Pitfalls of the Empowerment Discourse: Understanding Grades for Sex as Corruption

Development actors are increasingly integrating gender perspectives into anti-corruption policies. This is particularly evident in policies addressing sexual forms of corruption in the education sector, most commonly associated with grades being exchanged for sex. Previous research has pointed to the importance of maintaining a focus on the abuse of entrusted power in cases of sexual corruption. This paper investigates how development actors understand and interpret the roles and actions of the teachers and students in scenarios involving sexual corruption in education. The empirical material is drawn from focus-group discussions with policy professionals in different development organizations. Their discussions shed light on when and why the focus on entrusted power is obscured or silenced, and how this is connected to the attribution of agency to the actors involved in sexual corruption. We suggest that the focus on empowerment and agency of vulnerable groups –core starting points in the contemporary development sector – may clash with the recommended focus on the abuse of entrusted authority in cases of sexual corruption. Furthermore, a well-intentioned perspective advocating the voice and agency of vulnerable actors may have unintended consequences and come at the expense of the accountability of institutions and those exercising entrusted power.