On 9 December, International Anti-Corruption Day, IACA also celebrated the start of its third Regional Summer Academy training programme, this time for the Middle East. Fifty-five anti-corruption and compliance practitioners from 14 countries and jurisdictions in the region have gathered in Kuwait to participate in the session, which is organized by IACA in cooperation with the Kuwait Anti-Corruption Authority (NAZAHA). 

The five-day training will address current regional and global anti-corruption trends and provide practitioners with tools to address corruption in their daily work. Good governance, corruption and culture, public procurement, asset recovery, and ethics and compliance are some of the topics covered by internationally renowned expert lecturers, including H.E. Ambassador Muhyieddeen Shaban Touq, former Chairman of the Ad-Hoc Committee for the United Nations Convention Against Corruption, Prof. Robert Klitgaard (IACA frequent visiting faculty member), Yolanda Tayler (World Bank), and many others from the region and beyond.

The IACA Regional Summer Academy – Middle East provides a platform for the exchange of experiences and ideas for professionals from Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tunisia, and the United Arab Emirates; and the State of Palestine. 

The opening ceremony of the programme was attended by H.E. Dr. Faleh Al-Azab, Minister of Justice of Kuwait, Mr. Abdulrahman Nemash Al-Nemash, Chairman of the Kuwait Anti-Corruption Authority, and Mr. Martin Kreutner, IACA’s Dean and Executive Secretary.

In his opening address, Mr. Kreutner thanked the Government of Kuwait for hosting one of IACA’s flagship programmes and added that “Today, on the occasion of International Anti-Corruption Day, the region is sending a strong message to the world, and IACA is honoured to be a part of this change”. 

The first two editions of the IACA Regional Summer Academy were held in Latin America(Argentina, 2015) and Eastern Africa (Uganda, 2016).