In 2012 the government of Azerbaijan launched Azerbaijani Service and Assessment Network (ASAN) - an innovative integrated one-stop shop agency for public services. The major goals of this institution included: reducing the levels of corruption, increasing transparency and promoting ethical behavior in the provision of services to citizens. ASAN has rapidly became a successful public agency, increasing quality of government by providing effective services without bribery. However, its success in terms of addressing systemic corruption on the whole has been limited. The rest of the public sector has remained unreformed and largely corrupt. This working paper examines the model of ASAN and the factors that facilitated its successful operation as a ‘pocket of integrity’ in an otherwise corrupt context. It also places ASAN in a wider framework of anti-corruption in Azerbaijan, discussing the degree of its success and the potential for an incremental approach to combating corruption.

Building Integrity WP 2018/002