As Delivered

Good morning colleagues, good evening, good afternoon, 

Let me open up by thanking His Excellency, president of the Oversight and Anti-Corruption Authority (Nazaha) of Saudi Arabia, and all other excellencies, dignitaries present here. 

On behalf of the United Nations Development Programme, let me also thank our co-organizers —IACA, UNODC, the World Bank, and the OECD—along with our many partners, including the IMF, UN Global Compact, U4 Resource Centre, Transparency International, the Basel Institute on Governance, the Government Transparency Institute, and the IMD Competitiveness Centre. 

And again, thank you to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for making this conference possible.

In the two years since our first global meeting in Vienna in 2023, we have come to better understand that collecting data is more than just a technical exercise. It’s a foundation for building integrity systems that rely on evidence.

Every year, more than two trillion US dollars are lost to corruption and illicit financial flows. This undermines public trust and directly threatens development, as well as the agenda on climate, biodiversity, and many other aspects. But we have seen that countries that collect and use data effectively are better able to design reforms, build trust, and strengthen governance.

Over the next three days, you will hear from many distinguished speakers reflecting on progress, challenges, and the way forward in corruption measurement.

As we start, I would like to draw attention to two key opportunities we must seize in the next three days.

First, working together to prevent and combat corruption helps mobilize resources for development. 

For example, public procurement, representing as much as 30% of public spending -- approximately US$13 trillion globally each year, is also one of the high risk areas for governments, vulnerable to mismanagement and abuse for private gain. 

UNDP and the Government Transparency Institute (GTI) have analyzed over 70 million public procurement contracts in 51 countries from 2017 to 2024, revealing major integrity risks, which often tend to be linked with persistent corruption.

Strengthening integrity in public procurement has enormous potential to save billions of dollars, freeing up vital resources for development. 

Second, we have much needed political recognition that measuring corruption underpins addressing it effectively. 

The political declaration of the 2021 General Assembly special session against corruption, resolutions of the Conference of the State Parties to UNCAC, and SDG 16 monitoring frameworks all affirm the importance of data and indicators for guiding actions for effective policy reforms.

However, while some progress has been made, many gaps persist in corruption measurement.

We still lack actionable data and reliable indicators. Many national data ecosystems are not only fragmented, but they also lack capacity, resources and effective coordination to systematically collect data. 

In many contexts, national statistical offices and anti-corruption authorities are not fully aligned, and the same is true with many international organizations and development partners.

Furthermore, while new technologies—AI, machine learning, blockchain, and big data analytics—offer powerful tools for measuring corruption, we must ensure that emerging technologies are used to enhance accuracy, ethics, inclusion, and trust.

Let me therefore highlight three areas where we must do more.

First, corruption-related data must be integrated into national strategies—especially in high-risk sectors such as procurement, public services, infrastructure, justice, taxation, and customs.

Second, we must support national partners to go beyond compliance and to measure the impact of anti-corruption policies, strategies, institutions and other frameworks. 

Third, we must enhance coordination. Efforts worldwide are growing but remain fragmented. We need greater harmonization in data production, dissemination, and use, and greater collaboration not only between statistical and anti-corruption communities, but among international organizations and relevant institutions, guided by key principles like the Vienna Principles on Corruption Measurement.

As a contribution to this effort, UNDP will be launching the Anti-Corruption Compass, a global data dashboard hosted on anti-corruption.org. It provides standardized methodologies, indicators, global trend analysis, and country insights, with a special focus on public procurement and business experiences with bribery.

Thank you once again for joining us. I wish you productive discussions and a successful conference. 

Thank you.