Corruption

Women’s Land Rights in Africa: Does Implementation Match Policy?

Citation:

Sulle, Emmanuel, Sue Mbaya, Barbara Codispoti, Josephine Atananga, Bernard Moseti, and Leah Mugehera. 2019. “Women’s Land Rights in Africa: Does Implementation Match Policy?” Paper presented at Conference on Land Policy in Africa, 2019: Winning the fight against Corruption in the Land Sector: Sustainable Pathway for Africa’s Transformation, Abidjan, November 25-29.

Authors: Emmanuel Sulle, Sue Mbaya, Barbara Codispoti, Josephine Atananga, Bernard Moseti, Leah Mugehera

Abstract:

This paper assesses the performance of selected countries in implementing the provisions of women’s land rights instruments such as African Union Framework and Guidelines on Land Policy in Africa and the Voluntary Guidelines on Responsible Governance of Tenure among others. Field research was carried out in seven African countries whereby, in each country a national researcher in collaboration with the collaborating nongovernmental organisation selected three heterogeneous locations which capture the range of situations under which rural women use land. Based on field research results complemented with desk review, the study finds that while statutory laws to protect women land rights are in place in all studied countries, with some differences and, in some cases with existing loopholes, adherence to these laws at the community level remain inadequate. This is particularly evident in terms of equality of rights to inherit land among men and women. Women experience constant threat from clansmen and relatives of their husbands. As also documented elsewhere, in many African communities (although not all), most land-holding systems are male lineage based, with men playing an important decision-making role. Malawi represents a specific case in this regard, as most land-holdings are based on matrilineal systems, but this still is not an automatic guarantee of women having more decision-making power on land. Based on these findings the paper confirms that while impressive steps to address women’s land rights issues have been taken in recent African policies, law enforceability is yet to receive sufficient political backing, due to widespread patriarchal values, limited financial and human resources and last but not least informal rules of the games that are the same drivers of widespread corruption. Patronage, ‘clientage’, illegality and opacity of land transactions find fertile ground in a patriarchal system. Understanding the status, causes and consequences of the de facto ‘unenforceability’ of constitutional and legal provisions in favour of women might shed a light on much broader challenges like those addressed in this conference. Holistic implementation and reforms that 1) address existing loopholes in land laws and regulation, 2) align other sectoral policies, laws and regulations, and 3) use transformative actions to revert patriarchal values in order to bridge the gender gap in property rights, but also to help creating a fairer environment to contribute combating corruption.

Topics: Corruption, Gender, Gendered Power Relations, Patriarchy, Gender Hierarchies, Land Tenure, Governance, Constitutions, NGOs, Rights, Land Rights, Property Rights Regions: Africa, Central Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa, West Africa Countries: Cameroon, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Togo

Year: 2019

The Relationship Between Gender, Tax Burdens, Corruption Practices, and Tax Compliance

Citation:

Damayanti, Theresia Woro, Ronny Prabowo, Usil Sis Sucahayo, and Supramono Supramano. 2020. “The Relationship Between Gender, Tax Burdens, Corruption Practices, and Tax Compliance.” Journal of Southwest Jiaotong University 55 (3): 1-13.

Authors: Theresia Woro Damayanti, Ronny Prabowo, Usil Sis Sucahayo, Supramono Supramano

Abstract:

ENGLISH ABSTRACT:
The article describes a new idea; the effect of top managers’ gender on tax compliance that is mediated by perceived tax burdens. This study also analyses the impact of perceived tax burdens on tax compliance as moderated by perceived corruption practices. Using data from the World Bank’s survey on 6,533 firms in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations countries and analyzing the data using a multiple regression analysis and Haye’s bootstrapping, the results confirm the mediating effect of perceived tax burdens on the effect of gender on tax compliance. The study also empirically shows that corruption strengthens the negative impact of perceived tax burdens on tax compliance. The contribution of this study is twofold. First, we fill in the research gap on the mediating role of perceived tax burdens and the moderating role of perceived corruption practices in the tax compliance context. Second, this study informs policymakers that they need to balance their gender equality policies with serious efforts to instill awareness on tax obligations and support anti-corruption institutions to prevent and crackdown on corruption cases. 
 
