Success in the fight against corruption requires a global, clever, and nimble response.
Transnational corruption strips countries of their resources that should be used to lift people out of poverty and deliver much-needed social services.
As Administrator Samantha Power outlined in her vision for USAID in November 2021, corruption is development in reverse. When money gets diverted from public coffers to private bank accounts, roads and schools do not get built. When politicians use their positions of power to extort and demand payment for basic health services—such as vaccines—citizens suffer. And when high-level government officials are persuaded to do the bidding of foreign nations through bribery or coercion, entire ministries are repurposed to advance the needs of another country, over the needs of their own citizens, eroding faith in democracy itself.
As the vanguard of USAID’s suite of anti-corruption programs in the Presidential Initiative for Democratic Renewal, the Countering Transnational Corruption Grand Challenge for Development (CTC Grand Challenge) leverages innovation and collaboration to prevent corrupt actors from siphoning off critical resources that should be used for the public good. The CTC Grand Challenge supports local, regional, and global solutions that detect and disrupt illicit finance and trafficking in commodities; strengthen transparency and accountability in global supply chains; promote standards, practices, and norms that enhance integrity in the public and private sectors; and address other significant dynamics of transnational corruption.
We do so by:
- Harnessing the power of both novel and proven approaches, tools, and technologies;
- Mobilizing and leveraging the private sector;
- Partnering with local solvers and influencers; and
- Fostering collective action through diverse networks.
Grand Challenges leverage the knowledge and expertise of diverse stakeholders, including the private sector and local actors, to support collective problem solving and identification of new solutions. By mobilizing their convening power and networks, Grand Challenge partners draw global attention to a development problem and bring new voices to the table— building a coalition that is diverse, powerful, and agile.
To date, across 11 past Grand Challenges, USAID and its partners have committed more than $500 million in grants and technical assistance and catalyzed an additional $900 million in external follow-on funding, providing innovators with the expertise, resources, and networks that they need to grow.
We invite you to join us. The Grand Challenge is mobilizing a wide range of partners, including businesses, associations, technologists, innovators, philanthropists, civil society organizations, governments, and media in the fight against globalized corruption. Convened and incentivized by the Grand Challenge, these partners will build coalitions and source innovation solutions to curb the threat of transnational corruption.
Prospective partners are invited to pledge financial or in-kind resources, expertise, or technical assistance to contribute to the design and implementation of the Grand Challenge. Partnership tiers are flexible, allowing organizations to participate as their bandwidth permits.
Interested in learning more about how you can get involved in the Grand Challenge?
- Read about various ways to engage in our How to Get Involved and Partnership Opportunities briefs.
- Sign up for our mailing list.
- Contact us at info@challengecorruption.org.
CURRENT ACTIVITIES:
Safeguarding Carbon Markets Challenge:
In June 2024, the CTC Grand Challenge, in collaboration with BHP Foundation and the Global Partnership for Social Accountability, launched the Safeguarding Carbon Markets Challenge (SCM Challenge). The SCM Challenge seeks innovative concepts that counter corruption and enhance transparency and accountability in carbon markets to preserve the benefits of critical climate finance.
The SCM Challenge encourages fresh ideas, early-stage prototypes, and scalable solutions that bridge and build upon best practices and expertise from both the anti-corruption and climate finance communities to reduce opportunities for corruption, raise the costs of corruption, and incentivize public and private sector integrity in these critical markets. The SCM Challenge will award multiple grants of between $50,000 and $500,000.
Ahead of this launch, the CTC Grand Challenge team held five co-design sessions to bring together diverse perspectives and determine where innovation might unlock new anti-corruption impact in climate finance and carbon markets. Read a summary of the co-design sessions.
Read the full Request for Applications for more information about the challenge and submit your innovative concepts by August 15, 2024, at 11:59 AM Eastern Daylight Time.
Data for Integrity Hackathon Series:
As Administrator Power noted during the second Summit for Democracy in March 2023, “creative uses of data offer an innovative way to root out entrenched corruption.” The Data for Integrity Hackathon Series advances the development and use of tools and platforms to harness the power of data to identify corruption vulnerabilities and/or corrupt behavior.
For the first hackathon in the series, the CTC Grand Challenge supported the Accountability Lab’s third regional HackCorruption event in Bogotá, Colombia, from August 18-20, 2023, in partnership with the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement (INL), the Center for International Private Enterprise, and Development Gateway. The Latin American regional hackathon convened 75 changemakers from the civic technology, civil society organization, and activist arenas to build innovative solutions to counter transnational corruption. The CTC Grand Challenge provided three winning teams with $10,000 in financial support, mentorship, and training to build out their innovations focused on transnational corruption. For the second hackathon in this series, the CTC Grand Challenge supported the Accountability Lab’s fourth regional HackCorruption event in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, from February 22-25, 2024, in partnership with INL, the Center for International Private Enterprise, and Development Gateway. The Southeast Asian regional hackathon brought together nearly 50 changemakers to build innovative solutions to counter corruption. Five winning teams, including three that focus specifically on transnational corruption, are receiving up to $10,000 in financial support, mentorship, and ongoing training to build out their innovations. Each of the winning teams participated in a three-day intensive in-person bootcamp in Indonesia from April 18–22, 2024.
The CTC Grand Challenge team continues to explore opportunities to support the development and use of innovative solutions, tools, and platforms to identify and reduce corruption vulnerabilities and/or corrupt behavior from open data and other data sources through hackathons. Sign up for our mailing list to stay updated on future hackathons and award announcements. If you're interested in collaborating on or co-hosting a hackathon in the Data for Integrity Hackathon Series, please reach out to us at info@challengecorruption.org.
Doing Business with Integrity:
Doing Business With Integrity, the first focused call for innovations under the Innovating to Counter Transnational Corruption Open Call, will award up to $4 million in grants to private sector entities and consortia or partnerships that include private sector entities to counter transnational corruption. We will invest in activities that reflect innovative thinking; advance the range, depth, and impact of private sector actions to reduce transnational corruption; and demonstrate that anti-corruption efforts can be good for business. The funding was made available through the EDGE Fund, USAID’s public-private partnership fund. The submission period for Doing Business with Integrity closed on January 12, 2024. Learn more and sign up for our mailing list to be notified about award announcements in Summer 2024.
Powering a Just Energy Transition Green Minerals Challenge:
Launched in 2022, the JET Minerals Challenge catalyzes the development, application, and scaling of innovations to counter corruption and strengthen transparency, accountability, and integrity in the global rush to meet the unprecedented demand for green minerals. This open call for innovation welcomed problem solvers from around the world to submit new ideas as well as proven approaches to reduce corruption in green mineral supply chains. In October 2023, USAID and its partners announced the 11 winners of the challenge. Each will receive approximately $50,000 to $400,000 in funding as well as in-kind support, including targeted technical assistance, to implement their innovations. Learn more about the winners and their work.
LOOKING AHEAD:
Countering Corruption in Global Health Supply Chains:
The CTC Grand Challenge is currently in the partnership and design phase of a new prize competition in global health supply chains focused on addressing substandard and/or falsified medicines and the theft and diversion of medicines or medical products. To learn more about this activity, read our fact sheet. To participate in future co-design sessions or discuss how to contribute your financial or in-kind resources to the activity, contact us at info@challengecorruption.org.