United Nations launches anti-corruption web-portal
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has launched a web-based anti-corruption portal known as TRACK (Tools and Resources for Anti-Corruption Knowledge).
The reason for TRACK, the UN agency says “brings together legal and non-legal knowledge relating to anti-corruption and asset recovery, enabling Member States, the anti-corruption community and the general public to access that information in a central location.”
According to the UNODC, the portal features the United Nations Convention against Corruption legal library, providing a unique gateway to an electronic database of Convention-related legislation and jurisprudence from over 175 States, systematized in accordance with the Convention’s requirements.
It noted that an anti-corruption learning platform is also incorporated into TRACK, providing a common space in which analytical tools generated by partner organizations can be searched and accessed by users worldwide.
It adds that a key objective of TRACK is to create a community of practitioners in which registered users can communicate, exchange information and schedule events. The common workspace is intended for partner institutions, anti-corruption practitioners and experts to communicate and collaborate directly with each other.
“The implementation review mechanism of the United Nations Convention against Corruption has shown the importance of legislation-related knowledge for all countries around the world, which can be inspired by each other’s challenges and successes.Commenting on the new portal,” said Dimitri Vlassis, Chief of the Corruption and Economic Crime Branch of UNODC in a statement September 1, 2011.
The World Bank, African Development Bank (AfDB), Asian Development Bank (ADB), the International Association of Anti-Corruption Authorities and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) are some of the partner organizations of the project.
By Ekow Quandzie