The discussion continued from yesterday with a presentation of the Draft Discussion Summary by Ms. Hannah Smith, one of the facilitators of the roundtable discussion presided over by the panelists: Chairperson of the Commonwealth Youth Council Mr. Ahmed Adamu, CEO of the Halogen Foundation (Singapore) Mr. Sean Kong and Advocacy Adviser of Plan International Ms. Amanda Lundy.

In his speech, Mr. Adamu gave an extended definition of “good governance,” stating that accountability is one of the main features of it. Further, he remarked that “there are four types of governance: One that is detested by people, one that is feared by people, one that is praised by people and one that people do not know the existence of, which is the best type.”

Talking about the benefits people enjoy from good governance, Mr. Kong derived many examples from his own country, Singapore, comparing the life conditions now and 60 years back. The primary objective of his speech was to show how an under-developed migrant society in Singapore transformed into the present situation. He finally added that “policies of a country should be amended in a way that they change the attitudes of the people for their betterment.”

Ms. Lundy, expressing her views on governance, said, “Governance is a spectrum of possibilities moving from bad to good,” stressing the importance of access to information with many examples from Malawi.