Donors must hold the line on anti-corruption: Perspectives from a former USAID senior advisor

As the US Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Senior Anti-Corruption Advisor – and later Deputy of its Anti-Corruption Task Force – Accountability Lab Non-Resident Senior Fellow Jennifer Anderson Lewis had the privilege of helped shape and witnessed firsthand what happens when a major donor makes anti-corruption a strategic priority.

It began with a frank admission: like all donors, USAID was not truly prepared to meet the scale and complexity of modern corruption—a transnational, systemic threat undermining development outcomes, democratic institutions, and global stability. As a bilateral Agency primarily structured to work at the country level, we had limited tools to tackle cross-country challenges. What followed was one of the most ambitious institutional undertakings in the Agency’s history.

Read the full story at Alliance Magazine.