Anti-corruption agencies (ACAs) have become the institutional cornerstone of combating corruption in many countries. Yet, systematic evidence about whether, or in what conditions they are effective is scant.
U4 senior adviser Dr Sofie Schütte collaborated with Professor Elizabeth David-Barrett and her team from the Global Programme on Measuring Corruption (GPMC) on a 'think-in' in Vienna, to discuss existing and needed tools to measure the capacity and effectiveness of ACAs.
The ‘think-in’ workshop assembled a team of practitioners and academics to debate and discuss the topic over three days in Vienna in June 2023. A GPMC Insights Brief, written after the event, presents guidance to ACA practitioners and policymakers on what existing tools can be used to design and carry out capacity and effectiveness measurement programmes, and what gaps remain. It also outlines investigative performance indicators to aid ACAs in identifying useful metrics to evaluate their performance, and advice about how to interpret them.
It is accompanied by a podcast in which the co-organisers of the 'think-in' Elizabeth David-Barrett and Sofie Schütte reflect on what they learnt from the event, and how it could affect future work in the field.