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Summary

National Integrity System (NIS)

An approach that assumes integrity in certain key institutions provides a country with a higher level of resilience against corruption.

The NIS approach dates from the 1990s when it was developed by Transparency International (TI) as a means of combining analysis and reform proposals at country level (Langseth et al. 1997). An NIS survey is usually conducted by civil society or academics, using a multi-stakeholder approach to gather information and verify the results. These can be conducted independently of TI, although TI is the central resource for the methodology and guidance and its national chapters have conducted most of such studies.

The underlying theory is that a country's “national integrity” or level of corruption rests on the performance of certain key institutions which provide a defence against corruption. The institutions are not specifically anti-corruption institutions but are fundamental to a country's structure and culture. These are often portrayed visually as the pillars of a Greek temple. Many pillars of integrity are relatively uncontroversial and universal, such as the judiciary.

Critics have noted that the relevant pillars should be varied by country, as well as there being subjectivity around the interpretation of “integrity”, and that assessments risk being disproportionately reliant on anti-corruption policies and procedures and compliance-based approaches. However, the NIS guidance has been updated to reflect these critiques and, although resource-intensive – and so rarely carried out – the NIS approach is regarded as a useful tool for assessing the strength of a country's anti-corruption defences.

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Further reading

Brown, A. & F. Heinrich 2017. “National Integrity Systems: an evolving approach to anti-corruption policy evaluation”. Crime, Law and Social Change 68: 283– 92.

Heywood, P. & E. Johnson 2017. “Cultural specificity versus institutional universalism: a critique of the National Integrity System (NIS) methodology”. Crime, Law and Social Change 68: 309– 24.

Langseth, P., R. Stapenhurst & J. Pope 1997. “The role of a National Integrity System in fighting corruption”. Commonwealth Law Bulletin 23: 499– 528.

Natural resource governance

The application of fundamental governance concepts such as oversight, accountability and transparency to the natural resources sector, and typically to oil, gas and mining specifically as a means of addressing corruption.