Combating Corruption in a Conflict Situation. Appraising the Effectiveness of the High Office of Oversight and Anti-Corruption in Afghanistan

Academic Paper from the year 2016 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Topic: Development Politics, University of Sussex (Institute of Development Studies), course: MA Governance and Development, language: English, abstract: This dissertation discusses the contextual and historical trends of corruption, its major drivers as well as the Afghan anti-corruption framework in the post-Taliban era. It specifically analyzes whether and how in practice the High Office of Oversight and Anti-Corruption (HOO) - as an anti-corruption tool - succeed or does not succeed to mitigate corruption in Afghanistan. The paper explores the HOO’s operational structure, various dimensions of its anti-corruption approach as well it identifies some major designing and implementation flaws. The paper also aims to draw on some successful lessons learned from the anti-corruption commission in Indonesia and how Afghanistan could learn from it to foster the effectiveness of its anti-corruption campaign. The findings of this study could be of importance to a broad range of stakeholders. In addition to the Afghan State, the outcome of this study could also be of particular interest for anti-corruption policy makers and donor institutions in their efforts to formulate effective anti-corruption strategies and reforms in other countries.