February 4, 2026: PTF participated in the UN Convention against Corruption (UNCAC)’s 11th Conference of the States Parties (CoSP11) held in Doha from December 15-19, 2025. A key event in the anti-corruption space, UNCAC’s CoSP11 brought together 2,500 participants from around the world.
PTF submitted a statement at COSP11 calling on the UN to fund CSO-led Anti-Corruption Monitoring. This important call to action urges countries to institutionalize and fund citizen and CSO-led third party monitoring (TPM) in a bid to strengthen anti-corruption systems, and to ensure public funds are effectively used.
“Civil Society participation continues to play an important role that is not systematically financed”
During the conference’s Opening Plenary, Dr. Hady Fink urged States Parties to expand civil society participation in MDB-financed development assistance. TPM refers to independent monitoring conducted by citizens and CSOs of publicly funded programs, including MDB-financed projects. Dr. Hady stressed how evidence shows TPM detects risks early, reduces leakage, and improves trust.
PTF’s Call to Action is urgent because the risks of leakages in MDB financing are growing as the transparency and accountability systems in the public financial management in many countries remain weak and civic space is shrinking.
With MDBs undergoing significant reform and scaling up financing, many borrower countries face systemic weaknesses in procurement integrity, financial management, and transparency.
Given MDB portfolios may soon exceed $700 billion annually, PTF estimates that investing in CSO-led TPM would fully pay for itself if it prevents or exposes even 1% of leakages in MDB financing. Even a modest reduction in waste and corruption yields billions of dollars in saved resources—far exceeding the cost of funding TPM programs.
“No MDB investment offers a higher rate of return than investments to reduce corruption.”
As PTF looks forward to 2026, we will continue to follow up and engage with partners bilaterally and multilaterally to strengthen civil society action against corruption and to work towards strengthening transparency and accountability systems.
By Wayne Nissly
