Saudi Arabia and the UN Development Programme launches a new global anti-corruption drive

A new global anti-corruption campaign has been initiated by Saudi Arabia and the UN Development Programme, with funding from the Kingdom extended until 2027. During the UN Convention Against Corruption's 10th state conference session in Atlanta, which took place from December 11–15, Nazaha, the Oversight and Anti-Corruption Authority of Saudi Arabia, and UNDP inked a collaborative venture.

The programme will “strengthen efforts to foster international cooperation to fight corruption and enable countries to track and monitor progress on tackling corruption,” according to a joint press statement, with financial backing and oversight from the Kingdom.

A multi-stakeholder approach will be used to generate evidence-based indicators that will enable nations to track the advancement of their anti-corruption initiatives. In addition, the plan will help stakeholders tackle UN Sustainable Development Goal 16, which is to lessen corruption and illicit money flows, and identify positive policy improvements.

According to the news release, "practitioners and policymakers from the public sector, civil society organisations, academia and the private sector" will be involved in the Global Initiative on the Measurement of Corruption. A progress report on SDG 16 earlier this year discovered data gaps in the assessment of anti-corruption initiatives' global efficacy. In order to close these gaps, the Nazaha-UNDP programme will create new indicators using a "inclusive, open, and consultative process."

"By developing robust and comprehensive indicators... the initiative aims to measure the extent of corruption and evaluate the effectiveness of anti-corruption efforts," stated Mazin bin Ibrahim Al-Kahmous, President of Nazaha.