G20 OECD Corporate Governance Principles Training Course

Course overview

Boards and senior management teams face increasing scrutiny over shareholder rights, related-party transactions, sustainability disclosures, internal controls, executive remuneration and the quality of board challenge. The G20/OECD Principles of Corporate Governance provide an internationally recognised benchmark, but applying them requires more than knowing the six chapters. Governance professionals must translate principles into board mandates, committee structures, disclosure controls, risk oversight routines and evidence that regulators, investors and auditors can examine.

This five-day course examines the 2023 G20/OECD Principles of Corporate Governance as a practical design and assessment method. Participants learn to diagnose governance gaps against the Principles; assess shareholder rights and equitable treatment; define institutional-investor and market-intermediary responsibilities; strengthen disclosure and transparency practices; evaluate board duties, independence and committee effectiveness; and address sustainability, resilience and group-governance issues. The course also connects the Principles with COSO internal control concepts, board reporting, corporate governance codes and governance action planning.

Instruction combines facilitated interpretation of the Principles with board-paper reviews, governance-failure cases, peer challenge and structured workshops. Participants work through a corporate governance assessment template, a board-and-committee effectiveness scorecard, a material disclosure checklist and a related-party transaction control map. They leave with a completed G20/OECD-aligned governance improvement plan that identifies priority gaps, accountable owners, evidence requirements, milestones and measures for reporting progress to the board.

The course is designed for experienced governance, legal, risk, compliance, audit, secretariat and senior-management professionals who support boards or are accountable for governance performance. It is equally valuable for managers seeking a defensible framework for improving governance across listed companies, state-owned enterprises, family-controlled groups or regulated organisations.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Interpret the 2023 G20/OECD Principles of Corporate Governance against an organisation's governance arrangements
• Conduct a documented governance gap assessment using a G20/OECD Principles crosswalk
• Evaluate shareholder-rights controls, including voting, information access and equitable treatment safeguards
• Design board, committee and director-independence structures aligned to defined oversight responsibilities
• Assess disclosure controls for financial, non-financial, ownership, remuneration and sustainability information
• Map related-party transaction approval, disclosure and conflict-of-interest controls
• Build a board effectiveness scorecard using meeting, composition, challenge and follow-up evidence
• Produce a prioritised corporate governance improvement plan with owners, milestones and assurance evidence

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Corporate Secretaries and Governance Officers — who maintain board processes and advise on governance obligations
• Board Members and Non-Executive Directors — who must exercise informed oversight and constructive challenge
• General Counsel and Legal Advisers — who translate governance requirements into policies, mandates and disclosures
• Chief Risk Officers and Risk Managers — who connect board oversight with enterprise-risk and control reporting
• Internal Audit Leaders — who assess the design and operating effectiveness of governance controls
• Compliance, ESG and Investor Relations Managers — who prepare disclosures and manage stakeholder accountability expectations

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have working experience of corporate governance, board or committee operations, legal compliance, risk management, internal audit, finance, or company secretariat work. They should be able to read a board charter, annual report, committee terms of reference and basic governance policy, and should understand concepts such as fiduciary duty, conflicts of interest, internal control and material disclosure. Familiarity with Microsoft Excel is useful for the assessment exercises. No legal qualification, accounting designation, prior board membership or specialist sustainability reporting expertise is required.

Training methodology

The instructor leads close reading of selected G20/OECD Principles, then tests interpretation against realistic board, investor, disclosure and control scenarios. Participants use a structured Principles crosswalk to review sample annual-report extracts, board charters, committee mandates and related-party transaction procedures. Small groups act as board advisers, audit committee members and governance reviewers to challenge evidence and agree priorities. Each day adds a component to an individual governance improvement plan, which is peer-reviewed on day five and refined for workplace implementation.

Course outline

Day 1: Using the G20/OECD Principles as a Governance Assessment Framework

• Purpose, structure and 2023 updates to the G20/OECD Principles of Corporate Governance
• The six chapters of the Principles and their governance implications
• Principles-based assessment versus rules-based compliance testing
• Corporate governance architecture: owners, board, management and assurance functions
• Governance documentation hierarchy: constitutions, charters, policies and delegations
• Materiality and proportionality in governance design
• Building a G20/OECD Principles crosswalk and evidence register

Workshop: Participants review a fictional company's governance pack and produce an initial Principles crosswalk identifying missing evidence, strengths and priority gaps.

Day 2: Shareholder Rights, Ownership and Market Integrity

• Basic shareholder rights: voting, participation, information and transferability
• Equitable treatment of minority and foreign shareholders
• General meeting design, voting procedures and shareholder engagement
• Beneficial ownership, control structures and cross-border ownership transparency
• Related-party transaction identification and approval pathways
• Institutional investors, asset managers and stewardship responsibilities
• Market intermediaries, proxy advisers and conflicts-of-interest safeguards

Workshop: Teams map a related-party transaction from identification to board approval and produce a control map with disclosure, abstention and escalation points.

Day 3: Disclosure, Transparency and Governance Assurance

• Disclosure requirements for financial performance, ownership and governance arrangements
• Board remuneration disclosure and alignment with long-term performance
• Non-financial and sustainability-related disclosure under the 2023 Principles
• Material information controls, verification and sign-off workflows
• External audit independence and audit committee oversight
• COSO Internal Control—Integrated Framework and governance reporting
• Annual report governance review using a disclosure checklist

Workshop: Participants assess sample annual-report disclosures against a governance checklist and prepare an audit-committee briefing on material omissions and assurance actions.

Day 4: Board Responsibilities, Effectiveness and Strategic Oversight

• Board fiduciary duties, duty of care and duty of loyalty
• Director independence, skills matrices, diversity and succession planning
• Board chair, chief executive and lead independent director role separation
• Audit, risk, remuneration and nomination committee mandates
• Board oversight of strategy, risk appetite, resilience and corporate culture
• Information quality, board packs and constructive challenge
• Board and committee effectiveness evaluation methods

Workshop: Participants use a board effectiveness scorecard to evaluate a simulated board case and produce recommendations for composition, committee design and meeting practice.

Day 5: Embedding Governance Improvements and Reporting Progress

• Prioritising governance gaps by risk, stakeholder impact and implementation effort
• Designing governance action plans with accountable owners and milestones
• Selecting leading and lagging governance performance indicators
• Board reporting formats for governance remediation progress
• Governance implications for corporate groups and state-owned enterprises
• Managing implementation resistance and aligning executive incentives
• Preparing for investor, regulator and assurance-provider scrutiny

Workshop: Participants complete and present a G20/OECD-aligned governance improvement plan containing priority actions, owners, evidence requirements, timetable and board-reporting measures.

Tools & standards covered

G20/OECD Principles of Corporate Governance (2023), COSO Internal Control—Integrated Framework, IFC Corporate Governance Methodology, Microsoft Excel

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions