Corruption, Justice and Legitimacy Program

What Corruption, Justice and Legitimacy Program does

The Corruption, Justice and Legitimacy Program (CJL) is a research-to-practice initiative housed within Besa Global and headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Founded in 2012 with multi-year support from the U.S. Department of State Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement (USG/INL), CJL develops and disseminates methodologies for analyzing and addressing corruption in fragile and conflict-affected contexts, serving anti-corruption practitioners, policymakers, academics, and development donors operating across sub-Saharan Africa, Central Asia, and the Middle East. The program's premise is that conventional anti-corruption approaches — derived largely from Western institutional templates — fail in endemic-corruption settings because they ignore the role of social norms, informal rules, and adaptive system dynamics.

CJL's core technology is a methodology rather than a software platform. It applies complex adaptive systems thinking to corruption, using causal loop diagrams (systems mapping), stakeholder analysis with alliance/resistance patterns, and a dedicated social norms diagnostic framework that integrates gender, faith, and informal-power considerations. These methods are operationalized across three project streams — Social Norms and Corruption, Corruption as a System, and Corruption and Peacebuilding — and packaged into deliverables including The Learning Series (publication series), the Corruption in Fragile States blog (100+ posts since 2016), the annual online course on corruption in fragile and conflict-affected states co-delivered with U4, and the Social Norms Accelerator, a nine-month hybrid learning program for organizational teams.

CJL's business model is grant-funded and partnership-driven rather than commercial. Primary revenue streams are multi-year grants from government donors (USG/INL since 2012, Carnegie for Uganda research) and foundations (MacArthur Foundation); secondary streams include capacity-building programs such as the Social Norms Accelerator, which is offered with subsidies for resource-constrained organizations. Customer engagement is largely B2B/B2G via implementing partners (Transparency International Canada, Policy Innovation Centre, RCN, Regional Dialogue, IFES) and government counterparts such as the Law Enforcement Academy of Uzbekistan and Uganda's SUGAR program. CJL has no public API, no mobile app, and no software product surface; revenue is not publicly disclosed.

Name

Corruption, Justice and Legitimacy Program

Legal name

Corruption, Justice and Legitimacy Program

Website

https://corruptionjusticeandlegitimacy.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2012

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Anti-Corruption Research and Consulting Services

NAICS

Research and Development in the Social Sciences and Humanities (541720), Religious, Grantmaking, Civic, Professional, and Similar Organizations (813)

SIC

Services-Management Services (8741), Services-Educational Services (8200)

akta.pro industry

PRIMARYBPAHAFAL

Fraud Risk Management & Anti-Bribery/Anti-Corruption (ABAC)

Business & Public Services/Professional Services (Legal, Accounting, Consulting)/Risk, Compliance & Governance Advisory

SECONDARYBPADAGAB

Rule of Law & Justice Sector Reform

Business & Public Services/International Organizations & Development/Human Rights, Democracy & Governance

SECONDARYFSACAGAK

Research Compliance & Governance

Financial & Insurance/Capital Markets & Securities/Securities Research & Analytics

Keywords

• Anti-corruption research
• Social norms analysis
• Corruption analysis methodology
• Peacebuilding programming
• Capacity building training

Headquarters

HQ city

Calgary

HQ country

Canada

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Grant Funding: CJL operates as a research-to-practice initiative primarily funded through grants from government donors including USG/INL (United States Government/Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement), with multi-year support for developing and testing their corruption analysis methodology.
2. Training and Capacity Building Programs: The Social Norms Accelerator is a nine-month hybrid learning program for small teams from organizations, suggesting fee-based or subsidized training services for practitioners.

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

CJL is a research-to-practice initiative that develops and disseminates a proprietary systems-based corruption analysis methodology for anti-corruption programming in fragile and conflict-affected contexts. Its core deliverables include three research projects (Social Norms and Corruption, Corruption as a System, Corruption and Peacebuilding), the Social Norms Accelerator (a nine-month hybrid learning program for organizational teams), the Corruption in Fragile States Blog, The Learning Series publications, an online course with U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre, and the Social Norms Practitioners Network.

Product overview

The Corruption, Justice and Legitimacy (CJL) Program is a research-to-practice initiative comprising multiple interconnected offerings: three core research projects (Social Norms and Corruption, Corruption as a System, and Corruption and Peacebuilding), the Social Norms Accelerator (a nine-month hybrid learning program for organizational teams), the Corruption in Fragile States Blog (a knowledge-sharing platform with over 100 posts), The Learning Series (practical publications for practitioners), an online course on corruption in fragile states (partnered with U4), and the Social Norms Practitioners Network. CJL engages with practitioners, policymakers and academics across sectors and regions to improve the effectiveness of anti-corruption programming in contexts of endemic corruption.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Social Norms Accelerator

Quantifiable outcome

• The Kuleta Haki program generated material results during its two years of implementation, with Network members reporting feeling more empowered to resist corruption collectively
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers4 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Nine partnerships are on record, tiered core, supporting and former core.

