Egypt: a sectoral governance assessment towards better MDGs achievement
Good Governance and Anti-Corruption measurement research programs are at the core of the Social Contract Centre (SCC)’s efforts to rebuild trust between development stakeholders in Egypt. Within these efforts, one important ongoing activity is the Governance Assessment Framework that aims to develop applied methods for assessing governance in the social sector in Egypt in order to improve service delivery while meeting the MDGs. Indeed, it has been demonstrated that MDG shortfalls are not only to be attributed to insufficient financial amounts, but often linked to governance-related problems[1]. In this perspective, the SCC’s innovative attempt to monitor governance within sectors (sector-based governance) is particularly relevant to MDGs acceleration in Egypt, as well as...
Kazakhstan determined to measure and improve its public administration
“You can’t manage what you can‘t measure.” It is this old adage, often attributed to management guru Peter Drucker, which informs the latest efforts by the state of Kazakhstan to improve the efficiency of its own administration. By Presidential decree, Kazakhstan is embarking on a public administration assessment. Its results will serve to benchmark progress and inform management. Kazakhstan’s transitional path has led to new administrative challenges for the state. Over the period of the last 20 years the country has significantly improved its human development record: Between 1990 and 2010, expected years of schooling in Kazakhstan increased by almost 3 years, the GNI per capita increased by 33 per cent, and although life expectancy at...
Chile publishes national democracy survey results
In its issue of June 2010, the GAP Newsletter described the uniquely participatory process lead by a Consortium of four national think tanks representing the whole Chilean political spectrum, with the support of UNDP and International IDEA, to put Chile’s democracy to the test. On 23 November 2010, the Consortium composed of Libertad y Desarrollo, Centro de Estudios Públicos (CEP), Corporación de Estudios para Latinoamérica (CIEPLAN), and ProyectAmérica, together with UNDP and International IDEA, released the results of a national survey conducted within this “Auditing Democracy” project – and based on the specific set of indicators carefully elaborated within the previous steps of this country-led governance assessment...
Users’ Guide to Civil Society Assessments
In continuation of the Users’ Guides series created by the Global Programme with 8 Guides published so far – in addition to training packages and communication packages associated to some of them –, this new Users’ Guide provides extensive guidance for users of civil society assessments, illustrated with specific examples. It includes a source guide of currently available civil society assessment methods, including, for each of them, a snapshot of its methodology, some details of its content, the implications for its use and an outline of its strengths and weaknesses. The Guide also presents information from assessments that have already been implemented and published. This inventory of civil society assessment tools and methodologies can serve as a resource that...
Fast Facts on Democratic Governance Assessments
An issue of UNDP's "Fast Facts" series has been published on democratic governance assessments. It provides a two-page overview of UNDP's democratic governance assessments work. Click here to donwload it.
Participatory governance assessments for REDD+
When reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) was first introduced as a financial mechanism to curb deforestation, the focus was mainly on scientific solutions. In most countries, the REDD strategy processes and discussions were led by a technocratic approach of the issue, leaving out local – often indigenous – populations living in and off the forest. Closely implicating local communities in the management of the forests in which they live is not only a matter of respecting their human rights: it is intrinsically linked to the human development of the concerned region and the preservation of the forest environment itself. Indeed, an official and systematized participation from forest-dependant communities in curbing deforestation at all levels of...
Brussels - Anti-corruption analysis training for the European Union
UNDP’s Global Programme on Democratic Governance Assessments (GAP) was recently invited by the European Commission to contribute to an anti-corruption seminar in Brussels, aimed at providing specific training to EU delegations and headquarters staff working in external relations, for making them better equipped to analyse corruption in a given local setting and to support the implementation of anti-corruption strategies and policies in developing countries. During four days of training, the EU staff members exposed to supporting governance in developing countries were taken through the complex definitions and implications of corruption at the country-level, the orientations of the EU anti-corruption policies, the different approaches to assessing and monitoring...