CHINESE ABSTRACT:
本文介绍了一个新的想法:高层管理人员的性别对税收合规性的影响,这是由感知的税收负 担所介导的。这项研究还分析了感知的税收负担对税收合规性的影响,这些影响是由感知的腐败 行为所调节的。使用世界银行对东南亚国家联盟国家中的 6,533 家公司进行的调查数据,并使用 多元回归分析和海耶的自举法对数据进行分析,结果证实了感知到的税收负担对性别对税收遵从 性影响的中介作用。该研究还从经验上表明,腐败加剧了人们认为税收负担对税收合规性的负面 影响。这项研究的贡献是双重的。首先,我们填补了关于税收负担的中介作用和税收合规背景下 腐败行为的调节作用的研究空白。其次,这项研究告诉决策者,他们需要在性别平等政策与认真 努力之间取得平衡,以灌输对税收义务的认识,并支持反腐败机构预防和打击腐败案件。

Keywords: gender, perceived corruption, tax compliance, perceived tax burden, 性别, 可感知的税负, 可感知的腐败, 税收合规

Topics: Corruption, Economies, Public Finance, Gender, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality Regions: Asia, Southeast Asia

Year: 2020

Women Smuggling and the Men who Help Them: Gender, Corruption and Illicit Networks in Senegal

Citation:

Howson, Cynthia. 2012. “Women Smuggling and the Men who Help Them: Gender, Corruption and Illicit Networks in Senegal.” Journal of Modern African Studies 50 (3): 421-45.

Author: Cynthia Howson

Abstract:

This paper investigates gendered patterns of corruption and access to illicit networks among female cross-border traders near the Senegambian border. Despite a discourse of generosity and solidarity, access to corrupt networks is mediated by class and gender, furthering social differentiation, especially insofar as it depends on geographic and socio-economic affinity with customs officers, state representatives and well-connected transporters. Issues of organisational culture, occupational identity and interpersonal negotiations of power represent important sources of corruption that require an understanding of the actual dynamics of public administration. While smuggling depends on contesting legal and social boundaries, the most successful traders (and transporters) strive to fulfil ideal gender roles as closely as possible. Ironically, trading on poverty and feminine vulnerability only works for relatively affluent women.

Topics: Corruption, Economies, Informal Economies, Poverty, Gender, Women, Gender Roles, Femininity/ies, Trafficking, Human Trafficking Regions: Africa, West Africa Countries: Senegal

Year: 2012

Are Women More Averse to Corruption than Men? The Case of South Korea

Citation:

Lee, Aie‐Rie, and Kerry Chávez. 2020. “Are Women More Averse to Corruption than Men? The Case of South Korea.” Social Science Quarterly 101 (2): 473–89.

Authors: Aie-Rie Lee, Kerry Chavez

Abstract:

Objectives: Previous research asserts that women are less prone to corruption than men. It is not without contestation, leading to a complex corpus with mixed findings suggesting that perceptions might be context‐specific. This study investigates whether, how, and under or through what conditions gender impacts individual perceptions of corruption in South Korea, a case exemplifying "Asian exceptionalism."

Methods: Employing the World Values Survey and statistical regression techniques, we leverage a quasi‐experiment analyzing individual attitudes across all regime types in South Korea's recent history.

Results: Examining three types of corruption—state benefit fraud, tax evasion, and bribe‐taking—we find no significant differences until Korea democratizes, when we observe a surprising increase in the gap between perspectives.

Conclusions: Women's differential tolerance is mixed across types of corruption, implying that corruption is not a homogenous concept and that perceptions are conditioned by individual opportunities and constraints.

