Ukraine’s Restoration is primarily about recovering from the immense human suffering and destruction to infrastructure and the natural environment the war has caused. But the Restoration, which has already begun, also offers a chance for Ukraine to advance towards a climate-neutral and nature-positive future in line with EU ambitions and international obligations. For that to happen, we need to expand the tide of governance reforms currently swelling in the Restoration process to also cover environmental governance.

Across Southern Africa, leaders from the business community, civil society and government are coming together to strengthen business integrity and thus catalyse the region's huge economic potential.

Business integrity is vital to the health of the vibrant economies of the Asia-Pacific region, as well as of the companies based or seeking to do business in the region. Fostering trust and transparency through Collective Action between stakeholders – local businesses, foreign investors, governments, civil society – is key to advancing a strong culture of business integrity, levelling the playing field and solving practical challenges that hold back fair business.

Bulgaria has been undergoing a period of political instability, with five electoral cycles in the last two years. During this period, corruption has become a highly politicised topic. Efforts to curb it are now one of the most important campaign issues. 

In addition, Bulgaria has the second highest levels of perceived corruption among EU member states according to Transparency International's 2022 Corruption Perceptions Index.

From 15–19 May 2023, our International Centre for Asset Recovery (ICAR) training team was at the National Institute of Justice in Sofia, Bulgaria to deliver our flagship training on Financial Investigations and Asset Recovery. The training is a crucial element of our collaboration with the Bulgarian government to assist in combatting corruption and recovering stolen public funds.