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Sub-Saharan Africa: Overview of corruption and anti-corruption

Across sub-Saharan Africa, many countries are making considerable progress towards the vision of a democratic, prosperous, and peaceful continent outlined in the African Union’s Agenda 2063. However, gains are threatened by high levels of corruption. Alongside the problem of petty bribery, which is extensive in some parts of the region, the interrelated phenomena of fragility, crony capitalism, and poor governance have resulted in shocking forms of corruption, notably state capture. In response, countries have enacted various anti-corruption legal instruments. Regional organisations, civil society, and the media are also tackling the problem head-on.

19 March 2020
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Sub-Saharan Africa: Overview of corruption and anti-corruption

Main points

  • Global governance indices suggest that the public sector in sub-Saharan Africa is the most corrupt of any region in the world. Many citizens believe that levels of corruption have increased in recent years and are not satisfied with their governments’ anti-corruption efforts.
  • Corrupt practices are deeply intertwined with ongoing conflict and state fragility in some African countries, notably in the Horn of Africa, the Sahel region and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
  • Political corruption is common, and it takes many forms, such as state capture, patronage networks, opaque political party financing, vote buying and unresolved conflicts of interests.
  • Land-based corruption is especially prevalent in the region, and studies have shown that women are particularly vulnerable.
  • Various regional legal instruments have been introduced in the last two decades, with mixed results, while there is a growing number of regional organisations, civil society and media groups involved in anti-corruption work.

Cite this publication


Duri, J.; (2020) Sub-Saharan Africa: Overview of corruption and anti-corruption . Bergen: U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre, Chr. Michelsen Institute (U4 Helpdesk Answer 2020:5)

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About the author

Jorum is a Research Coordinator at Transparency International, with his primary responsibilities at the Anti-Corruption Helpdesk.

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All views in this text are the author(s)’, and may differ from the U4 partner agencies’ policies.

This work is licenced under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

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