Asia and the Pacific
In recent decades, many countries in Asia have experienced high rates of economic growth. This has raised two central issues with regard to democratic governance in the Asia-Pacific region: Assessing the role of democratic governance in achieving economic growth, and dealing with the new set of challenges that such growth poses to democratic governance.
Demand for country-led governance evidence lies in finding answers to these two central questions. There exists demand for governance evidence to improve management and efficiency of public administration and services, ultimately aimed at reaching development targets. Secondly, demand is growing for governance evidence to deal with new as well as old challenges, and to take into account citizen aspirations of democratic governance.
In Asia and the Pacific, central and local governments, think tanks, research institutes and NGOs have inspired home-grown solutions based on the need to strengthen the use of evidence in decision making and to make decision making more inclusive.
A particular trend in the region is found in performance-based budgeting, where local governments compete for funding based on their performance. The resulting competition between cities and provinces is expected to enhance overall performance.
UNDP supported initiatives in Asia and the Pacific
- Bhutan - Gross National Happiness Index
- Indonesia - Democracy Index
- Mongolia - MDG 9 on Human Rights and Democratic Governance
News
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The Indonesian Democracy Index (IDI) is now an official target under Indonesia's National Medium-Term Development Plan (RPJMN) 2010-2014: Indonesia’s index to measure civil and political rights as well as the quality of democratic institutions at the provincial level has now been made an official yardstick for monitoring the implementation of the national plan.
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On 2-6 March 2010, a training workshop was held on the Media Development Indicator (MDI) Framework in close collaboration with the Department of Information and Media (DOIM) as well as the UNDP country office to enhance technical skills of the MDI Working Committee and research team in documentation of the research findings and analysis, data collection and implementation of the media assessment in Bhutan.
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Examples of Regional Initiatives
In 2001 Forum Leaders adopted 29 guiding principles of best practices for FIC Legislatures in strengthening parliamentary democracy within the constraints…
At their Special Leaders Retreat in April 2004, Pacific Islands Forum Leaders encouraged the development of national human rights machinery. A regional…
The project has been developed by a group of regional experts drawn from Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka convened by the Consortium of…
In its work area on "Culture, democracy and development", and going back to the ‘New Information Orderâ€&trade…
Organizations that assess governance in the region
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The Public Affairs Centre pursues the realization of its vision to improve the quality of public governance in India by creating vibrant, informed and…
Tools for assessing governance
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Stated purpose:This tool aims to provide a snapshot of governance at the sub-national level, and more specifically, to help in monitoring governance situation in the…
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Stated purpose:• to assess the views of citizens about public services, measure citizens’ knowledge about local governance,and evaluate their participation…
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Stated purpose:The main objective of the community level local governance self-assessment is educational. However, the Self-Assessment exercise is also meant to mobilize…
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Stated purpose:The LGPMS is a self-assessment, management and development tool that enables provincial, city and municipal governments to determine their capabilities…
UNDP Key Publications
on assessing governance related to Asia and the Pacific
