This guide is a practical instrument to assist local governments, UNDP Country Offices (COs), international organizations and civil society organizations (CSOs) to design, implement and monitor anti-corruption at the local government level. This process includes 1) corruption risk assessments; 2) integrity plans; and 3) integrity management systems that result in more transparent, effective, efficient and accountable local governments.

The guide will strengthen the capacity of those working in the local government sector to effectively manage integrity risks and increase organisational resilience to integrity violations, and thus enable local governments to deliver robust and efficient public services. Strengthening integrity and preventing corruption on local levels will positively affect achievement of a number of Sustainable Development Goals, and especially the Goal 161, which promotes peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provides access to justice for all and builds effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels. Importantly, the guide provides practical information and practice-based tools to support and strengthen transparency, effectiveness, efficiency and accountability in local government processes in four important ways:

• First, the guide provides users with vital background information to enhance their knowledge of the concept of local government integrity, the opportunities for integrity violations, and their relationship to preventing corruption.
• Second, it presents a range of adaptive tools (methodologies) and examples to lead anti-corruption practitioners to identify, analyse and evaluate integrity risks in their own contexts.
• Third, it advises on how to carry out effective integrity planning by enabling users to design, implement and monitor integrity plans that address integrity risks with the most adequate and appropriate risk treatment measures.
• Fourth, it instructs users on how to sustain and improve an integrity management system (IMS) that ensures implementation of integrity plans and contributes to continuous improvement of integrity management practices on the local government level.