What can be done to tackle this problem?
The above-cited report by Hanlon and Pettifor also highlights a broader way to try and tackle corruption by attempting to provide a more just, democratic and transparent process in terms of relations between donor nations and their creditors:
Campaigners from around the world, but particularly the South, have called for a more just, independent, accountable and transparent process for managing relations between sovereign debtors and their public and private creditors.
An independent process would have five goals:
to restore some justice to a system in which international creditors play the role of plaintiff, judge and jury, in their own court of international finance.
to introduce discipline into sovereign lending and borrowing arrangements—and thereby prevent future crises.
to counter corruption in borrowing and lending, by introducing accountability through a free press and greater transparency to civil society in both the creditor and debtor nations.
to strengthen local democratic institutions, by empowering them to challenge and influence elites.
to encourage greater understanding and economic literacy among citizens, and thereby empower them to question, challenge and hold their elites to account.
— Joseph Hanlon and Ann Pettifor, Kicking the Habit; Finding a lasting solution to addictive lending and borrowing—and its corrupting side-effects, Jubilee Research, March 2000
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