G20 Position Paper: Financial integrity for sustainable development and inequality reduction

Brazil’s G20 presidency has identified sustainable development and inequality reduction as top priorities for the Rio Leaders’ Summit in November. This is not the first time that sustainable development and inequalities have received high billing on the G20’s agenda. In previous years, discussions on sustainable development led to the recognition that corruption is a challenge to achieving broader goals.

Corruption undermines sustainable development. It hinders the fight against hunger, poverty, inequality and climate change. Meanwhile, coordinated action by G20 leaders to fight corruption remains elusive. Without direct engagement from G20 leaders, corruption has too often been treated as a lower-order concern within the priorities of G20 presidencies, leaders’ communiqués and conversations outside of the Anti-Corruption Working Group.

Until leaders prioritise corruption, the G20’s agenda for sustainable development and inclusive growth will be fragile and weak. To break this cycle of inertia, anti-corruption efforts must be brought in from the margins and elevated as an area for genuinely meaningful discussion and action among G20 leader declarations, in 2024 and beyond.

This position paper outlines the ways that corruption undermines sustainable development and efforts to reduce inequalities, and calls on the G20 to:

1. End financial secrecy and finally deliver effective regimes of beneficial ownership transparency.
2. Enact effective regulation and supervision of financial system gatekeepers, without whose help corrupt officials and criminals would not be able to hide and enjoy their illicit wealth.
3. Strengthen international cooperation and intelligence sharing to prevent, detect and prosecute cross-border corruption.