Award comes as milestone in fight against corruption

The crowned winners of Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani International Anti-Corruption Excellence Award, in its 6th edition, have underscored the importance of the award in supporting the efforts of the international community and individuals in combating the scourge of corruption, promoting the awareness on this matter, specially that it is a crucial initiative to stimulate the interested entities to counter corruption.
In their statements to Qatar News Agency (QNA), several crowned winners lauded the initiative of His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani for launching this award in 2016 to be a powerful catalyst to exert all energies in raising the awareness on the detrimental corruption impacts on communities, and synergising the efforts to combat this scourge through pursuing the best practices.
Prof Sope Williams-Elegbe from United Kingdom, one of the award winners in the research and academic educational materials category, expressed her pleasure for obtaining this award after 20 years of relentless efforts in combating corruption and highlighting this issue in various territories worldwide, especially in the African continent, noting the individual and collective efforts of Qatar in combating corruption in co-operation with the professional UN organisations, emphasising that the award will be a catalyst for her to continue exerting all possible energies in pursuit of combating the scourge of corruption and working by the same manner.
For her part, winner Prof Lisa A Kehl from USA on the category of protecting sports against corruption "a new category that was incorporated into the 6th edition of the award), said that she is very pleased to have this honour in recognition of her work in the area of combating corruption in sports, specially that the award distribution ceremony coincides with Qatar's hosting the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, and offers more opportunity to highlight the importance of the exerted efforts in combating corruption with its various kinds in the field of sports in general.
John Githongo from Kenya, winner of the award in the category of lifetime achievement and distinguished achievement said that he is grateful to be among the international efforts in the fight against corruption in many world zones, underlining that the significance of the award is that it is an initiative that was launched from Arab countries in the Middle East region, which primarily stimulates many people to effectively cooperate in the fight against corruption, adding that Qatar is a model in this field.
For his part, Hopewell Chin'ono from Zimbabwe, winner of the award in the innovation and investigative journalism category, said that winning this award means a lot to him after many years during which he has been highlighting the issues associated with corruption, adding that Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani International Anti-Corruption Excellence Award is directly associated with the encouragement of combating corruption and offers a powerful impetus to proceed with these relentless efforts until communities live in a better environment free of corruption.
Serena Ibrahim, from Youth against Corruption (YAC) from Lebanon, winner of the award in the category of youth creativity and interaction thanked Qatar for spearheading a very essential initiative in combating corruption through Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani International Anti-Corruption Excellence Award, pointing out that the award is essential catalyst to continue the work in the area of combating corruption and reaching out to a substantial number of youth in the Arab world to encourage them to combat this scourge from one hand, and help them overcome the corruption-related challenges besetting them from the other hand.
Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani International Anti-Corruption Excellence Award was launched in 2016, its first award ceremony was in Vienna on Dec 9, 2016, while the its 2nd session in the United Nations' headquarters in Geneva in 2017, the 3rd session was convened in Malaysia on Dec 7,2018, while the 4th session convened in Rwanda on Dec 9, 2019, and the 5th session was held in Tunisia on Dec 9, 2020.
The ceremony that pays tribute to the winners every year is accompanied by the inauguration of a monument in the form of a huge metal hand, which takes a transparent shape, in a symbol of fighting corruption, integrity and cleanliness, and carrying a message to the corrupted entities to stop pursuing corruption.
The award objectives are associated with the international standards and the best approved practices in the field of good governance and combating of corruption, in contribution to achieving the UN sustainable development goals 2030, specially the goal of establishing peaceful communities where nobody is marginalized in pursuit of achieving the sustainable development and offering the accessibility of all people to justice and building effective institutions that are subject to accountability including all entities at all levels.
The award is primarily intended to be the tool that highlights the optimal and interested measures for the best practices at the global level in combating corruption and evaluates the model experiences in this field in a scope that includes the entire world. Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani International Anti-Corruption Excellence Award is considered the first-of-its-kind at the world's level in the field of combating corruption, and no award has ever been launched at this level, albeit the substantial number of the signed countries that adhered to the relevant UN conventions which grants Qatar the global lead in this field.