Bobst Center

In 2008-9, the Bobst Center teamed up with the Woodrow Wilson School to sponsor two policy workshops on building institutions in fragile states. 

One workshop focused on strengthening the civil service system in Vietnam, with the UNDP office in Vietnam as a client.  Six Masters of Public Affairs students worked under the leadership of Dr. Clay Wescott to carry out field research and provide recommendations. A new civil service law in Vietnam called for the strengthening of a position-based civil service system, as opposed to the career-based system long in place.  In a position-based system, personnel selection is based on the relevant training and experience a candidate has, not through promotion of lower-level officials.  The change in Vietnam is part of a policy of Doi Moi, or renovation, started in 1986.  The student team traveled to Vietnam.  On the basis of interviews and other research, it offered recommendations about ways to handle some of the challenging implementation problems associated with this change.

The members of the team included Saskia P. Bruynooghe, Trina Q. Firmalo, Ann E. Futrell, Jonathan A. Kent, Rohan Mukherjee, and Isy Faingold Vigil.  Dr. Clay Wescott is Director, Asia Pacific Governance Institute.  Previously, he was Principal Regional Cooperation Specialist for the Asian Development Bank. He led the project team for Cambodia Commune Council Development Project, was a project team member for Vietnam Program Loan to support the PAR Master Program, including a major e-government initiative, and led ADB’s SAR’s response team. 

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The second workshop focused on managing mineral resources.  Common sense suggests that having mineral resources or other valued commodities works to a country’s advantage.  Yet the past 30 years have demonstrated just the opposite in most parts of the world.  Mineral wealth correlates strongly with an array of pathologies, including destruction of a country’s agricultural export industries, higher levels of corruption, civil war, and political repression.  Only a few countries have broken this mold. 
 
The Extractive Minerals Transparency Initiative (EITI) is a multi-country, multi-actor effort to enhance transparency in the payment, receipt, and use of mineral revenues.  The first three to five signatories began to put their programs into place in the course of 2007-8.  The workshop study assessed four elements of the EITI process: civil society capacity and engagement, data disclosure and dissemination, government accountabili6ty, and broadening the debate beyond revenue transparency.

Workshop participants included Michael Brakke, James Ellis, Malick Fall, Jane Lewis, Tom Niblock, Helena Puig Larrauri, and Nathan Shepherd.  Corinna Gilfillan, who is the Head of the U.S. Office of Global Witness, led the workshop. She has helped run Global Witness’ Campaign to Combat Conflict Diamonds and represents Global Witness at the Kimberley Process, a government-run diamond certification scheme to combat conflict diamonds. She previously worked for the United Nations Environmental Programme in Paris, assisting developing countries in complying with environmental treaties and before that was the Director of Friends of the Earth’s Ozone Protection Campaign. She has a Master of Science from the London School of Economics in Environment and Development and was awarded the Stratospheric Ozone Protect Award by the US Environmental Protection Agency in 1998. 

Executive Summary

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