May 21, 2003
Governance and Anti-Corruption Newsletter - May 2003 featuring the 2003 Seoul Anti-Corruption Conference, the Digital Gateway Governance Launch and New Governance Indicators
The May edition of the Governance and Anti-Corruption newsletter highlights the 2003 Seoul Conference, which is comprised of the 11th International Anti-Corruption Conference (IACC) and Global Forum III on Fighting Corruption and Safeguarding Integrity. The two conferences will be held in succession beginning May 25 and ending May 31 in Seoul, Republic of South Korea. The World Bank Institute Governance Group will be making important contributions to both conferences.
Featured Items
- 2003 Seoul Conference: 11th IACC and Global Forum III
- Online Governance Knowledge Initiative with the Development Gateway Foundation
- Paper on Governance Matters III: Governance Indicators for 1996-2002
- International Research Competition on Corporate Responsibility with the Wharton School
- Open and Participative Government in Mexico: Preparing Public Officials for Good Governance—March 10–June 20
- Open and Transparent Municipal Governance Workshop at the 11th IACC
- Journalism Seminar: Seminario Virtual para un Nuevo Periodismo
- Pilot Distance Learning Course on Good Municipal Governance and Transparency in the Philippines
- International Conference on Parliaments, Governance and Anti-Corruption
- Workshop on Deliberative Democracy: Principles and Cases—May 13–14
- Seminars on New Governance Indicators—Harvard University, Center for Global Development and the World Bank—May 10–13
- Conference on Transparency—May 8
- World Press Freedom Day—Freedom of Expression: Early New Millennium Challenges—May 3
- Governance and Anti-Corruption Diagnostics: In-depth, country tools to build consensus and local capacity—April 28
The 11th International Anti-Corruption Conference (IACC), May 25–28, brings civil society together with public and private actors to discuss and share international perspectives on anti-corruption, with a broad sectoral representation that provides opportunities for new coalitions and international projects.
The GLOBAL FORUM III, May 28–31, is a gathering of government officials from around the world to share experiences, refine understanding about effective practices, and search for new and better ways to defeat corruption. Global Forum III will take cues from the first two Forums, but will also draw out practical solutions to combat the problems that have been identified with corruption, therefore giving life to the theme Ongoing Challenges, Shared Responsibilities.
The 2003 Seoul Conference will mark the first time in which the Global Forum, an intergovernmental conference held on the ministerial-level, and the IACC, are jointly held, united by the common objective of promoting the exchange of knowledge and experiences in curbing corruption. The 2003 Seoul Conference will take place during 25–31 May 2003, beginning with the 11th IACC, at the COEX Convention Center in Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Visit for more information.
New Governance Knowledge Initiative with the Development Gateway Foundation
The Development Gateway Foundation (DGF) and the World Bank Institute have launched a new topic area on the Development Gateway portal system on Governance. The initiative provides an advanced knowledge-networking platform on the topic, guided by experts in the field, that offers easy access to data, information and research on key governance-related subject areas, including corruption, transparency, public sector reform, local governance, media and freedom of the press, and democracy. Resources included in the topic area can be submitted by any registered member or organization, consistent with the Development Gateway's open editorial system, through a user-friendly content tool and interface. Thus the new platform aims to provide an important point of reference and knowledge-sharing platform for key stakeholders and organizations in the field.
The DGF and WBI encourage interested institutions to play a role in this important new initiative and to join a network of cooperating organizations. If you are interested in participating in the governance topic area beyond the capacity of a registered user, and have expertise to offer, please contact the guides or editors listed on the Governance page.
The Governance topic area of the Gateway can be accessed at
Paper on Governance Matters III: Governance Indicators for 1996–2002
This paper presents estimates of six dimensions of governance covering 199 countries and territories for four time periods: 1996, 1998, 2000, and 2002. These indicators are based on several hundred individual variables measuring perceptions of governance, drawn from 25 separate data sources constructed by 18 different organizations. We assign these individual measures of governance to categories capturing key dimensions of governance, and use an unobserved components model to construct six aggregate governance indicators in each of the four periods. We present the point estimates of the dimensions of governance as well as the margins of errors for each country for the four periods.
