When we talk about corruption in terms of statistics, it’s easy to forget the human cost of abused power. Behind every fact or figure are real people, forced to live without the services, opportunities and rights they deserve. All too often, these stories remain hidden – silenced through threats and intimidation, or drowned out by louder, more powerful voices. But with the right help, people can and do speak out. From rural villages to global cities, we are working around the world to help people break the silence and stand up against corruption.

This report is based on research carried out in five Asia Pacific countries – China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. This document should serve as an instrument to help in Transparency International’s constructive but critical dialogue needed to fight corruption and build integrity in the forestry sector. As such it is aimed at civil society, the private sector, and government agencies, and all those who stand to benefit from improved forest governance.

Unprecedented pressures on land and its governance have been created. As evident around the globe, where land governance is deficient, high levels of corruption often flourish. Under such a system, land distribution is unequal, tenure is insecure, and natural resources are poorly managed.

There is important evidence to suggest that corruption is a key factor contributing to the degradation of renewable natural resources. Forestry officials and law enforcement officers who are in the pockets of corrupt logging firms often turn a blind eye to activities that threaten the sustainable management of a forest’s biodiversity. Similarly, fishery inspectors endanger stocks when they accept bribes to ignore official quotas for trawlers.

Industrial parks are as popular as they are controversial, in India and globally. At their best they align infrastructure provision and agglomeration economies to jolt industrial growth. More often, they generate negative spill-overs, provide handouts, sit empty, or simply do not get built. This paper disaggregates how parks are built and how they fail. It contextualizes parks in India, followed by a thick case study of an innovative scheme that appears to buck the trend. This performance is then explained by the way in which the scheme's design and action fit India's political economy.

The accumulation of decent housing matters both because of the difference it makes to living standards and because of its centrality to economic development. The consequences for living standards are far-reaching. In addition to directly conferring utility, decent housing improves health and enables children to do homework. It frees up women's time and enables them to participate in the labor market. More subtly, a home and its environs affect identity and self-respect.

As part of a national experiment in 2008, Chengdu prefecture implemented ambitious property rights reforms, including complete registration of all land together with measures to ease transferability and eliminate migration restrictions. A triple difference approach using the Statistics Bureau’s regular household panel suggests that the reforms increased consumption and income, especially for less wealthy and less educated households, with estimated benefits well above the cost of implementation.

Croatia’s business environment has been identified as a priority area for reform by the Croatian Government. Under the government working group for business climate and private investments, the agency for investment and competitiveness has been designated to lead the dialogue with the private sector and coordinate the consultations with stakeholders, including international organizations on the design of a new wave of business environment reforms.

The World Bank assessed the insolvency and creditor or debtor regimes (ICR) of Moldova pursuant to the joint international monetary fund (IMF) and World Bank initiative on the observance of standards and codes (ROSC). The Moldovan authorities have made remarkable progress over the last decade in taking on board a broad range of reform related to the commercial law regime, including the laws pertaining to creditor protection and insolvency.

In 2015, Indonesia stands as an increasingly divided country, unequal in many ways. There is a growing income divide between the richest 10 percent and the rest of the population, and this gap is driven by many other types of inequality in Indonesia.People are divided into haves and have-nots from before birth. Some children are born healthy and grow up well in their early years; many do not. Some children go to school and receive a quality education; many do not. In today’s modern and dynamic economy; most do not and are trapped in low-productivity and low-wage jobs.

Paul Wolfowitz, President of the World Bank, and Ambassador Andrew Young engaged in a roundtable discussion on economic development, moderated by Dean Bahl of Georgia State. Wolfowitz has made Africa the first priority of the Bank. There is really a chance for Africa to turn the corner. It’s going to have to start with the best performers, doing what the so-called Tigers did in East Asia, showing the way for other countries. Young said you can make more money honestly in a growing economy, than you can steal in a dying economy. Wolfowitz gave examples of the turnaround in Africa.

Paul Wolfowitz, President of the World Bank, argued that the Doha Round presents an opportunity to rewrite the rules of an unfair trading system that holds back the potential of the poorest people. As important as aid is, as important as debt relief is, the opportunities generated by trade are far more significant. Unless the people of Africa and other poor countries have access to markets to sell their products, they will not escape poverty or be able to give their children a better future.