• • Cost: The United Nations and World Economic Forum have estimated the global cost of corruption at 5% of the world’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).  Based on the world’s GDP for 2022 of US$ 101 trillion, this would equate to US$5 trillion per annum of global stolen funds.  In context, this is higher than the annual GDP of Japan, which is the world’s third largest economy.

Transparency International estimated that corruption costs developing countries $1.26 trillion per year, and that this was enough money to lift the 1.4 billion people who get by on less than $1.25/day, above the poverty threshold and keep them there for at least six years.

• • The UN Sustainable Development Goal 16.5:  Aims to substantially reduce corruption and bribery in all their forms.

Corruption is one of the greatest obstacles to the alleviation of poverty, and the development of adequate and safe food, water, healthcare, education and infrastructure.  

• • According to Transparency International, an estimated $500 billion of funding destined for health services is lost to corruption every year. Corruption in the health sector kills an estimated 140,000 children a year, fuels the global rise in antimicrobial resistance, hinders the fight against HIV/AIDS and has hampered the ability to respond to COVID-19.  CORRUPTION KILLS.