The Basel Institute on Governance is an independent, international

non-profit organisation A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

dedicated to preventing and combating

corruption Corruption is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense which is undertaken by a person or an organization which is entrusted in a position of authority, in order to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's personal gain. Corruption m ...

and other financial crimes and to strengthening

governance Governance is the process of interactions through the laws, social norm, norms, power (social and political), power or language of an organized society over a social system (family, tribe, formal organization, formal or informal organization, a ...

around the world. The organisation was established in Basel, Switzerland in 2003 by Professor Mark Pieth. It has a regional office for Latin America in

Lima Lima ( ; ), originally founded as Ciudad de Los Reyes (City of The Kings) is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón River, Chillón, Rímac River, Rímac and Lurín Rivers, in the desert zone of t ...

, Peru, and field staff based in several countries including in Indonesia, Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa. The Basel Institute is an Associated Institute of the

University of Basel The University of Basel (Latin: ''Universitas Basiliensis'', German: ''Universität Basel'') is a university in Basel, Switzerland. Founded on 4 April 1460, it is Switzerland's oldest university and among the world's oldest surviving universit ...

. It is an Institute of the United Nations Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Programme Network. It is known for producing the

Basel AML Index , french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese , neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS ...

, an annual ranking for measuring and comparing countries' risk of money laundering and terrorist financing.

Structure and activities

The Basel Institute is registered as a Swiss foundation. It has over 100 staff (as of 2021). The organisation's activities are overseen by a Foundation Board comprising prominent experts in the fields of anti-corruption and law, from both the private sector and academia. The President of the Board is

Peter Maurer Peter Maurer (born 1956) is a Swiss diplomat who was the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) from 1 July 2012 until October 2022 and is currently President of the Basel Institute on Governance. Maurer was born in Th ...

and the Vice-President is

Anne Peters Anne Peters (born November 15, 1964 in Berlin) is a German-Swiss jurist with a focus on public international law. She is director at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, honorary professor at the University o ...

. The Institute works with the public, private and non-governmental sectors through its various divisions and international centres of excellence in asset recovery.

International Centre for Asset Recovery

The Basel Institute's International Centre for Asset Recovery (ICAR) assists partner countries in a broad spectrum of

asset recovery Asset recovery, also known as investment or resource recovery, is the process of maximizing the value of unused or end-of-life assets through effective reuse or divestment. While sometimes referred to in the context of a company undergoing liqu ...

matters with the primary aim of building the capacity of the country's institutions to trace and recover corruptly acquired assets from abroad. It provides intensive training courses to law enforcement, financial investigators, prosecutors and the judiciary of partner countries in topics including financial investigation, mutual legal assistance, interviewing skills for investigators and

money laundering Money laundering is the process of concealing the origin of money, obtained from illicit activities such as drug trafficking, corruption, embezzlement or gambling, by converting it into a legitimate source. It is a crime in many jurisdictions ...

using

Bitcoin Bitcoin ( abbreviation: BTC; sign: ₿) is a decentralized digital currency that can be transferred on the peer-to-peer bitcoin network. Bitcoin transactions are verified by network nodes through cryptography and recorded in a public distr ...

. The centre also provides technical assistance on cases and legal matters in partner countries, as well as support for policy reform. It has also published an open-access book on

illicit enrichment Illicit enrichment generally refers to a situation in which a person has enjoyed some sort of wealth that cannot or has not been justified as coming from a legitimate source of income. The exact definitions for illicit enrichment, and the terminolo ...

laws that target unexplained wealth, with an accompanying database of laws and guidance on proving illicit enrichment cases in court. The book is available for free in English, Spanish and French. Core donors to ICAR are the

Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) is an office-level agency in the federal administration of Switzerland, and a part of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs. Together with other federal offices, SDC is responsible for o ...

, the UK

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) is a department of the Government of the United Kingdom. Equivalent to other countries' ministries of foreign affairs, it was created on 2 September 2020 through the merger of the Foreign ...

, the

Principality of Liechtenstein Liechtenstein (), officially the Principality of Liechtenstein (german: link=no, Fürstentum Liechtenstein), is a German-speaking microstate located in the Alps between Austria and Switzerland. Liechtenstein is a semi-constitutional monarch ...

, the

Government of Jersey , image = , caption=Logos of the Government of Jersey in English and Jèrriais , date = , state = Jersey , address = 19-21 Broad Street, Saint Helier , appointed = Chief Minister, with approva ...

and the

Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation The Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad) is a directorate under the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In matters regarding Norway's International Climate and Forest Initiative (NICFI), Norad reports to the Norwegian Ministry ...

