Closely related to economic development and the successful delivery of services is good governance. This portfolio of courses is designed to ensure that participants leave with the skills and tools necessary to improve good governance in their environment. It has been demonstrated that good governance was key to allowing innovative state governments in Brazil improve the delivery of essential services to their citizens. Building on to DFID’s definition of governance - governance describes the way countries, communities and institutions manage their affairs politically and the way they exercise power and authority. Since the 1990s there has been a great deal learnt through a combination of international research and development practice, and governance remains an essential area of development support globally. In recent years donors have been focusing on governance in response to a realization that “good” governance was central to sustainable, long-term socio-economic development. These teachings are central to the idilmat courses on governance, under its governance programme umbrella.
Good corporate governance is now a crucial element for assuring stability in the financial markets. It has become clear that long-term corporate growth and profitability is inextricably linked to the quality and focus on corporate governance that a business commits to.
The idilmat programme provides participants with courses that provide a solid understanding of governance covering the latest and most relevant international thinking and key lessons learned from the experience of more successful and less successful developing countries. It uses a broad range of in-depth case studies to explore and examine “good” governance in practice to demonstrate how governments around the world have found effective ways to improve the delivery of services to their citizens. These case studies examine fundamental and transferable aspects of corporate governance to demonstrate how a company can successfully meet key obligations to all its stakeholders – customers, employees, suppliers, shareholders and its community.
The idilmat programme is in no way merely an academic presentation of what governance ought to be. Rather it takes a pragmatic approach providing participants with a profound understanding of the key actors in the governance arena (politicians, citizens, civil society, media, international agencies, private sector, unions, etc.) and explores the different opportunities through which effective service-delivery focused “good” governance can be supported to realise sustainable, socio-economic development to ensure participants leave with the necessary tools to effect significant improvements in the field of governance, in their environments – be they from the public or private sector.