How Transparency International fought corruption in 2023

• We guided global resolutions to effectively address key corruption issues. Our joint advocacy strengthened commitments by states parties to the UN Convention against Corruption on cleaning up business, revealing the secretive owners of companies, protecting the public’s resources, whistleblowing and gender. For the first time at the global level, this resolution recognises sexual corruption – “sextortion” – as a form of corruption, one that mostly affects women and girls.
• We prepared communities for the largest election year in history. With countries covering more than half the world’s population going to the polls in 2024, we nearly doubled the amount of publicly accessible data on politicians’ financing, activities and interests in the EU, to give advocates and journalists the crucial information they need to drive reforms and enable voters to hold their representatives accountable. We also secured stronger legislative frameworks against political corruption in the Caribbean, Africa and Europe.
• We strengthened anti-money laundering proposals in Europe. In the lead-up to the EU’s 6th Anti-Money Laundering Directive, we successfully persuaded the European Parliament to adopt our proposals on beneficial ownership transparency, among other key issues, mitigating the setbacks brought by the Court of Justice of the European Union’s 2022 decision to prevent public access to beneficial ownership information. Now that the directive has been finalised, it represents a huge step forward in the global fight against dirty money.
• We helped people on every continent to safely report corruption and create change. Providing safe reporting mechanisms and legal advice, our Advocacy and Legal Advice Centres worked with 7,480 victims and witnesses of corruption to help them speak up and create systemic change through our case-based advocacy. We also significantly strengthened whistleblower protection in Austria, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Czechia, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain.
• We used the world’s best-known anti-corruption tool to expose the connections between corruption and conflict. Our Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) drew the attention of millions to the vicious cycle of corruption and conflict. We also took this opportunity to highlight the “trouble at the top”, pointing out the role of corruption enablers – largely based in countries that score well on the index – who launder dirty money and provide other services necessary for corruption to flourish.
• We pushed justice systems to start proceedings against perpetrators and enablers of corruption. With our partners in the Global Anti-Corruption Consortium, we filed 19 legal submissions on cross-border corruption in 13 different jurisdictions. As a result, authorities opened at least five official investigations and sanctioned five individuals. Investigations included those implicating the former President of Senegal and his associates.
• We made it riskier for officials to accept bribes from foreign companies. Following our campaigning and coalition building, US lawmakers passed the Foreign Extortion Prevention Act, the largest expansion of the country’s foreign bribery laws in almost 50 years. In addition to pursuing companies that pay bribes abroad, the US will now pursue foreign officials who accept them, so that public resources are better protected.

41,000,000+ people reached by worldwide media coverage on the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), covering stories on corruption and conflict.

7,480 people supported through our Advocacy and Legal Advice Centres (ALACs).

93,000+ media articles highlighting our movement and emphasising to millions worldwide the need to fight corruption.

65 countries where our ALACs provided free, confidential advice to victims and witnesses of corruption.

264 corruption-related legal submissions, made to hold wrongdoers accountable.

81,477 unique users of Integrity Watch platforms on political integrity data in 15 EU countries.

• Following our US chapter’s advocacy, the US Treasury Department finalised the Corporate Treasury Act, introducing the first US requirement to collect beneficial ownership information. The department also announced its intention to end the decades-long “temporary” exemptions from anti-money laundering rules for the real estate and private investment sectors.

• Transparency International engaged in regional advocacy surrounding the European Union, Latin America and the Caribbean (EU-LAC) Summit. We ensured that national and cross-border corruption and civic space were discussed on the summit day for civil society and addressed in the summit’s final declaration.
• Our chapters built the capacity of 35 young people from 15 Latin American and Caribbean countries, better equipping them to conduct social audits and corruption investigations.

• A preliminary report by a European Parliament Committee substantially incorporated our recommendations on the proposed Directive on Combatting Corruption, including our key priorities on integrity in politics, grand corruption, victims’ compensation and non-trial resolution. If these provisions remain in the final directive, they will represent a massive step forward for the anti-corruption agenda in the EU.
• Ireland and the Netherlands abolished their golden visa schemes and Portugal introduced new restrictions that banned acquisition of a golden visa through real estate. These steps are in line with the 2023 European Parliament report on golden visas, to which we heavily contributed.

• Through our extensive capacity building, networking support and seed funding, Iraqi civil society organisations are now better connected to each other, with a stronger grasp on essential anti-corruption diagnostics and closer working relationships with the private and public sectors. We also strengthened civil society in Lebanon by bringing together 109 diverse organisations for cross-sectoral advocacy initiatives, structured dialogues with the EU, and assessment of Lebanon’s Reform, Recovery and Reconstruction Framework.
• At COP28 in Dubai, our collective advocacy led the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to take steps towards regulating undue influence in climate policy, through introducing transparency requirements for COP participants.

• Following our advocacy for transparency and accountability, the African Union recognised and addressed corruption in its Land Governance Strategy. We also collaborated with our chapters in Uganda and Kenya to develop anti-corruption proposals for national land policy. The results were particularly promising in Kenya, where our chapter’s recommendations were incorporated into the National Land Commission’s recommended national land policy.
• We helped protect vulnerable Sahel communities from the impacts of climate change, through our recommendations on the governance of the Great Green Wall (GGW) regarding transparency, participation, integrity and accountability. These influenced the new African Union GGW strategy 2024-2034.

• We published a landmark report on gender and sextortion, Corruption Through a Gendered Lens, and remain the only organisation with a comprehensive dataset on sexual corruption in the region. We researched the report through consulting communities in Cambodia, Fiji and Indonesia, and also in Sri Lanka, where our chapter secured the criminalisation of sextortion.
• We partnered with our chapters in Sri Lanka and the US to build pressure on the International Monetary Fund to include governance reforms in its debt restructuring agreement with Sri Lanka, which had previously been denied.
• Our Mongolian chapter helped ensure greater transparency in political finance, and less domination of political parties by a few individuals, by guiding a new law on political parties.

^{Transparency International’s 113 independent chapters and partners around the world create and implement their own national strategies, while also joining forces on critical issues to form the leading movement in the fight against corruption. This article showcases the work of the Transparency International Secretariat, which coordinates the broader movement worldwide, spearheads global and joint advocacy, gathers best practices, conducts world-class research, and provides financial and technical support to our chapters.}