New Report: Corruption and Governance Measurement Tools in Latin American Countries

Versión en español

A new report, Corruption and Governance Measurement Tools in Latin American Countries, produced by Transparency International (TI) and commissioned by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), presents the international, national and local tools used to measure corruption and good governance in Latin American countries. The report includes nearly 100 different corruption measurement tools in 17 countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, México, Nicaragua, Panamá, Paraguay, Perú, Uruguay and Venezuela. The report only includes measurement tools completed by the end of 2005.

In producing this report TI and UNDP seek to counterbalance the predominance of international cross-country corruption surveys that have emerged in the past several years by locating and presenting the local or domestic surveys and index tools measuring corruption. In order to use measurement tools for positive change, an understanding of the corruption phenomenon and its impact in the local context is required to inform the necessary policies and decisions to tackle the problem.

An important aspect of the study is that it highlights the extent to which the measurement tools capture information that is disaggregated along poverty and sex lines and the extent to which they allow for analysis on the perceptions, experiences and impact of corruption across gender and income. Only 20 percent of the measurement tools included in the report allow for such disaggregation which means that the voice, experiences and perceptions of the poor, women and other marginalised groups are not showing up.

Transparency International and UNDP are developing guidance and providing support for the application of pro-poor and gender sensitive approaches to measuring, preventing and fighting corruption. More information on this work area can be found at

http://www.transparency.org/regional_pages/americas (in Spanish) and http://www.transparency.org/policy_research/surveys_indices/americas.

Corruption and Governance Measurement Tools in Latin American Countries is the third regional report on corruption measurement tools produced by TI.

Download the report here: English version / versión en español.

For previous reports on Africa and Asia please see:
Africa: http://www.transparency.org/policy_research/surveys_indices/africa_middle_east
Asia: http://www.transparency.org/policy_research/surveys_indices/asia_pacific

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