PACI Community

Our insights on responsible governance and integrity

Articles

WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM AGENDA

How the new Corruption Perceptions Index reframes business strategy

24 Feb 2026

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Maira Martini, Katja Bechtel

WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM AGENDA

Can integrity processes help companies compete?

9 Dec 2025

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Kimberley Botwright, Houssam Al Wazzan

WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM AGENDA

3 opportunities to strengthen good governance and corporate resilience

13 Oct 2025

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Ngaire Woods, Klaus Moosmayer

WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM AGENDA

In the AI era, business governance means safeguarding trust

8 Oct 2025

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Laetitia Cailleteau, Sami Khoury, Öykü Işık

World Economic Forum Agenda 

Why corporate integrity is key to shaping the use of AI

14 Oct 2024

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Inderpreet Sawhney, Delia Ferreira Rubio, Houssam Al Wazzan

World Economic Forum Agenda 

Generative AI risks: How can chief legal officers tackle them?

15 Jan 2024

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Kenneth White, Nivedita Sen 

World Economic Forum Agenda 

Partnering Against Corruption: Why real estate and construction are the first to test new anti-corruption initiative

12 Jan 2024

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Christian Ulbrich, Ian Leslie Edwards, Christopher Alder

WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM AGENDA

It's not all doom and gloom: 8 experts on their reasons to be optimistic in 2024

12 Jan 2024

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Featuring Peter Maurer and Jane Nelson

WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM AGENDA

How green accountability can create more equitable climate finance

21 Jun 2023

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Blair Glencorse, 

Sanjeeta Pant

WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM AGENDA

Does the potential for corruption in the mining sector threaten a just energy transition?

20 Apr 2023

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Helen Clark

WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM AGENDA

Why sustainable governance and corporate integrity are crucial for ESG

29 Jul 2022

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Gabriel Cecchini, Jane Nelson, Carlos Santiso, Rachel Davidson Raycraft

WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM AGENDA

3 anti-corruption takeaways from the war in Ukraine

16 Jun 2022

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Delia Ferreira Rubio, Nicola Bonucci, Rachel Davidson Raycraft

WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM AGENDA

3 ways to fight corruption and restore trust in leadership

1 Dec 2020

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Børge Brende, Pedro Gabriel Gomez Pensado

Videos

Creating Certainty in an Uncertain World: The Evolving Role of Gatekeepers.

OECD Global Anti-corruption and Integrity Forum 2025

Powering the Future: Integrity to Drive Net Zero

World Economic Forum - Strategic Intelligence 2025

The Integrity Advantage: A Blueprint for SMEs

World Economic Forum - Strategic Intelligence 2024

Business integrity in real estate: Tackling illicit financial flows

World Built Environment Forum 2024

Navigating Compliance Amidst Global Uncertainty

World Economic Forum - Strategic Intelligence 2024

Being Honest about Governance

World Economic Forum - Annual Meeting 2024

Defending Transparency

World Economic Forum - Annual Meeting 2023

Investing Responsibly in Sustainable Governance 

World Economic Forum - Annual Meeting 2022

The Role of Anti-Corruption Amid the ESG Revolution

International Anti-Corruption Conference (IACC) 2022

What’s Next for Tech for Integrity: Emerging Opportunities, Persisting Challenges & Potential Risks

International Anti-Corruption Conference (IACC) 2022

Uniting Gatekeepers Against Illicit Financial Flows – A Framework for Action

UN Special session of the General Assembly against corruption 2021

In Good Governance We Trust 

World Economic Forum - Sustainable Development Impact Summit 2021

Corruption and Democracy

World Economic Forum - Annual Meeting 2020

Publications

Gatekeepers Advancing Integrity and Transparency in Real Estate

October 2024

Business Integrity: A Toolkit for Medium-Sized Enterprises

September 2024

Investing in Integrity in an Increasingly Complex World: The Role of Anti-Corruption amid the ESG Revolution

June 2022

Defining the ‘G’ in ESG: Governance Factors at the Heart of Sustainable Business

June 2022

The Role and Responsibilities of Gatekeepers in the Fight against Illicit Financial Flows: A Unifying Framework

June 2021

Read the white paper

The Rise and Role of the Chief Integrity Officer: Leadership Imperatives in an ESG-Driven World

The growing shift in corporate governance requires organizations to break down silos and create more deliberate alignment and collaboration across critical functions, including ESG/sustainability, public affairs, risk, ethics, human resources and compliance. This necessitates a stronger focus on the “G” in ESG.

