Tackling Corruption through Civil Society-led Information and Communication Technology Initiatives

Information and communication technology (ICT) is one of the forces shaping the world today. The expeditious way it has facilitated communication, knowledge sharing, and transactions has provided unparalleled benefits to society.

Civil society organizations (CSOs) have found different ways to maximize the features of ICT to fight corruption. It has developed four major kinds of anticorruption interventions using ICT as a platform to increase transparency and accountability, raise the level of public participation in government transactions, and generally improve public service delivery. These interventions are online information requests, crowd-sourced reporting, online corruption reporting, and issue reporting. These efforts by CSOs provide development agencies many opportunities to help in the fight against corruption.

This brief discusses these different types of ICT-based anticorruption interventions and how they can reduce incidences of corruption and increase public participation. It also outlines the many ways development agencies can support these initiatives by civil society.

Corruption occurs at all levels of society. It affects the poor most. With the support of development agencies, anticorruption efforts by civil society can be strengthened and made sustainable. Through their collaboration, the poor can eventually have improved access to better public services, thereby increasing their opportunities to escape poverty.