Preventing misallocation or misuse of peacebuilding funds – effective measures

Maureen Moriarty, lecturing fellow at the Duke Center for International Development, shares how financial corruption and illicit financial flows impact peacebuilding and the need to develop a pragmatic approach to curb them in an article published by à propos, the KOFF Peacebuilding Magazine.

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"Peacebuilding is primarily a national challenge and responsibility," Moriarty writes in the article, "Preventing misallocation or misuse of peacebuilding funds – effective measures." "Ideally, citizens, with support from their governments, co-create the foundations of lasting peace. But what happens when government actors divert huge sums of money from their national budgets or engage in kleptocracy to enrich themselves, their associates, or even transnational criminal actors?"

Moriarty argues that the role of financial corruption in facilitating conflict has not been studied sufficiently, nor have positive examples for addressing it with peacebuilding impacts been systematically investigated. Yet, maintaining our focus on conflict sensitivity and localization can encourage and facilitate anti-corruption reforms that ensure peacebuilding funds are allocated to where they are most needed.

Read the full article.