World Economic Forum

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December 2021

Read the COMMUNITY PAPER

Agenda for Business Integrity Pillar 1: Ethics and Integrity Beyond Compliance

World Economic Forum

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October 2020

read the COMMUNITY PAPER

Agenda for Business Integrity Pillar 2: Culture of Integrity 

World Economic Forum

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October 2020

read the community paper

Agenda for Business Integrity Pillar 3: Leveraging Technology 

World Economic Forum

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May 2020

read the COMMUNITY PAPER

Agenda for Business Integrity Pillar 4: Collective Action

World Economic Forum

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August 2020

Podcasts

Globalization is in transition - not retreat, says this analyst of global trade
Build cultures of integrity: Anti-corruption expert shares what's needed most
Blackrock's Pam Chan on ESG and how successful future leaders will think differently
AI Governance Summit 2023: Gen AI: New Age of Governance
Microsoft’s Brad Smith on tech blindspots and the key lesson that changed how he leads
Davos 2024: Being Honest about Governance

Transformation maps

Transformation Maps are the World Economic Forum’s dynamic knowledge tool  driven by an intelligent system that lets users explore and make sense of complex and interlinked forces that are transforming economies, industries and global issues. The map below present insights on governance topics written by experts.

Learn more 

Water failures in England and Wales, marked by widespread drought, pollution fines, and financial instability in utilities like Thames Water, stem from decades of underinvestment, ageing infrastructure, fragmented oversight, and governance deficiencies. Similar governance challenges are emerging in Canada and the US despite primarily public ownership. Notable incidents include Calgary's major water main ruptures and Maryland's sewer collapse, both linked to delayed action and inadequate oversight. These cases underscore that ownership alone doesn't ensure water system resilience; robust governance, transparency, and proactive management are critical to prevent widespread failures.
Water failures in England and Wales are a warning for Canada and the US
Fiscal risks stemming from unpreparedness for disasters, health emergencies, or economic shocks can severely disrupt public services and erode trust in government institutions. Fiscal resilience requires not only managing debt and deficits but also ensuring governments can maintain essential services and respond credibly during crises. Hidden vulnerabilities such as weak state-owned enterprises, contingent liabilities, and narrow tax bases may go unnoticed until shocks like pandemics, natural disasters, or external conflicts strain public finances. Limited fiscal space forces governments to make difficult funding choices, often resulting in delayed infrastructure, reduced social support, or higher taxes, all undermining public trust. Enhancing fiscal resilience involves transparency in fiscal risks, pre-arranged financing mechanisms, and safeguarding critical services to sustain development priorities and maintain citizens’ confidence during crises.
Africa | Financial services, Health
Asian Development Blog: Fiscal Risks Can Undermine Public Trust—Not Just Public Budgets
Contemporary data governance emphasizes participation through mechanisms like citizens’ assemblies and co-design workshops to build trust for data reuse. However, mere voice is insufficient to influence data holders. Effective data governance requires complementing voice with leverage—the ability of individuals and communities to impose credible, enforceable, and durable costs for being ignored. Leverage depends on epistemic legibility, enabling affected publics to see, document, and contest systems. Six sources of leverage include legal, institutional, contractual, economic, data access, and political/reputational means. The paper proposes a framework to assess social licenses’ power redistribution, arguing they must resemble legal licenses with conditions, licensors, and enforceable remedies to be truly effective.
ICT, Health
From Voice to Leverage in Data Governance
Disclosing foiled terrorist attacks presents a political and economic dilemma for governments. Transparency reassures citizens but can increase fear, leading to economic decline and political shifts. Research on foiled jihadist attacks in 10 European countries (2009-2018) found that announcements reduced foreign tourism significantly, with 2.4% fewer overnight stays and 4.6% fewer international arrivals. Politically, such disclosures boosted support for far-right, anti-immigration parties by about 3%, especially where negative immigration views were already strong. Media coverage intensified these effects, influencing both tourism and voter behavior. Governments must balance the public's right to know against potential economic and political consequences.
Financial services
Disclosing foiled terrorist attacks: a political and economic balancing act
Independent public audits are crucial for uncovering waste, fraud, and inefficiencies in government spending, but their true value lies in translating findings into lasting reforms. Conducted by independent Supreme Audit Institutions, these audits promote transparency and accountability through financial, compliance, and performance reviews. Effective audits depend on independence, public scrutiny, and political will to implement recommendations. When acted upon, audits strengthen government accountability by informing parliament, engaging citizens, and improving public services. However, challenges like political pressure and weak follow-up often hinder impact. Successful audits combine technical rigor with strategic engagement to build trust and drive meaningful, sustained reforms in public sector governance.
Asian Development Blog: From Audit to Reform: Building Trust in Public Spending
