Reducing Petty Corruption in Schools in Africa: A Role for Faith?

Abstract

Particularly in low- and lower middle-income countries, petty corruption remains prevalent in service delivery, whether in schools, health centers, administrative services, or other institutions. In reference to Pope Francis’ call to say no to corruption in his recent trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo, this article measures the extent of corruption in schools in Africa using data collected by the Afrobarometer. More than one in four respondents have encountered problems to obtain the education services they need for their children and nearly one in five have had to pay bribes or do other favors for education providers. This proportion does not appear to have declined significantly over the past decade. Regression analysis suggests that different household characteristics are associated with the likelihood of having difficulty obtaining the services they need and the likelihood of being a victim of corruption. Interestingly for this special issue, while faith affiliation does not seem to affect the likelihood of providing favors to obtain services, religiosity does appear to matter—and therefore so may faith leaders.

Keywords:

• education
• Africa
• petty corruption
• faith
• religiosity
• Afrobarometer

Acknowledgments

This article is adapted with permission from an article published in French (see Nayihouba and Wodon 2022).

Disclaimer

The authors are employed by the World Bank and UNESCO, respectively. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors only and may not represented the views of the World Bank or UNESCO, the members of their Executive Boards, or the countries they represent.

Notes

1 See https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2023-02/pope-francis-drcongo-young-people-catechists.html#:~:text=Honesty%2C%20said%20the%20Pope%2C%20offers,%22say%20no%20to%20corruption!%22.

2 The data do not distinguish the level of corruption for different service providers (e.g. public, religious, or private non-religious) within the same sector. For an analysis of the contribution of the Catholic Church in the education, health, and social welfare sectors, see Wodon (2022a). For the education sector, see also Wodon (2022b).

3 On the consequences of non-enrolment especially for girls, see Wodon et al. (2018a, 2018b).

4 Six monitoring indicators for governance are used by the World Bank: (i) Voice and accountability; (ii) Political stability and absence of violence; (iii) Government effectiveness; (iv) Quality of laws; (v) Rule of law; and (vi) Anti-corruption. The first of these indicators has improved significantly from 2000 to 2019.

5 For all countries, there are, as expected, strong correlations between the results of the different waves of the survey. But at the country level, estimates may change from year to year. This suggests that caution should be exercised in using data from a single wave to assess the extent of corruption. A more reliable picture is likely to emerge with the use of multiple waves of data and the exploration of country-specific factors that may contribute to changes in estimates over time.

6 On strategies to reduce corruption, see for example Chêne (2019).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ada Nayihouba

Ada Nayihouba is a consultant for the World Bank’s Strengthening Gender Statistics project focusing on statistical capacity building in IDA-19 countries with a focus on women’s employment opportunities and economic inclusion. He holds a PhD in economics from the University of Montreal and a Master in statistics from the National school for Statistics and Economic Analysis (ENSAE-Senegal).

Quentin Wodon

Quentin Wodon is Director of UNESCO’s International Institute for Capacity Building in Africa. Previously, he worked at the World Bank, including as Lead Economist, Lead Poverty Specialist, and manager of the unit on values and development.