A Joint Conference of the
International Institute for Public Ethics (IIPE),
The Global Integrity Alliance,
and the World Bank
DFID
HIGHLIGHT

Expected Outcomes: This conference forays the area of leadership, ethics and integrity which is increasingly seen as an important and currently missing link in governance work but one on which little is known or agreed upon. This serves event as an opportunity to bring together leading scholars and practitioners and explore with greater rigor the thinking and lessons from experience to guide operational engagements in this area. The impetus for this work and the conference is the increasing demand for support on leadership and on public sector ethics from regional units and countries themselves (including in post-conflict/fragile countries).

Objective: The conference seeks to invoke and engage various voices, especially our partners; showcase lessons from personal stories of leading change and leading with integrity; and lessons from nuts and bolts of operating ethics infrastructure. We seek also to understand how effective leaders emerge, how they can be nurtured; what obstacles they face and how we can be better facilitators; how to measure leadership effectiveness; how to promote public sector ethics; the role of international organizations; and the issues women leaders face.

Messages: Overall, the primary intent of the conference is to highlight leadership and ethics in public life as an essential but often overlooked means of enhancing, sustaining, and transforming governance. We would like to highlight the role of individual leaders at various levels and in various arenas as 'agents of change', especially where institutions are weak.

At the core of our emerging vision of leadership is the notion that a leadership that is transforming -- especially by inspiring an alternative vision, engaging society in a process that mutually elevates societal values, creatively navigating around perilous pitfalls, and insisting on better means and ends -- is an essential element in turning around most problematic governance environments.

The conference highlights the role of ethics in public service and integrity as necessary to well-functioning governance systems -- over and above technical capacities and control/punitive mechanisms. In this context, recognizing the commonality of values of integrity, inspiring, rewarding and supporting public servants who want to do good, and building up an 'ethics infrastructure' are important complements to efforts to improve governance and development outcomes.

Highlights: The conference will open with remarks by the World Bank's Public Sector Governance Director, Sanjay Pradhan followed by two keynotes: one by Mary Robinson (former President of Ireland and currently Director of the Ethical Globalization Initiative) and a second by Huguette Labelle (Chair, Transparency International).

It will also host two important Luncheons: one to be addressed by Judge Emile Short (former head of the innovative and much-lauded Ghana Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice and currently judge for the Rwanda Tribunal) and a second by Pulitzer Prize Winning journalist from Nigeria, Dele Olojede, whose good governance crusade dates back to the 1980s.

Funding and Sponsors: The main sponsors of the event are: World Bank, DFID, USAID, and AusAID.