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Corruption and gender in service delivery
Transparency International
Transparency International
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Abstract
"Corruption undermines attempts by countries and citizens to tackle poverty and gender inequality. Corruption acts as a regressive tax on poor families, who are consistently pressed with more bribe demands when it comes to using state services.1 Since women and girls globally represent a higher proportion of poor people, they are considerably more exposed to these abuses. At the same time, the systemic discrimination that poor women and girls face in education, justice, health care, employment and control of assets is only deepened when corruption is the currency for access. Breaking this negative cycle starts with promoting gender equality and targeting corruption. The linkages between gender equality and development have long been recognised and form explicit targets within the Millennium Development Goals framework. For example, societies with greater female education have higher growth rates and per capita incomes as well as better maternal health, lower infant mortality and greater levels of nutrition.2 Yet when corruption, whether petty or grand, prevents a girl’s schooling, the results are not only a lost education but lost opportunities for her well-being, the workforce and a country‘s development.3 In the case of petty corruption, women and girls may be asked to make informal payments for services that are supposed to be free. A survey done by TI in Bangladesh found that 22 per cent of female secondary school students had to pay a fee to register for a ‘free’ stipend programme for which they were entitled to enrol.4 These payments may be pocketed or exacted by schools and teachers to make up for the lack of public resources given for supplies and salaries. In the case of grand corruption, existing inequalities and patriarchal structures may be exploited to perpetrate abuses. For example, the procurement of services that are intended for poor women and girls, whether for school books or medical supplies, is especially vulnerable to high levels of skimming off by government officials. Women are less aware of their entitlements, less likely to demand accountability and less prone to be part of the powerful corruption networks implicated in the schemes.6 At the same time, women are often more affected when these abuses manifest in low quality education, health care and other essential services."
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2010
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With permission of the license/copyright holder