International Cooperation

BAK presents ‘YOUTH4Integrity’ at UNODC

From 28 August to 6 September 2024, the resumed 15th meeting of the UNCAC Implementation Review Group took place at UNODC premises at Vienna International Centre. The Group serves as a subsidiary body of the Conference of the States Parties to the United Nations Convention against Corruption and is comprised of all States parties. BAK participated with a delegation.

As last June, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) invited the States Parties to the United Nations Convention against Corruption or UNCAC to the resumption of the 15th meeting of the Implementation Review Group (IRG). This time, the focus was entirely on prevention. In the ‘Working Group on Prevention’, various panels offered a worldwide practical insight into national programmes. Civil society and the topic of women and youth in the fight against corruption played a particularly important role. IRG also debated priorities for the upcoming UNCAC country evaluations.

The Federal Bureau of Anti-Corruption (BAK) was represented at one of the panel discussions by a panellist, Luca Mak, Head of the BAK’s International Cooperation Unit, who presented ‘YOUTH4Integrity’. This is an extensive initiative targeting young people, which includes corruption prevention work, cooperation, and a number of different projects in educational establishments from kindergarten to university.
In addition, teaching staff are to be trained in the form of interactive teaching modules on the topic of corruption prevention to then be able to sensitise students in the classroom to the issue, as well as to strengthen teacher confidence in dealing with situations prone to or involving corruption. The first training of this kind was implemented in cooperation with University College of Teacher Education Vienna in the spring of 2024.