Private Sector engagement

The Basel Institute supports companies and multi-stakeholder groups with advice on anti-corruption

Collective Action Collective action refers to action taken together by a group of people whose goal is to enhance their condition and achieve a common objective. It is a term that has formulations and theories in many areas of the social sciences including psych ...

initiatives. It hosts the B20 Collective Action Hub, an online platform for anti-corruption Collective Action resources under a mandate from the B20 group of global business leaders. Among other initiatives, the Basel Institute has collaborated with the

OECD The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD; french: Organisation de coopération et de développement économiques, ''OCDE'') is an intergovernmental organisation with 38 member countries, founded in 1961 to stimulate e ...

and

Transparency International Transparency International e.V. (TI) is a German registered association founded in 1993 by former employees of the World Bank. Based in Berlin, its nonprofit and non-governmental purpose is to take action to combat global corruption with civil ...

to develop the High Level Reporting Mechanism, an independent mechanism to quickly resolve alerts about suspected acts of corruption in public procurement projects. It is actively engaged in research and support for other Collective Action tools such as integrity pacts with the aim of making anti-corruption Collective Action a global compliance norm. The Siemens Integrity Initiative, a USD100 million-dollar fund created by

Siemens Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational conglomerate corporation and the largest industrial manufacturing company in Europe headquartered in Munich with branch offices abroad. The principal divisions of the corporation are ''Industry'', '' ...

to fight corruption and fraud through Collective Action, education and training, has supported the Basel Institute's Collective Action work with multi-year grants in all three of its funding rounds. Additional funding partners in the past and present include the

Global Fund The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (or simply the Global Fund) is an international financing and partnership organization that aims to "attract, leverage and invest additional resources to end the epidemics of HIV/AIDS, t ...

and the KBA NotaSys Integrity Fund. In addition, the Basel Institute's Compliance specialists provide advice on anti-corruption compliance and crisis management for companies and other organisations. A notable mandate in this field was Mark Pieth's appointment in November 2011 as chairman of the Independent Governance Committee tasked with overseeing improvements to governance and transparency of

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

Public Governance research

The Basel Institute's Public Governance team conducts research on the root causes of corruption, develops evidence-based anti-corruption approaches and provides training and assessments on relevant political and social aspects. It is known in particular for its work on social norms and informal governance structures that facilitate corrupt practices. Current research in these areas includes two major projects under the

DFID , type = Department , logo = DfID.svg , logo_width = 180px , logo_caption = , picture = File:Admiralty Screen (411824276).jpg , picture_width = 180px , picture_caption = Department for International Development (London office) (far right ...

-funded "Global Integrity Anti-Corruption Evidence Programme" on addressing bribery in the Tanzanian health sector: a behavioural approach and harnessing informality: Designing anti-corruption network interventions and strategic use of legal instruments.

Public Finance Management

Through the Basel Institute’s regional office in Peru, a team of specialists provides comprehensive support to 11 Peruvian local and regional governments to generate more effective, efficient and transparent use of public funds. The programme is funded by the Swiss

State Secretariat for Economic Affairs State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

through its economic cooperation and development programme in Peru and was extended for a second four-year term in December 2019.

Green Corruption programme

The Basel Institute implements a programme of work focused on applying anti-corruption and governance tools to environmental crimes including the

illegal wildlife trade Wildlife trade refers to the of products that are derived from non-domesticated animals or plants usually extracted from their natural environment or raised under controlled conditions. It can involve the trade of living or dead individuals, ti ...

. As part of this effort, the Basel Institute partnered with the

on a series of public-private dialogues on topics of environmental crime, corruption and illicit trade.

Digital tools

The Basel Institute develops and maintains several digital tools to support anti-corruption compliance, financial investigation and policy decisions. The tools are projects of the International Centre for Asset Recovery and are designed for use by public and private sector actors as well as policymakers and academia. * Basel AML Index: An interactive country ranking and

risk assessment Broadly speaking, a risk assessment is the combined effort of: # identifying and analyzing potential (future) events that may negatively impact individuals, assets, and/or the environment (i.e. hazard analysis); and # making judgments "on the to ...

tool for

and

terrorist financing Terrorism financing is the provision of funds or providing financial support to individual terrorists or non-state actors. Most countries have implemented measures to counter terrorism financing (CTF) often as part of their money laundering l ...

. The public ranking has been published annually since 2012 and reveals slow progress across the board in tackling money laundering risks. * Basel Open Intelligence: A targeted search tool for open-source research on people and organisations for compliance, due diligence and investigation. * Basel LEARN / eLearning courses: Free self-paced online courses on asset tracing, intelligence gathering, financial analysis, international cooperation and terrorist financing, and open-source intelligence, in several languages. Some courses have been developed in collaboration with the

Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units The Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units is an international organization that facilitates cooperation and intelligence sharing between national financial intelligence units (FIUs) to investigate and prevent money laundering and terroris ...

.{{Cite web, url=https://learn.baselgovernance.org/, title=Basel LEARN - Basel Institute on Governance online learning platform, website=learn.baselgovernance.org, access-date=2021-10-20

References

Anti-corruption non-governmental organizations