Global Corruption Impact Dashboard

As the world becomes increasingly connected and intertwined, so do the fortunes of various economies and regions. This has become increasingly apparent in areas such as trade, terrorism, social instability, technology and migration. There is growing evidence to support that along with the positive effects of globalization, various negative drivers also impact the way the world operates. Corruption is a very critical part of this dynamic.

To visually represent the impact of each country, we collected data related to the economy, remittance, terrorism, population and other indexes, with the aim to represent a broad spectrum of data impacting or related to corruption. Post preliminary analysis, research and collation of a decade’s worth of data, we were able to generate a visual story where each country is represented and their role in global corruption is showcased.

Why Is This Important?

During our research in various areas related to risk, anti-money laundering, corruption and the growing threat related to forced human migration, it became increasingly clear that many of these risk areas are driven by global forces rather than just local ones. This is a big change from the past, wherein the world usually saw the positive impact of globalization and related global trends.

Corruption is either a driver or a result of a number of these negative global trends and events. This is because the need, consumption and creation of ill-gotten or undocumented cash is often as an economic incentive for certain individuals or organizations, involved in corruption. Often these individuals and organizations do not belong to the location of the corruption event and may also be a trade counter-party based somewhere else in the world. This has led governments, security agencies, risk professionals and social organizations to focus on understanding and tracking corruption in various parts of the world, with the knowledge that corruption in one region or country is no longer localized or limited to that geographic region.

Corruption and by extension money laundering, is spread and impacted by cross-border trade, migration, movements and economic opportunity. What this means is that to truly understand the impact of corruption in the world, one would need to understand the state of corruption, money laundering, remittance, population, politics and other trends in each country. It would also be logical to assume that the greater the economic and overall foot-print of a country, the greater their role in ensuring stability, peace and order in the world.

The Corruption Impact Dashboard has been developed to give business leaders, risk professionals, regulators, law makers, banking professionals, data enthusiasts, economists and other interested individuals, a focused overview of the world when it comes to corruption and the impact that each of the 180 profiled countries and territories may have in this space. Our goal is to provide this information and insight to those, who would like to either understand or contribute in the global fight against corruption, make the relevant business decisions and promote transparency.

Data, Sources And Methodology

To develop this dashboard and analysis, we have collected data from various validated and well-regarded sources. These include:

  • Transparency International – Corruption Perception Index
  • World Bank
  • International Monetary Fund
  • Basel AML Index
  • Institute of Economics & Peace
  • CIA The World Factbook

This data has been collated, validated and analyzed by the Sullivan & Bailey team by using our proprietary Data Asset Framework. Each data point is based on a specific primary and high reputation source. To the extent possible, we have not modified, updated, enhanced or made changes to the core data.

To build this Data Asset, we focused on only those countries & territories which were part of the latest Corruption Perception Index 2018 and designated these as anchor profiles. Hence, the total countries & territories are 180 (out of estimated global 247). For these anchor profiles, we then extracted data related to GDP, remittance (inwards & outward), population, growth rates and allied indexes. To the extent possible we have collected the latest data i.e. of 2018, however in certain cases, where the latest numbers have not been reported, we have considered the numbers for the year 2017 or 2016.

The Basel AML Index, Corruption Perception Index (CPI) and Terrorism Index are as declared in 2018. Details related to official country flags and system of government are as defined in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_system_of_government.

Below the world map, there is a heat map which plots the Corruption Perception Index (2018) of countries against their Gross Domestic Product (2018). The darker the shade of the background (light grey to black), the greater the assumed negative global impact of a country in terms of perception of corruption. The size of the bubble of each country represents the absolute change in their corruption perception index (CPI) since 2012. Hence, the bubble may provide the user an indication of the change in CPI, however whether the change is positive or negative may only be determined from the Corruption Perception line graph, placed just on top of the heat map.

Using The Dashboard

The dashboard has been made using Power BI and has been designed to allow the user to interact and engage with it, in an easy to use and intuitive manner while also getting a detailed view of various details.

The dashboard overview has various elements for interaction, search and selection, which have been marked in yellow (click on any image to go to the dashboard – best viewed on a laptop or monitor)

To search for details of corruption impact related to a specific country or territory, one may use the drop down or search bar just above that.

In addition, search can also be driven by the world map. The intensity of red color of a country or territory indicates the Corruption Perception Index 2018 (CPI) score for that country.

Once a country is selected, the specific corruption impact details for the country or territory are showcased on the dashboard.

A user may also see overview details of the country or territory by either hovering over the map or the heat map. Further details or selection may be viewed by clicking the heat map bubble or on the map.

Insights

There are a number of surprising details and interesting nuggets of information which become apparent once a user has engaged with the dashboard. However, below are some general insights:

  • The greatest negative impact on global corruption is exhibited by Russia & Mexico
  • The lowest impact on global corruption is due to the mountainous Caribbean island nation of Dominica
  • There seems to be high correlation between high corruption perception, low standards of Anti-Money Laundering and a high rank in terrorism for high risk countries
  • Most at risk seem to be those countries, with high corruption impact and relatively high remittance inflows in comparison to GDP – example Nigeria, Bangladesh, Venezuela, Yemen etc.