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San José, Costa Rica, Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2006, Vol. 6, No. 221

Corruption and poverty linked in new Transparency survey

By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
and special reports

Transparency International, an anti-corruption study group based in Berlin, Germany, says in its annual survey that corruption is perceived as a serious problem in three quarters of the 163 countries studied.

The organization says corruption is widespread throughout the world. It is at its worst in Africa and least prevalent in northern Europe. This year's rankings finds Haiti as the most corrupt country, followed by Iraq, Guinea and Burma. Last year Bangladesh and Chad tied for the dubious honor. Oil-rich but conflict-ridden Iraq dropped 23 places in the latest compilation.

Costa Rica was ranked 55th overall and 7th among the nations of the Americas. Canada was 14th worldwide and the United States was 20th.

Pamamá to the south was 84th and Nicaragua to the north was tied at 111th place with Guatemala and Paraguay.

Speaking generally of all countries, David Nussbaum, Transparency International's chief executive, says there is a clear link between high levels of corruption and poverty. The report blames intermediaries from rich countries who often help local elites launder money and profit from assets looted from the state. "Corruption is an extremely serious problem not just for the country but above all for the people who live there and whose daily lives are damaged and curtailed by the prevalence of corruption," he said.

Transparency International has been conducting annual corruption surveys for 11 years. Its report is compiled from numerous surveys of business people and country analysts who are asked for their perception of a country's corruption.

Countries are scored on a scale of one to 10. The higher the number the less corrupt the country. Finland, Iceland, New Zealand and Denmark scored 9.5 or higher. A score below five indicates that corruption is a serious problem. Only two African countries, Mauritius and Botswana, had scores above five. Costa Rica has 4.1.

The United States slipped three notches and scored 7.3, the same as Chile and Belgium and two places behind France. Last year the United States ranked number 17 with a score of 7.6. Russia is ranked in the rampant corruption category with a score of 2.5, while China was in the middle, ranking 70th. Estonia has the best rank of any former Soviet republic with a score of 6.7 and a rank of 24.

The correlation between corruption and poverty is again in evidence in the results for the Americas, the organization said. In countries such as Haiti, Ecuador and Honduras, with highest levels of perceived corruption, corruption continues to be one of the biggest obstacles to effectively fight poverty, the study added.

The results again call attention to the need for greater efforts to strengthen democratic institutions and to install functioning systems of control and mutual accountability that ensure public resources are used effectively, said Transparency.

The index shows substantially higher scores for countries with relatively strong democratic institutions, such as Canada and the United States, but also notably for Chile, Costa Rica and Uruguay, said the organization, adding that as recent scandals show, they too must continue to strengthen their institutions. There is, for example, a strong sense in the United States that corruption is on the rise in Congress, with special interests able to buy access and Congress doing little to police itself, the organization said.

Kids with early iron deficiency bear consequences for years, study here says

By the University of Michigan news service

Children who suffered from severe, chronic iron deficiency as infants are disadvantaged with respect to learning and behavior as they enter adolescence, even though their current iron and growth status is excellent, according to a University of Michigan study involving children in Costa Rica.

Roughly 25 percent of all babies in the world have iron deficiency anemia and many more have iron deficiency without anemia.

Researchers, led by Dr. Betsy Lozoff, director of the University of Michigan Center for Human Growth and Development and professor of pediatrics, have been conducting a study over time of 191 infants born in 1981 to 83 in a lower-middle class community in Costa Rica. The infants, who were screened and treated for iron deficiency, had been previously re-evaluated at 5 years of age.

Recently, 167 of them were re-evaluated at ages 10 to 13. The most recent evaluation included measures of cognitive and motor functions, scholastic achievement, and behavioral problems. The results were reported last month at the American Pediatric Society Meeting in Washington, D.C.

"At the five-year follow-up, we found that children who

had had severe, chronic iron deficiency as infants tested lower than the children who had had better iron status on a variety of measures — visual-motor integration, quantitative or numerical concepts, visual matching, and performance IQ.

"Unfortunately, the trends continued at ages 10-13 and had a negative effect on their scholastic achievement scores," Professor Lozoff said. "Although all of them were in the 'normal range,' we found that the children who had severe, chronic iron deficiency now scored lower on standardized achievement tests — about 7 points lower on tests of reading, writing and arithmetic, with particularly marked differences in written expression.

"Sub-tests of IQ measures also determined that they had acquired less general knowledge of the world and were less able to do abstract reasoning. Their motor scores also continued to be lower," Professor Lozoff said.

The researchers will follow the children over the next five years, examining the impact of severe chronic iron deficiency in infancy on classroom grades, retention, need for special education or tutoring, and school dropout rates.

Among Professor Lozoff's colleagues on the recent follow up study is Elias Jimenez, director of research, Hospital Nacional de Niños in San José.

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