Diana Chigas, CJL
- Sep 13
- 6 min
Navigating the Complexity on Gender, Faith and Social Norms that Drive Corruption
What have we learnt about gender and faith norms either exacerbating or mitigating pressure to engage in corrupt acts?
Besa Global's Corruption, Justice and Legitimacy Program (CJL) is a research-to-practice initiative committed to improving the effectiveness of anti-corruption programming in contexts of endemic corruption. We engage with practitioners, policymakers and academics across sectors and regions with the goal of unlocking the barriers to effective and durable development caused by corrupt patterns of behavior.
Why have decades of efforts to address civil service corruption yielded little lasting change? This research-to-practice report seeks to fill the research-to-action gap. It translates our findings from a literature review of the role of social norms in driving corruption among civil servants into practical considerations for actors working in contexts of endemic corruption. The literature review found robust evidence that social norms can drive corrupt practices among civil servants in contexts of endemic corruption. When left unaddressed, these social norms can undermine gains made by conventional anti-corruption, public sector reform, and civil service professionalization efforts. In this report, we unpack the seven key takeaways from this primary finding, explain the supporting research, and offer practical implications for practitioners working on bureaucratic corruption.
The Social Norms and Corruption Project aims to shift social norms from the periphery to a central component of corruption analysis and anti-corruption strategy.
The Corruption as a System Project offers technical assistance to implementers and donors as they integrate corruption analysis into their program development or evaluation process.
The Corruption and Peacebuilding project seeks to incorporate anti-corruption into peacebuilding programs and vice versa, ultimately leveraging these approaches for greater effectiveness.