Business Integrity, Ethics and Compliance

Promoting ethical business through compliance and Collective Action

The private sector has a powerful role to play in reducing corruption and strengthening governance. Yet companies often struggle to resist corrupt pressures without robust compliance programmes or when acting alone.

With a dedicated Private Sector team, the Basel Institute on Governance provides expert advice and technical support to strengthen anti-corruption compliance and business integrity in companies and state-owned enterprises worldwide.

We are leading champions of anti-corruption Collective Action – collaborative initiatives where public, private and civil society actors work together to promote fair, transparent business practices and environments.

How we support business integrity and governance

We take a collaborative approach to strengthening business integrity across different sectors and contexts. Our support includes:

Providing tailored advice and training on compliance and corporate governance that reflects real business challenges and includes innovative methods such as behaviour change strategies.

Facilitating anti-corruption Collective Action initiatives that bring together private firms, public institutions and civil society.

Contributing to standards and guidance on responsible business conduct, drawing on our hands-on experience.

This approach creates stronger organisations, more transparent business practices and competitive markets that attract investment and support sustainable economic development.

Supporting compliance and organisational governance

Our specialised Private Sector team helps international institutions and development banks, government agencies, state-owned enterprises and companies to strengthen governance and manage integrity risks more effectively. We work with organisations to:

assess and mitigate corruption risks through compliance reviews and risk assessments;
design and strengthen integrity and compliance programmes;
integrate integrity and compliance risks into wider enterprise risk management systems;
strengthen governance frameworks as a core organisational capability.

Our approach goes beyond regulatory compliance. Working closely with boards, leadership teams and compliance functions, we help embed ethical principles into governance frameworks, business processes and organisational culture.

Our advisory work includes stakeholder engagement, benchmarking, policy and procedure development, governance and compliance programme design, training and capacity building, and whistleblowing and speak-up mechanisms.

Advancing and facilitating anti-corruption Collective Action

Since the Basel Institute’s founding in 2003, we have championed anti-corruption Collective Action as a powerful approach to tackle corruption and promote integrity and fair competition in business.

Collective Action brings together companies, industry groups, government institutions and civil society to build trust and address shared corruption challenges.

We support these collaborative efforts by:

providing practical advice, tools and hands-on support to design and implement initiatives;
facilitating initiatives and mentoring civil society organisations engaging in Collective Action;
advancing the field through conferences, awards and research;
hosting the B20 Collective Action Hub, a free resource centre on anti-corruption Collective Action.

Our track record includes helping launch pioneering initiatives such as the World Economic Forum’s Partnering Against Corruption Initiative and The Wolfsberg Group.

"Collective Action gives SMEs a voice. It gives them a platform and a network where they can communicate their challenges and gain access to tools and opportunities. For business associations, it gives us a platform to make sure that the policies that are put in place are ones that businesses can work with."

Vibeke Lyssand Leirvag, Managing Director, Felicia Design; Chair, Joint Foreign Chambers of Commerce in Thailand

Shaping standards and guidance

Our research and hands-on experience with companies all over the world help us develop smarter, more effective approaches to private-sector compliance and integrity.

We translate our insights into practical guidance and innovative tools. For example, we have co-developed indicators to assess compliance effectiveness in the healthcare sector, and contributed to OECD guidance on measuring compliance effectiveness more broadly.

Thanks in part to our efforts, anti-corruption Collective Action is now recognised in key frameworks such as the revised OECD Anti-Bribery Recommendation, the OECD Guidelines on Responsible Business Conduct and B20 policy recommendations.

We also support governments in strengthening their national anti-corruption strategies by integrating private-sector engagement and Collective Action approaches. This helps ensure that standards and policies reflect real-world business challenges.

"We, with other pharmaceutical companies, joined an initiative facilitated by the Basel Institute on Governance to jointly develop guidance on how to transparently report on anti-corruption efforts. It resulted in a guidance note containing 17 indicators… Our second Anti-Bribery Report discloses how we address these 17 indicators for effective anti-corruption compliance within our operations."

Klaus Moosmayer, Chief Ethics, Risk and Compliance Officer in 2024, Novartis