UNDP Anti-Corruption for Development Programme
About Us
Our Focus
Over the past two decades, significant progress has been made to measure corruption through the development of indicators and methodologies to gauge perception, experience, and the extent of corruption. However, major gaps remain in the availability of objective, actionable, and comparable data. The global movement on corruption/anti-corruption measurement remains fragmented, highlighting the urgent need for greater alignment and coordination to sustain progress and support evidence-based reforms.
Measuring corruption is critical to understanding its drivers, impacts, and trends – and to designing effective responses. By developing reliable, comparable indicators and actionable data, we can strengthen transparency, accountability, and evidence-based policymaking in the fight against corruption.
The Global Initiative on Measuring Corruption, led by UNDP alongside UNODC and IACA, and supported by Nazaha (Saudi Arabia’s Oversight and Anti-Corruption Authority), is spearheading efforts for corruption measurement across different sectors by developing new evidence-based methodologies and tools for measuring corruption that can be used to assess countries’ performance and progress in combating corruption.
Launched in December 2023 at the 10th Session of the Conference of the States Parties (CoSP10) to the UN Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC), this initiative aims to contribute to the implementation of the UN Statistical Framework to Measure Corruption, UNCAC resolutions on measuring corruption. Additionally, the initiative aims to strengthen global discourse and dialogue on objective, open, and evidence-based corruption and anti-corruption measurement.
About the Global Initiative for Measuring Corruption
The Global Initiative for Measuring Corruption seeks to create reliable, evidence-based tools and methodologies to track how countries perform and progress in tackling corruption.
The initiative focuses on three key areas:
- Integrity in public procurement – assessing transparency and accountability in the use of public funds.
- Implementation and effectiveness of global anti-corruption measures – evaluating how well international norms and standards are applied.
- Bribery experiences of businesses – developing more accurate ways to measure bribery risks and experiences.
The work is guided by the Vienna Principles Towards a Global Framework for the Measurement of Corruption and builds on the insights of the IACA Global Programme on Measuring Corruption (GPMC).
Each methodology developed under the initiative will undergo rigorous expert review and validation. The finalized indicators will then be tested using publicly available data—initially from G20 countries and a small number of non-G20 countries—to ensure their robustness, accuracy, and reliability.
The Global Initiative for Measuring Corruption is part of UNDP’s Global Anti-Corruption Programme, which serves as the organization’s main platform for providing policy and programmatic support on anti-corruption. Through this programme, UNDP coordinates its anti-corruption work internally—across regional hubs and country offices—and externally with key global and national partners.
With one of the largest Global Policy Networks (GPN) operating in over 170 countries, UNDP integrates anti-corruption efforts across multiple sectors and regions. These efforts contribute directly to achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development by:
- Embedding anti-corruption measures in public service delivery;
- Strengthening institutional capacity to prevent and address corruption;
- Leveraging technology and innovation to promote integrity; and
- Advancing global knowledge and advocacy on anti-corruption.
Partners
A central repository that brings together anti-corruption indicators and methodologies to provide reliable data to inform dialogue, support collaboration, and guide evidence-based policymaking.
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and United Nations System Staff College (UNSSC) have partnered to offer the first worldwide online course on the key role anti-corruption plays in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
UNODC
As per article 63 of the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC), the Conference of the States Parties was established to improve the capacity of States to implement the Convention, to enhance cooperation among States in achieving objectives of the Convention, and to promote and review the implementation of the Convention. The Conference meets every two years and adopts resolutions and decisions in furtherance of its mandate.
IACA
The International Anti-Corruption Academy (IACA) is an international organization and post-secondary educational institution based in Laxenburg, Austria. Through education, training, research, and cooperation, IACA empowers professionals and provides technical assistance for stakeholders seeking to strengthen their anti-corruption and compliance regimes.
