NEW ITEMS

Interesting new research on quantifying corruption losses by sector. Here

Spanish language defence review "Frenar la corrupción en Defensa y las Fuerzas Militares: Experiencia y estrategias de la reforma del sector". Here

Mark Pyman "Taking a 'whole sector' approach to tackling corruption in the defense sector". Chapter 10 in Ethical Dilemmas in the Global Defense Industry, edited by Daniel Schoeni and Tobias Vestner. Oxford University Press. Published April 2023, available now as ebook and as printed publication.

Water professionals say preventing and tackling corruption is not part of their role. Global Anticorruption Blog: Corruption in Water Resources Management? Not Our Job

New research in the water sector and related climate change; USA and Mexico. Here. and Here.

SFRA - a mental model for front-line reformers here

Strategy, Scale and Substance in corruption reform here

TI's 20 year effort on defence & security corruption reform here

Addressing collusive contracting in electricity here

Mitchell Watkins and Mushtaq Khan from SOAS University of London (SOAS-ACE) show how small subsidies in Bangladesh's electricity sector can reduce investor risk, increase competition and save billions of dollars for governments and consumers.

Reducing corruption in African agriculture starts with the Seed here

Policing after the death of George Floyd here

Telecoms - is it the most corrupt sector?  here

Shouldn't law firms all have compliance programmes?  here

Guidance for front-line reformers


We enable better outcomes to be achieved by those in front-line roles – whether politicians, leaders, managers, civic groups, company executives or others. Where corruption is a major constraint, we help them devise politically & technically feasible options.

The key to better anti-corruption strategies is to conceive corruption reform differently. Think of it as a different mental model. Mental models are the images, assumptions and stories that we carry in our mind about every aspect of our world. They are often tacit and unexamined, below the surface, like icebergs. Yet they determine our behaviour.

In corruption reform, the front-line mindset is often that Corruption is a gigantic problem, woven into our context. Tackling it in my job will hurt me. I will target my energies elsewhere. Partly true, of course, but in working across many countries and sectors, we have identified an alternative approach.

Use SFRA

CurbingCorruption has re-thought how people in front-line situations can develop useful anti-corruption strategies. The result is called SFRA, which stands for Sectors Focus Reformulation Approach. Click here to see how to use it.

SFRA enables you to

  • better understand tackling corruption within your particular sector
  • focus on the specific corruption issues: disaggregate them, analyse them & triage them
  • generate a shared understanding about which could be tackled, 
  • generate a range of politically and tactically feasible strategy options
  • draw on the proliferation of international anti-corruption initiatives

Watch this five minute overview

Sectors are the starting point

Corruption issues and remedies are usually best addressed at sector level, not at whole-of-government level

Why? Front-line reformers understand their sector (health, education, telecoms, policing, etc). They understand the economic incentives that drive their sector, the language of their sector, the social norms that govern peoples’ behaviour, the political specificities of the sector. There is also usually ownership and pride among those working in any given sector, powerful motivators if ways can be found to harness them. Even in the toughest corruption environments, where progress may only be possible in tiny steps, there are many sector improvement measures that can help, and which can form the basis of a much larger improvement when circumstances change.

Click the box below for reform experience and strategies in each sector

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