Agenda for Business Integrity: Collective Action

The document outlines how Collective Action—collaborative efforts between private, public, and civil society actors—can mitigate the risks individual companies face when fighting corruption. It identifies four main forms of Collective Action: Anti-Corruption Declarations, Standard-Setting Initiatives, Capacity-Building Initiatives, and Integrity Pacts. The report highlights the role of technology as a catalyst for scaling these efforts and argues that the future of business integrity requires connecting corruption to other ESG issues, such as human rights and climate change, while incorporating a wider range of stakeholders including institutional investors and employees.

• Collective Action serves as a mechanism to protect vulnerable actors, such as small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), by creating a coalition that shares the burden and risk of denouncing corruption, which is particularly critical in countries with insecure rule of law.
• There are four primary forms of Collective Action based on their duration, scope, and enforceability: voluntary Anti-Corruption Declarations, sector-specific Standard-Setting Initiatives, Capacity-Building Initiatives for sharing compliance know-how, and Integrity Pacts used for specific public tenders or large projects.
• The Maritime Anti-Corruption Network (MACN) demonstrates the effectiveness of Collective Action through specific outcomes, including the reduction of facilitation payment demands in Egypt's Suez Canal, the creation of a new regulatory framework in Argentina to reduce inspection discretion, and improved port operations in Nigeria.
• The High-Level Reporting Mechanism (HLRM), developed by the OECD, Basel Institute of Governance, and Transparency International, provides a flexible tool for addressing bribery solicitation in public procurement and customs, and has been deployed in Argentina, Colombia, Panama, and Ukraine.
• The rise of stakeholder capitalism is expected to expand Collective Action by involving new participants such as institutional investors, unions, employees, and activists, and by linking corruption to broader ESG issues like climate change, deforestation, and human rights.
• Technology acts as a catalyst for Collective Action by providing tools such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, and open data, as well as platforms for sharing outcomes, such as the World Economic Forum's Tech for Integrity Platform and the UN-Business Action Hub.

APA

Cecchini, G., Wood, D., & Kaiser, M. (2020). Agenda for Business Integrity: Collective Action. World Economic Forum. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Agenda_for_Business_Integrity.pdf

Chicago

Cecchini, Gabriel, Duncan Wood, and Max Kaiser. Agenda for Business Integrity: Collective Action. World Economic Forum, 2020. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Agenda_for_Business_Integrity.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Cecchini |first1=Gabriel |last2=Wood |first2=Duncan |last3=Kaiser |first3=Max |title=Agenda for Business Integrity: Collective Action |publisher=World Economic Forum |date=August 2020 |url=http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Agenda_for_Business_Integrity.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{cecchini2020agenda, author = {Cecchini, Gabriel and Wood, Duncan and Kaiser, Max}, title = {{Agenda for Business Integrity: Collective Action}}, institution = {World Economic Forum}, year = {2020}, month = aug, url = {http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Agenda_for_Business_Integrity.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }