Maria Fernanda Perez Arguello and Tamara Ziff

Against the backdrop of scandals and citizen discontent, the Peruvian government designated “democratic governance against corruption” as the central theme of the 2018 Summit of the Americas—the triennial meeting of heads of state from countries in the Americas. In preparation for the meeting, the Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center at the Atlantic Council and the Inter-American Dialogue partnered with the Peruvian Foreign Ministry to develop inputs for the meeting’s declaration and plan of action. The organizations convened anti-corruption experts from around the hemisphere in Washington, DC and in Lima, Peru for discussion sessions. Results were presented at pre-Summit planning meetings hosted by the Organization of American States, with the participation of regional government representatives. These ideas helped to inform the resulting Lima Commitment, which included 57 concrete actions to enhance and strengthen transparency and the fight against corruption in the region.

To advance implementation of the Lima Commitment, the Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center and the Inter-American Dialogue, with the support of Open Society Foundations, convened anticorruption experts from the technology, government, multilateral, media, business, and civil society sectors in early 2019, with goal of identifying and promoting cutting-edge tech solutions in the transparency and anticorruption arenas, specifically those related to public procurement given its centrality to recent corruption scandals. This publication is the result of that year-long effort.