The Next Decade of Action for Public Integrity in Latin America and the Caribbean

Executive summary

Strong public integrity foundations built over the past decade

Over the past decade, many countries across Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) have progressively moved from reactive approaches centred on detecting and sanctioning corruption towards broader frameworks that coherently promote integrity, transparency and accountability across the public sector. Supported by regional commitments, growing alignment with OECD standards and sustained collaboration among governments, oversight institutions, civil society and international partners, the region has established increasingly robust legal, policy and institutional foundations for public integrity.

Reforms in many countries have strengthened institutional co-ordination, bringing together executive, oversight, judicial and non-governmental actors to improve policy coherence and implementation. Strategic approaches to integrity and anti-corruption have also advanced, with the region performing above the OECD non-LAC average on national integrity and anti-corruption strategies.

Within public administrations, integrity has been mainstreamed through integrity units or ethics committees. More broadly, many countries have adopted a whole-of-society approach, engaging citizens, civil society, youth and the private sector in promoting integrity, while advancing open government reforms on access to information, citizen participation and protection of civic space. Several countries have also expanded the use of data, digital technologies and artificial intelligence to strengthen public procurement, audit, risk management and corruption detection.

A changing environment that raises the stakes for public integrity

These remarkable achievements are taking place in a rapidly changing environment, raising the stakes for public integrity as an enabler of effective public governance and strong economic growth. At the same time, corruption remains one of citizens’ most pressing concerns, with nearly half (49%) of respondents in the region to the OECD Trust Survey identifying corruption as one of the top three challenges facing their country. Public integrity is therefore essential both for improving government performance and for strengthening the legitimacy of democratic institutions. By helping ensure that decisions are made in the public interest, public integrity reinforces the legitimacy of institutional decision-making and fosters trust.

At the same time, rising security concerns, including the influence of organised crime, are placing increasing pressure on governance systems and public decision making. And while digital transformation is reshaping how governments deliver services, manage public resources and engage with citizens, offering new opportunities for transparency, efficiency and participation, it also creates new integrity risks that require governments to adapt integrity safeguards. Responding effectively to this evolving landscape will require integrity systems that are not only robust, but also capable of addressing increasingly complex and interconnected risks.

The next decade: Bridging the gaps to deliver impact

Building on the foundations established over the past decades, countries across Latin America and the Caribbean are well positioned to harness public integrity as an enabler of broader governance transformation. As countries confront these challenges, public integrity must remain a strategic tool for strengthening institutional performance, resilience and public trust. This brief identifies six priority areas: 1) Addressing undue influence in public decision making; 2) Empowering civil servants; 3) Renewing the citizen-government interface; 4) Promoting integrity at subnational levels; 5) Identifying and managing integrity risks; and 6) Tackling impunity by strengthening transparent and effective enforcement mechanisms. These priority areas will be key for the LAC region to deliver on the following ambitions:

Moving from rules to results. Closing the gap between rules and implementation is paramount. Across the region, countries have made significant progress in developing public integrity systems. Yet, implementation challenges continue to limit the impact of reforms and weaken citizens’ confidence in public institutions. The defining challenge for the next decade is therefore to make implementation and measurable results the organising principle of integrity reforms, ensuring that legal and policy frameworks translate into meaningful changes in behaviour, decision making and public outcomes. Measuring progress will require distinguishing the implementation of measures from the outcomes they achieve and, where evidence permits, their longer-term impacts.

Strengthening institutional resilience. Public integrity systems should enable countries to anticipate risks, adapt to changing circumstances and consistently uphold public interest. Across the region, addressing politicisation, excessive employee turnover and reliance on temporary appointments will be essential. Building effective institutions will require empowering civil servants, through continued investment in ethics guidance, integrity training and leadership. Likewise, building on progress made in developing frameworks for integrity risk management, internal control and audit, countries can advance implementation by strengthening public managers' ownership of these systems, enhancing internal audit capacities and broadening the use of data analytics, digital technologies and artificial intelligence to identify and mitigate integrity risks.

Tackling undue influence and impunity. Despite progress across the region, political finance, lobbying and managing conflict of interest remain among the areas with the largest regulatory and implementation gaps. Looking ahead, countries will need a more integrated approach that addresses the full spectrum of undue influence risks, including political finance, lobbying, conflict of interest and, increasingly, organised crime. Strengthening safeguards across these areas will be critical to protecting democratic institutions and ensuring that public decisions serve the public interest. At the same time, sustaining public trust requires effective enforcement. Priorities include reinforcing the independence and capacity of judicial and prosecutorial institutions, improving integrity safeguards for judges and prosecutors, strengthening disciplinary systems and deepening international co-operation to combat transnational corruption and foreign bribery.

Bringing integrity closer to citizens. A strong and protected civic space is an essential part of this integrity architecture: it enables citizens, civil society, journalists and other stakeholders to access information, scrutinise public decisions, expose integrity risks and hold public institutions to account. The region has been at the forefront of open government reforms, providing a strong foundation for more participatory and accountable governance. The next step is to move beyond isolated transparency initiatives towards integrated approaches that embed transparency, participation and accountability throughout the policy cycle. At the same time, integrity reforms must better reflect the realities of municipalities and subnational governments, where citizens most often interact with the state. Adapting integrity policies to local realities, strengthening local capacities and expanding digital transparency and accountability tools can help ensure that reforms generate tangible benefits throughout the territory.

Ultimately, the ambition for the next decade should extend beyond strengthening integrity systems alone. By placing integrity at the centre of broader public sector transformation, countries in Latin America and the Caribbean can strengthen trust, improve state effectiveness, foster economic opportunity and enhance democratic resilience. In doing so, the region can build on the remarkable progress achieved to date and position itself as a global reference in governance innovation.