Contextual Choices in Fighting Corruption: Lessons Learned

Fighting corruption has long been a high priority for Norwegian and international development cooperation. This work includes efforts directed at reducing corruption in the delivery of aid, at country level, and at the international policy level.

The present study is one of three recent studies about corruption commissioned by Norad’s evaluation department. Published in 2008, a literature review of how effectively  corruption is currently fought revealed that results are sometimes disappointing. The study was commissioned together with the Asian Development Bank, the Department for International Development (UK), Danida (Denmark), Sida (Sweden) and the Swedish Agency for Development Evaluation. A joint external evaluation commissioned by the same agencies and to be published shortly, has looked at support to fighting corruption in developing countries.

Corruption is a subject that can be approached by different disciplines. The sometimes disappointing results of current approaches have stimulated a discussion about our understanding of the basis for fighting corruption and the possible need for new approaches.