Bangkok - Promoting a new generation of corruption assessments
Within the 14th International Anti-Corruption Conference (IACC) in Bangkok (10-13 November 2010), featuring five plenary sessions and fourty interactive workshops around the key current global challenges of fighting corruption, one of the special sessions focused on presenting and challenging a new generation of corruption assessment tools, which are aimed at strengthening local ownership and impact. Indeed, while first and second generation corruption assessment tools remained at the level of international models, a third generation of nationally-owned tools is emerging. This workshop was designed to build on the insights of a UNDP-TI workshop at the 13th IACC on actionable corruption measurement tools (referred to as “second generation tools”, as opposed to...
Bangkok - Regional consultation on access to justice assessments
An assessment of the access to justice in a country can only be a successful process, resulting in concrete improvement in access to justice, if the very specific conditions of that country and society are realistically taken into account within a unique (as opposed to “standard”) plan, and with direct participation of all concerned stakeholders and beneficiaries at the national and local level. This is one of the overall conclusions of the Regional consultation on access to justice assessments that took place in Bangkok within the “Access to Justice Week” (4-8 October 2010). The Access to Justice Assessments Regional Consultation was an opportunity for UNDP Country Offices and practitioners who have conducted access to justice assessments in the Asia...
A high profile Advisory Committee on governance assessments
The Advisory Committee to the Global Programme on Democratic Governance Assessments convened its first plenary meeting at UNDP Headquarters in New-York, on 29 November 2010. The Advisory Committee is an independent multi-stakeholder panel composed of senior members from academia, civil society and social movements from all world regions, with diverse types of expertise related to governance assessments (see the list of members below). The purpose of the Advisory Committee is to draw from the knowledge and experience of its members to: (a) Advise the GAP team in the areas of programme development, annual priorities and developing the conceptual framework; (b) Help identify the best practices as well as knowledge-networks that can help strengthen UNDP’s democratic...
The OGC governance assessments team expands in numbers, thematic areas and geographical coverage
A UN-REDD Programme Officer based in Oslo to work on participatory assessments for forest governance Tina Hageberg joined the UNDP-UN-REDD team as Programme Officer based in the UNDP Oslo Governance Center, where she is part of the Governance Assessments team since November 2010. She will lead the UN-REDD Programme activities on participatory governance assessments, thus further strengthening the collaboration between the Democratic Governance Group and the UN-REDD team of UNDP, as well as the role of governance assessments within UN-REDD as a whole – see our story on “Participatory Governance Assessments for REDD+” in this issue of the GAP Newsletter. Tina was previously project manager in the Civil Society Department at NORAD,...
Training future Norwegian diplomats and international officials on anti-corruption assessments
Anti-corruption is a priority of the Norwegian international cooperation, and this message is clearly transmitted to young Norwegian Junior Professional Officers and diplomats-to-be during their induction training at the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA). However, what anti-corruption actually means and implies, and how anti-corruption policies can or should be designed and implemented on the ground is far from obvious or straight-forward. OGC’s Global Programme on Democratic Governance Assessments was invited by the MFA to share some of UNDP’s principles, knowledge and experience on corruption and anti-corruption policies and programmes. The Global Programme team members who conducted the training session presented a broad vision of UNDP’s anti-...
OGC Annual Report 2010: Consolidation and innovation
The Oslo Governance Centre released its Annual Report for 2010, which describes how, after the transition towards its new mandate, new premises and new internal structure operated in 2009, it has had the opportunity to consolidate its work and lead and promote innovation within its four mandated areas, namely: Conducting systematic analysis and reviews of UNDP’s work around the globe aimed at learning from experiences in the field. Based on this analysis, contribute to programming and policy advisory services at the national, regional and global levels. Support countries to conduct nationally owned and led governance assessments that serve to strengthen democratic governance at the country level. Address new and emerging areas of democratic governance and...