Institute for Governance and Leadership| NUS LKYSPP

ABOUT THE INSTITUTE FOR GOVERNANCE AND LEADERSHIP

The mission of the Institute for Governance and Leadership (IGL) is to improve governance in Asia by educating the next generation of Asian leaders in public service and beyond. IGL is dedicated to delivering senior leadership development initiatives in public policy and governance. This will be complemented by futures education and case writing. Through its programmes and activities, IGL will adopt a more practitioner-oriented approach and enhance the School’s current efforts to foster dialogue and collaboration between academics and practitioners.

The setting up of this Institute reflects the School’s commitment to invest in building leadership capacity in good governance in Asia. This is an exciting endeavour given Asia’s rising prominence.

-Ong Toon Hui, Vice Dean and Executive Director, Institute for Governance and Leadership

Institute for Governance and Leadership’s key roles are:

SG Governance & Futures

The SG Governance & Futures programme is one of the School’s outreach and community engagement initiative. It aims to educate different segments of youths (students, young professionals) on Singapore’s system of governance and equip them with futures thinking tools to think more deeply about future trends and how they would impact Singapore. The programme also inspires youths to reflect on their roles to develop more resilient institutions and governance approaches. The School partners various organisations to run governance and futures workshops for different audience segments. Programmes such as the annual Singapore Futures Youth Competition and Festival of Ideas.

Singapore Futures Youth Competition

LKYSPP holds a yearly Singapore Futures Youth Competition, which is open to all students currently enrolled in any post-secondary/pre-tertiary educational institution in Singapore. This in-person event at the Bukit Timah Campus of the National University of Singapore includes a futures thinking workshop led by LKYSPP faculty.

Through this competition, participants are introduced to public policy challenges, futures thinking and the complexities of the policymaking process. They will learn the necessary tools and framework to build scenarios and present them to experts and leaders from the public and private sectors in the preliminary and final rounds of the competition. Participants will also have opportunities to interact with their peers from an array of educational institutes, as well as network with leaders from public and private sectors.

Find out more about this year’s Singapore Futures Youth Competition 2025.

Year	Theme	Report	Video
2021	Re-imagining SG75	Read Report Here	Click To Watch Video
2022	Towards a Sustainable and Resilient Singapore 2050	Read Report Here	Click To Watch Video
2023	Re-imagining Singapore’s Social Well-Being and Inclusivity in 2050	Read Report Here	Click To Watch Video
2024	Re-imagining Opportunities, Work and Education in Singapore	Read Report Here	Click To Watch Video

Festival of Ideas

At the LKYSPP’s Festival of Ideas 2024 in September, IGL brought together 40 students from 6 public universities for the “Future of Governance in Singapore” workshop. Using a mix of short lectures, case study discussion, panel session and hands-on futures thinking exercise, participants explored the principles and practical approaches to good governance, managing diverse stakeholders and the need for evolving governance strategies. The workshop also featured a panel discussion on “Good Governance and Policy Innovation” with speakers from the Singapore Government Partnerships Office, ServiceSG and Ministry of Manpower sharing their insights.

Advanced Governance Programmes

Gather insights into Singapore’s brand of governance in this five-six week executive programme. The Senior Fellowship in Public Service Programme is tailored to senior-level leaders in public, private and non-profit sectors. Against the backdrop of Asia, the programme developed and taught by academicians and practitioners, will explore key issues of the decade and significant trends as well as critical insights into the opportunities and challenges that follow. Participants will be known as Lee Kuan Yew School Senior Fellows. They will be able to network with talented leaders and high profile individuals, building priceless professional and personal connections that last a lifetime.

Learn more about the SFPS programme 

The "Strengthening Indonesian Regional Leaders Programme" aims to develop and strengthen leadership, governance, and public management capabilities of Indonesian local government officials at regency and municipality levels. The programme welcomes Mayors (Walikota) and Regents (Bupati) from some of the main islands in Indonesia such as Sumatra, Java, Kalimantan and Sulawesi. 

The programme comprises two components, one held in Singapore and the other in Indonesia. In Singapore, the Mayors and Regents will learn about sustainable development, and the transformation of the island nation along with participation in fireside chats with some of Singapore’s most prominent figures in Public Service. This executive programme is in collaboration with the National Resilience Institute of the Republic of Indonesia (Lembaga Ketahanan Nasional Republik Indonesia – Lemhannas RI) and the Purnomo Yusgiantoro Centre, Indonesia. 

Case Insights Unit

From Singapore’s last kampong and Shanghai’s waste sorting system to the challenges of blockchain technology and big data, the Case Insights Unit (CIU) produces case studies that cover a wide range of issues in public policy, administration and management with an Asian focus. Our case studies typically focus on a central tension stemming from multiple interests and perspectives encountered by real-world policymakers and use public policy frameworks to analyse present-day problems. 

Our repository of over a hundred case studies can be found in the LKYSPP Case Study Library. These are used in classroom teaching for degree and executive education programmes at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. They are also freely accessible to the public. We organise an annual Case Writing Competition for our students and the top submissions are added to the Case Study Library. 

Learn more about the Case Insights Unit