Transparency International: Dr. Peter Eigen's Holistic Approach to Corruption

These videos are not Hollywood action or even indy documentary but more of a slow paced intimate conversation with Peter Eigen, a clearly experienced leader and visionary whose successful efforts are changing the global arena of corruption and how it is played.

Available at http://www.Netflix.com

This is A Preview of Peter Eigen: Civil Society in Global Governance -- one of 16 DVDs created by Ashoka's Global Academy for Social Entrepreneurship. Peter Eigen, creator of Transparency International, is a strong advocate of civil society as a major global force for social change. He describes how, in a world of globalization, civil society members can -- and must -- fill a vacuum on behalf of ordinary citizens. He describes how members of civil society can work together -- and with the business community, governments and academia -- to change their world decisively. To buy films, go to dvd.ashoka.org.

--Ethical corporations want transparency and a level playing field where they can all participate without corruption--

“Global governance must be more responsive to the interests of the poor. Global governance right now is tilted to the powerful and the rich and therefore a way has to be found to give a voice to the billions of people who live with without proper resources. The way one can do this is only by giving a stronger say to the representatives of these people. As long as their governments are corrupt and don’t have compassion for their own poor people, which we very often see by the tremendous wealth amassed by the governments and politicians in very poor countries. There has to be some other way and I believe this is where Civil Society Organizations have tremendous responsibility.

Civil Society Organizations have to live up to this responsibility. They have to become more competent to understand the complexities of the areas in which they want to take on responsibility. This is why I believe strongly that our universities have to train and educate more leaders for society. Research has to focus more on questions posed by civil society and civil society leaders themselves have to be much more open to interact and formulate questions to, for instance academia, to get this point. Civil Society Organizations have to be much more open to cooperate with the traditional actors of governance so they should not be too one sided condemning the World Bank or major multi-national corporations, they should rather try to understand their interests and their strengths and cater to these in order to form compromises which will lead to change. Civil society organizations have to work on their own integrity, transparency and decision making processes, which have to be open and participatory. So in a way, civil society organizations in the final analysis have to stand the competition, which they have for ideas and interests, and they have to make it in a market of good ideas. This is eventually the source of their legitimacy, and in that sense basically it’s the rule of the market which decides which Civil Society Organizations and its particular approaches will have impact or not.”

Peter Eigen

This is Peter Eigen: Champion for Accountability (preview)