Curbing Corruption: Utpal Misra on Making Sense of Corruption in Nepal

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Despite its prevalence across cultures and timelines, corruption is still a painstakingly elusive phenomenon to define, measure, capture, and address. And its impacts fuel some of the most significant socio-economic challenges of our time, including poverty, social exclusion, and climate change.

In Curbing Corruption, PEI colleagues sit in candid conversations with experts, practitioners, and thought leaders to dissect the vast issue of corruption. Over the span of the series, we embrace a multiprong approach to comprehending corruption with discussions that include defining its core concepts, exploring the evolution in anti-corruption and measurement innovations, investigating the role of political and campaign financing, and recounting high-profile cases of corruption in Nepal and beyond. Through these conversations, we hope to contribute to the public discourse on the philosophical and theoretical foundations of the issue of corruption and gain insights into how we may be able to best overcome it. 

Join us on this journey as we navigate through the challenges, successes, and innovative approaches to curbing corruption, aiming to pave the way for transparent, accountable, and equitable societies.

In this episode, PEI's Nirjan and Utpal Misra set the stage right for the series as they introduce key terms, concepts, and ideas in anti-corruption discussions and practices. Drawing from his observations, Utpal defines and illustrates the vast forms of corruption, citing recent high-profile cases from Nepal. They then recount the actions and approaches in anti-corruption and corruption measurement practices and the key actors at the forefront of this cause.

Utpal Misra is the Senior Governance Manager at the International Republican Institute's Center for Global Impact based in Washington, DC. He leads a team of Governance Specialists that support programs on anti-corruption, political strengthening, global policy, and governance issues in different parts of the world. He spent almost a decade in the World Bank headquarters, implementing global anti-corruption and social accountability programs. He started his career as a journalist with the Kathmandu Post and also worked in Kantipur Television, covering politics, policy, and social issues in Nepal.