Alumna of the Year

When I look back over my career, gratitude is something that pervades my life, for the opportunities that came my way, often without looking for them. I would never have imagined that in my working life I would end up in meetings with the US President or the King of Jordan. I remember sending off so many job applications, but the doors that opened up were always from unexpected sources. And not from the directions I had originally targeted. That is one lesson that I would like to share: knock on every door, and trust that the one that opens is, more often than not, the one that is right for you.

When I was getting towards the end of my time at Clare, many of my fellow students were applying for jobs with management consultancies in the City. I knew that wasn’t for me, but I didn’t have a clear plan at the time, other than my wish to remain in Cambridge and stay in academia.

However, due to a variety of circumstances and a series of coincidences, I found myself in Berlin in the autumn of 1998 as a press officer for the
anti-corruption NGO Transparency International. Fighting corruption can be complex; you need political will. It is probably the single biggest reason why countries with otherwise rich natural resources remain poor. Many studies show that bribe-taking in many countries is extensive. Reasons for this include low public sector salaries, and senior public officials’ and politicians’ de facto immunity from prosecution. Meanwhile, large transnational corporations’ willingness to pay bribes is considerable. Anti-bribery initiatives must recognise and confront these realities. When partners in the Arab world realised I spoke French and Arabic as well as German, they started reaching out to me, and together we began developing ideas and programmes. Eventually, I was given the responsibility for outreach to the Middle East and North Africa, or MENA, and I began travelling extensively to the region over many years from 1999 to 2016.

So what does working in anti-corruption really involve? I would be supporting new civil society groups, concerned individuals who wanted to begin fighting corruption in government and business in their country, but did not know how, and speaking separately to decision makers. Our key message was that corruption is a highrisk, low return investment that harms development in every possible way, and that there are other ways of doing business and running government:
sharing good practice from other countries, encouraging governments to adopt and implement legislation, and bringing different parties and people together who would never normally sit in one room.

I recall arriving in Cairo just days after the overthrow of Mubarak in 2011. The streets were relatively quiet, as if the whole city was catching its breath. After the tumultuous events, the taxi driver from the airport said “You’re coming here after we’ve overthrown the dictator with our blood, sweat and tears. You’re coming here to claim the credit.” This was a reaction I experienced frequently in varying degrees, not only from taxi drivers but also from those in senior decision-making positions from all walks of life. Instead of trying to explain or be defensive, I learned the importance of, first, accepting the other person’s position, taking responsibility and inviting dialogue. “I’m sorry you feel that way. Please tell us — what do you think we should be doing? Where should we be placing our focus?” Often this approach opened doors rather than closed them. Responding in this way, people were often surprised because they frequently felt that they were not really listened to, let alone asked for their opinion.

When I think back, it’s amazing what we were able to achieve with very little resources. People believed in the anti-corruption mission. Many donated expertise, time and funds.

Unfortunately, the optimism that we had seen in the MENA region and indeed in many parts of the world in the late 1990s has largely dissolved in the face of various conflicts. There are now more countries in the world where terrible conflicts are being waged and where innocent people are being killed, in Israel, Palestine and Ukraine for example. But the one positive thing, in my opinion, that conflicts do is generate renewed interest in the issue, encouraging people to look at things in a fresh way and to ask certain questions. When we look back at recent history, we do need to ask some important questions. If I take the example of the war in Iraq in 2003, how is it that governments made decisions based on information that was inaccurate? Why is nobody interested when the true facts do eventually emerge? And why are so many investigative journalists all around the world still being killed today? These concerns still resonate with us now.

There is a lot of fear in the air these days. But fear is never a good companion. The thing that people fear is what they end up creating. Fear prevents people from taking up opportunities or jobs where they feel that they are not good enough. Or where they feel that they do not meet the criteria. Somebody once said to me “If you’re able to tick every single box in the job specification, you’re probably already too good for the job.” There is much truth in that. From my own experiences, I was plunged into situations where, if I had let fear or worry prevail, I would not have been able to act.

At moments of life and death, people don’t care about hierarchy. People are prepared to risk their jobs, and structures don’t mean anything. You have to think of other ways of approaching things. We can learn so much from the people that we also teach. I have great respect for the many activists and investigative journalists I have encountered over the years, who risked their lives in various ways, either to campaign for change or to shed light on certain issues. I am happy if I was able to help them in some small way, whether by equipping them with technical knowledge or by speaking to their governments on their behalf. I always felt that it is important to be convinced of our own mission if we want to be able to inspire others.”