title: Preventing corruption in humanitarian assistance: perceptions, gaps and challenges.
abstract: Corruption is a threat to the purpose of humanitarian assistance. Until fairly recently, humanitarian assistance has not been considered an important arena in broader efforts aimed at curbing corruption, and corruption has not always been considered a particularly important concern for humanitarian assistance despite the obviously challenging nature of the context of humanitarian emergencies. Corruption, though, is a threat to humanitarian action because it can prevent assistance from getting to the people who most need it, and because it can potentially undermine public support for such assistance. This paper examines perceptions of corruption and its affects, documents best practices, and outlines gaps in understanding. It suggests recommendations for improving the capacity of humanitarian agencies to prevent and manage the risk of corruption. Agencies have taken steps to combat corruption and improve accountability--downwards and upwards--but scope remains for improvement and for greater sharing of learning and good practice.
authors.affiliation: Feinstein International Center, Tufts University, Medford, MA 02155, USA. daniel.maxwell@tufts.edu
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Maxwell
authors.forename: Sarah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bailey
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Harvey
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Walker
authors.forename: Cheyanne
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Sharbatke-Church
authors.forename: Kevin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Savage
mesh_terms: D000533:Altruism; D004190:Disasters; D005607:Fraud / Q000517:prevention & control*; D014943:Global Health; D006801:Humans; D012066:Relief Work / Q000941:ethics* / Q000458:organization & administration; D012308:Risk Management / Q000458:organization & administration*; D012941:Social Responsibility