The Corruption and Peacebuilding Project (CPB) emerges from the integration of our combined 50 years of experience as peacebuilding scholar-practitioners with our more recent work on corruption. In our experience conducting conflict analyses and evaluations over the past decade, we have seen corruption appear time and again as a key conflict issue. Yet very few peacebuilding agencies stand up programs to address corruption in the conflict context. Even fewer anti-corruption programs benefit from the peacebuilding field’s wealth of experience in developing politically savvy, conflict sensitive approaches. Often, anti-corruption work in conflict contexts is carried out with little to no regard for the conflict dynamics, so little is done to mitigate any negative effects of the programming on conflict and fragility. This divide has been puzzling, as siloed thinking and practice diminishes the relevance and effectiveness of programming.
Building from the existing work on the conflict-corruption nexus, The Corruption and Peacebuilding Project will develop practical ways to support practitioners in tackling corruption in fragile and conflict affected states. It aims: to facilitate greater synergies between the anti-corruption and peacebuilding fields; to synthesize existing frameworks and approaches for effective, conflict-sensitive anti-corruption strategies; and indicate entry points for development practitioners, anti-corruption experts, and peacebuilders in settings where corruption is a underlying driver of fragility and conflict.