Political corruption undermines political and economic development in many countries, and raises difficult chal­lenges for foreign aid. What is political corruption? What are the main mecha­nisms? What can donors do when partner governments are corrupt? These are some of the questions addressed by these focus area pages. The purpose is to extract and present the latest knowledge on issues of political cor­ruption, and we invite advisors in the field of good govern­ance and economics (agency staff and academics) to share opinions, lessons learned and best practice on all aspects of this challenging topic.