2026 Regional Workshop on Fighting Corruption in the Western Balkans and beyond

At a recent regional workshop, SDC and SECO colleagues from Armenia, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Moldova, North Macedonia, Kosovo, Romania, Serbia, and Ukraine met in Pristina to exchange on how to improve Switzerland’s anti-corruption programming.

Four key insights:

• Anti-corruption mobilizes the streets: Even as normative frameworks face pressure, the issue continues to matter to citizens, especially youth. This confirms the relevance of Swiss International Cooperation in promoting integrity and supporting anti-corruption reforms.
• Corruption is complex and adaptive: Linear interventions and purely technical fixes don’t work. Switzerland’s long-term, context-specific, and adaptive approach is well suited to promote change.
• Strong local leadership is decisive: Committed political and institutional leaders make the difference. Switzerland can support these anti-corruption champions both programmatically and politically.
• Switzerland brings valuable expertise: Swiss programs cover direct interventions (e.g the work with anti-corruption agencies) as well as indirect once such as investigative journalism, support to oversight institutions, public sector management, and asset recovery. Even as a smaller player, Swiss efforts are an important complement to regional initiatives such as the Council of Europe’s Rule of Law, Democracy, and Human Rights programs.

The workshop benefited greatly from the participants’ extensive practical experience, the presence of SDC’s strategic partners such as the Basel Institute on Governance and the U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Center, as well as the contributions of regional anti-corruption champions who make significant personal sacrifices to continue this important work.