Global Anticorruption Policy and Research Outreach and Engagement

From 2022-2023, the American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative (ABA ROLI) implemented the Anticorruption Policy and Research Outreach and Engagement (APROE) program. The 18-month project supplemented the US Government’s commitments to diplomacy and institutional reforms in support of national security interests through an increased awareness of international anticorruption policy and initiatives. The program was funded by the US Department of State Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs.

In December 2021, President Biden hosted the first Summit for Democracy and released the US Strategy on Countering Corruption, which identifies corruption, domestic and abroad, as a threat to US national security interests. The APROE program collated, analyzed, and shared a diverse array of resources across the USG to enhance international anti-corruption policy and programming. The APROE program increased public awareness of USG anti-corruption policies and initiatives. The program focused on five pillars – modernizing, coordinating and resourcing U.S. Government efforts to fight corruption; curbing illicit finance; holding corrupt actors accountable; preserving and strengthening the multilateral anti-corruption architecture; and improving diplomatic engagement and leveraging foreign assistance resources to advance policy objectives.

The program’s activities included a series of roundtable events, policy papers, and micro videos designed to create renewed engagement and awareness of international anti-corruption policy and initiatives under the Five Strategic Pillars of the Strategy. Under the APROE program, ABA ROLI hosted five roundtable discussions with speakers that included USG officials and Ambassadors, experts from civil society, the private sector, the public sector, and academia. The events were attended by 700 participants from all sectors and regions around the globe. From the discussions, three policy papers were developed to highlight challenges to global anti-corruption efforts and provide recommendations to address these issues as indicated by the roundtable experts. In addition, three animated videos were created and disseminated across social media including Facebook, LinkedIn, and X, to promote awareness of the Strategy within general audiences and to outline the USG’s plans for anticorruption coordination in the US and around the world.