Challenging Corruption: Prioritising Social Services for Human Development

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Challenging Corruption: Prioritising Social Services for Human Development

November 12, 2013

Corruption hurts everyone, but the disadvantaged are hurt the most. This paper focuses on social services – in particular, publicly funded education, health and the basic utilities of water, sanitation and electricity. It explores the relationship between the scourge of corruption and human development and argues for prioritizing social services in finding solutions. While the focus is on Asia Pacific, the issues are relevant more generally for developing countries. It addresses conceptual issues in defining and measuring corruption and argues that corruption is a complex and multi-dimensional phenomenon. Its very nature inhibits a unique definition and measurement. The paper proposes a complementary method to gauge the vulnerability of a country to corruption by identifying some indicators that can capture ex ante the climate of corruption. Such a strategy could help prevention.