About U4

The U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre assists donor practitioners to more effectively address corruption challenges through their development support. U4 serves six development agencies: Norad (Norway), DFID (UK), CIDA (Canada), GTZ (Germany), MinBuZa (the Netherlands), and Sida (Sweden)( view partner agencies' contact details) by providing resources and services.

Through this extensive online resource centre, we guide users to relevant anti-corruption resources, including our own applied research (Themes), and we communicate the work of the U4 partner agencies through a searchable database of projects and initiatives. We also offer a Help Desk service and provide online as well as in-country training on anti-corruption measures and strategies for partner agencies and their counterparts.

Who runs U4?
The U4 Resource Centre is operated by the Chr. Michelsen Institute (CMI), Bergen, Norway - a private social science research foundation working on issues of development and human rights. The web server and the core team behind U4 are based at CMI.

The Transparency International Secretariat in Berlin is responsible for the U4 Help Desk.

Background
The Resource Centre was initially established in 2003 as a result of the then 'Utstein-partnership' which begun in 1999 with an initiative taken by the ministers of international development from the Netherlands, Germany, Norway, and the UK to formalise their cooperation. High on the priority list was anti-corruption.

Sweden (Sida) and Canada (CIDA) joined as U4 partners in 2005, and since then the U4 Resource Centre has outlived the original political-level 'Utstein-cooperation', and continues to provide focused, donor relevant information and services to its partner agencies. Belgian Technical Cooperation Agency (BTC) joined in January, 2008, and AusAid (Australia) joined in June 2009.