|
About WGA
Introduction
According to Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary-General,
"good governance is perhaps the single most important
factor in eradicating poverty and promoting development."
While most people agree governance matters, there is
less understanding regarding what aspects matter most
and how to improve governance. The main problem is the
lack of reliable, valid and comparable data on key governance
issues. Unfortunately, many developing countries simply
do not have the capacity or experience to conduct rigorous
governance assessments. This has left many unanswered
questions regarding when, why and how governance makes
a difference to the way countries develop. Current indicators
also provide inadequate measures for assessing changes
in governance or for use in formulating and implementing
reforms in specific countries.
Phase I - Pilot
The project was initiated in 1999 by
Julius Court when he served as Programme Officer at
the United Nations University (UNU). Together with Goran
Hyden, who was invited to serve as joint coordinator,
they developed the World Governance Survey (WGS) project.
The pilot phase was carried out from 2000 to 2002. The
survey focused on three main questions: How can we best
measure governance? How does governance performance
differ across time and space? Which are the most critical
issues of governance?
Using a comprehensive framework and
questionnaire, governance assessments were undertaken
in 16 developing and transitional societies, representing
51% of the world's population. A national coordinator
selected a panel of experts to complete the assessment
exercise in each country. The panel comprised of persons
with extensive experience of the governance realm (e.g.
parliamentarians, researchers, lawyers, bureaucrats,
etc); around 35 people were interviewed per country.
The pilot project represented an initiative to try to
generate new systematic, comprehensive assessments of
governance at the national level.
First, the project developed a comprehensive
framework and process-oriented set of indicators for
assessing governance. The framework disaggregated the
governance realm into six arenas and identified indictors
based on widely held "principles" of good
governance: participation, fairness, decency, accountability,
transparency and efficiency.
Second, the project developed and tested a new approach to collecting governance data at the national level. Respondents were asked to rank each answer on a scale from 5 to 1; the higher the score, the better their perception of the quality of governance. In addition, respondents were invited to provide qualitative comments; thus the approach also generated very rich qualitative data.
The findings from the pilot phase were reported in UNDP's Human Development Report 2002 on Strengthening Democracy in a Fragmented World and Transparency International's Global Corruption Report 2002. ‘Making sense of governance: Empirical evidence from 16 developing countries’ by Goran Hyden, Julius Court and Kenneth Mease was published by Lynne Rienner in 2004. It provides a comprehensive assessment of the pilot's approach and findings. Details/order online.
Phase II
Phase 2 (2005-2007) built on learning from the pilot phase and assessed governance in 10 countries.
Phase 2 occurs at a time when governance has become a central concern in development policy debates and the number of assessment has been growing. WGA offers a unique, perceptions based take on the issues. It is widely recognised that without better governance development progress will not be possible in many countries. At the same time, governance is a broad term, comprising a range of capacities, ‘rules of the game’, policies and actual practices.
Donors have increasingly sought to assess the governance situation of countries to which they are providing aid, for several reasons. One regards the question of allocating aid. As the Sachs report and other research suggest, aid is likely to be better used and development is more likely to happen in well governed countries. Another question of relevance to donors is how to ‘tailor’ their activities and support the specific situation of a country (what aid modalities? what kinds of activities?) Furthermore, recognising the importance of governance for developmental progress, donors have sought to support improvements in governance through specific activities, ranging from support for public administrations, to anti-corruption, to support for democratisation and the protection of human rights.
Governance assessments are a crucial input for these types of policies. There has been a recent proliferation of governance assessment tools and of governance-related indices. These use different approaches, but most are completely or largely external to the country for which the assessment is carried out. Furthermore, many governance indices and assessments are closely tied to (particular) donor agencies; this can present problems of credibility and legitimacy. It is clear that governance is an area where the Paris Declaration demand for greater country ownership of the development agenda is challenging to realise.
The WGA is different. It is a survey of ‘well informed persons’ (WIPs) in a country, systematically covering a number of relevant groups and led by a local researcher. The survey captures a wide range of indicators/specific questions related to the overall concept of governance, covering key arenas and issues.
Project Information Document
Click here
for more information on the Framework, Objectives and
Approach - as included in the project information document. 
(154kb)
Advisory Board
- Shabbir Cheema, former Department of Social and Economic Affairs, United Nations. (Chair)
- Adam Przeworski, Professor, New York University.
- Carin Norberg, Director, Nordic Africa Institute.
- Kanni Wignaraja, Bureau of Development Policy, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
- Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja, Regional Bureau for Africa, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
- Thomas Wollnik, Senior Project Manager, InWEnt, Germany.
- Zainab Bangura, Executive Director, National Accountability Group, Sierra Leone.
- Julius Court, Governance Adviser in Policy Division at DFID.
|
|
|
