Policy Brief: Recommendations for donors

Policy Brief: Recommendations for donors

This short Policy Brief introduces and explains our red flags method for analysing corruption risks in aid spent through national procurement systems, and offers some recommendations to donors on how best to curb corruption. We propose three main recommendations: (1) Invest in building better data infrastructure. Not only can this help donors control aid, but it can also empower civil society groups, provide leads for investigative journalists […]

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Download free software to analyse procurement red flags!

Download free software to analyse procurement red flags!

We have been working with the African Data Initiative to develop an easy tool for analysing our datasets. The African Data Initiative created R-Instat, a free, open-source statistical software that is easy to use and does not require statistical training or advanced computer skills. As a result of our collaboration, ADI has added a specific menu for analysing procurement data using our red flag methodology. You can […]

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Ghana workshop: Analysing red flags in procurement

Ghana workshop: Analysing red flags in procurement

What do you get if you cross anti-corruption activists with mathematicians?  It’s no joke. This was exactly what we did in Cape Coast, Ghana, recently, bringing these two groups together to analyse procurement data for evidence of corruption ‘red flags’ in a two-day hackathon at AIMS Ghana. The anti-corruption world has a tendency to pin its hopes on transparency as a solution, and recently in […]

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Getting smart about data helps tackle corruption

Getting smart about data helps tackle corruption

The G20 made tackling corruption a priority in 2017, highlighting in particular the harm caused by corruption in impeding the development of the poorest countries, threatening market integrity and distorting open competition. This damage is nowhere more evident than in public procurement. Public money is wasted, infrastructure is built to poor standards, public services are provided inadequately. Yet tracing corruption in contracting is often very […]

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Data, Software and Talent: Turning Open Data into a useful Anti-Corruption Tool for Africa

Data, Software and Talent: Turning Open Data into a useful Anti-Corruption Tool for Africa

For years, campaigners have lauded the benefits of transparency as a policy solution to corruption. That message was gradually refined as researchers noted that transparency was effective as an anti-corruption tool only if it led to increased accountability, and that this only happened in conditions where the overall institutional environment was conducive. More recently, open data – data about the activities of governments and public […]

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