Governance Assessment: Experience of a development
partner
Donald RukareInwent Conference:
'Country-led Governance Assessments: Sharing Experiences and Increasing Political Accountability'
Namibia 5th November 2009
Outline
What we are assessing?How we do it?The main challengesBest PracticesWhat needs to be done?Main lessons learnt
What we are assessing?
Who: Development partners ie Netherlands, Austria, Denmark, US, UK, Germany, Ireland, UNDP, EU, World Bank
What: Governance issues i.e. state of democratization, corruption, human rights, conflict
Why: Development partners have a stake as they provide assistance to government
How we do it?
At three levels (1) bi laterally (2) jointly and (3) externally
Have developed a governance matrix has four components (1) human rights (2) democratization (3) anti corruption (4) conflict resolution
Have identified indicators linked to the Government Poverty Eradication Action plan ( PRSP) and APRM National Action Plan
How We do it?
We rely on a number of surveys, indexes and reports both national and international i.e. Transparency International Corruption Perception Index, Governance Matters –World Bank, Mo Ibrahim Index, APRM country reports
Several of the individuals in this sector not conversant with statistics and use of statistics
Blind faith in the various surveys and quoted at will
Subjective assessments done sometimes not backed by evidence
Human Rights Indicators
FREEDOM OF THOUGHT AND EXPRESSION; FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION; FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY
FREEDOM OF THE PRESS AND OTHER MEDIAFREEDOM FROM ARBITRARY ARREST, ILLEGAL
DETENTION AND TORTURE
Main Challenges
Few indicatorsSources of information rely in reports,
newspapers and subjective viewsPolitics, sometimes hard to reach consensus Tendency to always focus on negativeThere is no universally acceptable definitions of
governance, human rights and democracy ie Human Rights – universal vs cultural relativism
Matrix confidential
Best Practices
Developing a Governance MatrixCollective assessmentAligning to National PlanMeeting with GovernmentIdentifies who should do what i.e. group,
Heads of Mission
What needs to be done?
Develop good indicators that tell the right story
Rely on credible sources of informationMake matrix publicLink more to external and bi lateral
assessments
Main Lessons learnt
Need to adopt a scientific methodologyNeed to build capacity on use of statistics The statistics and governance, human
rights and democracy worlds need to interface more
Political considerations have affect tone of assessment