The governance indicators reported here are an update and expansion of our previous work, part of a research project on indicators initiated in 1998 (Kaufmann, Kraay and Zoido-Lobatón 1999a,b and 2002). We also address various methodological issues, including the interpretation and use of the data given the estimated margins of errors.
Visit to download the pdf version of this paper.
To access the data, as well as a web-based graphical interface, visit
International Research Competition on Corporate Responsibility with the Wharton School
The World Bank Institute and Zicklin Center for Business Ethics Research at the Wharton School of Business invite future leaders from around the world to submit work on key corporate responsibility issues faced at the local, sub-national, or national level. Submissions should focus on country-level CSR issues in the context of broader goals of poverty alleviation, equitable and sustainable development, and the Millennium Development Goals. Top papers will be included in the Virtual Resource Center on Corporate Responsibility and an edited World Bank Institute/Wharton School publication. The deadline for submission is November 1, 2003.
Visit for more information.
Open and Participative Government in Mexico: Preparing Public Officials for Good Governance—March 10–June 20
Mexico - The objective of this internet-based course is to provide federal public officials from the Mexican administration with tools and mechanisms to devise, design and implement anti-corruption programs in their own institutions, and to help in the reshaping of a good governance environment.
Visit for course information (Spanish only).
Contact Maria González de Asís at ; or Jairo Acuña-Alfaro at for more information.
Open and Transparent Municipal Governance Workshop at the 11th IACC
In conjunction with the 11th IACC, WBI will facilitate a workshop on May 26, 2003 via videoconference in Harare, Zimbabwe, Manila, Philippines, Monterrey, Mexico, Seoul, South Korea and Washington, D.C., United States. This workshop, "International Approaches to Municipal Corruption," is based on the lessons learned and the successes achieved with the municipal governance and anti-corruption action-learning capacity building programs in Latin America, Anglophone Africa and Asia. These programs carried out by WBI have had the valuable partnership of the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESM) in Latin America, the Municipal Development Program for Eastern and Southern Africa (MDP-ESA) and the Ateneo School of Government in Philippines. To consolidate knowledge gained, this workshop brings together stakeholders from Mexico, Honduras, Tanzania, Uganda, Philippines, Russia and Malaysia to share and disseminate their experiences in anti-corruption and good governance at the municipal level and to provide a structured platform for municipal officials and citizens to learn specific anti-corruption strategies which can be adapted and applied to their municipalities.
Contact Maria González de Asís at ; Victor Vergara at , or Jairo Acuña-Alfaro at for more information. Visit to view the official conference site.
Journalism Seminar: Seminario Virtual para un Nuevo Periodismo
The World Bank Institute has launched a major learning program for Latin American journalists in collaboration with two institutions from the region: the Fundación Nuevo Periodismo in Cartegena and the Monterrey Institute of Technology. The program, begun in April, is delivered through distance learning technologies to about 450 journalists in nine countries in the region, and focuses on the role of economic journalism in times of crisis and change. Modules will be designed to provide working reporters with more tools for writing analytically about poverty, governance, and globalization. Moreover, designers hope to build a better understanding of the relationships between problems such as state capture, institutional failure and chronic economic inequality.
Visit (Spanish only) for more information, or contact Timothy Carrington at .
Pilot Distance Learning Course on Good Municipal Governance and Transparency in the Philippines
May 21-June 17, 2003. Philippines. This pilot course is been prepared using the general structure and strategy of the Open and Transparent Government Course delivered by WBI and the Monterrey Institute of Technology in Latin America (see details in Spanish at and the Municipal Development Programme for Eastern and Southern Africa in Anglophone Africa (see details at An important component of the course is participation in theory and case study presentation via video conferencing between the distance learning sites located in each of the participating sites and Washington, D.C. Course participants will also undertake group activities at their own sites, exchange questions and raise issues through e-mail and integrate their learning by becoming involved in the development of an Anti-Corruption Action Plan formulation exercise. The philosophy of the course therefore is to promote peer and group learning, as well as self-development. The course is delivered and presented in partnership by the World Bank Institute, the World Bank Urban Unit, the League of Cities of Philippines and Ateneo School of Government.
