The World Health Organisation (WHO) has requested the Basel Institute, along with a group of other health governance experts, to assist WHO in its efforts to define a Health Systems Governance agenda for the organisation.

An initial technical consultation meeting on the specific topic of “Governance: an essential element to achieve universal health coverage” took place on 11 November 2013 in Geneva, Switzerland.

The Institute presented a paper on “Old regime habits die hard: Institutional challenges to participatory governance in post-authoritarian Mexico” at the ECPR General Conference in Bordeaux, France (September). The paper presents findings from field research conducted in the context of the Institute’s two-year, EU funded research project on the linkages between corruption, governance and social accountability.

In the context of the Basel Institute's renewed collaboration agreement with the World Health Organisation (WHO) to conduct analytical research into concepts of governance and accountability, experts of the Basel Institute traveled to Finland, Moldova and Turkey to collect insights into the institutional arrangements governing the health system in these three countries.

The findings from this field research will be incorporated into a final report on "strengthening health systems by improving accountability for health systems in European Member States".

On April 28-30 2014, the Basel Institute on Governance held a workshop on Quantitative and Qualitative Research Methods on Corruption at the University of Basel, Switzerland. The workshop brought together a group of 18 academics, practitioners from governmental and non-governmental institutions, as well as private sector compliance officers from 9 countries (Armenia, Brazil, Colombia, Germany, Greece, Indonesian, Italy, Peru and Switzerland).

In mid 2014, Fairtrade International appointed Dr Claudia Baez-Camargo, Head of Public Governance Research at the Basel Institute, as member of Fairtrade International’s Governance Committee.

Fairtrade International is an international non-profit, multi-stakeholder body responsible for the strategic direction for Fairtrade, setting Fairtrade standards and supporting producers. The Governance Committee oversees the governance of the association and its members with a view to making structural and procedural recommendations.

In an effort to create awareness and educate youth on corruption and related challenges, the Basel Institute is collaborating with the International Center for Policy and Conflict (Kenya) and the Institute for Social Accountability (Kenya), PAWA 254 (Kenya) and Integrity Watch (Tanzania) to develop an anti-corruption programme targeting young people in Kibera, Kenya.

The Basel Institute has been requested to provide technical expertise and support on a public governance project aimed at supporting Albania’s efforts to reform its health system (“Support to Health Reform for Inclusive Access and Better Quality of Service Program in Albania”). The Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (STPH) is spearheading the project with funding support from the Swiss Agency for Development Cooperation (SDC).

In the framework of the ANTICORRP research consortium, the Basel Institute, in collaboration with partners from four research institutions across Europe, finalized and submitted the first deliverable of the research work package 4 (WP4), The Ethnographic Study of Corruption, to the European Commission.

In the context of a series of capacity building workshops by the German Development Cooperation (GIZ) to strengthen governance in Central Africa’s extractive sector, the Basel Institute contributed to a 4-day seminar on good governance in the extractive industries in the Central African Monetary Community (CEMAC), held in Douala, Cameroon, in December 2014.

In the spirit of the Association Agreement between the Basel Institute and the University of Basel, the Basel Institute’s governance specialist, Dr Claudia Baez-Camargo, is again co-teaching a Spring semester course on “Sustainability and Health Governance” together with Professor Krista Nadakavukaren.

The course is taught as part of the Masters Programme on Life Sciences of the University’s Law Faculty.