About

Collective Action at the Basel Institute on Governance

The story behind the Basel Institute's support for Collective Action against corruption and this online knowledge hub.

Anti-corruption Collective Action takes many forms. At its heart, it is about bringing businesses and other stakeholders together to tackle shared problems of corruption.

Collective Action initiatives and tools can help to:

  • raise standards of integrity in an industry or market;
  • develop self-regulatory standards for specific sectors;
  • solve systemic issues related to corporate bribery and corruption;
  • enhance fair competition and level the playing field between competitors.

Whatever the goal, Collective Action requires trust and a willingness to collaborate constructively. Both are often based on sustained cooperation between stakeholders in the private and public sectors, civil society and international organisations.

Collective Action at the Basel Institute on Governance

The Basel Institute has promoted Collective Action as an effective tool to prevent and combat corruption since its foundation in 2003.

Based in Basel, Switzerland, our team offers practical, independent guidance on how to use Collective Action to promote fair competition and tackle corruption risks. We support companies, governments and civil society organisations worldwide

Our services include:

  • A Helpdesk providing free advice on anti-corruption Collective Action.
  • A Mentoring Programme, offering hands-on support to organisations working with the private sector on corruption issues.
  • Active facilitation of Collective Action initiatives to maximise effectiveness and avoid antitrust issues.
  • Tailored advice on how to set up, structure and manage Collective Action initiatives most effectively.
  • Practical help in setting up sustainable public-private dialogue mechanisms to advocate for policy reforms.
  • Guidance and outreach to relevant partners through our network of contacts in the field.
  • Housing The Wolfsberg Group Secretariat at the Basel Institute headquarters in Switzerland.

About this knowledge hub

The B20 Collective Action Hub is a global resource centre on anti-corruption Collective Action. It offers a range of anti-corruption publications and tools, plus a database of over 280 Collective Action initiatives and projects designed to raise standards of integrity and fair competition.

The B20 Hub was launched in 2013, following a mandate from the B20 group of business leaders for the Basel Institute to develop and maintain this hub in collaboration with our institutional partners. It has developed and expanded over the years thanks to support from our key donors and partners, in particular the Siemens Integrity Initiative.

All resources are freely accessible and a helpdesk function is available for users to ask specific questions.

Vanessa Hans

Director, Private Sector

+41 61 201 18 21vanessa.hans@baselgovernance.org

Vanessa Hans is Director of the Private Sector team at the Basel Institute on Governance. She has held the position since July 2022, having first joined the Basel Institute in January 2020 as Private Sector Specialist.

In her role, she leads a team of compliance and Collective Action specialists, taking a dual approach to engaging and strengthening the private-sector response to corruption risks in business transactions: by advancing anti-corruption Collective Action, and through technical assistance to private corporations and state-owned enterprises.

She regularly advises organisations ranging from small and medium enterprises to multinationals, state-owned enterprises and international organisations on topics relating to governance, ethics and compliance. She also leads the Basel Institute’s work on synergies between corruption and business and human rights as well as in the humanitarian sector.

Vanessa is a Board member of the United Nations Global Compact Network Switzerland and Liechtenstein. She also is a member of the Advisory Group of the Anti-Corruption Initiative for Asia and the Pacific (ACI) of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) as well as the Anti-Corruption Leaders Hub of the OECD under the Global Initiative to Galvanize the Private Sector as Partners in Combatting Corruption and the UNCAC Working Group on Human Rights and Corruption. She is part of the Independent Sustainability Sounding Board of Argor-Heraeus, a Switzerland-based gold refiner.

Prior to joining the Institute, Vanessa was the Managing Director of the French Chamber of Commerce and Industry in the Philippines where she established the first network-wide code of conduct and was appointed Data Privacy Officer. She initiated multi-stakeholder C-level committees addressing challenges across: gender, youth, infrastructure, agribusiness, and market access. Under her leadership, the Chamber won the French public service delegation contract as the only trade agency in the country under Team France Export.

She previously worked at several non-profit organisations focusing on corporate social responsibility and international development strategies.

She holds a Bachelor of Business Administration with a minor in International Relations from HEC Montreal and a Master of Science in Corporate Social Responsibility from the Nottingham University Business School.

Vanessa is a competitive long-distance cyclist and a certified mountain bike instructor.

Scarlet Wannenwetsch

Head, Collective Action

+41 61 205 56 75scarlet.wannenwetsch@baselgovernance.org

Scarlet Wannenwetsch joined the Basel Institute in 2017 and is currently Head of Collective Action. In this role, she is responsible for leading, implementing and expanding the Institute’s Collective Action programme, ensuring its strategic integration across the organisation and advancing its conceptual development and uptake.

She also leads the Collective Action Mentoring Programme and the Institute’s Collective Action activities. These include project managing the implementation of the Siemens Integrity Initiative, as well as leading the Institute’s international policy work on Collective Action, with a particular focus on the Southern African region and ASEAN.

Scarlet also heads the Institute’s engagement with the Business 20 (B20) on corruption and served as Deputy Co-Chair of the Integrity and Compliance Task Force in 2021/22, having previously acted as a network and knowledge partner.

Between 2021 and 2024, she lectured on the Master’s programme in Anti-Corruption Compliance and Collective Action at the International Anti-Corruption Academy.

Prior to joining the Institute, Scarlet gained experience at the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC Germany) and worked as a legal advisor for an international start-up.

She holds a law degree (LLB) from King’s College London and an LLM in Public International Law and Alternative Dispute Resolution from the Free University of Berlin.

Lucie Jones (Binder)

Senior Specialist, Governance and Integrity / Acting Compliance Officer

+41 61 205 56 76lucie.binder@baselgovernance.org

Lucie joined the Basel Institute on Governance as Governance & Integrity Specialist in September 2022. She supports efforts to mainstream Collective Action by producing analytical and policy papers, and leading the development of an index focusing on anti-corruption Collective Action.

Prior to joining the Basel Institute, Lucie was Head of Governance & Strategy at Cochrane, the world’s leading evidence-based healthcare organisation. While at Cochrane, she delivered two organisational strategic plans and a new monitoring & evaluation approach to measure the success and impact of organisational activities. She also has extensive experience in charity governance in the UK.

Lucie holds a master’s degree in Archaeology & Anthropology from the University of Oxford and is working towards chartered status with the Chartered Governance Institute of UK & Ireland. She speaks fluent English and German.

The B20 Collective Action Hub is supported by the Siemens Integrity Initiative.