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U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre

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Featured content

Closing the donor gap on health corruption: taking bilateral and multilateral agencies’ engagement from policy to practice

Bilateral donors and multilateral agencies can significantly increase the impact of their health aid by directly tackling corruption.

Strengthening multilateral aid oversight: A joint roadmap for anti-corruption safeguards

Donors can curb corruption risks with multilateral organisations by enhancing framework agreements and working together to build coalitions, align standards, and strengthen monitoring.

23 September 2025

The right to be free of corruption: A new frontier in anti-corruption approaches through national courts

Some national courts are framing corruption as a human rights issue, raising prospects for a stand-alone right that could expand accountability and victim protections.

12 September 2025

Integrity and geopolitics: Addressing the China factor in natural resource governance

Geopolitical competition has had mixed effects on Chinese governance standards in overseas natural resource sectors.

Behind bars, beyond justice: confronting corruption in the prison system

The anti-corruption community should view prisons not as the end of justice, but as institutions in urgent need of reform and accountability.

From the blog

Blog
We made a data viz tool tracking enforcement against corruption in the UK. Here’s what we learned.
Findings and lessons from Spotlight on Corruption’s Anti-Corruption Enforcement Tracker – and how other researchers and campaigners could apply them.
12 September 2025
Blog
Unrest in the world’s third largest democracy
Protestors in Indonesia accuse the government of abusing power and securing privileges despite anti-corruption promises.
10 September 2025
Blog
Behind bars, beyond justice: confronting corruption in the prison system
The anti-corruption community should view prisons not as the end of justice, but as institutions in urgent need of reform and accountability.
26 August 2025
Blog
What the Financial Secrecy Index tells us about corruption today
One route to tackling corruption is to close down opportunities for regulatory arbitrage. The 2025 Financial Secrecy Index shows us how.
11 August 2025
Blog
Mapping corruption from the inside: A sectoral study in the Czech Republic
What happens when you ask frontline insiders, not external experts, how corruption really works? A Czech pilot project shows the value – and limits – of going granular.
2 July 2025
Blog
Measuring what matters in a crisis: Reforming corruption risk assessment in emergencies
Crises cause system-wide shifts that demand a different approach to corruption risk assessments – moving away from static models towards context-sensitive and dynamic techniques.
11 June 2025
Blog
From transparency to metrics: Measuring corruption in government contracts
The Global Public Procurement Dataset helps users to uncover corruption ‘red flags’ in government contracting across 42 countries.
21 May 2025
Blog
Anti-corruption as a feminist cause: The gendered dimensions of power abuse
At an online event in March 2025, more than 100 participants discussed strategies to curb corruption while promoting gender equality and social justice.
9 May 2025
Blog
Unseen scars: The devastating impact of corruption on mental health systems in low and middle-income countries
From undue influence to procurement corruption and bribes, falsified medical products, and cronyism, corruption has served to weaken mental health systems, divert resources, and enable the violation of patients’ human rights.
7 May 2025

