Your experience matters. Your opinion can change policy, accelerate development and impact realities.
The Youth Corruption Perception Index is the first public corruption perception index built by young people, for the world.
International organizations and governments have long recognized public corruption as a barrier to development. What has been missing is the systematic, large-scale perspective of the generation most affected by its consequences: young people.
The YCPI exists to fill that gap.
From local communities to international forums.
In 2024, YAC Foundation launched its inaugural Youth Integrity Academy in Ecuador, bringing together over 200 young leaders from across Latin America, marked World Anti-Corruption Day alongside Gen Z movements, and consolidated its first strategic alliances with organizations including Transparency International's Ecuador chapter. Our fellows shared firsthand accounts of how public corruption affects their countries, bringing local voices into a broader regional conversation.
From there, we earned a seat at the world's most important tables. Our members received consecutive invitations to the ECOSOC Youth Forum at United Nations Headquarters in New York, participated in the Financing for Development Forum, the STI Forum, the SDG Investment Fair, and Revitalizing Development Effectiveness organized by IATI and UNDP. We met with the Assistant Secretary-General for Youth Affairs, collaborated on the Youth Declaration on Nuclear Non-Proliferation, were invited by local parliaments to dialogue on public corruption, and launched our Fellows Program, receiving over 500 applications and selecting 20 fellows across 15 countries. Our team is now working toward consultative status with ECOSOC, with a clear roadmap to strengthen YAC Foundation's voice at international forums.
And we are just getting started.
Accelerating the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
Climate Action
Public corruption diverts climate finance, weakens environmental enforcement, and undermines the implementation of solutions that already exist. Integrity is a precondition for effective climate action.
Quality Education
Education systems deliver stronger outcomes where public institutions operate with transparency and accountability. Public corruption in education directly affects the quality and accessibility of opportunity for young people.
Good Health
Healthcare outcomes are closely linked to the integrity of public systems. Public corruption in health procurement and administration affects the availability of medicines and services, disproportionately impacting those who need them most.
Decent Work
Fair economic opportunity requires fair institutions. Public corruption distorts competition and closes doors based on connection rather than merit, disproportionately affecting young people entering the workforce.
Strong Institutions
SDG 16 recognizes that accountable, transparent institutions are not just a goal, they are the foundation on which every other goal is built. Addressing public corruption is central to SDG 16 and to the entire 2030 Agenda.
Partnerships for the Goals
International cooperation reaches its full potential only when channeled through accountable institutions. Strengthening public integrity is essential to ensuring that global commitments translate into real outcomes.
Why this matters
Public corruption costs developing countries an estimated $1.26 trillion every year. Resources that could otherwise directly support progress on the SDGs.
Young people are among those most affected by public corruption. In their access to quality education, healthcare, and economic opportunity.
The youth perspective on public corruption has not been systematically measured at this scale, until now.
The YCPI findings will be presented at the United Nations and shared with governments and international organizations across the region.
#NotNormal is a commitment.
Public corruption has been treated as an inevitable cost of governance for too long. This generation, from every background, every ideology, every country, is united by one conviction: this is not normal, and it does not have to be. We are changing it. Not with noise. With evidence.