This episode's Democracy that Delivers podcast focuses on how individual entrepreneurs and policy professionals are using business integrity and compliance programs to deepen trade ties in North America. Michele Crymes, deputy director of CIPE’s Anti-Corruption & Governance Center (ACGC), sits with former U.S. Ambassador to Mexico, Tony Wayne, and Gabriela Blanco, an anti-corruption expert and specialist in corporate integrity, to discuss business integrity in Mexico’s private sector. Our guests share their perspectives on progress being made and challenges to creating a robust culture of business integrity and complianc in Mexico.

In 2024, the institutions and mechanisms of trade in North America are facing the potential for significant change. This year’s elections in both the United States and Mexico could lead to changes in the prevailing Untied States-Mexico-Canda Agreement. Regardless of the respective electoral outcomes, business will keep flowing between the three countries, and thus business integrity will remain a focus.

Drawing upon his tenure as U.S. Ambassador to Mexico, Mr. Wayne discusses the impunity rate for crime in Mexico, how a lack of business integrity hurts entrepreneurs, and what is presently being done to create a stronger business environment. Ms. Blanco likewise integrates her years of corporate governance work to examine how CIPE programs work with international firms and Mexican entrepreneurs to try to deliver better outcomes for stakeholders.

On this week's episode, Alison Taylor, Clinical Associate Professor at NYU's Stern School of Business, joins CIPE’s Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific, John Morrell, to discuss her new book, Higher Ground: How Business Can Do the Right Thing in a Turbulent World. Professor Taylor, who also serves as the Executive Director of Ethical Systems, draws from her professional experience and academic research to explain why modern businesses care about anti-corruption practices, how she's seen ethical compliance change over time, and what the next era of corporate governance should look like.

Our contemporary business environment displays stark differences from those of the past decades. Ethical conduct is now increasingly seen as more than a legal risk around bribery and fraud, as a risk which can be resolved through compliance processes alone. Urgent ecological concerns, unpredictable politics, and heightened employee activism all present business leaders with fresh challenges. Professor Taylor explains that we must now move past entrenched legalistic approaches and into broader conversations about human behavior in organizations and how companies should best exist in their social contexts.

These new approaches follow the same collective action and sustainability models so often practiced by CIPE and our local partners. In her view, business interests have much to learn from anticorruption and development organizations on how to best operate in a world where transparency can be more important than profit. Listen as John and Alison exchange insights for our evolving world.

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Corruption in the shipping industry is a persistent challenge for fair trade across the world, estimated by our guests to cost the international economy billions of dollars each year. The Maritime Anti-Corruption Network (MACN) is a global business network of over 200 companies that, since 2011, has become a pre-eminent example of collective action to battle corruption.

On this week’s Democracy that Delivers podcast, CIPE Program Director for Anti-Corruption and Compliance Ekaterina Lysova sits with MACN Associate Director for Collective Action and Partnerships Martin Benderson and owner of QBIS Consulting Thomas Westergaard-Kabelmann. The guests discuss their new, groundbreaking study of the cost of maritime corruption to the shipping industry and society using the example of Nigeria. Martin and Thomas utilize unique data and an innovative methodology to assess both the direct and indirect or hidden costs of corruption in Nigeria’s ports and maritime sector over the period of 2019-2023. Their resulting assessment serves as a powerful case study for the wide-reaching implications of maritime corruption on low- and middle-income countries.

Listen to these experts discuss how they performed their research, what trends the study reveals, and how their approach can be utilized by other researchers and anti-corruption practitioners seeking to understand the true costs of corruption in various industries and economic sectors.

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Challenged by a legacy of oligarchic state capture and a war raging in neighboring Ukraine, Moldova has made significant strides in recent years in putting in place anti-corruption structures that strengthen the rule of law and democratic institutions. In the forefront of that effort is Moldova's Chief Anti-Corruption Prosecutor, Veronica Dragalin, a former Assistant United States Attorney who emigrated from Moldova as a child. In this episode of Democracy that Delivers, Dragalin discusses her innovations that she's introduced such as plea agreements, as well as the importance of building trust in the judiciary among a skeptical public. She joins Frank Brown, Director of CIPE’s Anti-Corruption & Governance Center, and Natalia Otel Belan, Director of CIPE’s Europe and Eurasia Division, to highlight her unique personal story, explain Moldova’s prosecutorial process, share the challenges and innovative tactics her office has used to crack down on corrupt behavior, and preview future plans for addressing corruption.

This podcast is brought to you by CIPE’s Anti-Corruption & Governance Center.

In 2022, FEDN Member Grace Nzou began the project “Using Democratic Spaces to Promote Ethical Practices in Business.” As one of the inaugural FEDN small grants projects, the first phase of the project focused on training youth in Elgeyo Marakwet on ethical entrepreneurship. The second phase focused on implementation, working with youth to submit memoranda, track budgets, and build lasting partnerships.

In the final installment of this year’s FEDN small grants series, tune into a conversation hosted by Program Officer Tamari Dzotsenidze with Grace Nzou and Edwin Ronoh from RESTHUB on empowering youth in agribusiness and ensuring the sustainability of learning programs.

Between July 2024 to January 2024, CIPE supported a new project, “Democracy: A Digital Story for Young Generations” through the Kurdistan Economic Development Organization (KEDO). As part of the Free Enterprise and Democracy Network (FEDN) Small Grants initiative, they created a new website to educate youth on the importance of democratic values and institutions.

In the second episode of the FEDN small grants series, join Program Officer Tamari Dzotsenidze in a conversation with FEDN Member and General Director of KEDO Hussam Barzinji and Public Relations Officer Mustafa AbdulKareem on extending beyond the digital realm and finding hope under difficult circumstances.

Episode Description

Last year, Poland held extraordinarily consequential parliamentary elections where the conservative Law and Justice party (PiS) lost its majority for the first time since 2015. Against this backdrop, CIPE supported a new project, “The Rule of Law – Our Future” through the Institute for Private Enterprise and Democracy (IPED) based in Warsaw between July 2023 to January 2024. As part of the Free Enterprise and Democracy Network Small Grants initiative, the project educated voters about the importance of the rule of law and encouraged youth participation in the election.

In this podcast, Program Officer Tamari Dzotsenidze from CIPE Policy and Program Learning is joined by FEDN Steering Committee member and president of IPED Mieczyslaw Bak and Director of Program Strategy Anna Szczesniak in a discussion on lessons learned over the course of the project and perspectives on engaging with youth.