Stakeholders offer behavioral science approach to ending corruption in Nigeria

The stakeholders offered this submission on Monday, November 14, 2022, during a panel discussion titled “Harnessing Behavioral Insights to Counter Corruption.”

The session was organised by the Policy Innovation Center (PIC), an initiative of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG). 

Stressing the need to adopt behavioral approach to tackling corruption, Mrs Bukola Balogun, one of the panelists and board member of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, (ICPC) deemphasised the use of criminal justice approach to addressing corruption.

She said, “There are sanctions, and systems studies but everything has to be driven by society because even if you have your sanctions, you have your system it is the society that will make tools work. So that is why we want to work on society with the help of our development partners”.

She said corruption messages must be coined and channelled in such a way that it influences and changes the mindset of the people on corruption and corrupt practices.

Deputy Director of PIC, Dr. Osasiyi Dirisu, submitted that lessons from behavioural science can be applied to improve accountability and transparency within different sectors in Nigeria.

Using behavioural science, She said PIC has trained organizations to think differently and helped them improve the effectiveness of the work they do.

“We sat down together with CSOs, NGOs, and Government MDAs and we supported them to begin to think differently about interventions that will work for accountability and transparency

“And we sat together to co-create what the solutions would look like and we went on to develop a four-faced cause training program on using behavioural insights to support accountability and transparency Programmes”, she said.