OUR GLOBAL MOVEMENT
Join us for the launch of Transparency International Defence & Security’s flagship assessment tool, the Government Defence Integrity Index on Thursday 20 January, 15:30-16:45 GMT
With nearly two-thirds of countries facing a high to critical risk of corruption in their defence and security sectors, Transparency International Defence & Security’s flagship Government Defence Integrity Index has never been more important.
Exploring five key risk areas (financial, operational, personnel, political, and procurement) across 86 countries, the findings bring a specific focus to the role that governments play in ensuring good governance and the need for defence institutions to be resilient to corruption to achieve this.
Building integrity in the defence sector: a framework for better governance on Thursday 20 January, 15:30-16:45 GMT will explore the specific opportunities for civil society engagement with defence sectors in different contexts and ways to push for greater transparency using the GDI index as a tool for change.
Moderator
Speakers
The Government Defence Integrity Index (GDI) measures institutional resilience to corruption in the defence sector by focusing on both policymaking and public sector governance in national defence establishments. It is the first global analysis of institutional and informal controls to manage the risk of corruption in defence and security institutions. It measures resilience in five broad risk areas of defence: policymaking, finances, personnel management, operations, and procurement. This report examines the findings from the 2020 iteration of the GDI, which comprises 86 individual country assessments, all published between October 2019 and November 2021.
These country assessments form the basis of this research report which examines how key findings from the index fit into broader global geopolitical and governance trends. In doing so, the report also outlines an extensive framework of good practice that promotes accountable, transparent, and responsible defence governance.
The report’s conclusions give serious cause for concern. Nearly two thirds of defence sectors in all regions and economic groups present high to critical levels of corruption risk. While overall performance is poor across all five risk areas assessed, military operations stand-out as the most compromised risk area. The arms trade is another significant area of corruption risk, with 49% of global arms imports going to countries with high to critical corruption risk in the defence sector.
A positive finding from analysis of the GDI data is that some of the largest military spenders and defence exporters also have the highest levels of transparency. Confidentiality, therefore, is not an essential pre-condition for a strong defence sector but a political decision.
Welcome to our Annual Report for the year ended 31 March 2021. The COVID-19 pandemic dominated the year for Transparency International UK as it did for so many organisations. It also underscored the importance of our work at a time when protecting the public’s resources, building integrity in the public and private sector and ensuring those who would exploit the crisis for their own gain do not go unpunished could not be more critical.
Learn more about our work over the past 12 months by clicking 'download as PDF' below.
