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The World Governance Assessment (WGA) Survey: Namibia (2006)

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Title: The World Governance Assessment (WGA) Survey: Namibia (2006)


1
The World Governance Assessment (WGA) Survey
Namibia (2006)
  • A research report compiled by Justine Hunter and
    published by the Namibia Institute for Democracy
    (NID)
  • Country-led governance assessments
  • Sharing experiences and increasing political
  • accountability
  • Windhoek, November 2nd 5th 2009

2
Introduction methodology I
  • WGA consultative and inclusive governance
    assessment by LOCAL stakeholders
  • Understanding of governance provided by local
    respondents, not by foreign observers
  • Generating quantitative data capturing
    qualitative comments
  • Country-based but allows for cross-country
    comparisons
  • Interesting and relevant insights for local
    activists foreign observers
  • Separates the governance process into six ARENAS
    civil society, political society, government,
    bureaucracy, economic society, judiciary
  • Relies on six theoretical PRINCIPLES
    participation, fairness, decency, accountability,
    transparency, efficiency
  • Not country-specific, reflect universal human
    values

3
Introduction methodology II
  • Second round 2006 participating countries
    Argentina, Bulgaria, Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan,
    Mongolia, Peru, Palestine, Trinidad, Uganda, and
    Namibia
  • Namibia NID was local country coordinator after
    NID had attended governance-assessment training
    course offered by InWEnt in 2005
  • Local country coordinators offer commentaries for
    contextualization
  • Throw light on the political context, as well as
    on possible reasons why respondents have answered
    the questions the way they have
  • Data collected from a cross-section of
    well-informed persons (WIPs) from 10 key
    stakeholder groups religious, parliament, NGOs,
    media, judicial, international organization,
    government ministers or deputy ministers, civil
    service, business, academia
  • Distinction was drawn between non-government
    WIPs (73 of all respondents) and government
    WIPs (27)
  • Women constituted 21 of all respondents

4
Introduction methodology III
  • Focus on PERCEPTIONS of respondents
  • Questionnaire included indicators for the ARENAS
    and PRINCIPLES listed above
  • Questionnaire comprised thirty-six items, with a
    five point response scale (very high, high,
    moderate, low or very low) for each
    question
  • The scores from 1 to 5 for the arenas and
    principles, corresponded with the five-point
    response scale
  • To detect changes over time, respondents were
    asked to assess the quality of governance five
    years ago (2001) and now (2006)
  • 105 WIPs were contacted 70 completed the
    questionnaires (response rate of 66)
  • 77 used the paper version of the questionnaire,
    23 completed the questionnaire online

5
Findings (I)
  • Of the 10 countries that participated in the
    second round of the WGA, Namibia scored the
    highest
  • One has to bear in mind, that the participating
    countries were not chosen on a structured sample
    basis (as the WGA was still in its pilot phase)
  • The range of the WGA scale is from a low of 36 to
    a high of 180, Namibias overall scores of 111.9
    (2001) and 114.4 (2006) are in the upper-middle
    of the scale
  • Namibias WGA scores correspond with other
    cross-country surveys
  • 2009 Freedom of the World accorded Namibia the
    status free
  • 2008 TIs Corruption Perception Index was 4.5
  • However, the Afrobarometer National Citizens
    Survey came to the conclusion that the supply of
    democracy in Namibia exceeds the demand
  • It is therefore necessary to understand Namibias
    political culture rather than to focus solely on
    cross-country comparisons

6
Overall mean scores per country
7
Findings (II)
  • Assessment in Namibia might have been affected by
    political developments, Namibias history as a
    postcolonial/post-apartheid state and
    socio-economic factors
  • National elections in 2004, presidential
    succession in 2005, land reform process
    farmland expropriation since 2003
  • Although qualified as a lower-middle income
    country, Namibia is one of the most unequal
    societies in the world (gini coefficient of 0.7
    (2009)
  • Poverty and marginalization are aggravated by
    high HIV/AIDS prevalence rates (2008 19.6)
  • The overall assessment was that governance in
    Namibia improved slightly between 2001 (five
    years ago) and 2006 (now)
  • As expected, government performance in some
    principles and arenas was assessed to be better
    than in others