Topics: Corruption, Democracy / Democratization, Gender, Women, Governance Regions: Asia, East Asia Countries: South Korea

Year: 2020

Corruption, Gender and Credit Constraints: Evidence from South Asian SMEs

Citation:

Wellalage, Nirosha Hewa, Stuart Locke, and Helen Samujh. 2019. “Corruption, Gender and Credit Constraints: Evidence from South Asian SMEs.” Journal of Business Ethics 159 (1): 267-80.

Authors: Nirosha Hewa Wellalage, Stuart Locke, Helen Samujh

Abstract:

This paper provides analyses of the effect of corruption in South Asia on (1) credit access for small- and medium-size enterprises (SMEs), and (2) credit constraints faced by female-owned and male-owned SMEs. By addressing potential endogeneity and reverse causality of corruption and credit constraints via instrumental variables, this study reports that corruption has a detrimental effect on credit access. Specifcally, corruption increases the probability of SMEs credit constraints by 7.63%. However, gender differences emerge, indicating that bribery is slightly more effective when used by female SME owners. When male-owned SMEs pay bribes, they are on average 0.61% more credit-constrained than their counterparts. For female-owned SMEs paying bribes, they are on average 0.78% more likely to be less credit-constrained compared to female SME owners who do not pay bribes. Overall, bribery is not very effective in achieving the desired outcome and attitudes towards bribery as unethical may be more a question of culture than of gender.

Keywords: gender, corruption, bribes, SME, credit access, South Asia

Topics: Corruption, Economies, Gender, Livelihoods Regions: Asia, South Asia

Year: 2019

Beyond the Hype? The Response to Sexual Violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2011 and 2014

Citation:

Hilhorst, Dorothea, and Nynke Douma. 2018. “Beyond the Hype? The Response to Sexual Violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2011 and 2014.” Disasters 42 (1): 79-98.

Authors: Dorothea Hilhorst, Nynke Douma

Abstract:

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has witnessed a high prevalence of sexual violence since the wars of the mid-1990s. The huge response to it commenced around the turn of the century, but turned to ‘hype’ towards 2010. The paper defines ‘hypes’ as phenomena characterised by a media frenzy, eagerness by non-governmental organisations, and pragmatic local responses. Interviews and analyses conducted in 2011 revealed misuse of services and misrepresentation at different levels. The paper goes on to review medical and legal assistance and to provide evidence of incremental improvements in the response since 2012. It has become better coordinated, with more engagement by the DRC government, more community-oriented, and has incorporated a broader notion of gender-based violence. Nonetheless, concern remains about its impact and its continued dependence on international resources. There is apprehension too about social reactions to the problems of corruption and impunity, seemingly adding to the confusion surrounding gender relations in the country.

Keywords: development hype, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), fight against impunity, gender, sexual violence

Topics: Armed Conflict, Corruption, Gender, Gender-Based Violence, Media, Governance, Justice, Impunity, NGOs, Sexual Violence Regions: Africa, Central Africa Countries: Democratic Republic of the Congo

Year: 2018

Pakistani Policewomen: Questioning the Role of Gender in Circumscribing Police Corruption

Citation:

Ahmad, Sadaf. 2019. “Pakistani Policewomen: Questioning the Role of Gender in Circumscribing Police Corruption.” Policing and Society. doi: 10.1080/10439463.2019.1611820.

Author: Sadaf Ahmad

Abstract:

The popular belief that women are more honest and morally superior than men, shared by many feminist theorists, development practitioners and policy makers across the globe, subsequently informs another belief, that increasing the number of women in a corrupt organisation will therefore reduce the levels of corruption in said organisation. This year-long ethnographic research on Pakistani policewomen, based on participant observation and interviews with policewomen across different ranks and in different police branches in nine Pakistani cities, critically interrogates this narrative. More specifically, it claims that while a gendered reason – policewomen's positionality as women within the world of policing – plays a critical role in circumscribing the degree to which and the kinds of corrupt activities they engage in, gender is not a very useful category to use when thinking about reducing police corruption levels in Pakistan given the socio-political and institutional structures in which the Pakistani police are enmeshed. This culturally grounded study thus makes an empirically rooted contribution to exploring the relationship between policewomen, gender, and corruption, which is currently underdeveloped in the global literature on policewomen and completely absent in the literature on policewomen in Pakistan.

