IAACA Executive Committee (ExCo) held its 4th meeting in the Secretariat’s new office in Hong Kong, China on 26 April 2023. This was the first time since the pandemic that a physical meeting was held for the ExCo. A total of 20 ExCo members or their representatives joined the meeting in person or online.
IAACA President welcoming ExCo members
ExCo members discussing at the meeting
IAACA President, Mr Simon Peh, thanked ExCo Members for coming to Hong Kong to attend the meeting in person. “It is very important for Members to meet and know each other in person in order to build up trust, acquaintance and in-depth exchanges for a more solid foundation to take forward the business of IAACA,” he said.
At the meeting, Ms Brigette Strobel-Shaw, Chief of Corruption and Economic Crime Branch of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), introduced UNODC’s recent efforts in the international collaboration against corruption. She highlighted that IAACA could play an important role in providing technical assistance to different countries through capacity building and enhancing the synergies among anti-corruption networks.
IAACA Regional Coordinators and the Secretariat apprised ExCo members of the fruitful outcomes yielded in the five regional groups under the regional coordination mechanism. IAACA President expressed gratitude to the Regional Coordinators, ExCo members and UNODC for their support to the Regional Coordination Mechanism and their plans to advance the mechanism in 2023 and 2024. The meeting also reviewed the operation of the mechanism and discussed ways to enhance it. While encouraging ExCo members to adopt a proactive engagement strategy, IAACA President appealed to sub-regional coordinators to help Regional Coordinators reach out to ACAs and to arrange sub-regional training and conferences in long run.
ExCo members also discussed the individual membership of IAACA. To address the limitations of the current regime, IAACA Secretariat proposed a number of enhancement measures, including defining individual members’ roles clearly, as well as setting eligibility criteria and a tenure of service. IAACA President pointed out that individual members, with their expertise and knowledge, could play a more important role to foster the work of the Association.
The Secretariat reported on IAACA’s latest development, including the admission of new members and the progress on the development the Global Policy Guide on Meaningful Youth Engagement in Anti-Corruption Efforts. The appointment of Mr Kenneth Wong as IAACA Secretary-General from 1 May 2023 was also unanimously endorsed at the meeting.
ExCo members attending the meeting through online mode