There is no silver bullet for fighting corruption. Many countries have made significant progress in curbing corruption, however practitioners are always on the lookout for solutions and evidence of impact. Among these solutions, there are five things that citizens and governments can do to progress in the fight against corruption.

The first key ingredient is to end impunity: the punishment of the corrupt must be ensured and civil society can support the process too, with initiatives such as Transparency International’s Unmask the Corrupt; the second key element is to reform public administration and finance management: for instance, the disclosure of budget information, which prevents waste and misappropriation of resources; the third way is to promote transparency and access to information: countries where the press is free and information is transparent are successful in fighting corruption; the fourth way is to empower citizens: this approach helps build mutual trust between citizens and government. Finally, the fifth thing to do is to close international loopholes.

Some examples of successful application of these five principles are provided by countries such as Norway, UK, Ukraine, Slovenia, Maldives and Sri Lanka, whose governments – with the support of Transparency national chapter – have in different ways contributed to fight corruption with the adoption of one of the above mentioned measures.