Corruption is widely condemned as an obstacle to economic development and the rule of law in the Global South, with the international community spending billions of dollars annually to address predatory economic practices and abuses of power in governments and markets worldwide. Yet, as a field of research, critical social scientific study of corruption remains fragmented in the US and Canadian universities. The Research Consortium on Corruption in the Global South is the first virtual hub for North America-based social scientist pursuing research broadly related to corruption processes outside Western capitalist democracies. With support from several universities and the American Bar Foundation, CGS provides an institutional platform for intellectual exchange, collaboration and networking. The mission of the consortium is four-fold:

1. To facilitate collaboration​ among social scientists from different disciplines and theoretical and methodological backgrounds

2. To increase the visibility and disseminate new social scientific research on corruption in the Global South

3. To host a depository for quantitative, qualitative, and archival data on relevant topics

4. To create opportunities for mentorship​ and professionalization