Peter Bowden

Peter Bowden's interests are in institutional structures and integrity in relation to moral behaviour and organisational performance. Particular concerns are codes of ethics; public interest disclosures (whistleblowing); the making of difficult ethical choices, and the effective teaching of and training in ethics.

He holds a BE in Engineering from Sydney University, an M.Sc. with distinction, in politics and administration, from the London School of Economics, a post-graduate diploma in Financial Planning from the Securities Institute, Sydney, and a PhD in institutional and organisational evaluation from Monash University.

Was Lecturer on and Coordinator of the MBA program at Monash University, and Professor and Head of the Department of Administrative Studies at Manchester University. Currently Honorary Research Associate, Department of Philosophy, The University of Sydney.

Books

• Public Management, with W.J. Byrt, Sydney: Macmillan, 1989.
• National Monitoring and Evaluation, London: Gower, 1988.
• Organisation and Strategy, Sydney: McGraw Hill, 1985; This book, on business strategy, was used on several MBA programs throughout Australia.
• Enjoyment, Ethics and Success in the Work-Day World, currently under development.

Articles, book chapters and working papers

• NGOs, Governments and the Development Agencies, chapter in Education and Development, J. Lynch, C&S Modgil (eds.), London, Cassell, 1997.
• The Ethics of Whistleblowing, The Whistle, Whistleblowers Australia, Univ. of Wollongong, NSW, January, 2003.
• The Failure of Ethical Philosophy, Living Ethics, The St James Ethics Centre, Sydney, Winter, 2002.
• Difficult Ethical Decisions, currently under review, prior to submission to Philosophy and Public Affairs.
• Health through Theatre in the Pacific, Pacific Science Congress, University of NSW, 2001.
• NGOs in Asia. Issues in Development, Public Administration and Development, Vol 10 (1990).
• Training Materials Handbook, 1991, Economic Development Institute, The World Bank: Washington, DC. Published the following papers:
  • The Appraisal of Management Effectiveness, in French and English, Document 285/007, Shelf No. EO 269, World Bank, Washington DC,
  • Central Monitoring and Evaluation, in French and English, Document 580/005, Shelf No. EO 608, World Bank, Washington DC,
  • Problems of Implementation, in Chinese and English. Document 605/010, Shelf No. EO 623, World Bank, Washington DC.
• Institutional Assessment: A Framework for Analysis, The World Bank, Washington DC, Country Economics Department Working Paper, July 1989 (mimeo).
• Entrepreneurs and Entrepreneurship: What We Know. Working Paper, Department of Management, University of Newcastle, 1986.
• Problems of Implementation, Public Administration and Development, Jan. - March 1986.
  Problem Oriented Training, Training and Development, March,1986.
• Strategy in the Service Industries, The Practising Manager, March, 1985.
• Papers on Development Administration, Australian Development Assistance Bureau, Department of Management, University of Newcastle, 1985:
  
  "National Economic Planning", "Budgeting in the LDC's", "Program Budgeting", "Assessing Budget Priorities", "The Central Evaluation of Development Programs", "Project Management Systems".
   
• Graduate Education in Public Administration, Teaching Public Administration, University of Manchester, Volume 4, No. 1, Spring 1984.
• With M. McCracken (Eds.) Lobbying: The Persuasion of Government. Proceedings of The 19th Annual Conference of the Management Systems Council, Monash University, December 1982 (mimeo).
• Developments in Program Budgeting, Department of Administrative Studies Working Paper, Monash University, November 1982. (The research for this paper was partially funded by the World Bank for the 1983 World Development Report).
• The Management of Development Programs (2 vols.), Department of Administrative Studies, Monash University, 1981, funded by the World Bank.
• Struttura e creativita': un' impotesi per la pubblica amministrazione, Problemi de amministrazone pubblica, Form 3 Anno v, No. 2 Napoli, 1980 (A translation of an earlier paper).
• The Climate of the 1980s: Managerial and Government Policies in the Coming Decade, Minerals Outlook Seminar, Australian Mining Council, Canberra, May 1980.
  Plus about a half dozen earlier papers.

Dr Bowden has advised governments and the international agencies - United Nations, World Bank, Asian Development Bank, and the bilateral agencies of England, US and Australia, on a multi-disciplinary basis, as well as a number of private companies, large and small. Most analyses are confidential to the country or agency concerned.

For sampling of this work, in over 30 countries, click on a topic of interest:

• Environment and Conservation
• Economic and Institutional Development
• Legal Institutions, Law and Order
• Education and Training
• Forestry
• Transport
• Health
• Poverty Alleviation and Community Development
• Economic and Financial Management
• Private Sector Development
• Multi-disciplinary Research

* Indicates sole responsibility or leader of a small multi-disciplinary advisory group.

China: Advisory work on institutional components of a water & air environmental project in four cities in Hubei Province;

Papua New Guinea:* Design and partial supervision of a strengthening program for the Office of Environment and Conservation;

Papua New Guinea: Australia based Project Director (1994-96) on a conservation project for the Queen Alexandra Birdwing butterfly - the world's largest;

Solomon Islands:* Insitutional assessment & preliminary strengthening proposals for Ministry of Forests, Environment & Conservation.

Bhutan:* Development of a public sector management and human development program;

Cocos Is.: Identification of business development opportunities;
Mongolia and Laos: Developmental concepts for these countries, undertaken for the UN;

Pakistan: Identification of policies and institutional factors in strengthening human development capacities in the country. Concentration placed on education, health, civil service training, and central/provincial financial relations;

Papua New Guinea: Assessment of public sector administrative capabilities;

PNG, Belize*, Marshall Is*, Tonga*, Tuvalu*: Separate multi-sector analyses. Key concerns were financial issues between the centre & provinces, education & public service training, health of local communities, immigration, economic & financial management, development of outlying regions, and human development issues;

South Pacific: (i) Analysis of decentralisation and local government initiatives in 10 countries for the UNDP's Human Development Report; (ii) Assessment of a review of the ADB's role in public sector reform in five South Pacific countries;

Thailand*: Evaluation systems for the Auditor General;

Washington DC*: Methodologies for establishing the institutional capabilities of a country, (World Bank, 1990, updated 1999, currently being updated again).

Papua New Guinea: Feasibility of strengthening legal institutions in the Courts, Attorney General's and Ombudsman Commission;

Member of appraisal groups for strengthening the police and legal institutions.

Indonesia: Development of a major improvement program in five universities in the Eastern Islands;

Fiji, Solomon Is, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, Tonga: Evaluation of EDI (Economic Development Institute of the World Bank) training program in these countries;

Pakistan, PNG, Belize*, Marshall Is*, Tonga* Tuvalu: Multi-sector institutional analyses which have included the Departments of Education;

Papua New Guinea, Thailand, Indonesia, Belize, Solomon Is., Fiji,
Vanuatu: Presentation and training courses undertaken for projects in these countries;

Samoa:* Strengthening t teaching and administration of the Samoa Polytechnic;

Southern Africa - Tanzania, Zambia, Kenya: Assessing the role of universities in development;

Vanuatu:* Public Sector training needs analysis.

Indonesia*, Sri Lanka*: Development of monitoring and evaluation systems for the Tropical Forest Action Program;

Papua New Guinea: Member of assessment panels on forestry projects;

Solomon Is.*: Institutional strengthening, Ministry Forests, Environment and Conservation;

Vanuatu*: Organisational restructuring for the Department of Forests.

Papua New Guinea: Road upgrading analysist;

Philippines: Transport sector management study;

Samoa:* Institutional strengthening and privatisation program, Public Works Department, the authority responsible for roads & drainage.

Tonga, Fiji, Solomon Islands:* Country-wide evaluations of health promotion through rural theatre, including the role of the Departments of Health.

China: member, NGO projects assessment for Australian aid;

Solomon Is.: Institutional strengthening of the Solomon Islands Development Trust &endash; in association with a Netherlands NGO;

Sri Lanka: Appraisal and supervision a multi-year micro-enterprise development credit program;

Bangladesh: Institutional appraisal of rural micro-credit and poverty alleviation project;

Philippines, Indonesia, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Nepal:* Six country study of NGO contribution to rural development.

Board member, Australian Foundation for Asia & Pacific (1988-2000). Undertook projects in Fiji, Solomon Is, Tonga, Vanuatu;

Member, Development Projects Committee, Community Aid Abroad (1980-1983); Founding Chairman, International Development Support Services (1987-88).

Papua New Guinea: Evaluation of UNDP/World Bank project to strengthen central & provincial economic and financial management capabilities, (World Bank);

Samoa: TAP member on Treasury strengthening project (AusAID).

Taught, consulted and written on development strategies for private sector firms and on role of government in privatisation and development of the private sector, including small businesses and micro-enterprise programs.

Early career appointments were initially as a civil engineer, and subsequently with Stanford Research Institute, a research institute started by Stanford University and now known as SRI International. Was its director in Australia, coordinating SRI's work in the physical and life sciences, economics, management and the information sciences.