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.