Specialized Anti-Corruption Agencies (ACAs) are a relatively new type of public institution created with the purpose of bundling a government’s response to the challenge of fighting corruption. With few exceptions, they have failed to live up to the expectations vested in them. Even though by 2020, 114 countries have had one or more such agencies, little research is available on them as institutions, and there are hardly any studies that attempt to systematically identify success factors. Additionally, many ACAs lack an explicit structured approach to produce and analyze data that allows them to monitor and evaluate their success.

Against this, the objective of this Guidance Note is to provide guidance to address this core issue by proposing an approach in four basic steps to review and strengthen the strategy of ACAs in ASEAN to define and implement a data-based approach of evaluating their performance.