December 14-15, 2009. Within wider goals to enhance good-governance in Yemen and in cooperation with the Supreme National Authority for Combating Corruption (SNACC), the World Bank country office in Sana’a has organized two consultative meetings on December 14 and 15, 2009 to discuss the results of the national household survey on corruption and consult on establishing legal CSOs coalition entity to fight corruption.
More than 85 participants representing government officials, CSOs, parliamentarians and academia has provided valuable inputs and enriched the discussions with comments and recommendations which stressed on the significance of establishing powerful coalition of a legal frame and clear mandate to expose corruption.
The 2-day consultations come in time with the visit of Ms Ritva Reinikka, Director, Social and Economic Development Group, Middle East and North Africa, World Bank, who has taken part and delivered informative presentation on the public services delivery. Mr. Arun Arya, Senior Public Sector Management Specialist of the World Bank delivered two presentations on the vision of the World Bank on the significance of CSOs networking and the close cooperation with SNACC to fight corruption and another presentation about the corruption indicators. Mr. Arun’s presentation revealed that Yemen is ranked very low, 151 out of 183 countries, on the Corruption Perceptions Index of the Transparency International.
The second day of the consultation which was dedicated to the discussion of the results of the household survey on corruption was opened by the speech of SNACC chairman, Mr. Ahmad Al-Ansi, who attended the meeting along with six of his board members.
“This is an important meeting as it would enrich the discussion on the findings of household survey on corruption, thanks to the World Bank for the outstanding support and efforts exerted on this significant survey” Said the Chairman of SNACC, Mr. Ahmed Al Ansi in his opening speech. “I believe that such meeting demonstrates an effective determination and partnership between relevant partners to fight corruption as they occupy influential positions in their organizations” Mr. Al Ansi added.
The Survey findings, presented by Mr. Edouard Al-Dahdah, Economist from the World Bank Institute, showed critical figures on the most affected sectors by corruption (Health, Education and Electricity and identified women and poor as the most vulnerable to corruption. “inflation and high living expenses are the key concerns of the surveyed 1420 Yemeni people who were randomly selected and surveyed by 80 staff from Yemeni Polling Center governorates according to the highest international surveying standards” Said Mr. Edouard. The discussions in both workshops were facilitated by Dr. Bilquis Abu Osba’a, Vice Chairperson of SNACC.
Improving demand for good governance by establishing Civil Society Coalition for reducing corruption and improving service delivery were amongst the key recommendations of these workshops.
