Sub-national corruption measurement tools

Abstract

Query

What is the international experience with developing indicators of corruption at local governance level? Please provide examples of corruption measurement tools, particularly tools that can be used by non-experts at sub-national and local levels.

Summary

Decentralisation has been promoted in recent years as an opportunity to make the public sector more responsive and accountable to citizens by bringing government activities closer to the people. However, in countries such as Afghanistan, the expected benefits of decentralisation can be undermined by specific corruption challenges emerging at the local level, including the risk of elite capture and the development of corrupt networks among public officials, citizens and interest groups. Against such a background, there is a need to monitor the prevailing conditions in local institutions on a regular basis as part of a corruption risk mitigation strategy. A number of measurement tools have been developed in recent years for measuring local governance and corruption that can inspire the design of relevant indicators for monitoring local governance in Afghanistan.

Citation

Chêne, M. Sub-national corruption measurement tools. U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre, CMI, Bergen, Norway (2010) 9 pp. [U4 Expert Answer 241]

Sub-national corruption measurement tools

Updates to this page

Published 1 January 2010