International Cooperation

What can be done to make better use of data to fight corruption?

This was the question at the first Global Conference on Harnessing Data to Improve Corruption Measurement, jointly organised by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the International Anti-Corruption Academy (IACA) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

The world's first conference on improving and coordinating corruption measurement was held at Vienna International Centre from 31 August to 1 September 2023. Around 600 people attended, 339 of them online.

The conference was opened by a high-profile international panel from the anti-corruption field that included Mathias Vogl, Director General at the Austrian Federal Ministry of the Interior in his capacity as Vice Chairperson of IACA. The subsequent panel discussions dealt with IACA's Global Programme on Measuring Corruption, with some states presenting their approach to corruption measurement. The user perspective was also addressed, i.e. the demands that different actors place on corruption research, e.g. anti-corruption authorities, politics and civil society.

The second day of the conference first dealt with the benefits of peer review mechanisms, such as the UNODC Implementation Review Group. This was followed by an explanation of ways and means to try and measure the effectiveness of anti-corruption bodies and policies. Another discussion panel dealt with the topic of "Limitations in measuring corruption".

Finally, the conference addressed the use of various different technologies to measure corruption. Discussions included the relevance of validity and different types of data analysis.