As part of the second Summit for Democracy, USAID hosted the launch of the Financial Transparency and Integrity (FTI) Cohort's Pledge and Call to Action and announced new anti-corruption initiatives: the FTI Accelerator and the Integrity for Development Campaign.
Convened after the first Summit for Democracy, the FTI Cohort is a multi-stakeholder platform co-led by the U.S. government, the Brookings Institution, and the Open Government Partnership. Given the transnational nature of corruption, the Cohort was established to further joint efforts to prevent the exploitation of global financial systems by corrupt actors seeking to divert, move, or launder the proceeds of their graft.
Over the Summit's Year of Action, the FTI Cohort has united changemakers from government, civil society, academia, the media, and the private sector in identifying three priority areas for collaboration: bolstering beneficial ownership transparency, supporting accountable public procurement, and addressing the professional enablers of corruption. These areas are where collective action is most needed to close the loopholes that corrupt actors exploit and catalyze a profound shift toward financial transparency, integrity and accountability.
To support these efforts, today at the USAID-hosted Summit for Democracy event on Accelerating Anti-Corruption Progress and Moving to Action, the Cohort launched its groundbreaking FTI Pledge and Call to Action, which affirms the intent of members to advance financial transparency and integrity goals and commitments across the three priority areas, lays out a range of actions to spur progress in these fields, and calls on other countries to join in collectively pursuing these reforms.
In support of this Pledge, USAID announced its new FTI Accelerator, which will align funds under the Presidential Initiative for Democratic Renewal with the Cohort's priority areas. Through the FTI Accelerator, USAID will surge support to partner governments and civil society on key FTI reforms, amplify and connect these to the efforts of other democracy cohorts dedicated to anti-corruption, and support cooperation on FTI efforts at the transnational level.
At today's event, USAID also formally launched the Integrity for Development Campaign (I4D). I4D seeks to increase the overall amount of donor resources for anti-corruption, especially in environments in which the international community is making major sectoral investments - such as climate finance - and the risks of corruption are high. Announced in the context of USAID's historic new investments in anti-corruption, this year-long campaign calls on bilateral donors and foundations to join forces with USAID and increase their investments in building integrity, with the goal of bringing half a billion to the fight against corruption by the end of 2024.
