IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/sustdv/v33y2025i3p4468-4491.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Monitoring the Risk of Corruption in the MENA Region: What Are the Most Reliable Data to Address the Sustainable Development Goals?

Author

Listed:
  • Rédina Berkachy
  • Jean‐Patrick Villeneuve
  • Giulia Mugellini

Abstract

Countering corruption is recognized by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) as crucial for effective and sustainable governance. Sample surveys are often used as the primary tool for monitoring corruption, making the evaluation of their quality essential for building a reliable evidence base strategy and achieving the UN SDGs 16.5. However, there is a lack of studies assessing the quality of corruption surveys in the Middle East and North African (MENA) region. This gap can be attributed to various factors, including low prioritization, insufficient resources for anti‐corruption initiatives, the sensitivity of the topic, and language and cultural barriers. This article aims to assess the quality of corruption surveys in the MENA region by developing an ad‐hoc quality evaluation framework, MENA_QUEST_16.5. This framework includes criteria for assessing survey relevance, validity, accuracy, credibility, periodicity, and comparability to evaluate MENA surveys' effectiveness in capturing corruption events, in line with SDGs' requirement for measuring corruption. The framework is then applied to evaluate the quality of 19 national and cross‐national corruption surveys targeting countries in the MENA region. The study finds that the overall quality of MENA corruption surveys is good, but the number of national initiatives is low. Surveys often lack accuracy in depicting corruption issues, typically operationalizing corruption through only one or two questions. Details about corruption events (e.g., types of officials involved; types of benefits exchanged) are rarely investigated. Also, MENA surveys are not periodically conducted and suffer from a lack of transparency, with raw data generally unavailable or inaccessible. These results point to methodological shortcomings that should be addressed to obtain a reliable overview of corruption in the MENA region. Tackling these issues can improve the monitoring of corruption trends and inform anti‐corruption policy design and evaluation, to ultimately achieve the UN SDGs.

