Corruption in education sector development: a suggestion for anticipatory strategy

Corruption is a major but neglected problem in international development literature. From a review of available literature and the author's experiences within consulting services for various educational projects in developing countries, this article proposes an anticipatory strategy that will help professionals to protect an education project from corruption. It finds that there is no universal definition of corruption; thus, in anticipating corruption, one should be aware of possible disparities in recognising corruption, and avoid imposing inappropriate culturally defined ideas when administering a project. It suggests that an anticipatory strategy is not a direct anti-corruption strategy, and may exist as a "hidden agenda" within the main project. Thus, attention should first be paid to diagnosing rather than redressing a system that is thought to be corrupt, adopting prevention rather than punishment, informal rather than formal approaches, and situational norms rather than formalised legislation. The protection of students from corruption should be a priority throughout the strategy.