Why Measure Governance?

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Why Measure Governance?

• Dr Ken Mease
• University of Florida
• Cairo, June 2009

United Nations Development Programme
2
Three general purposes for measuring governance

• It is a reporting tool that can track and
  communicate progress towards goals and/or
  outcomes
• It is a policy tool that can guide evidence-based
  planning and action to address issues identified
  as important by citizens and in existing
  political commitments
• It helps build and strengthen democracy by
  engaging stakeholders through informed
  discussions

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Why measure Governance?

• Foster inclusive participation, strengthen
  accountable and responsive governing institutions
• Consolidate and deepen democracy - free and fair
  elections must go with efforts to ensure that all
  people have the opportunity to participate in the
  decisions
• Local, regional and national governments need
  the capacity and resources to deliver effective
  policies and manage the public services that
  citizens need
• Governance needs to be grounded in the principles
  of human rights, transparency, honesty, gender
  equality

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Why Measure Governance?

• Good governance promotes the rule of law, the
  transparency of institutions, officials, and
  transactions
• It increases the chances that the poorest and
  most vulnerable can directly influence political
  decision-making, particularly the allocation of
  development resources.
• Success depends on public participation to ensure
  that political, social and economic priorities
  are based on a broad societal consensus. CSOs
  need to be full partners in the process and not
  just finger pointers

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Defining Governance

• Governance has been defined by many and adapted
  for different uses and agendas.
• The term of governance derives from Latin origins
  that suggest the notion of 'steering
• Some definitions are broad encompassing
  governance, democracy and human rights issues,
  while other are quite narrow focusing on a single
  issues, such as corruption

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A Definition

• Governance refers to the formation and
  stewardship of the formal and informal rules that
  regulate the public realm, the arena in which
  state, as well as economic and societal actors,
  interact to make decisions.
• Hyden, Court and Mease 2004

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Widely held Principles of Governance

• Participation involvement and ownership by
  stakeholders CSOs, Citizens, Parliament,
  Private Sector, Vulnerable Groups, Government
• Fairness rules apply equally to everyone in
  society
• Decency rules are implemented without harming
  people
• Accountability political actors are responsible
  for actions
• Transparency clarity and openness of
  decision-making
• Efficiency use of limited resources for greatest
  outputs. Hyden, Court and Mease 2004

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Placing Governance in Context
Level_______ Activity_________
Concept Meta Politics
Governance Macro
Policy Policymaking Meso
Program
Administration Micro Project
Management Hyden, Court and
Mease, 2004
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Governance Assessments Growing Importance -
Agenda Driven

•  For the past 15 years, governance has become a
  key concept in the debates surrounding
  international development.
• Governance assessments vary according to the
  interests, needs and culture of the assessor.
• Good governance is critical for a viable
  democracy
• Assessment are used to pressure and reward
  governments a carrot and stick approach
• There is a belief that getting the politics right
  is the key to development

10
A Donor Dominated Assessment Process

• Until recently, governance assessments were
  dominated by bilateral and multilateral donors,
  as well as other external actors.
• At last years meeting of the Organization for
  Economic and Co-operation and Developments
  (OECD) GOVNET group, over 30 different governance
  assessment tools were identified, with 9 more
  under development

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More Donor tools or a shift to country led
initiatives?

• The OECD debate was lively over the need for more
  of these tools,
• In the end there was broad agreement on the need
  to support national efforts to monitor and
  evaluate governance.
• It appears we are now in a shift from donor
  dominated External Assessments to stakeholder
  dominated Internal Monitoring, Evaluation and
  Evidence Based Policymaking

12
Governance Assessments A shift to Country-led
Assessments (CLAs)

• After years of trying to make changes from the
  outside, donors are now hoping that country-led
  efforts are better situated to improve democratic
  governance.
• There is good reason to believe that when
  assessments form part of the national actors
  agenda, instead of that of external actors,
  assessment results are more likely to lead to
  real change.
• A shift from donors pointing fingers to self
  reflection by in-country stakeholders

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A move to support Country-led Assessments

• Several donors have stepped forward in efforts to
  support country-led efforts. Here are some who
  participated in the early country led efforts
• UNDP Oslo Governance Center
• InWEnt - capacity building international
• GTZ
• DFID
• USAID
• OECD GOVNET (governance) Group

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What External Assessments Lack

• They do not often point to national and sub-
  national level institutions or institutional
  arrangements.
• They also often lack national ownership and
  stakeholder engagement in the assessment process.
  
• They tend to offer aggregate results that fail to
  capture complexities and nuances of governance
  issues
• They often overlook the perceptions of governance
  issues that impact marginalized groups in
  society, such as the poor and women.

