18th International Anti-Corruption Conference

Tackling corruption is an essential part of to ensuring that governments are responsive to, and effective in, delivering for all citizens. Open government approaches – promoting more transparent, responsive, and participatory governments - make it harder for corruption to flourish. They ensure that information is made available and that citizens have explicit ways to monitor, thereby not just facilitating prevention of corruption but also facilitating ease of investigation and prosecution where necessary. Open government approaches to tackling corruption also recognize that civil society can be a partner to governments, lending their expertise to advance implementation, and mobilizing citizens to be the eyes and years of government.

This session, co-led by the Government of Georgia and the Open Government Partnership, explores some innovative ways that countries have used open government approaches to tackle corruption Over 75 national and 20 local governments are part of the Open Government Partnership, through which they are working with civil society to advance their anti-corruption agenda. For example, OGP countries have made commitments related to open contracting, transparency in natural resource governance, citizens monitoring of budgets, institutionalizing social accountability for delivery of public services to identify and plug leakages in essential government programs. The Government of Georgia, having just completed its tenure as the Co-Chair of OGP, will share experience of developing innovative ways to prevent and fight against corruption in public services.

The panel will also explore how countries piloting different anti-corruption reforms are linking their OGP commitments to other global dialogue on anti-corruption, such as SDGs, G20, OECD, or using their OGP action plans for promote accountability for implementation of their 2016 UK anti-corruption summit announcements. The conversation led by ministers, senior civil servants, civil society leaders, experts from international organizations will explore challenges and opportunities of tackling corruption through open government approaches.