The GovLab is taking on corruption in Mexico and thinks crowdsourcing can help

Can crowdsourcing beat corruption?

According to NYU Tandon’s GovLab, one in three interactions between Mexican citizens and their government involves a bribe. Recognizing the importance of that, the Mexican government undertook a reform effort, called the National Anti-Corruption System. But changing decades of entrenched behaviors sounds hard, so how do you do it?

Well, the GovLab thinks more ideas are a start. So to that end it’s organizing, in partnership with Mexico’s Secretariat of Public Service, six online conferences on topics like “Measuring Corruption and its Costs,” “Ensuring Whistleblower Support and Protection” and “Tracking and Analyzing Money Flows.”

“Introducing the Smarter Crowdsourcing Against Corruption Initiative” by @TheGovLab cc .@AriW https://t.co/Mc491RYKUB

— David K Park (@davidchungpark) May 22, 2017

“Implementing a reform of this scale and complexity requires government to work in fundamentally different ways,” the GovLab wrote in a post. “Entire programs and processes need to be re-built, institutions reformed, and behaviors and mindsets changed. With this daunting challenge comes an opportunity to introduce innovative and improved approaches to governing.”

It’s an interesting idea, and for those who care about these issues, the whole post is worth a read, and maybe worth getting involved with.