• Policy Innovation Centre (PIC)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 28 November 2025CJL and PIC collaborated on research exploring how gender and faith norms interact with social norms to drive corruption in Nigeria's healthcare sector. Jointly hosted a webinar exploring findings and discussing implications for anti-corruption programming.
• Transparency International CanadacoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 25 March 2025Besa Global and Transparency International Canada co-present webinars on anti-corruption topics, including a Canada at the CoSP Webinar bringing together Canadian government delegation members and civil society to discuss key insights from the UN Conference of States Parties.
• Regional DialoguesupportingImplementation/ SI/ Consulting Partner · 8 October 2024CJL works with the Law Enforcement Academy of Uzbekistan through the offices of Regional Dialogue to build systems analysis capacity for approaching endemic corruption.
• Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation (HFG)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 19 February 2024Besa Global joined HFG's Knowledge Against Violence Series, with Diana Chigas and Cheyanne Scharbatke-Church discussing how conflict and corruption reinforce one another.
• U4 Anti-Corruption Resource CentrecoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 12 February 2024CJL and U4 co-deliver an annual online course on Corruption in Fragile and Conflict-Affected States for practitioners and policymakers, focusing on adapting anti-corruption programming for fragile contexts.
• CDA Collaborative Learning Projectsformer coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCJL was housed at CDA from 2012-2018, where they tested and refined their corruption analysis process through work in DRC, CAR, and Northern Uganda. Developed the Kuleta Haki anti-corruption program co-designed with RCN.
• Tufts University - Fletcher SchoolcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCJL moved to The Human Security Institute at The Fletcher School, Tufts University in 2018. Co-Directors Cheyanne Scharbatke-Church and Diana Chigas hold academic positions at Fletcher as Professor of Practice and Professor of the Practice of International Negotiation and Conflict Resolution.
• RCN (Reseau de Citoyennete)former coreImplementation/ SI/ Consulting PartnerRCN co-designed the Kuleta Haki anti-corruption program with CJL based on corruption analysis conducted in the Democratic Republic of Congo, using islands of integrity identified through CJL's methodology.
• International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES)supportingStrategic or Co-development PartnerCJL hosts content from IFES researchers on vote-buying and social norms, with Richard Nash (IFES Senior Global Advisor on Anti-Corruption) contributing research on how social norms drive vote-buying.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves9 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• Open Government Partnership: Multistakeholder initiative of 75+ countries promoting transparency, accountability, and anti-corruption reforms. Comparable as a global governance and anti-corruption institution targeting policymakers and donors, though more policy/coalition-oriented.
• International Center for Not-for-Profit Law (ICNL): Global civil society organization providing research, technical assistance, and advocacy on enabling environments for civic space and anti-corruption legal frameworks. Adjacent incumbent in governance programming that engages many of the same donor audiences.
• International IDEA: Intergovernmental organization supporting democratic governance, including anti-corruption and political finance reform, in fragile states. Shares CJL's anti-corruption-and-democracy research orientation but at much larger institutional scale.
• The Carter Center: Independent nongovernmental organization running long-running rule-of-law, governance, and conflict-resolution programs across fragile states. Comparable as a large practitioner-scholar anti-corruption and governance implementer with field operations in countries overlapping CJL's footprint.

Direct peers

• Transparency International: Global civil society coalition producing Corruption Perceptions Index and chapter network focused on anti-corruption research, advocacy, and programming. CJL partners directly with its Canada chapter, and both target practitioners and policymakers in fragile contexts.
• CDA Collaborative Learning Projects: Conflict-sensitivity and systems-thinking consulting organization that previously housed CJL from 2012-2017. Operates in the same peacebuilding and anti-corruption practitioner space with shared methodology roots.
• Global Integrity: Independent anti-corruption research and advisory organization producing evidence-based diagnostics (e.g., Africa Integrity Indicators) and advising reformers. Directly comparable to CJL's evidence-based, field-grounded anti-corruption research model.
• International Anti-Corruption Academy (IACA): International organization delivering anti-corruption education, training, and certification for practitioners and officials worldwide. Overlaps with CJL's Social Norms Accelerator as a training capacity-builder for the same practitioner audience.
• Basel Institute on Governance: Swiss-based research and training institute focused on anti-corruption, asset recovery, and public finance management. Comparable as a practitioner-focused research center producing methodologies and capacity-building for governance programming in developing contexts.
• U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre: Chr. Michelsen Institute–affiliated research centre producing briefs and courses on anti-corruption for donors and practitioners. CJL co-delivers an annual online course with U4 and they share the same practitioner-policy audience in fragile states.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/cjlprogram

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles7 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about Corruption, Justice and Legitimacy Program