How Northern Donors Promote Corruption: Tales From the New Mozambique
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by Joseph Hanlon
Corner House Briefing Paper 33
http://www.thecornerhouse.org.uk
Corruption is a worldwide and age-old phenomenon. In recent
years, Northern aid donors have become more and more vocal about
the need for Southern countries to clean themselves up. Yet they
have refused to change their own policies that encourage corrup-
tion, particularly those policies requiring economic liberalisa-
tion and cutting back on state expenditure and responsibilities.
In Mozambique, corruption was almost non-existent in the 1970s
but grew to high levels during the 1990s. At least two forms of
corruption -- "state capture" (taking control of ministries, ju-
diciary or regulatory agencies for personal or business inter-
ests) and "administrative corruption" (making unofficial pay-
ments to get officials to flout or to apply existing laws, rules
and regulations) -- are now rampant in the country.
Joseph Hanlon of the Open University, UK, who has written exten-
sively on Mozambique for over 20 years, outlines how increasing
intervention by international financial institutions, such as
the World Bank, and bilateral aid donors in support of economic
liberalisation is one of the primary causes of this growth in
corruption.
Adding to the process have been tacit alliances between aid do-
nors and a section of the Mozambican elite.
The paper is now on The Corner House website on the home page,
http://www.thecornerhouse.org.uk and in the briefings section.
Download as Adobe PDF file (12 pp. 73 kB) at:
http://www.thecornerhouse.org.uk/pdf/briefing/33mozamb.pdf
Please mailto:enquiries@thecornerhouse.org.uk if you would like
to receive a 12-page printed paper copy.
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Larry Lohmann/Susan Hawley/Sarah Sexton/Nicholas Hildyard
The Corner House
mailto:enquiries@thecornerhouse.org.uk