Covid-19 is not only a public healthcare crisis - it is also a governance crisis. The pandemic has negatively affected public services delivery, transparency in emergency procurements, including medical supplies, access to vital public information, effective communication between public institutions, administration of justice, prevention of gender-based violence and social protection of the most vulnerable population, amongst many other state functions.

The pandemic has weakened the governments’ core functions particularly in two ways. Firstly, it has challenged a proper functioning of the state machinery and the delivery of public services. Secondly, the pandemic has made public administration even more vulnerable to corruption. Coronavirus pandemic has opened new doors for corruption as lockdowns and the absence of business contingency plans, has resulted in the weakening of state’s financial monitoring and investigation role.

This publication serves as a comprehensive compendium of good practices from UNDP country offices in Europe and Central Asia with regards to digitalization and innovation to prevent corruption and enhance public services delivery during the pandemic. We hope that this document will help our colleagues, as well as our partner and donor organizations in the region and beyond, to benefit from the wealth of knowledge and experience in our UNDP country offices in designing new projects and initiatives aimed at ensuring wider government transparency, efficient delivery of public services and prevention of corruption. A more compact version of the publication can be viewed on this infographic online.