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The World Governance Assessment (WGA) was initiated in 1999
by a team led by Julius Court of ODI, with three main objectives:
- To generate systematic data to enhance understanding of the
relationship between governance and development at a country level;
- To provide policymakers and NGOs with insights into how governance
can be improved; and
- To help develop the capacity to undertake governance assessment
in countries.
The WGA was developed to address certain deficiencies in existing
understandings of, and indicators for, governance. The designers
argued that the dominant role of international development agencies
in the field of governance has brought a preoccupation with 'getting
politics right', and that most approaches to mapping political context
and governance reflect the programmatic priorities of the agencies
that designed the frameworks for assessment or mapping - usually
based upon what works in Western democracies. The field has been
hampered by repeated attempts to find 'catch-all' definitions of
governance. The WGA hopes to bring a new perspective to governance
assessment by avoiding such pitfalls.
 How
does the World Governance Assessment work?
The WGA conceives of six arenas of governance. These are: civil
society; political society; government; bureaucracy; economic society;
and the judiciary. The assessment is based on a survey of Well Informed
Persons (WIPs) in each country, which collects views on 36 indicators
spread equally across six 'principles' of governance. These principles
are:
- Participation: The degree of involvement and ownership
of affected stakeholders.
- Decency: The degree to which the formation and stewardship
of rules are undertaken without humiliation or harm of the people.
- Fairness: The degree to which rules apply equally to
every one in society regardless of status.
- Accountability: The degree to which public officials,
elected as well as appointed, are responsible for their actions
and responsive to public demands.
- Transparency: The degree to which decisions made by public
officials are clear and open to scrutiny by citizens or their
representatives.
- Efficiency: The degree to which rules facilitate speedy
and timely decision making.
The WGA uses a specific indicator for each point on a matrix (see
table) linking the two sets of dimensions: the principles of governance
and the arenas of governance.
A (locally resident) country coordinator is selected to implement
the survey in each country. Respondents are selected by these coordinators
with the aim of achieving a full cross-section of persons representing
different perspectives on governance. Respondents should also have
significant experience of public life. It is recommended that at
least 100 respondents are consulted, with 10 from each of the following
groups: parliamentarians, civil servants, government officials,
business persons, academics, NGOs, media, legal/judicial, religious
and international organisations.
 The
WGA publishes a dataset showing the full breakdown of scores by
indicator for each country as well as the aggregate ratings (see
figure for the average ratings for all 16 countries in 1996 and
2000). The country reports incorporate additional comments and qualitative
data in order to provide a richer assessment of the country context.
After the pilot phase of the project (which included 16 countries),
a second phase was initiated in 2005 with a refined survey and a
more rigorous approach, this time covering 10 countries, but with
around 100 respondents per country.
The findings from completed country assessments are useful for
those who want to understand institutional contexts but seek to
avoid comparing one country against the ideals privileged by others.
There are several countries that achieved a high score in the pilot
assessment, but which are not liberal democracies in the Western
mould (e.g. Jordan). This lends credence to the claim that WGA is
an approach to assessing governance which is less skewed by Western
perspectives on what constitutes good governance.
Elements of the World Governance Assessment
Conceptual approach and indicators
- The WGA - and in particular its identification of six arenas
and principles of governance - is an extremely useful and robust
framework for the analysis of governance. CSOs seeking to map
political context in their own arenas, could proceed by making
assessments in terms of the WGA's six principles.
Data
- The readily accessible datasets and country reports produced
by the WGA project can be of use to CSOs seeking to understand
their own political contexts. Easy and comprehensive access to
the data and the low cost of conducting surveys makes this a comparatively
accessible tool.
- By collecting data on 36 indicators, the WGA provides a more
detailed picture than many alternative approaches.
Analysis, presentation and recommendations
- The type of information provided by the WGA allows assessment
of the relative strengths and weaknesses of governance in individual
countries. It also enables cross-country comparison.
- The WGA attempts to use governance as an analytical tool, not
as a device for programming specific 'governance interventions'.
The information is detailed enough to be useful in guiding more
specific investigations or steps in programme development, but
the deliberate avoidance of any explicit programmatic focus means
direct recommendations are not given.
- The WGA might help local or regional CSOs to situate their actions
in the context of wider constraints and opportunities at the national
level. It might also help organisations to find institutional
parallels in other countries from which to learn lessons.
Key references
- Court, J., G. Hyden and K. Mease (2002) Governance Performance:
the Aggregate Picture, World Governance Survey Discussion
Paper, Tokyo: UNU.
- Hyden, G., J. Court and K. Mease (2001) Assessing Governance:
Methodological Challenges, World Governance Survey Discussion
Paper, Tokyo: UNU.
- Hyden, G., J. Court and K. Mease (2003a) Making Sense of
Governance: the Need for Involving Local Stakeholders, Development
Dialogue, London: ODI.
- Hyden, G., J. Court and K. Mease (2003b) Assessing Governance
in 16 Countries: The Aggregate Picture, World Governance Survey
Discussion Paper 3, Tokyo: UNU.
- Hyden, G., J. Court and K. Mease (2003c) Conclusions from
Phase I, World Governance Survey Discussion Paper 10, Tokyo:
UNU.
- Online resources:
- View this tool as pdf
(
95kb)
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