Suggested Citation

  • Rédina Berkachy & Jean‐Patrick Villeneuve & Giulia Mugellini, 2025. "Monitoring the Risk of Corruption in the MENA Region: What Are the Most Reliable Data to Address the Sustainable Development Goals?," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(3), pages 4468-4491, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:sustdv:v:33:y:2025:i:3:p:4468-4491
    DOI: 10.1002/sd.3350
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/sd.3350
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/sd.3350?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kristyna Chabova, 2017. "Erratum to: Measuring corruption in Europe: public opinion surveys and composite indices," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 51(4), pages 1901-1901, July.
    2. Gutmann, Jerg & Padovano, Fabio & Voigt, Stefan, 2020. "Perception vs. experience: Explaining differences in corruption measures using microdata," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    3. Heywood, Paul M. & Rose, Jonathan, 2014. "“Close but no Cigar”: the measurement of corruption," Journal of Public Policy, Cambridge University Press, vol. 34(3), pages 507-529, December.
    4. Javier Herrera & Mireille Razafindrakoto & François Roubaud, 2007. "Governance, Democracy and Poverty Reduction: Lessons Drawn from Household Surveys in Sub‐Saharan Africa and Latin America," International Statistical Review, International Statistical Institute, vol. 75(1), pages 70-95, April.
    5. Knack, Stephen, 2007. "Measuring Corruption: A Critique of Indicators in Eastern Europe and Central Asia," Journal of Public Policy, Cambridge University Press, vol. 27(3), pages 255-291, December.
    6. Sally Engle Merry, 2019. "The Sustainable Development Goals Confront the Infrastructure of Measurement," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 10(S1), pages 146-148, January.
    7. Kristyna Chabova, 2017. "Measuring corruption in Europe: public opinion surveys and composite indices," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 51(4), pages 1877-1900, July.
    8. Emad Ahmad & Lina A. Issa, 2022. "Key determinants of corruption in the Middle East and North Africa," International Journal of Research in Business and Social Science (2147-4478), Center for the Strategic Studies in Business and Finance, vol. 11(6), pages 410-420, September.
    9. Itai Beeri & Doron Navot, 2013. "Local Political Corruption: Potential structural malfunctions at the central-local, local-local and intra-local levels," Public Management Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(5), pages 712-739, June.
    10. Steve MacFeely, 2019. "The Big (data) Bang: Opportunities and Challenges for Compiling SDG Indicators," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 10(S1), pages 121-133, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Giulia Mugellini & Jean‐Patrick Villeneuve & Marlen Heide, 2021. "Monitoring sustainable development goals and the quest for high‐quality indicators: Learning from a practical evaluation of data on corruption," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(6), pages 1257-1275, November.
    2. José-Miguel Bello y Villarino, 2021. "Measuring Corruption: A Critical Analysis of the Existing Datasets and Their Suitability for Diachronic Transnational Research," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 157(2), pages 709-747, September.
    3. Demirgüç-Kunt, Asli & Lokshin, Michael & Kolchin, Vladimir, 2023. "Effects of public sector wages on corruption: Wage inequality matters," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(3), pages 941-959.
    4. Eugen Dimant & Guglielmo Tosato, 2018. "Causes And Effects Of Corruption: What Has Past Decade'S Empirical Research Taught Us? A Survey," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(2), pages 335-356, April.
    5. Parvanova, Iva & Lagarde, Mylene, 2025. "Framing of sensitive topics in surveys measuring corruption in healthcare," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 364(C).
    6. MacFeely Steve, 2020. "Measuring the Sustainable Development Goal Indicators: An Unprecedented Statistical Challenge," Journal of Official Statistics, Sciendo, vol. 36(2), pages 361-378, June.
    7. Sheilendra Peerthum & Takesh Luckho, 2021. "Exploring the Linkage Between Public Corruption and Political Trust in Mauritius: a PLS-SEM Approach," Public Organization Review, Springer, vol. 21(2), pages 317-335, June.
    8. Mireille Razafindrakoto & François Roubaud, 2015. "The Governance, Peace and Security modules of the Strategy for the Harmonisation of Statistics in Africa (GPS-SHaSA): development of an innovative statistical survey methodology," Working Papers DT/2015/20, DIAL (Développement, Institutions et Mondialisation).
    9. Razafindrakoto, Mireille & Roubaud, François, 2010. "Are International Databases on Corruption Reliable? A Comparison of Expert Opinion Surveys and Household Surveys in Sub-Saharan Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 38(8), pages 1057-1069, August.
    10. Daniel Homocianu & Aurelian-Petruș Plopeanu & Rodica Ianole-Calin, 2021. "A Robust Approach for Identifying the Major Components of the Bribery Tolerance Index," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 9(13), pages 1-20, July.
    11. Kyung Ryul Park & Young Shil Park, 2024. "Addressing institutional challenges in sustainable development goals implementation: Lessons from the Republic of Korea," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(1), pages 1354-1369, February.
    12. Van Ha, Le, 2024. "Unveiling a novel approach to corruption measurement: Leveraging household survey data on income and expenditure through forensic analysis," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 136(C).
    13. Lili Pan & Lin Wang & Qianqian Feng, 2022. "Effects of Host-Country Corruption on China’s Outward Foreign Direct Investments: Expert Knowledge Versus Public Awareness," SAGE Open, , vol. 12(4), pages 21582440221, December.
    14. Ilona Wysmułek, 2019. "Using public opinion surveys to evaluate corruption in Europe: trends in the corruption items of 21 international survey projects, 1989–2017," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 53(5), pages 2589-2610, September.
    15. Yu Hao & Chun-Ping Chang & Zao Sun, 2018. "Women and corruption: evidence from multinational panel data," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 52(4), pages 1447-1468, July.
    16. Fernando Castelló-Sirvent & Pablo Pinazo-Dallenbach, 2021. "Corruption Shock in Mexico: fsQCA Analysis of Entrepreneurial Intention in University Students," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 9(14), pages 1-31, July.
    17. Andrea Sáenz de Viteri Vázquez & Christian Bjørnskov, 2020. "Constitutional power concentration and corruption: evidence from Latin America and the Caribbean," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 31(4), pages 509-536, December.
    18. Potrafke, Niklas, 2019. "Electoral cycles in perceived corruption: International empirical evidence," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(1), pages 215-224.
    19. Jerg Gutmann & Katarzyna Metelska-Szaniawska & Stefan Voigt, 2024. "The comparative constitutional compliance database," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 19(1), pages 95-115, January.
    20. Philip Keefer & Christopher Kilby, 2021. "Introduction to the special issue: In memoriam Stephen Knack," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 16(3), pages 473-493, July.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:sustdv:v:33:y:2025:i:3:p:4468-4491. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1099-1719 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.