GI-ACE project aiming to harness the power of social networks to promote positive anti-corruption outcomes among health providers and users through behavioral interventions and dissemination of interventions through trusted and influential social networks.
GI-ACE researchers Dorothy Ndhlovu, Gilbert Siame, and Laura Nkula-Wenz reflect on the Qualitative Action Experiment (QAE) experiment conducted in Lusaka, Zambia, in partnership with the Centre for Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Zambia and the Zambian Institute of Planners.
How might knowledge about the centrality of informal social networks be used to inform the design of innovative anti-corruption approaches?
GI-ACE researchers explore the multitude of ways traders interpret bribery on East African borders. Especially for small-scale traders with perishable goods, the cost and time involved drive traders to seek out shortcuts.
GI-ACE project research in Malawi, Nigeria, and Tanzania shows that anti-corruption agencies’ independence has turned out to be a major impediment.
GI-ACE project on beneficial ownership and corruption in Nigeria investigating financial data to try to locate something that is not apparently observable—laundering the proceeds of corruption through disguising the beneficial owner—by removing from the picture what might be explained legitimately.
Takeaways from GI-ACE workshop on ‘Audit and Anti-Corruption Measures in India.’
Recent fieldwork in Tanzania and Uganda demonstrates the potential for data transparency to improve accountability will depend on commitment, not just to open data but also to pursue accompanying reforms that facilitate oversight and promote fair competition.
October 9 saw our GI-ACE project’s first workshop, with the aim of laying out the research done so far and seeking advice on future lines of enquiry from the project’s advisors and around 20 hand-picked experts. Coming from the worlds of journalism, civil society, politics, law enforcement, academia, and risk management, these experts each have…
Why do some countries keep struggling with high levels of corruption in spite of adopting most, if not all, internationally recommended legal and institutional anti-corruption prescriptions?
It is striking that some of the countries deemed the most corrupt also happen to boast some of the most extensive and comprehensive anti-corruption regimes…at least on paper.
Different methods for studying anti-corruption and other governance priorities have different strengths and weaknesses. The promise of using multiple methods is that in combination they are likely to be more effective at producing insightsabout successful anti-corruption and governance strategies, particularly when context matters. The major strength of randomized field experiments is well recognized — they…
GI-ACE researcher Daniel Haberly’s first project workshop, “Dark Architectures: Advancing Research on Global Wealth Chains,” provided an opportunity to present in detail on the preliminary version of the historical financial secrecy database compiled over the past several months, including a preliminary overview of how the world map (in 61 jurisdictions) of secrecy-related regulation evolved between the years of 2000-2015.
In a new Red Flags Explainer, Liz David-Barrett, Mihaly Fazekas, Agnes Czibik, Bence Toth, and Isabelle Adam draw on their experience of building and analysing datasets of government procurement over the past ten years to answer some Frequently Asked Questions about their work.
In recent years, increased interest in understanding how social norms may play a role in fueling and perpetuating corruption has sparked interesting discussions about what the implications may be for anti-corruption practice. (See, for instance, “Anti-corruption through a social norms lens,” “What Anti-Corruption Practitioners Should Read About Social Norms,“ and “Collective Action on Corruption in…
Recent research in behavioural science has highlighted the importance of patient complaints in the UK National Health Service (NHS) as an indicator of the level of care and patient safety within the hospitals studied. Using information from patients receiving treatment in their job and work conditions, compliance with patient safety standards can be determined, and…
“Dasukigate.” “Cashgate.” “The Tageta Escrow Scandal.” With nicknames that belie their shocking scope and scale, high-level scandals like these have strained capacity and tested the integrity of anti-corruption agencies in Nigeria, Malawi, and Tanzania. These scandals also have exposed gaps in conventional narratives surrounding these countries’ corruption investigations and prosecutions that paint them as anemic,…
A new analysis of corruption and corruption reform in the electricity sectors of Ghana and Kenya suggests a new interpretation of how and why successes against corruption seem so elusive. This analysis makes sense of the apparent paradox that development projects can have positive outcomes whilst being beset with large-scale and ongoing corruption. To what extent is…
It is increasingly widely recognized that many of the enablers of large-scale corruption lie in transnational financial networks and, in particular, offshore secrecy jurisdictions. These secrecy jurisdictions facilitate the international movement and storage of funds acquired through corruption, tax evasion, smuggling, drug trading, and other criminal activities which, in-turn, facilitate further criminal and terrorist enterprise.
The scourge of corruption in urban development has corrosive and far-reaching effects that can hardwire injustice into the fabric of cities and undermine social cohesion and trust within communities.
Effective governance is essential for economic development. Civil servants that are motivated to work hard, serve the public interest, and refrain from engaging in corruption are the cornerstone of effective governance. Yet, even if it is widely accepted that the civil service is a critical area of public sector reform, we lack robust evidence on…
In many countries, donors and governments lose millions of dollars to the theft of medicines. In one audit, more than half of Ugandan government clinics had no antiretroviral (ARV) or tuberculosis (TB) medicine. In other audits, millions of dollars of donated medicines were missing from Zambia’s main medicine warehouse, and tens of millions of dollars…
Citizens in developing countries depend on the state to provide public services, either due to an absence of market provision or because of poverty (Afridi, 2017). Despite the importance of these services, some of the largest opportunities for corruption arise in public service delivery, e.g., in bribes from beneficiaries or procurement contracts. Leakages of funds…
In this GI-ACE project, data is used to develop new proxy indicators of corruption risk, based on ‘red flags’ in the tendering process, and then used to test how patterns of corruption differ across contexts and whether anti-corruption efforts work.
In most of the world, anti-corruption strategies are based on detecting and punishing corrupt acts, for example: Risk management strategies predict the misuse of public funds; Reporting platforms allow citizens to report on corrupt acts; Whistleblower protections encourage oversight of corruption by officials and the public; High-level campaigns target corrupt officials; Yet, the evidence that these strategies are effective at curbing…
In 2007, participants at the 6th National Seminar on Economic Crime in Abuja, Nigeria, were informed that some US$400 billion was estimated to have been stolen from public accounts in Nigeria over a 40-year period (Chatham House Report 2017). More recently, some US$32 billion ‘was lost to corruption’ during the six-year presidency of Goodluck Jonathan that ended…
For decades, improving pan-continental trade has been a critically important goal for African policymakers seeking to develop stronger economies and more collective global clout. On 30 May 2019, an ambitious African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Agreement entered into force. In East Africa, Kenya and Uganda also have announced a new level of cooperation to facilitate…
New project investigates laundering of monies and reputations by professional enablers for African and Central Asian elites Money laundering is a serious impediment to the effectiveness of official development assistance in creating a more prosperous, just, and democratic world. Someone looking to move illegally obtained money can far too easily hide his or her identity…
How do we – organizations and individuals working to strengthen transparency, accountability, and participation – more effectively fight corruption? For many of us, this is perhaps the perennial question.
The Global Integrity Anti-Corruption Evidence (GI-ACE) programme supports 14 research partners around the world in generating actionable evidence that policy makers, practitioners, and advocates can use to design and implement more effective anti-corruption programmes. The Programme has three core themes: addressing the international financial and legal architecture that enables different types of high-level corruption to…
We are delighted to announce a new partnership between Global Integrity (GI) and the UK Department for International Development (DFID): The Global Integrity Anti-Corruption Evidence Programme (GI-ACE).
