Module 3: Strengthening & Developing Rule of Law

Michael Woolcock is Lead Social Scientist in the World Bank's Development Research Group, where he has worked since 1998. For seventeen of these years, he has also been an Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. His current research focuses on strategies for enhancing state capability for implementation, on transformations in local social institutions during the development process, and on using mixed methods to assess the effectiveness of "complex" interventions. In addition to more than a hundred journal articles and book chapters, he is the author or co-editor of fourteen books. Most recently, he has co-edited three scholarly volumes on case studies, popular culture, and the future of multilateralism, and written a book for a broader audience (International Development: Navigating Humanity’s Greatest Challenge; Polity Press, 2023). An Australian national, he has a PhD in comparative-historical sociology from Brown University. He has been presenting seminars at A4ID since its founding in 2008.

Elizabeth "Betsy" Andersen is Executive Director of the World Justice Project, leading its global efforts to advance the rule of law through data collection, analysis, and research; advocacy and strategic convenings; and support for a global network of stakeholders.  Ms. Andersen has more than 25 years of experience in the international legal arena, having served previously as Director of the American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative (ABA ROLI) and its Europe and Eurasia Division (previously known as the Central European and Eurasian Law Initiative or ABA CEELI), as Executive Director of the American Society of International Law, and as Executive Director of Human Rights Watch's Europe and Central Asia Division.  

Ms. Andersen is an expert in international human rights law, international criminal law, and transitional justice, and she has taught these subjects as an adjunct professor at the American University Washington College of Law. She is a member of the American Law Institute and the Council on Foreign Relations and serves as a member of the Board of Trustees of Williams College as well as on the governing and advisory boards of several international non-profit organizations. She is the recipient of a number of awards for her work in the international rule of law field, including a Williams College Bicentennial Medal, the American Society of International Law Prominent Woman in International Law Award, and the ABA Section of International Law World Order Under Law Award.

Ms. Andersen began her legal career in clerkships with Judge Kimba M. Wood of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York and with Judge Georges Abi-Saab of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Ms. Andersen received a B.A. from Williams College, an M.P.A. from Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs, and a J.D. from Yale Law School.