Key Messages

Main message

Governments and citizens across the Asia-Pacific can tackle corruption together by focusing on areas which impact daily life such as health, education, the police and natural resources.

Secondary messages

• It is the poor who bear the heaviest burden of corruption – it pushes them further into poverty, deepens inequality and injustice.
  
  
• Curbing corruption can boost political stability and economic growth.
  
  
• There are success stories from the region that prove it is possible for Asia-Pacific countries to reverse the scourge of corruption.
  
  
• Global actors including companies, consumers and development organizations must share the responsibility of fighting corruption in the Asia-Pacific region while countries can strengthen the international cooperation which already exists. 
  
  
• Within countries, governments’ institutional reform can join with the independent monitoring power of media and civil society; this would combine effective leadership from above with pressure from below.