Impact Stories

Indonesia is known for its vast natural resources and diverse climate, placing it among the world's leading agricultural producers. The agribusiness industry is vital to the nation's economy, providing livelihoods for a large portion of the population and contributing significantly to its gross domestic product (GDP). Beyond food security, the sector supports rural development, poverty reduction and export revenues. However, corruption has hindered the sector’s potential. The challenges posed by corruption vary across regions, with some areas facing more entrenched issues due to weaker enforcement mechanisms and limited resources. In response, the Global Compact Network Indonesia launched the Anti-Corruption Collective Action (ACCA) initiative in 2022 , supported by the Siemens Integrity Initiative . This three-year program addresses corruption within the land-based sector, focusing on agribusinesses like palm oil. Network Indonesia also played an active role at the B20 Indonesia Summit 2022, joining the High-Level Public-Private Policy Dialogue on Promoting Transparency and Accountability. This dialogue reinforced Indonesia’s anti-corruption agenda, strengthened public-private partnerships and advanced key policies like B20’s Policy Action 2.3 and Indonesia’s National Strategy for Corruption Prevention. This engagement helped drive concrete action, including launching regional ACCA workshops targeting corruption risks in the agribusiness sector.

Let’s have dinner and chat. It might sound like a nice, friendly invitation, but is it? An anti-corruption initiative in Brazil is using videos to highlight hypothetical questions and everyday dilemmas that business leaders, employees, clients and suppliers might face. How they respond in real life is key to upholding ethical standards. The set of eight animated videos was launched by Brazil’s Agribusiness Anti-Corruption Collective Action (ACCA), an initiative facilitated by Global Compact Network Brazil. Brazil’s agribusiness in particular is vulnerable to corruption, given the array of licenses, certifications and inspections required throughout the industry that require sensitivity and high standards of ethics, professionalism and transparency to be effective. The agribusiness anti-corruption videos offer practical solutions and reinforce the importance of maintaining ethical standards in everyday business practices. In one video, for example, a company representative and a public official meet by chance in the city center. As they chat, the official casually suggests discussing a potential contract over dinner. The video freezes, giving way to the company representative speaking in a voice-over, weighing whether this would be an appropriate course of action. The company representative concludes that accepting the invitation could be seen as taking an illicit advantage, potentially leading to problems for himself and the company. The video proceeds to explain how interactions with public officials should be conducted, emphasizing the importance of transparency, protocol and formal procedures. In the end, the company representative decides it would be more appropriate to arrange a formal meeting at the office instead of accepting the dinner invitation.

An online platform launched by Global Compact Network Kenya in 2024 has bolstered these efforts by allowing signatories to publicly upload annual anti-corruption reports and promote transparency and accountability. It also serves as a resource hub, providing various anti-corruption tools and learning materials.

The war has not only raised the risks of corruption. It has made the need for an effective, corruption-free business environment that can attract investment, access foreign funding and foster innovation for national defense an absolute priority.
To this end, UN Global Compact Ukraine has stepped up, publishing “Business Integrity Lessons from a War Zone,” a guide for companies seeking to eradicate corruption, and launched a video course "Anti-Corruption" as part of its Anti-Corruption Collective Action Programme.