planning a governance assessment - United Nations Development ...

More documents

Recommendations

Info

4. The Urban Governance Index (UGI) by UN Habitat The UGI uses 25 indicators across four sub-indices. The assessment process includes participants from civil society organizations, associations of local government, ministries of local government, or coalitions of these key actors to design their own urban governance indicator systems. Effectiveness • Local government revenue per capita • Ratio of actual recurrent and capital budget • Local government revenue transfers • Ratio of mandated/actual tax collection • Predictability of transfers in local government budget • Published performance delivery standards • Consumer satisfaction survey • Existence of a vision statement Equity • Citizens’ charter: right of access to basic services • Percentage of women councilors in local authorities • Pro-poor pricing policies for water • Incentives for informal businesses Participation • Elected council • Selection of mayor • Voter turnout • Public forum • Civic associations per 10,000 population Accountability • Formal publication (contracts and tenders; budgets and accounts): • Control by higher levels of government • Codes of conduct: • Facility for citizen complaints • Anti-corruption commission • Independent audit Conclusions, costs and benefits of how you define governance As you can see, these frameworks share many of the same elements, such as transparency, accountability, participation, and efficiency, among others. They also examine these elements of governance across similar areas of society. A concise definition that lends itself to a well-defined and developed framework saves money and time. Between the examples provided above and the dozens of examples offered in the UNDP Governance Indicators Guide, stakeholders have plenty to think about when deciding on how to develop a country-led governance assessment. Whatever approach fits the situation best, it is wise to use theory and previous research as a guide. At the very least, there should be several indicators for each dimension of governance examined, in each area of society and/or government. The following section addresses the next step in the process: identifying existing governance indicators and developing new ones. 22 Planning a Governance Assessment: A Guide to Approaches, Costs and Benefits
Section Indicators – 7 Existing vs. New Indicators This section begins with background information on indicators. It then provides advice and guidelines on using existing indicators, followed by an important section on developing new indicators. Developing new indicators can be complicated and sometimes costly. Clearly, a need exists for indicators that can capture the local context, something that external assessments rarely do. However, developing new indicators requires skill and testing to ensure a high degree of rigour and credibility. It is a good idea to balance the development of new contextual indicators with indicators used elsewhere to allow comparisons with other countries. This section offers examples of the different methods used to develop new governance indicators, highlighting stakeholder participation. The section concludes with advice regarding the cost and benefits of the various types of indicators and development of new vs. using existing indicators. UNDP, through its Global Programme on Capacity Development for Democratic Governance Assessments at the Oslo Governance Centre, supports a broad, democracy-based approach to measuring governance. It argues that indicators should be selected and generated through a transparent, participatory and inclusive process. National institutions, including academia, should be used to develop the indicator system so that national capacity is strengthened. What is an indicator? • An indicator is a device for providing specific information on the state or condition of something. An indicator is also a measure, gauge, barometer, index, mark, sign, signal, guide to, standard, touchstone, yardstick, benchmark, criterion and point of reference. (Source: Oxford Dictionary) • An indicator can be a numerical or a text-based (qualitative) measure of quality of life in a country, such as governance. Indicators are used to illustrate progress of a country in meeting a range of economic, social, political and environmental goals. Types of indicators Objective indicators can be developed from archives or secondary data sources. They also can be developed from administrative data collected by government. Some de jure (rules, laws) examples include the existence of an integrity commission, existence of a particular law against corruption, or a civil right in a constitution. De facto (practice) examples include the number of corruption cases prosecuted or number of defendants found guilty. Reported behaviour or event indicators usually come from surveys of typical citizens or selected groups and from government statistics, such as number of arrests or convictions. Surveys such as DIAL’s 1-2-3 ask respondents (typical citizens) if they have ever been asked to pay a bribe or have ever paid a bribe to a public official (de facto). Subjective or perception-based indicators are found in surveys of typical citizens or smaller surveys of key stakeholders such as experts inside and/or outside of government about issues related to governance. These indicators rely on opinions or perceptions of how things are (de facto) or should be. Perception-based data have proven very reliable over the years in many different contexts and cultures. In many cases perception-based data are the only source of information where objective or reported events data are not available. Planning a Governance Assessment: A Guide to Approaches, Costs and Benefits 23
Page 1: PLANNING A GOVERNANCE ASSESSMENT A
Page 4 and 5: PLANNING A GOVERNANCE ASSESSMENT: A
Page 6 and 7: Section 7: Indicators - Existing vs
Page 8 and 9: Acknowledgments UNDP acknowledges w
Page 10 and 11: technical aspects of conducting a g
Page 12 and 13: Who participates? Who is included i
Page 14 and 15: Section 2 Governance Researchers Ov
Page 16 and 17: Section 3 Funding and Technical Ass
Page 18 and 19: This fund is increasingly emphasizi
Page 20 and 21: An integrated process It is importa
Page 22 and 23: Key stakeholder surveys are assessm
Page 24 and 25: Section 5 Types of Data and Data Co
Page 26 and 27: Internet surveys require special pl
Page 28 and 29: Theory should guide research and th
Page 32 and 33: Proxy indicators do not measure the
Page 34 and 35: If the steering committee feels the
Page 36 and 37: Section 8 Sampling - The Basics Eve
Page 38 and 39: Section 9 Data Analysis and Present
Page 40 and 41: Stakeholders’ role in the data an
Page 42 and 43: Section 11 Comparing Approaches and
Page 44 and 45: One of the main strengths of this a
Page 46 and 47: • $15,000 was allocated for gover
Page 48 and 49: Section Conclusion 12 Governance ma
Page 50 and 51: • Choosing the type or types of i
Page 52: Websites International Household Su

planning a governance assessment - United Nations Development ...

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?