Governance Assessment Definition, Role and Strategies

1
Governance AssessmentDefinition, Role and
Strategies

• Session I
• Lusaka, January 20, 2003
• Francesca Recanatini, WBI
• www.worldbank.org/wbi/governance

2
Outline of Day 1

• Objectives of Day 1
• Starting from a common denominator
• Definition of Governance
• The role of Governance
• Examples of governance assessments

3
Outline, cont.

• Introducing a working framework
• Conceptual design
• Empirical tools
• Implementation process
• Sampling and Field work
• Analysis and use of the data
• A few country-specific illustrations

4
Objectives

• Which are the key elements for governance
  assessment?
• Which empirical tools and approaches are already
  available?
• How can I select among them?
• How can such assessments be used for policy
  purpose?

5
What is Governance? A working definition for
public governance

• Governance is the process, institutions and
  customs through which the function of governing
  is carried out

6
Definition, cont.

• (1) the process by which governments are
  selected, held accountable, monitored, and
  replaced
• (2) the capacity of governments to manage
  resources efficiently, and to formulate,
  implement, and enforce sound policies and
  regulations and,
• (3) the respect for the institutions that govern
  economic and social interactions among them

7
Key questions

• Why is it important to measure Governance?
• What information is key for policy?
• What is the role of the assessment?

8
The Dividend of Good Governance
Note
The bars depict the simple correlation between
good governance and development outcomes. The
line depicts the
predicted value when taking into account the
causality effects (Development Dividend) from
improved governance to better
development outcomes. For data and methodological
details visit http//www.worldbank.org/wbi/governa
nce.
9
Governance and Poverty Nexus

• Unsound economic/institutional policies due to
  vested interests
• Distorted allocation of public expenditures/invest
  ments
• Low human capital accumulation
• Elite corporate interests capture laws and
  distort policymaking
• Absence of rule of law and property rights
• Governance obstacles to private sector
  development
• Low human capital accumulation
• Lower quality of education and health care

• Lower Investment and Growth

Lack of Health and Education
Cont
10
Governance and Poverty, cont.

• State capture by elite of government policies and
  resource allocation
• Regressiveness of bribery tax on small firms
  and the poor
• Regressiveness in public expenditures and
  investments
• Unequal income distribution
• Bribery imposes regressive tax and impairs access
  and quality of basic services for health,
  education, and justice
• Political capture by elites of access to
  particular services

• Poor have Smaller share in Growth

Impaired Access to Public Services
11
The role of governance assessments
Will and Political Leadership for Institutional
Reforms On governance
Strategy and Action Plan

• Governance assessment
• Identification of severe obstacles
• Vulnerability of each institution
• Identification of priorities

Empirical Tools and Data
Capacity building and coalition building
12
Thus governance assessments are..

• A tool and an input for policymakers and working
  groups to identify
• Institutional strengths and weaknesses
• Costs and impact of mis-governance
• Key factors affecting quality of governance
• Priority areas for reform
• And to build local capacity

13
Key questions gtAnswered

• Why is it important to measure Governance?
• What information is key for policy?
• What is the role of the assessment?

Poor governance is linked to poverty
Institutional map of strengths and weaknesses
Input for policy debate and capacity building
14
However, measurements have limits

• Questions should drive choice of methods and
  measurement tools (not vice versa)
• Social science data is always partial, an
  imperfect reflection of a more complex underlying
  reality
• Data can be manipulated for political purposes

15
Limits, cont.

• Some (very important) things cannot be
  measuredlove, God, identity, meaning
• Not everything that can be counted, counts
• Its better to be vaguely right than precisely
  wrong
• Triangulationintegrating more abundant, more
  diverse, and higher-quality evidence

16
Strategy for Good Government and Anticorruption

• Accountability of Political Leadership
• Disclosure of parliamentary votes
• Transparency in party financing
• Asset Declaration, Conflict of Interest Rules

• Checks and Balances
• Independent and effective judiciary
• Decentralization with accountability

• Civil Society Oversight
• Freedom of information
• Public hearings of draft laws
• Monitoring by media/NGOs

Good and Clean Government

• Competition Entry
• Competitive restructuring
• of monopolies
• Regulatory simplification

• Public Administration and Public Finance
  
• Meritocratic civil service
• Transparent, monetized, adequate remuneration
• Accountability in expenditures (Treasury, Audit,
  Procurement)

17
(No Transcript)