Transparency International (TI) seeks to provide reliable quantitative diagnostic tools regarding levels of transparency and corruption, both at global and local levels.
The annual TI Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), first released in 1995, is the best known of TI’s tools. It has been widely credited for putting TI and the issue of corruption on the international policy agenda. The CPI ranks more than 150 countries in terms of perceived levels of corruption, as determined by expert assessments and opinion surveys.
Transparency International formed an Index Advisory Committee (IAC) in 1996 to consult with on its global corruption measurement tools. The role of the Committee is to provide technical expertise and advice in the development and strengthening of the methodologies used by TI to measure corruption and governance.
The Committee has a consultative role and TI has the ultimate responsibility in terms of decision making. Members of the committee (IAC members) are economists, statisticians, and social and political scientists who provide pro bono advise in the development of the various tools developed by TI. Please click here to see latest list of Members of the Index Advisory Committee and their organizational affiliation.
In recent years, TI has sought to develop other corruption measurement tools to complement the CPI. The Bribe Payers’ Index (BPI) assesses the supply side of corruption and ranks corruption by source country and industry sector. The Global Corruption Barometer (GCB) is a public opinion survey that assesses the general public’s perception and experience of corruption in more than 60 countries around the world.
In parallel to these global indices and surveys, TI national chapters in Africa and the Middle East, the Americas, Asia and Pacific and Europe and Central Asia have engaged in a number of innovative efforts to measure corruption, transparency and governance – often combining objective and subjective data in their analyses. This mapping exercise facilitates the knowledge sharing process on measurement tools inside and outside the TI movement.