Third appointment for ODD&THEKEDGERS, a meeting with distinguished Mechanical Engineer Mr. Emmanuel Alifierakis, Co-Founder and Vice President of Hellenic Anti-Corruption Organization (H.AC.O), a Civil Society Organization (CSO), non-profit, founded on 25 October 2016, placed in Athens, Greece. This meeting was organized because the Board of H.AC.O is fully embracing and supports all youth initiatives which are aiming in making our world better within the SDGs framework.
I. LET’S HAVE A LOOK ON HELLENIC ANTI-CORRUPTION ORGANIZATION
H.AC.O has been instituted by virtue of UNCAC and CoE’s conventions against corruption, which stipulate that each state shall take appropriate measures, within its means and in accordance with fundamental principles of its domestic law, to promote the active participation of individuals and groups outside the public sector, such as civil society, in the prevention of and the fight against corruption and to raise public awareness regarding the existence, causes and gravity of and the threat posed by corruption.
H.AC.O’s mission is to educate society on the negative consequences of corrupted practices in social and economic life. In order to accomplish its mission, the Organization is elaborating and drafting innovative proposals addressed mainly to the Public Sector, in order to implement transparency policies in their internal regulations that will raise accountability and will strengthen liability.
H.AC.O is unique under many aspects and its emblem contains several different symbolisms:
• Ω ΙΒ’ LXXIII embedded in the emblem is the acronym of the law case based on which has been issued the 1st ever whistleblower assignment to an employee in Greece. This employee is Mr. Alifierakis and Mr. Kousoulos has been his Lawyer. Both then, they have created H.AC.O.
• Fleur de lys is a renowned symbol which contains life’s greatest values (Duty to God and Country, Duty to Self, Duty to Others) and that was the reason to be placed in the centre of the emblem.
• The circle is chosen wisely because the starting and ending point is the world Hellenic, meaning that all their actions have as target the benefit of Greece. As Mr. Alifierakis added is that the name you choose must be identical to the cause you serve
• Black and white have a clear meaning, either you support corrupted practices, or you are opposing to them. A simple dilemma, which by the way can improve our life if we choose the second one.
The 8 professionals of H.AC.O, by assisting Greece’s Government in promoting transparency policies and the tackling of corruption, help to ultimately secure the sustainable development of Greece under the UN principles.
I.1. HELLENIC ANTI-CORRUPTION ORGANIZATION’S ACTIVITY AREA
H.AC.O's activity area is large due to the fact that corruption concerns many sectors of social and economic life. According to the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC), corruption is an insidious plague that has a wide range of corrosive effects on societies. It undermines democracy and the rule of law, leads to violations of human rights, distorts markets, erodes the quality of life and allows organized crime, terrorism and other threats to human security to flourish.
H.AC.O’s initial activity area was on whistleblowers protection and on the protection of employees from exposure to workplace hazard. An issue raised several times by the Board of Directors is the codification of all anti-corruption laws, domestic or International and European, into a single code, accompanied by its own independent criminal, civil and administrative procedural code. Moreover, the existence of a code of conduct – anti corruption code – anti discriminatory code – code of ethics, ... is a serious issue for H.AC.O, because through them you can easily trace where the breach has occurred and report it. Furthermore, H.AC.O has presented to several municipalities of Attica Region the necessity to implement transparency policies in their functions to upgrade their internal regulations, however, this action is still pending for approval.
In conclusion, H.AC.O works in support of any Greek Government on the preservation of human, professional, individual rights and social justice, along with the respect for International Treaties, and opposes to any kind of prejudice, discrimination, xenophobia, and racism.
I.2. THE 10 PRINCIPLES OF THE UN GLOBAL COMPACT LINKAGES TO THE 17 SDGs
H.AC.O is committed to preserve and promote the 10 principles of UN GLOBAL COMPACT since November 2016 and consequently to the achievement of the 17 SDGs, which are derived from the above principles. H.AC.O by its commitment and its statute is absolutely legitimized in promoting or better is qualified to draft the anti-corruption framework which will be the base to build up the strategy on accomplishing the 17 SDGs.
