The third edition of IACA Regional Alumni Conference ended on 10 May 2024, after five intensive days of conferencing and networking in Nairobi, Kenya. 31 professionals working in the field of anti-corruption and compliance from 10 countries in Africa namely: Cameroon, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe participated in the conference.
The Regional Alumni Conference provided IACA alumni with the opportunity to reconnect, share experiences and participate in lectures delivered by 9 highly experienced anti-corruption professionals and academics from around the world. The conference topics included corruption in the extractive industries, illicit financial flows, mutual legal assistance and asset recovery, corruption issues in public procurement, compliance in business, as well as new technologies for anti-corruption compliance. A major highlight of the Regional Alumni Conference is the Collective Action Initiatives Lab Session, co-directed by Martin Zapata, the Senior Academic Officer at IACA and Soji Apampa, the Co-Founder and CEO of the Convention on Business Integrity. During this session IACA alumni presented their initiatives and received feedback for growing their initiatives. Three presenters, Grace Atwongyeire from Uganda, Ezilon Kasoka from Malawi, and Shadreck Mpaso from Malawi were awarded the best Collective Action Initiatives by Yasmin Gamal, Global Head Ethics, Risk & Compliance for Corporate Functions at Novartis, courtesy of Novartis pharmaceutical company as part of their drive to promote Collective Action.
On the last day of the Conference, Pawan Kumar Sinha, Director of Academic Programmes, IACA handed over certificates to the participants, and encouraged them to grow their individual and collective efforts in the region.
The concluded Regional Alumni Conference Africa, is the successive third regional alumni conference, sponsored by the Siemens Integrity Initiative. Previous Regional Alumni Conferences took place in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 2022, as well as San Paulo Brazil in 2023. IACA looks forward to holding more alumni conferences to expand the network of IACA alumni, and to support them in combating corruption in their regions across the globe.