Public Financial Management
‘Governance Matters’: A new blog on governance at the World Bank
Monday, May 26th, 2008With the just launched ‘Governance Matters’ blog, the World Bank has now fully joined the governance blogosphere. The idea was afoot for many months. There was initial pushback by a few higher ups. But support from many quarters and persistence prevailed, helped by the growing recognition of the importance of blogging in today’s world. And this personal blog I have hosted for a […]
Blogging for Transparency & Good Governance: on IFIs
Saturday, April 26th, 2008 Blogs are playing an increasingly important role for improved governance. Blogs do not face the restraints of commercial print media. The blogosphere is a planet apart from traditional PR departments of public institutions, enabling citizens to share unfiltered information, expose misdeeds, and freely express views. Blogs help make governments and public institutions more accountable. In real time.
Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) were also involved during the […]
Myth #4: From Crisis to Regulating (or Transparenting instead?)
Friday, April 11th, 2008Recall the downfall of Enron, WorldCom, Parmalat and others, in the aftermath of the vast corporate corruption scandals a few years back. Then we witnessed a push for tightening the corporate regulatory framework in the US (through SOX). It is naïve to argue now that it makes sense to return to the pre-Enron and pre-SOX regulatory framework. Or to continue […]
Myth # 3: Governance cannot be defined?
Wednesday, March 26th, 2008In debunking the previous myth, I tried to challenge those ‘governoskeptics’ who doubt that governance and rule of law matter much for growth and development. Yet governoskeptics come in different guises; for instance there are those that do not believe that governance can be measured — I leave that claim for a future blog entry. Here I address those ‘governoskeptics’ who claim that governance is nearly impossible to define.
There are […]
Myth #1: Developing world hopelessly corrupt; Industrialized countries in Nirvana?
Monday, March 3rd, 2008Myth #1. Developing countries, and governments in particular, are all rife with corruption, while corruption is virtually absent in much of the rich industrialized world.
Actually, the reality is different. The evidence points to an enormous diversity in the extent of corruption within emerging economies, and among industrialized countries as well. The data suggests that some emerging […]
A Word of Welcome
Tuesday, February 12th, 2008The past decade has witnessed a sea change in awareness about governance, including corruption, transparency, democratic voice and participation, violence, and rule of law. Governance and corruption are not seen any longer merely through a moral prism: they are everybody’s business, and they matter for development and global stability. It pertains to both industrialized and developing countries, to multinational and domestic businesses, to elites and common […]