The digital solution to corruption
Corruption is an enormous, global challenge, likely costing more than copy trillion annually, or copy20 (4,000 baht) for every person in the world. World leaders have long promised to tamp down on corruption. but unfortunately, we're getting nowhere. Now, new research identifies a surprisingly straight-forward, cheap way to reduce corruption that can also make countries hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars.
Part of the reason it is so hard to tackle corruption is that it is incredibly valuable for the officials taking bribes, while customers -paying up often get better or quicker service. Yet politicians have promised to substantially reduce corruption from 2016 to 2030 as part of the so-called Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), agreed to by all governments across the world.
Unfortunately, politicians aren't delivering. The corruption perception index from Transparency International shows that, at a global level, there has been zero progress over the past decade. The world was as corrupt in 2022 as it was when the measure started in 2012. On current trends, we're not going to curtail corruption in 2030--or at any time in the future.
Reducing corruption isn't the only global promise we're missing. In fact, it is just one of hundreds of grand SDG promises for 2030, and we're failing at nearly all of them. On current trends, we will reach the development promises half a century late. We need to do better and now is the right time to start this conversation: 2023 is the halftime point for the SDG promises, but we are truly nowhere near halfway achieving them.
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