Aims and Objectives

the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in cooperation with the UNODC advocate for anti-corruption in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is organizing an Expert Group Meeting of the Anti-Corruption Academic Initiative (ACAD), to be held at the Rule of Law and Anti-Corruption Center in Doha, Qatar, on 25 and 26 February 2015. The language of the meeting will be English.

The two-day meeting for members of the ACAD Initiative and other academics and government officials will provide a forum discuss anti-corruption research and education and make recommendations on activities to support ACAD in 2015 and beyond.

2014 was a productive year the Initiative which saw the first “teach the teacher” workshop held in Vienna, Austria; expanded its membership substantially; and developed the ACAD Menu of Topics. It also signaled the start of a new partnership with Rule of Law and Anti-Corruption Center in Doha, Qatar which is generously supporting development and expansion of ACAD.

Building on this new momentum, and the progress made through the previous ACAD Initiative meetings held in Boston (2011), Marrakech (2011) and Vienna (2012) participants will be asked to take stock of our work done to date and to identify specific steps that can be taken to further support the academic community in providing anti-corruption education.
More specifically, the workshop will:

• Provide a platform for dialogue between anti-corruption education experts in order to discuss and make recommendations for the Initiative in 2015 to include preparing for the ACAD meeting prior to the Conference of States Parties, scheduled to take place in Saint Petersburg, Russia in early November 2015;
• Further development and enhancement of the UNCAC Model course and how to increase its availability and accessibility through an interactive online method. Funding has been made available for this to happen.
• Identify the specific next steps that should be taken under the ACAD Initiative in order to improve the support it provides to members of the academic community interested in teaching in this field, in particular how to enhance and develop the “teacher the teacher” course.

Methodology

The workshop is designed to deliver its objectives in an interactive manner over two days. It will generally be held in plenary sessions, thereby enabling participants to provide presentations and engage in broad discussions with a view to exchanging information and clarifying key concepts. It will also include smaller group discussions allowing for more detailed discussion and presentation to the larger group.