For many participants, like Sabina Gomes, a senior official at the ministry of transport and telecommunications, the topic was not new, but the approach was groundbreaking. "Corruption has always been like an invisible shadow in our government," Sabina reflected. " This training will allow us to be able to identify acts that are not in line with the organisation's procedures and thus generally be able to prevent acts of corruption before they happen."

Over the past decade, more emphasis has been placed on preventative approaches with a stronger focus on systematic and targeted reforms and interventions to reduce system and organizational vulnerabilities. Global anti-corruption efforts have been evolving towards preventing corruption at the sectoral level through institutional interventions and multi-stakeholder collaboration.

The workshop was designed to build the capacity of public sector stakeholders by introducing them to modern methodologies of corruption risk management. The attendees were introduced to a step-by-step approach to identifying and mitigating corruption risks, specifically tailored to the context of Guinea-Bissau's health sector.

The participants broke into small groups to learn how to determine the risk level. Domingos Mussa Barbosa, administrator of the Regional Hospital in Bissorã, Oio Region, shared his insights: "I had always thought of corruption as something that happens far away from my work—something too big for me to change. But during this exercise, I realized how close it really is and that we all have a role in preventing it. Now, I know that I will be able to apply the mechanisms learnt here at a regional level."

The impact of corruption on health is evident. It undermines the functioning of the health system in so many ways as it diverts resources, causes negative health outcomes, threatens lives, and erodes trust in institutions. Corruption leads to a waste of financial and non-financial resources and exacerbates health inequities. The UHC Declaration of the United Nations General Assembly stated that “fighting corruption at all levels and in all its forms is a priority and that corruption is a serious barrier to effective resource mobilization and allocation and diverts resources away from activities that are vital for poverty eradication and sustainable development, which may undermine efforts to achieve universal health coverage”. Consequently, health is considered one of the top priority sectors for preventing corruption. Global efforts have been growing to address corruption in the health sector. The World Health Organization (WHO) took the lead in launching the Global Network for Anticorruption, Transparency, and Accountability in Health (GNACTA). Established in 2019, the GNACTA is a multi-stakeholder and multi-sectoral initiative that forges strategic alliances, drives thought leadership, builds capacity and implements solutions targeting corruption in the health sector to foster health systems strengthening.