In March 2020, ERCAS has been named a practice partner of OECD for the fourth year in a row. Today, December 9, to mark International Anti-Corruption Day, the OECD has released the 2020 Anti-Corruption & Integrity Knowledge Partner talks.

Prof. Michael Johnston (Colgate University, ERCAS Board), Frank Brown (Center for International Private Enterprise-CIPE), and Prof. Alina Mungiu-Pippidi (Hertie School, ERCAS Chair) discuss Smart ACT – the interactive map which is displayed on againstcorruption.eu, allowing to flash out recent public integrity trends and forecast developments at a country level.

The map is the product of the 2019 research seminar Transitions to Good Governance at the Hertie School, which focused on finding solutions to the lag of governance indicators to identify trends and explain their underlying causes. It builds on the components of the Index of Public Integrity, with the aim to generate an evidence-based forecast and to provide international donors and domestic actors of change with strategic advice for rapid action when windows of opportunity occur.

The presentation of the map reviews ‘beyond the lag’- trends and country cases where control of corruption is undergoing or resisting change. It also shows how users can themselves contribute to the content, as reliable and timely crowdsourcing is essential in order to beat the time lag of an integrity forecast that also contemplates political contingencies.

Watch the talk in full: