Note to Correspondents

United Nations Academic Impact to Host Debate on Link between Governance,

Development at New York Headquarters, 4 February

The United Nations Academic Impact will host a debate on the correlation between governance and development on Monday, 4 February, from 5 to 6 p.m. in the Dag Hammarskjöld Library Auditorium.

“Is good governance good for development?”, the topic of discussion, is taken from a new United Nations Publication of the same name, edited by Anis Chowdhury and Jomo Sundaram.

Mr. Sundaram, now Assistant Director-General for Social and Economic Development with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Rome, will introduce the book and open the conversation.  Joining him will be:  Joseph Stiglitz, Professor of Economics at Columbia University and recipient of the 2001 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences; Daniel Kaufmann, President of Revenue Watch Institute in New York; and Susan Woodward, Professor with the PhD programme in Political Science at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.

The discussion, which will take place under the United Nations Academic Impact’s ongoing series “ Point Counter-Point”, will include an audience opinion tally to determine whether the arguments presented have changed minds.  Copies of the book will be available for purchase at the end of the debate.

While the forum is open to all, seats are limited and will be available only on a first-come-first-served basis.  Those interested in attending are requested to register at academicimpact@un.org (please mention “ Point Counter-Point” in the subject line).

The forum, to be webcast live, will be available at http://webtv.un.org/.  Viewers are encouraged to e-mail their questions to the panel members at academicimpact@un.org.

United Nations Academic Impact, an initiative launched by the Secretary-General, is situated in the Department of Public Information.  It aligns institutions of higher learning and research with each other and with the United Nations to promote the Organization’s goals and objectives.  More than 850 universities and organizations in 117 countries are now members.  For more information, please visit http://outreach.un.org/unai.

For further information, please contact academicimpact@un.org; or Hasan Ferdous, at tel.:  +1 212 963 6555.

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For information media • not an official record