Stories From The Field
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Egypt: a sectoral governance assessment towards better MDGs achievement
The Social Contract Centre’s innovative attempt to monitor governance within sectors is particularly relevant to MDGs acceleration in Egypt, and to the improvement of basic service delivery in the country in general. Three pilot sectors were chosen to start developing an applied method for sector-based governance assessments in Egypt: education, health, and water and sanitation. -
Kazakhstan determined to measure and improve its public administration
“You can’t manage what you can‘t measure.” It is this old adage, often attributed to management guru Peter Drucker, which informs the latest efforts by the state of Kazakhstan to improve the efficiency of its own administration. By Presidential decree, Kazakhstan is embarking on a public administration assessment. Its results will serve to benchmark progress and inform management. -
Chile publishes national democracy survey results
Chile put its democracy to the test through this participatory governance assessment process. It recently released the results of a national survey revealing interesting facts about Chileans' opinions on different aspects of their democracy. Beyond the survey itself, this initiative contributes to the wider democratic debate in the country.
New Tools and Resources
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Users’ Guide to Civil Society Assessments
This new publication provides extensive guidance for users of civil society assessments, illustrated with specific examples. It includes a source guide of available civil society assessment methods, and presents information from assessments that have been implemented and published. It prepares users to inform themselves and conduct such assessments of their own.
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Fast Facts on Democratic Governance Assessments
An issue of UNDP's "Fast Facts" series has been published on democratic governance assessments. It provides a two-page overview of UNDP's democratic governance assessments work. Click here to donwload it.
New Areas of Work
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Participatory governance assessments for REDD+
The collaboration between UN-REDD and the OGC aims to design participatory assessments of forest governance, with a country-specific approach. Concrete steps have now been taken in this direction, including the recruitment of a dedicated UN-REDD Programme Officer on governance assessments based in OGC and the preparation of pilot projects in forest countries.
Recent Events
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Dakar - “African solutions” for measuring governance and corruption?
No matter how many new sophisticated indices on corruption and governance cover Africa, these are not used in the way their producers had intended by the African actors who could actually improve governance on the ground. This observation motivated the organization of a multi-stakeholder dialogue on governance and corruption indicators for Africa, on anti-corruption day in Dakar. -
Accra - Seizing the challenges and opportunities of the Afrobarometer
In the ongoing debate on the search of properly “African” measurements of governance for Africa, the Afrobarometer stands out as the most comprehensive source on the actual experiences and perceptions of African citizens on a range of issues including democracy and governance, economic reform, and other critical political and social issues in the continent. -
Bangkok - Regional consultation on access to justice assessments
An assessment of the access to justice in a country can only be a successful process, resulting in concrete improvement in access to justice, if the very specific conditions of that country and society are realistically taken into account within a unique (as opposed to “standard”) plan, and with direct participation of all concerned stakeholders and beneficiaries at the national and local level. -
Brussels - Anti-corruption analysis training for the European Union
UNDP’s Global Programme on Democratic Governance Assessments contributed to an anti-corruption seminar aimed at providing training to European Union delegations and headquarters staff, for equipping them better to analyse corruption in given local settings and support the implementation of anti-corruption strategies and policies in developing countries. -
Bangkok - Promoting a new generation of corruption assessments
Within the 14th International Anti-Corruption Conference (IACC) in Bangkok, one of the special sessions, chaired by OGC's Policy Advisor on governance assessments, focused on presenting and challenging a new generation of corruption assessment tools, which are aimed at strengthening local ownership and impact.
News from the Oslo Governance Centre
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A high profile Advisory Committee on governance assessments
The GAP Advisory Committee convened its first plenary meeting at UNDP Headquarters in New-York, on 29 November 2010. It is an independent multi-stakeholder panel composed of senior members from academia, civil society and social movements from all world regions, with diverse expertise related to governance assessments. -
The OGC governance assessments team expands in numbers, thematic areas and geographical coverage
The team includes three new members: a UN-REDD programme officer working on forest governance assessments, a special advisor on donor coordination, emerging areas and fragile states issues, and the first regional governance assessments programme officer, based in Dakar.
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Training future Norwegian diplomats and international officials on anti-corruption assessments
OGC’s Global Programme on Democratic Governance Assessments was invited by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to share some of UNDP’s principles, knowledge and experience on corruption and anti-corruption policies and programmes, within a training course for Norwegian junior professional officers and diplomats-to-be. -
OGC Annual Report 2010: Consolidation and innovation
The Oslo Governance Centre released its Annual Report for 2010, which describes how, after the transition towards its new mandate, new premises and new internal structure operated in 2009, it has had the opportunity to consolidate its work and lead and promote innovation within its four mandated areas.