The UK government has launched a new "class unit" within the Office for Equality and Opportunity to address structural class inequalities, moving beyond the limited focus of social mobility programs. This unit will target low-income families and disadvantaged communities, tackling disparities in public services, health, and employment while implementing socioeconomic duties for public bodies. The approach emphasizes material redistribution over mere recognition or individual upward movement, aiming to address systemic inequality in income, work, housing, and power. However, challenges remain around defining class narrowly by income and politically sensitive framing, notably an emphasis on the "white working class," which may overlook broader, multiethnic class disadvantages.
UK government’s new ‘class unit’ promises to tackle inequalities – but it’s a risky strategy
Corpus is a digital public good designed to help researchers track Africa's complex digital transformation by aggregating over 21,000 publicly available documents on digital infrastructure, governance, and related topics across the continent. It organizes content by country, region, and 38 thematic areas linked to 121 indicators. Corpus offers various reports, including daily news bulletins, monthly summaries, country maturity and progress assessments, topic-specific updates, customizable reading lists, and financial monitoring of non-state investments, aiming to provide an up-to-date evidence base for Africa's digital development.
Africa
Corpus: A new research assistant for African digital transformation
Privacy-enhancing technologies protect personal data, digital identities, and communications, bolstering cybersecurity and public trust by enabling data sharing and analysis with limited exposure of sensitive information. However, these technologies can also be exploited to hide identities, secure criminal communications, and obstruct access to digital evidence, posing challenges for law enforcement. A Joint Research Centre and Europol study examines how Europe can balance improved digital security with fundamental rights, offering insights for policymakers, law enforcement, researchers, and investors on the evolving impact of these technologies on investigations.
Health, Education, ICT
How emerging privacy technologies could reshape law enforcement
Cybercrime laws significantly enhance bank and financial system stability by reducing operational risks and improving funding liquidity. Analyzing data from 132 countries and over 20,000 banks, these laws increase individual bank resilience by about 0.69% and system-wide stability by 25.58%. Effective legislation deters cyberattacks through stricter penalties and compels banks to strengthen cybersecurity. International coordination and laws that also hold banks accountable for security failures amplify these benefits. Overall, well-designed cybercrime laws foster depositor confidence and reduce systemic risks in the financial sector.
Financial services
Cybercrime laws do make banks safer
Around 10% of the UK economy operates informally, with many cash-in-hand businesses like painters, decorators, and gardeners starting informally to test their viability. These businesses often become trapped in the informal economy because initial low prices attract customers who expect the same rates, making formalization financially risky and socially challenging. Trust and reputation within local communities sustain these businesses, while formalizing feels like breaking community bonds or taking on unattainable tax burdens. Research suggests transitioning to formality requires social as well as administrative support, recommending phased tax compliance and trusted peer-based outreach to help these businesses integrate into the official economy.
Financial services
How cash-in-hand businesses can get stuck in the informal economy
Open geospatial standards enable interoperable sharing and reuse of geospatial data, but their public-good character depends on the governance of the standards-setting organizations that produce them. Effective internal governance—defined by purpose, principles, people, processes, and policies—ensures standards function as digital public goods and infrastructure rather than becoming proprietary or enclosed by platformization. The increasing dominance of platform-based location services and cloud platforms shifts standard-setting power away from these bodies, weakening open interoperability and FAIR data principles. While standards organizations have limited influence over implementation layers, strong internal governance remains crucial to maintaining their authority and the openness of geospatial standards.
ICT, Health
From Open Standards to Openly Governed: Standards-Setting Organizations as Stewards of Openness amid Platformization and Digital Sovereignty
Crime rates in the UK have fallen significantly across most offenses over the past decade, with mobile phone theft, vehicle theft, burglary, and murder all showing substantial declines. However, public perception does not align with this reality; the majority believe crime and murder rates have increased or remained steady. This misperception is linked to cognitive biases that focus attention on negative information and is amplified by media, political rhetoric, and social media, leading to an exaggerated fear of crime. These distorted views vary by political affiliation and contribute to unnecessary anxiety, impacting well-being despite actual crime trends improving.
Latin America
Crime is falling – but the public doesn’t feel safer, study finds
Building an effective civil service is essential for good governance and public service delivery, yet bureaucratic reform is often challenging. Martin J. Williams analyzes over one hundred reforms from six African countries across thirty years, revealing that most failed due to a focus on altering formal structures through isolated projects. Successful reforms emerged when civil servants engaged in ongoing discussions about performance improvement. Williams proposes a new theory that systemic reform succeeds by fostering continuous, decentralized improvement processes rather than imposing top-down changes, offering valuable insights for achieving meaningful organizational change globally.