8
Findings (III)
  • PRINCIPLES
  • DECENCY (Rules are implemented without harming
    people), ACCOUNTABILITY (Political
    decision-makers are responsible for their
    actions), and PARTICIPATION (The degree of
    involvement and ownership by affected
    stakeholders) all received relatively high
    scores
  • EFFICIENCY (Use of limited resources for
    greatest output) stands out as a more
    problematic aspect of governance in Namibia
  • Namibias public sector has a reputation of
    inefficiency
  • Several respondents complained about public
    servants laziness, incompetence and
    discrimination against certain ethnic groups and
    the poor
  • Most respondents felt that the system of
    recruitment and promotion in the civil service
    was not merit-based
  • Nepotism, favoritism and the tendency to make
    political motivated appointments have been
    criticized by the respondents as obstacles to
    efficiency in the public service

9
Findings (IV)
  • With regard to the ARENAS of governance, CIVIL
    SOCIETY received the highest scores
  • Most WIPs gave high ratings to freedom of
    association and expression
  • However, respondents believe that, although
    constitutional rights are respected, civil
    society does not really give inputs into policy
    making
  • Some respondents say that civil society is denied
    to give these inputs, others believe that civil
    society is just not well enough organized to do
    so
  • The comments also show that, although the freedom
    of association has not been directly violated,
    citizens fear to be associated with certain NGOs
    that have a reputation for being critical of
    government
  • BUREAUCRACY stands out as the most problematic
    governance arena. Given the overlap between the
    indicators for BUREAUCRACY Arena and those for
    EFFICIENCY Principle, the suggested
    explanations are already given above

10
Findings (V)
  • The GENERAL QUESTIONS section explores the
    relationship between the perceptions of
    governance in general and views on specific
    governance issues
  • The following variables seem to be drivers of
    governance perceptions
  • Is there a meaningful separation of powers in the
    country? Dominant party state since 1994!
  • Does the government care for the poorest 20 of
    the population? High gini-coefficient!
  • Is the cultural and ethnic make-up of the country
    of importance? Post-apartheid state!
  • These findings suggest that the assessment of
    governance has been affected by historical and
    political developments, as well as by
    socio-economic factors.
  • It clearly demonstrates that governance
    performance relates to local conditions, and,
    above all, that the context matters

11
Conclusion dissemination and usage of results
(I)
  • WGA survey Namibia 2006 reaches six main
    conclusions
  • Namibias overall scores correspond with other
    international cross-country surveys
  • Namibias governance climate continued to be
    influenced by the legacies of apartheid rule and
    the liberation struggle
  • Views are shaped by intense partisanship and
    inequality of income distribution
  • Government WIPs generally rated governance in
    Namibia more favorably than non-government
    experts
  • Favoritism and the tendency to make politically
    motivated appointments were obstacles to
    efficiency in the public service
  • In conclusion, factors that played a major role
    in the outcome of the assessment are historical
    and political developments, as well as
    socio-economic factors

12
Conclusion dissemination and usage of results
(II)
  • The real strength of this survey appears to be on
    the country level, as this assessment is most
    relevant for national stakeholders
  • The WGA does not only guarantee local ownership,
    it also guarantees the participation of
    government WIPs buy-in
  • Dissemination strategies
  • Media stakeholder workshop
  • Postal and personal distribution to community
    libraries, archives, government representatives,
    civil society activities, academia and interested
    citizens
  • Media coverage
  • Free download on website www.nid.org.na

13
Conclusion dissemination and usage of results
(III)
  • WGA results in Namibia used as a tool for civic
    action by the NID (no complementing data
    available)
  • Usage of results on the arena CIVIL SOCIETY
  • To lobby donor community to support programmes
    aiming at strengthening the interaction between
    civil society and selected government
    institutions
  • Incorporation of results in academic papers on
    the role of civil society in Namibia e.g.
    presentation at Vision 2020 conference
    (Windhoek, August 2009)
  • Usage of results on the arena BUREAUCRACY and the
    principle EFFICIENCY
  • To lobby donor community to support the NIDs
    Zero Tolerance for Corruption Campaign ZTfCC in
    general
  • Tailor-made integrity-related training workshops
    for civil servants and local authorities
    specifically

14
Thank you very much for your attention
  • Contact
  • Justine Hunter hunter_at_nid.org.na
  • Namibia Institute for Democracy www.nid.org.na
  • The WGA research report was funded by
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