Identifying and measuring conditions that affect anti-corruption Collective Action

'Anti-Corruption Collective Action' is an umbrella term for various multi-stakeholder initiatives and interventions that aim to tackle corruption and improve business integrity. Collective Action is characterized by cooperation between the private and public sectors, often with the support of civil society or academia. The potential of Collective Action to improve the business environment and reduce corruption is increasingly recognised by leading international organisations such as the OECD, UN, and the World Bank. Collective Action is recommended as an approach in the 2021 OECD Anti-Bribery Recommendation (1), the 2023 OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises on Responsible Business Conduct (2), and several national anti-corruption strategies and action plans. The Basel Institute on Governance maintains an open database of known Collective Action initiatives on the B20 Collective Action Hub (3), which provides a descriptive summary of an initiative's purpose and scope; its main country of operation; year of establishment; and targeted industry. Beyond this information, however, there has been little research into the body of Collective Action initiatives, including analysis of their common features and the conditions that affect their operation and impact. In this project, we theorise that - just as is the case with the causes of corruption - there are various factors at societal, organisational and individual level that influence when and how a Collective Action initiative is formed; its goals, scope and operations; and its impact on the overall corruption level in the industry and location under assessment. We aim to identify these factors; and measure, analyse and visually indicate how they interplay to affect Collective Action. Our research will be based on the known initiatives in the B20 database, further desk-based research, and targeted interviews with stakeholders. Our aim is to improve the overall 'evidence base' of Anti-Corruption Collective Action to inform further research and policy development, as well as equipping policy-makers or those who wish to undertake an initiative with practical information about potential approaches that are a good ‘fit’ for their specific environment. (1)See https://www.oecd.org/corruption/2021-oecd-anti-bribery-recommendation.htm (2)See https://mneguidelines.oecd.org/mneguidelines/#:~:text=The%202023%20edition%20of%20the,National%20Contact%20Points%20for%20Responsible (3)See https://collective-action.com/about