Corruption is complex and resilient and there are limits to what anti-corruption interventions alone can achieve. Even incremental improvements are difficult to sustain. There is never a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer to whether anti-corruption efforts work. For development agencies, however, potential success factors include collaboration and coordination, building trust, and seizing opportunities as they arise. It can pay off to build and harness political will and citizen support for good governance, and work to change expectations and reshape the policy arena.