The 19-20 May saw our fifth annual Challenges of Government Conference, which brought together over 400 delegates from government, academia, the civil service and the private sector in our new, purpose-built home. This year, rather than focusing on a specific theme as we have in previous years, we chose to discuss the need for the reinvention of public policy in order to help reinstate trust in government globally.
The two-day conference brought together a range of leaders in the field of government and policy, including Nick Clegg, Member of Parliament for Sheffield Hallam and former Deputy Prime Minister of the UK, Baroness Catherine Ashton, former High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Sheikh Mohammed Abulahoum, Chairman of the Justice & Building Party, Yemen, and Dato’ Sri Idrs Jala, Chief Executive Officer at Performance Management and Delivery Unit in Malaysia.
Panel discussions were carefully designed to allow delegates to share ideas and experiences about what governmental reforms are necessary, and effective ways of implementing these, in regaining and maintaining public trust. Sessions covered a range of topics, from restoring integrity and values in government, to increasing social impact, as well as balancing transparency with government responsibility, and models of innovation and digital services. All were framed by a question from one of our MPP students, and closed with the insights they’d gained from the sessions. This, along with the thoughtful and sometime provoking questions from the audience, made for a stimulating and energetic atmosphere.
One of the Conference highlights was the opening (and particularly timely) panel titled ‘The new geo-politics: Is Europe irrelevant?’ Marietje Schaake, a Member of the European Parliament in the Netherlands, focused on the UK’s role in Europe and highlighted that it was important to focus on how we can strengthen cooperation in face of challenges from outside Europe. Meanwhile, Baroness Helena Kennedy, Mansfield College’s Principal, asked the room not to forget that the European Union project was founded on countries coming together in a grand project about peace and justice, and there is still an urgency to this work today.
Amitabh Kant, the Conference’s keynote speaker, discussed the rapid rate of growth in India in a time when the country’s demographic is shifting. He highlighted the challenges he’d faced whilst leading the National Institution for Transforming India, outlining the reasons that corruption at the top level of government has seemingly disappeared in the past two years, and noted ‘you can’t run government with mediocrity anymore.’
The Conference was closed by Professor Ngaire Woods, who reiterated the need for the public and private sector to work together to create better government, and noted that the thoughtful discussion wouldn’t have been made possible without those in attendance.
Following the Conference, academics and government officials from the UK, Malaysia and Hong Kong - who are currently working on their public-sector reform agendas - attended workshops to work through the specific challenges they each are facing.
We were delighted to facilitate the Conference in our new, permanent home, which enabled us to livestream our sessions, all of which are now available to watch online.
We look forward to welcoming you to our next Challenges of Government Conference.
