By Kylie Hammock

National corruption indices assign a single score per country, making them useful for broad risk screening but incapable of showing where corruption is actually concentrated within a country's borders. This poster presents a Local Corruption Index built from Afrobarometer citizen surveys (2002–2021), measuring perceptions of anti-corruption performance and direct experiences of bribery at the administrative-division level across Southern Africa. Overlaying this index with U.S. Geological Survey data on active mine sites and critical mineral deposits reveals substantial variation in local corruption conditions along the Durban–Lusaka corridor, a key artery for cobalt, lithium, copper, and platinum-group element extraction. Because political risk premiums, compliance thresholds, and strategic investment decisions typically reference national-level indices, they risk systematically mispricing conditions in the specific districts where extraction, and great-power competition for it, is concentrated. This case study is drawn from a broader dissertation project developing subnational corruption measures across Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa, of which the critical mineral corridor analysis presented here is one application.

Kylie Hammack is a recent graduate of the University of Cambridge, where she completed an MPhil in Politics and International Studies at St John's College, earning the mark of distinction. In May 2025, she earned BA degrees in Economics and Political Science with minors in French and Intelligence and Security Analysis. Her MPhil dissertation research examined subnational variation in corruption across Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa using local-level survey data. Kylie has previously interned with the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the International Foundation for Electoral Systems. Throughout the 2025-2026 academic year, she was also involved in the Cambridge Geopolitical Risk Analysis Study Group and earned runner-up in the Mackinder Forum Prize for Geopolitical Risk Analysis. Kylie is actively seeking opportunities in Washington, D.C., London, or remote roles at the intersection of economics, geopolitical risk, and international security.