Reform as Process. Implementing Change in Public Bureaucracies
The Vatican’s first papal encyclical on AI, Magnifica Humanitas, argues that governing AI for the common good requires an impartial authority, but neither the market nor the state can serve as unbiased referees. Markets are conflicted by profit motives, while states hold multiple conflicting roles—as rule-maker, beneficiary, customer, and payer of social costs—making impartial governance structurally impossible. Moreover, democratic cycles are too short-term to ensure stable AI policies, highlighting the need for independent institutions insulated from political shifts. The encyclical stresses that disinterested governance of AI must be deliberately constructed, emphasizing the importance of building new institutional frameworks beyond existing secular candidates.
Financial services
The Pope has a point – AI needs a referee that no one owns
Artificial intelligence in public administration is often valued for efficiency and cost reduction, but in the structurally unequal and digitally diverse contexts of the Global South, such technical gains can exacerbate democratic exclusion. AI governance should prioritize democratic legitimacy, defined by transparency, participation, inclusion, accountability, contestability, correctability, and social justice. Legitimate AI systems require public justification, meaningful input from affected communities, and institutional authority to review and correct decisions. Effective governance must address structural and institutional risks by enabling public participation, independent oversight, impact assessments, and context-sensitive regulation, ensuring societies retain authority to shape, challenge, and halt AI deployment as needed.
Health, ICT
From algorithmic efficiency to democratic legitimacy: rethinking AI governance in the Global South
Trust in financial reporting and strong audits are crucial for driving development by reducing uncertainty and improving access to finance. Reliable, transparent, and timely financial information attracts private investment, especially in developing economies where public funds are limited. Effective reporting enables investors to assess and price risks accurately, leading to more financing and lower borrowing costs. Building trust requires proportionate regulations, accessible data, robust professional accounting infrastructure, clear ownership of reforms, and honest gap assessments. Ultimately, trust in financial information supports investment, economic growth, and public confidence, making it a foundational element of sustainable development.
Africa | Financial services, Health
Asian Development Blog: How Trust in Financial Reporting Helps Drive Development
Public participation has become a key focus in public sector innovation, encompassing democratic innovations to increase influence and public service innovations through co-creation with stakeholders. These approaches stem from different scholarly traditions—democratic theory and public management—leading to diverse concepts like citizen engagement and co-production. Participation broadly refers to citizens shaping policies and services across formal and collaborative arenas. Participatory innovation involves new institutional arrangements that create alternative citizen involvement channels beyond traditional formats, driving innovation in governance, legitimacy, and trust. This editorial frames participation as a catalyst for institutional change and public innovation, examining its impact on governance and democratic outcomes.
Health, Education
Innovative Pathways to Citizen Participation
Periods of major political transformation, such as democratic reconstruction after backsliding or systemic change, require governments to undertake multiple large-scale reforms involving constitutions, electoral systems, public administration, and social services. These moments present dual challenges: designing sustainable reforms within complex institutions and meaningfully involving citizens to generate democratic legitimacy and ownership. Democratic renewal goes beyond institutional repair, necessitating rebuilding citizen engagement in public decision-making to restore trust and democratic agency. Hungary exemplifies this, facing the question of how to rebuild democracy after prolonged erosion under Viktor Orbán’s regime.
Africa | Health
Rebuilding Democracy: Why Large-Scale Reform Requires a New Institutional Model
Political life in Britain has become increasingly stressful, hostile, and dangerous for MPs. Former MPs like Paula Sheriff and Gloria de Piero highlight persistent threats and growing public hostility, reflecting a broader decline in trust and rise of aggressive anti-political sentiment. Pressures akin to those faced by doctors—such as high accountability and public distrust—intensify MPs' challenges, compounded by personal demands and media scrutiny. This toxic environment has led to increased harassment, abuse, and violence, exemplified by the murders of Jo Cox and David Amess and other threats against politicians, signaling a troubling shift in political and social attitudes in the UK.
How political life in Britain became so dangerous
Nigel Farage faced allegations of failing to declare a £5 million gift, but still won comfortably in the Clacton byelection, partly due to the absence of major party candidates. Research on political scandals, such as the 2009 UK parliamentary expenses scandal, shows voters often justify the behavior of politicians they support, resulting in only small declines in electoral backing. Scandals rarely erode broader trust in the political system, and supporters with pre-existing distrust may dismiss allegations as system bias. These findings suggest misconduct claims do not necessarily lead to significant voter punishment, although the impact could change as investigations progress.
Why the probe into Nigel Farage’s finances didn’t hurt him at the ballot box

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