Research themes
Our research is organised around key themes that examine how corruption operates across global systems, sectors, and governance levels – providing the evidence base for smarter, targeted interventions.
Latest publications
Insights and evidence from the frontlines of anti-corruption research – highlighting what’s changing, why it matters, and what works.
Madagascar at a crossroads: breaking the cycle of state capture
An analysis of Madagascar’s 2025–26 political upheaval, exploring how state capture has shaped governance, the opportunities and risks of the current transition, and lessons from global efforts to dismantle entrenched captor networks.
The Kleptocratic Enterprise: Lessons from organised crime to target transnational corruption and strengthen asset recovery in the UK
Highlighting a disconnect between the UK’s ambition to be a global leader in the fight against corruption and illicit finance and its weak track record in confiscating assets derived from kleptocracy, a new research paper by Maria Nizzero, John Heathershaw…
Public procurement datasets underpinning the project on corruption risks and natural disasters
The project “The Corrupting Effect of Political Connections in Public Procurement through Crises” is releasing datasets on public tenders across 13 countries: Bangladesh, Brazil, Bulgaria, Chile, Dominican Republic, France, Georgia, Indonesia, Italy, Kenya, Paraguay, Peru, and Ukraine. Alongside the republished structured data gathered…
Challenges in addressing illicit finance in the Kenyan real estate sector
Illicit finance continues to pose a significant threat to the integrity of Kenya’s real estate sector. Although Kenya has addressed gaps in its anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) laws and deficiencies identified in the 2022 Eastern…
Kenya’s Real Estate Ecosystem
This report maps Kenya’s real estate ecosystem to understand how illicit finance enters the property market—an issue highlighted by Kenya’s 2024 FATF grey listing. It analyses five groups of actors (sellers, intermediaries, buyers, influencers, and rule-makers) and shows how weak…
Shadow Economies: The Rise of Illicit Networks and Alternative Markets in Sanctions Circumvention
This paper examines how illicit financial flows (IFFs) in the Western Balkans and Black Sea regions have surged in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Using trade and econometric analysis, it estimates that IFFs doubled to USD 31 billion…
GI ACE across the globe
Brazil
- Civil service reform and anti-corruption in developing countries: Tools and evidence from eight countries in four developing regions
- The corrupting effect of political connections in public procurement through crises
- Corruption in Paradise: An ecology of money laundering through real estate in the touristic global south
Chile
Democratic Republic of Congo
Georgia
India
Indonesia
Kazakhstan
Kenya
Malawi
Moldova
Nepal
Nigeria
South Africa
Tanzania
- Accountability through practical norms: Civil service reform in Africa from below
- Addressing bribery in the Tanzanian health sector: A behavioural approach
- Harnessing informality: Designing anti-corruption network interventions and strategic use of legal instruments
- Fighting high-level corruption in Africa: Learning from effective law enforcement
- Ethical border trading between Kenya and Uganda for small-scale businesses
Uganda
- Civil service reform and anti-corruption in developing countries: Tools and evidence from eight countries in four developing regions
- Informal governance and corruption: Transcending the principal-agent and collective action paradigms
- Crisis emergencies, state responses and ‘windows’ of corruption in Uganda
- Can positive public recognition lead to good governance?
- Ethical border trading between Kenya and Uganda for small-scale businesses