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In-Country demand for ME Governance

• Government and non-government stakeholders in
  some countries are integrating governance into
  national development plans. Example Zambia,
  Palestine and Indonesia
• Civil society is demanding better information in
  order to hold governments accountable.
• There is a desire for more ownership of the
  indicators and the areas examined

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Good Governance and Democracy

• Understanding the strengths and weaknesses of
  governance will enhance the quality and strength
  of democracy
• Broad participation of government and
  non-government stakeholders will lead to an
  increased sense of ownership and responsibility.
• CLAs will likely lead to healthy, more informed
  policy discussions between the government,
  opposition political parties and CSOs during and
  in-between elections

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Good Governance and Policy

• Understanding how governance works in specific
  areas of government citizen interaction will lead
  to reform and better policy to help meet the
  MDGs.
• Evidence based policy making and evaluation will
  strengthen democratic institutions and increase
  the depth of democracy in the country
• It involves monitoring and evaluating governance
  issues across the wide range of critical areas
  where the government and citizens interact - at
  the national and sub- national levels.

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What is Ownership?

• There is much talk of nationally owned indicators
  
• What exactly does this mean?
• Does it mean that every country or region in a
  country should develop their own unique
  indictors?
• National ownership for me is more about the
  stakeholder deciding which indicators to use,
  more than it is about developing new indicators

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Ownership

• Developing new indicators requires skill,
  testing, time and resources financial and
  human
• Depending on the governance issue, many well
  tested indicators are available
• Keeping indicators the same, as much as possible,
  across regions allows for comparison

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What Country-led Assessments (CLAs) are doing

• CLAs are quite different that external
  assessments.
• Some focus mostly on public sector corruption
• Other on service delivery health, education,
  water, electricity, telephone, waste removal, and
  sanitation
• Access to justice, elections
• Womens rights, the poor and other groups
• At the national and sub-national levels

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Topics that Country-led Approaches Might Monitor
and Evaluate

• The Broad National Governance Situation
• executive
• judicial
• legislature
• private sector
• civil society
• bureaucracy

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More Specific Examples of Topics for CLAs

• Access to Justice
• Victims rights
• Prisoners rights
• Trial process length of time, etc
• Violence against women
• Child abuse
• Elections
• Registration
• Voting Procedures
• MDGs

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Governance ME priorities from Zambias 5th
National Development Plan

• Access to Justice
• Human Rights
• Transparency
• Accountability
• Monitoring and evaluation

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Zambias Governance Interests

• Public perceptions of the role of the public in
  the policy making process
• Meeting the MDGs and Poverty Reduction
• Corruption perceptions abuse of public office
• Accountability
• Transparency
• Human Rights
• Violence against women
• Child abuse

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CLAs - key ingredients

• A participatory approach to assessing democratic
  governance that mirrors the principles of
  democratic governance Transparency,
  participation, accountability, fairness,
  efficiency
• The process and the results must be able to stand
  public scrutiny, include the voices of the poor
  and women, be representative of the populace and
  be accountable to the citizenry.

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CLAs key ingredients

• Strive to reduce political biases in the
  assessment results
• It is critical that the process of indicator
  selection is seen as legitimate
• One approach is through broad-based participation
  that includes both government and non-government
  stakeholders from the initial planning to release
  of the results.

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The Challenges of Country-led Initiatives

• Conducting a CLA of democratic governance is
  potentially fraught with politics
• Even in the North, such topics can be very
  sensitive.
• Country-led efforts can, and in some cases will,
  be unduly influenced by those in power to set the
  agenda and manipulate the results
• External actors, primarily donors, also have
  political agendas and often wield considerable
  power.

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What Country-led efforts can provide

• Nationally owned systems provide upward internal
  rather than external pressure for reform
• They provide a catalyst for greater citizen
  engagement in democratic processes
• They examine areas not found in most external
  assessments such as the sub-national level,
  service delivery and vulnerable groups
• The provide valuable information and experience
  to help empower Civil Society Organizations

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What Country-led efforts can provide

• These efforts may well lead to better governance,
  policy design and outcomes at the local and
  national levels if the assessment efforts
  themselves use solid research methodologies
• They can generate valuable feedback to government
  and citizens on how people feel about various
  issues and identify priorities
• Help meet the MDGs

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Best Practices for CLAs

• They must be conducted in a professional manner
  if they are to be viewed as legitimate.
• The professionalism and objectivity of those
  participating must be beyond question or
  reproach.
• There must be government and non- government
  stakeholders involved in the process from
  beginning to the end

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Best Practices for CLAs

• Moreover, these assessments should to take issues
  into account such as gender, ethnicity, region,
  the poor and different political viewpoints
• Finally, the key to achieving these goals rests
  in practicing the principles of governance
  especially participation, accountability and
  transparency

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Final Thoughts

• CLAs can provide valuable insights into exiting
  government programs and policies, such as those
  aimed at meeting the MDGs
• They can inform new policy and help evaluate
  existing policies at the national and
  sub-national level
• The process and the results can encourage
  participation and dialogue between the citizens,
  civil society, the private sector and the
  government