Ran Goel
Transparencia por Colombia (Bogota, Colombia)
I spent about three months working with Transparency International’s (TI) chapter in
Bogota, Colombia, Transparencia por Colombia. Transparency International is a Berlinbased international non-governmental organization that was founded in 1993 to combat
corruption. The Colombian chapter of TI is amongst its most active worldwide. Under the
capable leadership of Rosa Ines Ospina, since its founding in 1998, the chapter has grown to
about 30 full-time employees. Rosa Ines is also very active in the international organization
and is currently vying for the worldwide organization’s President position.
Transparencia’s offices are located in the better part of Bogota. Most of the people I worked
alongside were very educated, friendly and committed to the work they were doing. The
chapter does work on several fronts. What the organization is most well known for
worldwide is its annual Corruptions Perceptions Index (CPI) which ranks countries by how
corrupt they are perceived to be. Colombia is about average relative to its Latin American
peers. But the organization is much more than the CPI. For example, it also publishes the
Bribe Payers Index (i.e. the supply side of corruption), raises awareness on the issue, hosts
workshops with university classes, is a think tank on good governance issues and promotes
Integrity Pacts (which attempts to bind parties involved in public procurement in a manner
that minimizes corruption risk).
I worked primarily within the
private-sector corruption division of
Transparencia por Colombia. This
group promotes Transparency’s code
of conduct for businesses, makes
presentations to corporations about
corruption prevention and seeks to
forge sector agreements to minimize
pervasive risks of corruption. My
work focused on researching Colombia’s state of compliance with the United Nations
Convention Against Corruption. Passed by the General Assembly in late 2003, the
Convention was ratified by Colombia in summer 2005. While the Convention addresses
corruption at large, my work focused on those aspects that dealt with so-called private-toprivate corruption i.e. with no public agent involved. This is a much understudied and
underemphasized form of corruption – the overwhelming focus is usually on public officials
involved in shady dealings. So most of my time was spent in the office, at law school
libraries and interviewing some judges and lawyers to gather information on the state of the
law.
Overall, my experience was amazing, but I definitely have learned some lessons.
1. Get Out There – I would personally highly recommend that interns work where the
‘problem’ they are interested in originates be it corruption, religious discrimination or
child sex tourism. This is not to say that going to Geneva, London or New York isn’t
a worthwhile affair. But there’s nothing like getting a sense of what happens on the
ground.
2. Language Competency – This is perhaps obvious. My Spanish was decent when
arrived in Colombia, but it was severely challenged by the type of work I was doing –
intensive legal research. I would have had a much easier time if I was in an internship
with less intensive research involved i.e. merely conversational. That said, my
Spanish did improve much more as a result.
3. Pick your Organization with care – While I did feel I was contributing at
Transparencia, I think my contribution would perhaps have been much more
pronounced at a smaller and less well funded NGO. Since anti-corruption and good
governance are very much in vogue at the international organizations (IMF, World
Bank, UN) and is fairly ideologically neutral (everyone is against it), the organization
enjoys (for the time being anyhow) relatively stable and plentiful funding.
4. Pick your Work with care – Related to the above, I felt that three months was way
too short to get a decent handle on the radically different legal and socio-political
context in Colombia. The quality of my final report was undoubtedly affected by
this. It bothered me personally because I’m a perfectionist with these sorts of things.
That said, much depends on your outlook – I still learned a lot. The take away from
this is that you should pick work where you are going to be able to contribute at a
level/quality that you’re comfortable with.
5. Safety – Colombia and many other countries are not for everyone. Don’t go
somewhere where you aren’t comfortable with the safety risk level. Indeed, going
somewhere dangerous can be somewhat counter-productive depending on your risk
tolerance – you may end up gating yourself up in an expatriate community or a
touristy area and defeat one of the main purposes that you may have chosen to
intern in that country in the first place i.e. getting to know a culture and working
closely with locals. Unfortunately, this is not gender or race neutral.
6. Be Ready for Surprises – You have to be flexible. In my case, Transparencia was
under the incorrect assumption upon my arrival that I was a completely fluent
Spanish speaking lawyer, although I had expressly indicated otherwise on my resume.
Be ready to switch NGOs or positions within an NGO if need be.
7. Pre-Trip reading – I would highly recommend reading informally (nothing academic)
about the country you are heading to. This could range from reading online papers
to reading its famous authors to reading about its music stars. It will only enrich your
experience.