Education and training are crucial tools in the fight against corruption. They can both raise awareness on
prevalent values and their impact on society and shape the future by fostering universal societal norms
amongst the young. The key international standards in this area, such as the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention,
the OECD Public Integrity Recommendation, or the United Nations Convention against Corruption, all
acknowledge the important role of education and training and call on governments to leverage them in
their efforts to promote integrity. It is also recognized in the Business at OECD Zero Corruption Manifesto,
in which principle number four (”Stimulating Responsible Business Conduct”) states that “developing a
culture of integrity, transparency and ethics within any context, any entity, any government, any jurisdiction
is vital”. For these reasons, the Business at OECD Anti-Corruption and Education Committees set out to
explore how governments, the private sector, and civil society can better harness education and training
towards this end.
This paper looks at education in the broad sense and sheds light on public and private initiatives leveraging
both formal and informal education. It shows that including modules that raise awareness on the costs of
corruption and the benefits of public integrity in primary, secondary, and tertiary education curricula can
lead to tangible societal benefits in the medium to long-term. However, while there are numerous examples
of schools and universities in OECD countries that already do so, approaches tend to be fragmented and
often depend on the initiative of individual educational institutions. In the public sector, integrity training is
shown to play an important role in addressing the demand side of bribery. Yet, whilst the OECD established
important principles for ensuring that such training has an impact, monitoring remains limited. Finally,
integrity training for new or newly promoted staff is a central element in the anti-corruption and compliance
efforts of many companies. Some cooperate with business organizations, professional bodies, and civil
society organizations, which are often crucial providers of relevant materials, tools and data and help
disseminate best practices. These insights are complemented with 18 concrete examples of how companies
and other relevant organizations apply education and training in practice to fight corruption.
Key success factors identified for integrity training include the regular provision of such training and
contents that are tailored to the professional, cultural, and educational background of the target group
as well as their legal environment and exposure to corruption risk. Whilst e-learning solutions help make
training materials widely available, complementing them with in-person exchanges can increase their
impact. Moreover, training contents should be regularly evaluated and updated. Yet, ensuring consistency
over the long run can be challenging in the face of time and resource constraints. In addition, ensuring clear
responsibilities and the effective coordination of efforts can be difficult, especially for entities operating in
many countries. Finally, efforts need to be adapted to the specific integrity challenges a society faces to
avoid undesired outcomes.
Against this backdrop, Business at OECD recommends that the OECD intensify its horizontal work on
education and anti-corruption across multiple workstreams. It should collect qualitative and quantitative
data on related efforts in its member states and leverage its convening power to help share best practices
and monitor progress across its network. Moreover, it can foster collaboration between relevant government
agencies, industry associations and companies to co-develop practical guidance on using training to foster
integrity along the supply chain in certain high-risk sectors. OECD countries should support the efforts of
companies to roll out integrity trainings by providing incentives, such as tax breaks for related expenses
or access to accelerated or simplified administrative procedures. Integrity awards granted by governments
to companies with successful anti-corruption programs could also play a meaningful role in this regard.
Finally, ethics components should become a standard element of primary, secondary and tertiary education
curricula across OECD countries.
