Americans don’t want their foreign aid to be lost to corruption—or worse, to fuel corruption. However, by seeking to avoid corruption rather than changing its approach to aid, the United States is missing out on the vast, untapped potential of local actors to strengthen accountability, improve governance, and fight corruption.

The US has the opportunity to make its actions match its rhetoric. With the right changes to US laws, policy, and practice, the US can adopt a more locally driven approach to fighting corruption, and thereby sharpen its tools to support people in partner countries in their fight against corruption.

As the stories in this report show, citizens and leaders in countries around the world are taking action and working to make their governments accountable. The US government needs to change its practices to seize opportunities to invest in leaders who are already working to hold their governments to account.