Latest publications

U4 Brief
Closing the donor gap on health corruption: taking bilateral and multilateral agencies’ engagement from policy to practice
Bilateral donors and multilateral agencies can significantly increase the impact of their health aid by directly tackling corruption.
3 October 2025
Health
Public service delivery
Development cooperation
U4 Helpdesk Answer
Harnessing artificial intelligence (AI) for anti-corruption
Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly being adopted in anti-corruption efforts, enhancing prevention through predictive analytics and improving detection via advanced data and image analysis. However, its effective deployment introduces challenges related to data quality, model transparency, and privacy.
1 October 2025
Anti-corruption basics
U4 Issue
Strengthening multilateral aid oversight: A joint roadmap for anti-corruption safeguards
Donors can curb corruption risks with multilateral organisations by enhancing framework agreements and working together to build coalitions, align standards, and strengthen monitoring.
23 September 2025
Corruption risk management and integrity
Development cooperation
U4 Brief
Reforming money politics to reduce environmental harm
Evidence links political finance to climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution, and reform efforts are emerging – such as civil society monitoring, international transparency initiatives, and national advocacy campaigns.
19 September 2025
Politics of anti-corruption
U4 Issue
Corruption and the critical mining sector in Zambia
Opportunities for intervention include stronger disclosure systems, reform of the Mining Cadastre, support for policymaking and artisanal mining, improved civil society discourse, better agency collaboration, and more.
15 September 2025
Natural resources and energy
Oil, gas, and mining
Illicit financial flows
U4 Issue
The right to be free of corruption: A new frontier in anti-corruption approaches through national courts
Some national courts are framing corruption as a human rights issue, raising prospects for a stand-alone right that could expand accountability and victim protections.
12 September 2025
Human rights
Justice sector
U4 Helpdesk Answer
Corruption in secondary and tertiary education in Central Asia
Acknowledging significant corruption risks like bribery and embezzlement in their secondary and tertiary education systems, Central Asian governments have committed to addressing these issues through various mitigation measures.
9 September 2025
Education
Public service delivery
U4 Helpdesk Answer
Preventing and managing corruption risks in Ecuador’s public administration
Ecuador has introduced new integrity policies to curb corruption risks in public administration, but their implementation remains largely untested.
5 September 2025
Corruption risk management and integrity
U4 Issue
Integrity and geopolitics: Addressing the China factor in natural resource governance
Geopolitical competition has had mixed effects on Chinese governance standards in overseas natural resource sectors.
21 August 2025
Politics of anti-corruption
Natural resources and energy
Corruption risk management and integrity
Private sector

Learning and Events

Workshop

Kenya – Climate change

Nairobi, Kenya

13 October 2025

Register

Event

A shared responsibility to address corruption in health systems: Bilateral and Multilateral perspectives

A side-event to the World Health Summit in Berlin. Join us to explore how bilateral donors and multilateral agencies can collaborate to enhance transparency and accountability in health programmes. This is crucial for ensuring that corruption does not impede progress toward universal health coverage.

World Health Summit, Berlin

13 October 2025

Register

Online course

Gestion du risque de corruption

Cours de 2 semaines dirigé par des experts. Apprenez les principes de base de la gestion des risques de corruption. Ce cours permet aux praticiens du développement d'acquérir des connaissances sur la manière d'identifier et d'agir sur les risques de corruption dans leur travail.

20 October 2025

Register

Register

Become a partner

Online training

Online training

We offer dynamic and time-efficient online courses. Be confident with anti-corruption initiatives in your work.

Workshop events

Workshop events

Our team can help bring momentum to processes. We gather different actors for informed discussions.

Helpdesk for partners

Helpdesk for partners

Send in your corruption-related questions about development programmes, sectors, or countries. A free research service.

Browse our topics

Anti-corruption agencies

How to assess and improve anti-corruption institutions' performance.

Updated 17 July 2025

Anti-corruption basics

The conditions that facilitate corruption and the general implications for development programming.

Updated 24 September 2025

Anti-corruption courts

Find information on why we may need specialised anti-corruption courts including possible designs and performance analyses.

Updated 17 July 2025

Auditing and financial control

Auditing and controls are essential parts of public financial management. Supreme Audit Institutions play a visible role, and support to strengthen these institutions has amplified. These institutions can be subject to political interference, politicisation, and wing-clipping.

Updated 19 May 2025

Budget process

Government income and expenditure are determined and allocated in the budget process. This process is usually divided into four or five stages, and corruption may influence all of them.

Updated 19 May 2025

Civil society

People at large can play an important role in holding power to account and addressing problems of corruption.

Updated 8 July 2025

Our partners

German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development – BMZ

Global Affairs Canada

Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark / Danish International Development Assistance – Danida

Norway

Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation – Norad

Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency – Sida

Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation – SDC

UK Aid – Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office

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The U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre works to reduce the harmful impact of corruption on society. U4 is a permanent centre at Chr. Michelsen Institute in Norway.

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