Considerable effort required to reduce corruption and improve fiscal transparency in Africa

BRISBANE, Australia - Dec. 8, 2023 - PRLog -- Today is International Anti-Corruption Day and a time to take stock of progress made in implementing the UN Convention Against Corruption ("UNCAC").

In looking at world-wide efforts to reduce corruption, Transparency International's Corruption Perception Index ("CPI") 2022 scores reveal that CPI scores deteriorated in the majority of countries in 2012-2022. This trend also prevailed in Africa where more than 55% of the population lived in countries where CPI scores declined in 2012-2022.

Transparency is an important supporting element of anti-corruption activity. Countries that have signed up to the CAC are committed under Article 9(2) to "take appropriate measures to promote transparency and accountability in the management of public finances". Using country assessments published in the U.S. State Department's Fiscal Transparency 2023 report as an indicator of relative fiscal transparency performance, PFMConnect has observed that more than 66% of Africa's population live in countries where minimum fiscal transparency standards were not met in 2022.

In addition, PFMConnect has found that once the outlying results are discounted there is a very significant correlation between 2022 CPI scores and U.S. State Department's 2023 fiscal transparency findings for 35 of the original 54 African countries. This finding highlights the need for all stakeholders, including the development community, to encourage and support African countries in their efforts to reduce corruption and improve their fiscal transparency. Previous experience suggests that significant additional effort will be required to make real progress in achieving these objectives across Africa.

Short videos discussing the above-mentioned analyses are available on PFMConnect's YouTube site https://studio.youtube.com/playlist/PLREKtEkAZGcOaMgnLxM7....

About PFMConnect. PFMConnect is a consultancy providing online support in the fields of public finance and digital communication. PFM directors, David Fellows and John Leonardo, have extensive PFM consulting experience and have undertaken PFM assignments in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, the Pacific and the United Kingdom.