Democratic Governance Assessments Good governance needs good data. UNDP has provided

advisory and financial support to catalyze country-led

assessment processes in more than 20 countries in all

regions. For UNDP, governance assessments are an

important tool in the effort to improve democratic

governance as a contribution to achieving the Millennium

Development Goals.

Governance assessments are a mechanism to

strengthen democracy. A successful assessment is driven

by the country itself and carried out with the active

participation of national and local actors. A country’s

engagement in the data collection process, analysis of

results and ongoing monitoring add value to the

assessment far beyond its findings.

To assess and measure progress A governance assessment serves many purposes. It can

enhance a country’s capacity to evaluate, measure and

monitor progress towards democratic governance today

and in the future. An assessment makes it easier to

understand the quality of governance. With better

understanding comes more effective action to improve the

practice of democratic governance.

National indicators developed by the country reveal,

through statistical analysis, where problems may need to

be addressed. An assessment can, for example, help to

identify institutions and practices that perpetuate unfair

and sub-standard provision of services to marginalized and

vulnerable groups. The process also can provide

opportunities for the poor to voice their concerns.

Ultimately, governance assessments are an

outstanding avenue for enhancing transparency and

accountability.

Demand for country-level data Interest has grown dramatically in the past five years among

donors, international organizations and national

governments. Some governments desire to serve their

citizens or to respond with accurate data to indexes that rank

and ‘shame’ countries. Changes in donor policies are

increasing the need for country-level data to evaluate

governance performance.

About the Global Programme The Global Programme on Democratic Governance

Assessments supports countries that want to conduct their

own democratic governance assessment. The programme is

managed by the UNDP Oslo Governance Centre, which is part

of the Democratic Governance Group in the Bureau for

Development Policy. Key activities include: • Assisting with strengthening national ownership through

multi-stakeholder engagement; • Supporting countries in defining and selecting indicators

that are country-contextualized, pro-poor and gender sensitive;

• Assisting in the development of national databases on governance;

• Promoting the uptake and use of governance indicators in policy making.

Its strategic principles include national ownership, capacity

development and harmonization.

Workshop in Djibouti on designing a governance assessment system. Photo: UNDP.

National ownership is an inclusive and consultative

process involving government, civil society, elected

representatives and other key stakeholders for the purpose

of deciding what should be assessed and how.

Capacity development entails assistance to national

stakeholders, including statistical offices, government and

civil society, on the production and application of

governance related data.

Harmonization addresses alignment with national

development plans and related instruments such as the

PRSPs, MDG progress reports, local development plans or

other political commitments.

UNDP in action

The Governance Assessment Portal (GAP) is a knowledge

hub that provides practical information and enables

practitioners and experts to connect and share knowledge.

Topics include assessment tools, existing initiatives for

measuring governance, issues such as corruption or local

governance, and how to use indicators. UNDP also produces knowledge products in multiple languages,

including User’s Guides on topics such as governance

indicators, measuring corruption, selecting tools and

assessment frameworks, and country-led and civil society

assessments.

Examples of country activities:

• Angola involved citizens in community evaluations,

developing municipal data collection capacity.

• Barbados is pioneering governance assessments for

small-island developing States, seeking a starting-

point for reform.

• Guidelines on how to use screening tools in Bhutan’s

national assessment framework have led to trainings

and more synchronized data collection.

• Chile has carried out a multi-party democracy

assessment for their bi-centennial celebration of

independence.

• Djibouti held a national workshop to link the African

Peer Review Mechanism to development of a

governance assessment system.

• In Egypt, UNDP is supporting the development of

indicators to enable citizen monitoring of public

service delivery and local development in the context

of the political transition.

• Indonesia’s national planning agency has developed the Indonesian Democracy Index using 13 variables to collect data on civil liberty, political rights and democratic institutions for all provinces.

• A new assessment tool was designed to enhance Macedonia’s reporting on social inclusion and service provision in health and education.

• Malawi’s Ministry of Justice is leading work on a monitoring and evaluation system of democratic governance to strengthen a sector-wide approach.

• Mongolia published a national report on the state of democracy, a product of its institutionalized cyclic MDG 9 assessment process.

• The Congress in Paraguay is studying a report on governance performance developed through a multi-stakeholder, consensus-building process.

• Nicaragua’s National Assembly is leading an gender sensitive governance assessment through the unit that monitors public expenditure.

• A unique Urban Governance Assessment framework has been developed by stakeholders in Nigeria.

• Senegal is developing a national governance assessment framework for MDG sectors

• Tajikistan has embarked on an assessment to end water corruption through better governance.

For more information, visit: www.undp.org/governance www.undp.org/oslocentre www.gaportal.org Democratic Governance Group Bureau for Development Policy United Nations Development Programme 304 East 45th Street New York, NY 10017 USA July 2011

Empowered lives. Resilient nations.

If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it. GAP is a one-stop shop on

governance indicators: www.gaportal.org