Reviewing Lebanon’s performance over the past decade reveals continual fluctuations in its ranking, highlighting the absence of a consistent and sustainable reform trajectory. It also indicates that any improvements achieved were largely driven by temporary circumstances rather than by enduring structural reforms.

The stark contrast between Lebanon and several countries in the region underscores the magnitude of the challenge. The United Arab Emirates scored 69 points, Qatar 58 points, and Saudi Arabia 57 points, highlighting significant differences in the effectiveness of public policies and the capacity of institutions to enforce transparency and accountability. This gap extends beyond numerical rankings, directly affecting a country’s ability to attract investment and secure international financial aid, as external support and loans are increasingly tied to the seriousness of reform and anti-corruption measures. For Lebanon, combating corruption has shifted from a discretionary choice that could be postponed to an essential prerequisite for the state’s integration into regional and international systems.

On the other hand, Mohammad Farid Matar, President of the Lebanese Transparency Association – No Corruption, told Annahar that Lebanon has a genuine opportunity to rebuild its oversight and judicial institutions on more independent and efficient foundations. This opportunity is particularly promising given the rising popular and international support to strengthen these institutions and shield them from political interference. His assessment reflects a growing recognition that combating corruption is not merely a reform demand but a fundamental condition for the reconstruction of the state and its institutions.

The association’s executive director, Julian Courson, notes that the limited progress achieved occurred at a crucial political juncture, following the election of a new president and the formation of a government that prioritized reform to rebuild trust and modernize the governance system after years of systemic corruption. In 2025, the Lebanese government launched a comprehensive reform initiative aimed at enhancing transparency and enforcing key anti-corruption laws, including those on asset and interest disclosure, illicit enrichment penalties, public procurement, and whistleblower protection. The initiative also introduced more transparent public sector appointment mechanisms, emphasizing merit and competence over quota-based allocation.

Lebanon is not an isolated case within its regional context. The 2025 Corruption Perceptions Index indicates that corruption remains widespread across the Middle East and North Africa. Since 2012, three out of 18 countries have experienced a sharp decline in performance, while no country has made significant progress, highlighting a persistent failure to tackle public sector corruption due to negligent political leadership and weak accountability mechanisms. Even countries with higher scores, such as the UAE, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia, link their reforms to sustained political will—particularly in non-democratic systems, where such efforts remain vulnerable to backsliding.

Civil society plays a central role in this context, as the restriction of its space in several regional countries has created conditions that allow corrupt practices to thrive, by undermining the capacity of the press, NGOs, and whistleblowers to expose abuses of power. A notable example is Morocco, where these limitations have weakened investigations into embezzlement cases and sparked youth-led protests. Conversely, countries such as Syria, Libya, and Yemen score very low on the index due to ongoing or recent conflicts, which have weakened government commitment to fighting corruption and pushed good governance to a secondary priority amid political rivalries and resource scarcity.