The Board of H.AC.O strongly believes that principle 10 of UN Global Compact is correlated or influencing all 17 SDGs and not only SDG 3, 10, 16 & 17 as indicated in the official configuration:
II. HELLENIC ANTI-CORRUPTION ORGANIZATION COMMITMENTS FOR SUSTAINABILITY
For H.AC.O, sustainability is synonymous to social justice, public awareness and evolution. For over 100 years of industrial evolution, all rules of sustainability were violated because only in a few states globally was demonstrated respect to nature, to life, to environment,... Thus, at the present, it is difficult to heal at once the outcomes of ruthless abusiveness. More, the Board of H.AC.O acknowledges the key role of the next generations, the youth that is active, in troubleshooting these irregularities with the assistance of the more experienced who can train them on pasts wrongdoings. In addition, H.AC.O has proposed a very challenging project for accomplishing the 17 SDGs and as Organization they declared their vision as their mission.
II.1. PRESERVE THE 10 PRINCIPLES OF THE UN GLOBAL COMPACT
UNITED NATIONS is an organization that issues the general guidelines based on which sustainability must be approached. UN is impossible to issue a guideline for each State Member separately, as many countries provide false data in order to cover their internal shortcomings. Then, the core of UN Global Compact 10 principles has been codified to 4 categories (anti-corruption, human & labour rights and environment):
So, the first action to be taken by a Member State is to ensure that in its judiciary system there are severe provisions to sanction breaches of the above 4 categories. If a Member State is lacking in protecting these 4 categories, it is apparent that there is no possibility to succeed in accomplishing the 17 SDGs.
II.2. IMPLEMENT THE 17 SDGs
H.AC.O’s role in the implementation of the 17 SDGs is to assist the Greek Government in promoting transparency policies mainly in the Public Sector. This is the key point for H.AC.O in order a State to start accomplishing the 17SDGs. Corruption puts at high risk the implementation of the 17 SDGs because as higher is the corruption rate of a State, so lower is the quality in public health, infrastructure, education, ..., with resulting over taxation and the creation of black market which in turn produces black money and by sequence money laundering, abusive behaviours and bureaucracy, all one by one prime enemies of sustainability.
More specifically, H.AC.O is committed to promote the 10 principles of UN Global Compact. On those principals are connected the 17 SDGs. By that and due to its statute, H.AC.O can play an effective role in the accomplishment of 17SDGs.
To discuss for SDGs, first, you must elaborate a profound social & economic analysis of the State you are about to implement your SDGs’ project and to prioritize the State's needs. For example, in an EU State top priority cannot be SDG 2 No hunger, but eventually SDG 5 Gender equality.
H.AC.O’s proposal for High Risk Countries as Greece refers to a prototype Sustainable Smart Park. This Park is divided into 6 zones, and in each of them is applied the 17 SDGs' philosophy.
For example, ZONE 1 will include controlled entrance, outside Mega Parking for workers and visitors, City Police, Cybercrime Unit, Hospital, Smart (green) Bus to move within the Park and a Public Administration Centre for fast service to enterprises and citizens within 48 hours. By keeping private cars outside the Park and providing electric buses for the inside transportation needs, it is ensured no traffic and no gas emissions, which result to goal 3 good health and well-being, because traffic causes tension and stress to the individuals and reduces their capacity for productive work. The provision of an electrical bus system results furthermore to SDG 11 Sustainable cities and communities. For the purposes of SDG 3 Good health and well-being in ZONE 1 will be placed a state-of-the-art hospital with research laboratories and innovative clinic methods and a transplant division, which will cover all medical sectors, plus health tourism. By that everyone will have access to a top-notch health system. For the purposes of SDG 16 Peace and justice, in ZONE 1 will be placed additionally a Public Administration Centre that will host all Public Services and the Region’s Services in whose jurisdiction this Park belongs. To tackle petty corruption, the 10th Principle of the UN Global Compact in conjunction with SDG 16, the citizens will have no access to this infrastructure but only to Citizens Centre Service which will deal with their applications. This provision applies mainly to aged citizens who are not familiar with modern applications, like internet, ... All the rest transactions will be online and any citizen will have his own ID, by which he will have access to all his files, public documents and services. Thus, this concept reflects also to SDG 8 Decent work and economic growth, SDG 9 Industry, innovation and infrastructure and SDG 11 Sustainable cities and communities.
