti-Corruption Programs Are the Wrong Approach. Corruption in Fragile States Blog, Fletcher School, Tufts University. Accessed 23 Sept 2019 at https://sites.tufts.edu/ihs/broad-anti-corruption-programs-are-the-wrong-approach/ See also pdf here.
Pyman, Mark and Boamah F 2019 Usain Bolt meters: reform successes in the electricity sector can go fast, but only the failures are reported. Global Integrity Blog, accessed 16 Sept 2019 at https://ace.globalintegrity.org/usain-bolt/ See also pdf here.
Pyman, Mark 2018 We need to talk about donors. Global Anti-Corruption Blog, January 11th, 2018. https://globalanticorruptionblog.com/tag/card-f/ See also pdf here.
Pyman, Mark 2018 More anti-corruption leadership from business, please. FCPA Blog July 31, 2018.http://www.fcpablog.com/blog/2018/7/31/mark-pyman-more-anti-corruption-leadership-from-business-ple.html See also pdf here.
Pyman, Mark 2017 A helpful response to unhelpful research. Blog Henry J Leir Institute, Tufts University, April 21, 2017. Accessed Oct 8 2019 at https://sites.tufts.edu/ihs/a-helpful-response-to-unhelpful-research-and-a-call-for-ideas/
Pyman, Mark 2017 The Unhelpful Nature of Anti-Corruption Research, As Seen by People Trying to Develop Solutions. Blog Henry J Leir Institute, Tufts University, Jan 24, 2017. Accessed Oct 8 2019 at https://sites.tufts.edu/ihs/the-unhelpful-nature-of-anti-corruption-research-as-seen-by-people-trying-to-develop-solutions/?src=ls
Presentations & Speeches
New horizons in Anti-Corruption 2019. 8th Anti-Money Laundering Forum, London October 17-18, 2019. https://curbingcorruption.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/191017-Pyman-New-horizons-in-anti-corruption.-AML-Forum-London-Oct-2019.pdf
Changing corporate behaviour requires new skills and a different focus 2019. IBA Anti-Corruption conference, Paris, June 2019. 190623 Pyman IBA conference speech 2019 ChangingCorporate Behaviour
Curbing corruption sector by sector. Slide presentation at the seminar ‘Thinking and Working Politically’, Dec 2019, Washington DC. 191206 Pyman Curbing corruption on a sector basis TWP seminar 2019
Corruption reform in the health and water sectors. Invited talk at the World Bank, Washington DC, Dec 2019. 191204 Curbing corruption in the Health and Water Sectors at World Bank 2019
Lessons from analysing National Anti-Corruption Strategies 2018. Speech at the International Anti-Corruption Conference (IACC) Copenhagen, October 2018. 201012 IACC 2018 Copenhagen. Lessons from analysing National Anti-Corruption strategies
International Corruption Hunters Alliance. Copenhagen, October 2018
Anti-Corruption and Zero Tolerance 2008. Keynote speech to the European Busines Ethics Forum (EBEF), January 2008. 201012 Pyman EBEF speech 2008 Anti-corruption policies and zero tolerance
Contributions to commissioned reports
Evaluation of Norway’s Anti-Corruption Efforts as part of its Development Policy and Assistance: The Health Sector 2020. Thematic Case Study: Health 2020. Annex 5.1 of the Study by NGC for Norwegian MFA, July 2020
Evaluation of Norway’s Anti-Corruption Efforts as part of its Development Policy and Assistance: Climate and Forestry 2020. Thematic Sector Case Study Annex 5.3 Climate and Forestry, July 2020
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