Keywords: Pakistan, gender, policewomen, corruption

Topics: Corruption, Gender, Women, Livelihoods Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: Pakistan

Year: 2019

Employment Creation, Corruption and Gender Equality 2011-2014

Citation:

Teti, Andrea, Pamela Abbott, and Francesco Cavatorta. 2017. “Employment Creation, Corruption and Gender Equality 2011-2014.” In The Arab Uprisings in Egypt, Jordan and Tunisia, 103-22. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Authors: Andrea Teti, Pamela Abbott, Francesco Cavatorta

Abstract:

This chapter shows that, as with the economy, by 2014 people’s hopes that their lives would improve and that governments would address their grievances had been dashed. Early optimism was replaced by concern that things were not getting better. Trust in government was low—albeit higher in the judiciary and the police and very high in the army—and corruption in both government and society generally was seen as pervasive. People did not think their government was effective on corruption, job creation or service delivery. Gender inequality is crucial—not least to achieve inclusive development—but conservative values continue to be widespread, especially in Egypt and Jordan, and while attitudes are more liberal in Tunisia they have become more conservative following the Uprisings.

Keywords: Arab Uprisings, corruption, trust, women's rights, unemployment, public services

Topics: Corruption, Economies, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Governance, Livelihoods Regions: Africa, MENA, North Africa, Asia, Middle East Countries: Egypt, Jordan, Tunisia

Year: 2017

Towards a 'Women-Oriented' Approach to Post-Conflict Policing: Interpreting National Experience(s) and Intergovernmental Aspirations

Citation:

Strobl, Staci. 2020. “Towards a ‘Women-Oriented’ Approach to Post-Conflict Policing: Interpreting National Experience(s) and Intergovernmental Aspirations.” International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy 9 (1): 95-111.

Author: Staci Strobl

Abstract:

In regard to the United Nations’ (UN) framework for promoting gender equality in policing, including women in national police forces remains a global challenge. Even countries possessing a stable history of women’s involvement reveal that women are significantly under-represented in policing when compared to other professions—even though prior research has strongly suggested that women are important actors in establishing post-conflict democratic order. This article outlines the political, social and institutional challenges that are faced to achieve significant gender representation in national police forces. It also recommends countering these challenges by using a ‘women-oriented’ approach. Such an approach does not merely fulfil the aspirational UN goals of achieving greater gender balance, it also yields many practical advantages for improving policing, including 1) leveraging the unique skills that women offer in policing, 2) making better use of force decisions, 3) combatting police corruption and 4) increasing the gender responsiveness of police. Finally, several operational strategies for promoting more women into policing are suggested.

Topics: Corruption, Democracy / Democratization, Gender, Women, Gender Balance, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Livelihoods, Post-Conflict, Security Sector Reform

Year: 2020

The Effect of Women in Government on Country-Level Peace

Citation:

DiRienzo, Cassandra E. 2018. “The Effect of Women in Government on Country-Level Peace.” Global Change, Peace & Security 31 (1): 1-18.

Author: Cassandra E. DiRienzo

Abstract:

The global community continues to endure violent attacks that seem to continuously morph in nature. The complexities of violence in today's world make it imperative to examine factors that can counter these acts of terror. The primary focus of this paper is to explore the relationship between the number of women in government on levels of corruption and country-level peace. It is argued that the percentage of women in government has a causal effect on peace through the focus on societal needs in addition to an indirect effect through a reduction in corruption. This, in turn, enhances both peace and peacebuilding. Using cross-country data, the effects of women in government on peace are tested using a mediation analysis. As a preview of the empirical results, the indirect effect is found to be statistically significant and stronger than the direct effect once the level of corruption is controlled.

Keywords: women in government, peace, corruption, indirect effect

Topics: Corruption, Gender, Women, Governance, Peacebuilding, Political Participation

Year: 2018

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