Contact Maria González de Asís at ; Victor Vergara at , or Jairo Acuña-Alfaro at for more information.
International Conference on Parliaments, Governance and Anti-Corruption
June 11-13, 2003. Sao Paolo, Brazil. The aim of this conference is to discuss and analyze the role parliament plays at the center of consensus-building as a means to enhance its role in governance and anti-corruption processes. The conference looks forward to broad participation from parliamentarians representing 22 Latin American countries and several sectors of the political, social and economic spheres who will develop strategic plans regarding parliament's role in the fight against corruption and improvement of governance. The conference is organized by WBI's governance team, in collaboration with the Organization of American States, and co-organized by the Latin American Parliamentarians Against Corruption (LAPAC) network and hosted by PARLATINO.
Visit for more information or contact Maria González de Asís at or Jairo Acuña-Alfaro at .
Workshop on Deliberative Democracy: Principles and Cases—May 13–14
College Park, Maryland—This workshop focused on mechanisms to promote deliberative democracy and transparency. Participants from academia, civil society, and governance from around the world discussed their experiences in promoting transparency, civil society participation in policy design, and mechanisms for social accountability.
Visit to download workshop agenda and WBI presentation.
Seminars on New Governance Indicators—Harvard University, Center for Global Development and World Bank—May 10–13
Multiple presentations were given by the Governance Group at Harvard (Measuring Governance, at the Kennedy School of Government, May 9–10), the Center for Global Development (Millennium Challenge Account Country Selection Indicators Meeting, May 12), and the World Bank (Seminar-Governance Matters III: Governance Indicators for 1996–2002, May 13), explaining the new paper Governance Matters III: Governance Indicators for 1996–2002 and the accompanying dataset with estimates of six dimensions of governance covering 199 countries and territories for four time periods: 1996, 1998, 2000, and 2002.
Visit to download the pdf version of this presentation (see the Powerpoint icon). Also available through that link is the full pdf version of the related paper and access to the data.
Conference on Transparency—May 8
Guatemala City, Guatemala—This event was organized by Guatemala's National Commission for Transparency and the Control of Corruption in order to discuss the experiences of Ecuador and Colombia on the design and implementation of anti-corruption initiatives. These presentations were complemented by WBI's global experience with anti-corruption initiatives based on multilateral partnerships and analytical rigor.
Visit
transparencia.html for conference program, presentations, and related information (Spanish only).
World Press Freedom Day—Freedom of Expression: Early New Millennium Challenges—May 3
Kingston, Jamaica—May 3 was proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly as World Press Freedom Day and a day to remember and celebrate the principles of press freedom. The main celebration of World Press Freedom Day 2003, organized jointly by UNESCO
and the UNESCO National Commission of Jamaica, was held in Kingston, Jamaica. This year's event consisted notably of the awarding of the UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize 2003 and the two-day conference "Freedom of Expression: Early Millennium Challenges", held from 2-3 May 2003.
The Conference provided a platform to discuss the theme "unpunished crimes against journalists". Journalists from all over the world debated various topics including safety of journalists, a strategy for reducing impunity, freedom of expression in knowledge societies, and
obstacles to the full enjoyment of freedom of expression in the information society.
Visit the official website at
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View the WBI presentation at
Governance and Anti-Corruption Diagnostics: In-depth, country tools to build consensus and local capacity—April 28
Washington, D.C.—This presentation was given by the WBI Global Governance Team as part of the Greenhouse Series for World Bank Staff, April 28, 2003, and defines diagnostic surveys, presents illustrations of methodology, highlights implementation challenges, and offers alternative approaches for undertaking diagnostics surveys.
Visit to view this presentation (found in the "Highlights" box).
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