GEG Director Ngaire Woods speaks at IMF meeting on Public Sector Governance

GEG Director Professor Ngaire Woods was a panellist at an IMF seminar event on Individual Integrity in Public Sector Governance on 11 October. The seminar was part of the 2015 Annual Meetings of the World Bank and the IMF on 9-11 October in Lima, Peru. 

This seminar addressed governance issues in the public sector, focusing on the long-term economic effects of weak institutions and undue influence on laws, regulations, and policies by powerful corporate interests. The seminar explored the legal and institutional changes that countries have adopted to address the issue. It also examined how corruption and other issues of public sector governance might be addressed by inducing individual behavioral change, and a change in underlying shared ethical standards, in contrast to legal change enforced through large repressive instruments. This preceded the discussion on the role of leadership, public standards of exemplary behavior, and moral guidance of public figures. 

Sean Hagan, General Counsel and Director of the Legal Department at the International Monetary Fund moderated the panel.  Professor Woods participated alongside the following panellists:

• David Lipton, First Deputy Managing Director of the IMF
• Sri Mulyani Indrawati, Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer of the World Bank
• Daniel Kaufmann, President of the Natural Resource Governance Institute
• Peter Ng Kok Song, Chairman of Avanda Investment Management