The fifth Future of Government Disruptive Debate will tackle the issue of citizens’ trust in government. The Disruptive Debate series aims is to bring together a diverse group of high-profile practitioners, renowned experts and thought leaders to generate new knowledge and perspectives.
The issue of trust has been a frequent theme arising during the Disruptive Debate series. Our panel addressed questions such as: Why is trust important for poverty reduction and shared prosperity? What is the relationship between inequality and trust? What can governments do to increase, or re-build, trust? How can citizens influence and hold governments to account? What has been the role of information, data and social media, particularly during COVID-19?
Raj Kumar is the founding President & Editor-in-Chief of Devex, the media platform for the global development community. A social enterprise dedicated to ensuring global development efforts do more good for more people, Devex was born in 2000 when Raj was a graduate student at the Harvard Kennedy School. Today, there are 100+ Devexers around the world serving a global audience of more than one million aid workers and development professionals. Beginning as a kid in Kerala, India, Raj has witnessed firsthand determined and courageous development work in over 50 countries - it’s what drives the Devex mission to “Do Good. Do It Well." He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Save the Children Board of Trustees, a media leader and former humanitarian council chair for the World Economic Forum, and has interviewed on-camera and on-stage hundreds of global luminaries on the most important challenges of our time. Raj is the author of the book "The Business of Changing the World," a go-to primer on the ideas, people, and technology disrupting the aid industry.
Jaimie Boyd is a partner at Deloitte Canada and serves as the firm’s National Digital Government Leader. She works to accelerate digital change in the public sector, helping governments to better serve citizens using modern technologies. She previously held diverse positions in government, most recently as the Chief Digital Officer for the Government of British Columbia in Canada.
Jaimie is a frequent speaker on digital government. She serves on a variety of advisory boards, including for the McMaster University Master of Public Policy in Digital Society and the GovLab’s Open Data Policy Lab Executive Education Program.
Jaimie is an alumnus of the Government of Canada’s Accelerated Economist Training Program, Action Canada, the Institute for Technology and Society’s Global Policy Fellowship and the Organization of American States’ Fellowship on Open Government in the Americas. In 2019, Apolitical named her amongst the World’s 100 Most Influential People in Digital Government. Find her on Twitter at @jaimieboyd.
Aidan Eyakuze, a Tanzanian national, is Executive Director of Twaweza East Africa. Twaweza works to enable children to learn, citizens to exercise agency and governments to be more open and responsive in Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda. In May 2016, Aidan was appointed to the global Steering Committee of the Open Government Partnership (OGP). In September 2020, he was elected incoming co-Chair of the OGP. He serves on the Board of the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data (GPSDD). Before joining Twaweza, Aidan was Associate Regional Director for East Africa of the Society for International Development (SID). He has 15 years of experience as a scenario practitioner having participated in and lead national scenario-building projects in Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Nigeria and East Africa. Aidan is an Archbishop Desmond Tutu Leadership Fellow and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network (AGLN)
Michael Muthukrishna is Associate Professor of Economic Psychology and STICERD Developmental Economics Group Affiliate at the London School of Economics, CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholar at the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, Technical Director of The Database of Religious History (religiondatabase.org), and founder of LSE Culturalytics. His research focuses on human biological and cultural evolution, how this understanding of human behavior and social change can improve innovation, reduce corruption, and increase cross-cultural cooperation. His work is featured in international and national news outlets including CNN, BBC, Wall Street Journal, The Economist, Scientific American, Nature News, and Science News, and in the UK in the Times, Telegraph, Mirror, Sun, and Guardian. Michael's research is informed by his educational background in engineering and psychology, with graduate training in evolutionary biology, economics, and statistics, and his personal background living in Sri Lanka, Botswana, Papua New Guinea, Australia, Canada, United States, and United Kingdom. He is currently working on a book to be published with MIT Press.
Mr. Mukunda is the Executive Director, Civil Society Budget Advocacy Group (CSBAG). He is an economist by profession with over 15 years’ experience in public finance management issues and economic management. He is a known Gender Budget expert and a budget policy specialist in Uganda. He has extensively participated in advocating for Prudent Public finance reforms in Uganda. He is a campaigner for social justice and pro poor economic governance. Twitter Account: @JuliusMukunda
Sonia has held chief and senior executive roles in a range of public and private sector organisations during her career. Sonia has led the transformation of service delivery, performance and organisational culture in public sector agencies including the State Library of Queensland, Cross River Rail Delivery Authority, Department of Child Safety, Department of Education and now Ipswich City Council. Sonia has developed key capabilities in organisational leadership, strategy, governance, strategic risk management, corporate services, ICT, procurement, stakeholder engagement and performance. Sonia holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Queensland and a Bachelor of Business from the Queensland University of Technology. Sonia is a graduate and member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
Sonia is proud to have joined the Ipswich City Council team leading the re-building of the trust of the community and delivering the vision for Ipswich, a city of opportunity for all…. join us.