In ZONE 2 will be placed skyscrapers to headquarters to restart economy in a business-friendly environment. Additionally, in this zone will be placed a modern Courthouse, the premises of the Judiciary Chambers, a prototype school to cover the needs of the nearby municipality and 3 innovative museums. Moreover, all retail stores will be housed in a modern Mall within this Zone. In this way, it is ensured the accomplishment of SDGs 4, 8, 9, 11, 16, 17. Especially, SDG 17 Partnerships for the goals is at the core of the park, as it relies to the creation of different European Economic Investment Groupings to operate inside the Park.
In ZONE 3 will be hosted Industrial activities of light nuisance along with Integrated solutions of waste treatment and energy production. This relies to SDG 9 Industry, Innovation and infrastructure.
In ZONES 4&5 will be placed the Thematic and Recreational Centre of the Park while ZONE 6 will we used as space available for possible construction of sports facilities or research centres.
As Mr. Alifierakis disclosed us, there is an upcoming publication on H.AC.O’s Sustainable Smart Park, with interesting details about its concept! France could be the first one to apply this concept into its territories with the idea that innovation is the solution.
III. HELLENIC ANTI-CORRUPTION ORGANIZATION AND THE KEDGERS
III.1. COULD THE HELLENIC ANTI-CORRUPTION ORGANIZATION BE YOUR NEXT EXPERIENCE?
Beside the purpose to make Kedgers (Kedge Business School’s students) aware of the Sustainable Development Goals, ODD&THEKEDGERS aims to inform the managers of tomorrow of responsible opportunities abroad in the associative, private and public sectors. Beyond labels and stereotypes, Mr. Alifierakis as an individual and as a professional - founder of H.AC.O, embraced our cause and realized the great potential of KEDGE BUSINESS SCHOOL’s students! At the end of our interview with Mr. Alifierakis, we have not hesitated to ask some questions for you in order to know to whom this organization could turn for a professional experience abroad.
H.AC.O’s will, as expressed by Mr. Alifierakis, is to strengthen the collaboration between H.AC.O and KEDGE BUSINESS SCHOOL. Among the proposals, H.AC.O is ready to travel to France for giving us a lecture on the topic of SDGs. Moreover, they can provide to the KEDGE BUSINESS SCHOOL’s students a paid experience in Athens as part of our educational program. This is an opportunity not to be missed in the anti-corruption activity area!
III.2. PRECIOUS WORDS OF Mr. ALIFIERAKIS FOR THE STUDENTS THAT WE ARE AT KEDGE
Before leaving, let’s soak up our interviewee's advice!
“In order to have success, it’s really important to collaborate with the doers, i.e. people with technical backgrounds with humanitarian or subject matter knowledge and with businesspeople. There is no doubt that groups of people from different backgrounds and disciplines have much more abilities to achieve strong changes in a common cause than groups consisting of individuals of one only discipline and coming from one only background” - E. Alifierakis
“Societies oxygen and evolution is based on leaders that can create leaders chosen wisely from the youth. We the elders possess wisdom, life and professional experience. Youth possesses energy and lust for life. We must combine these characteristics to make our world better. We have the historical responsibility to do so. Give space to the young people to think free and don’t poison their mind, let them love and not to hate, let them create and not destroy, learn them respect and not disregard. This is how sustainability can be accomplished.” - I. Kousoulos
Last advice but not the least, and we sure you will understand why!
“International projects to make links and create the difference like ODD&THEKEDGERS are crucial, the Hellenic Anti-Corruption Organization recommends to keep going like this and continue this project in the future” - E. Alifierakis
References
For more information, please visit the websites:
HELLENIC ANTI CORRUPTION ORGANIZATION (COMMUNICATION ON ENGAGEMENT 2016, UN GLOBAL COMPACT)