Latest Resources
Inter-American Journal of Education for Democracy - The Role of Assessment in Educating Democratic Citizens - Vol 3, No 1 (2010)
Article / Working Paper, Civil Society, Democracy, Academic/Think TankAs the articles for this, the fifth issue of our journal, began to take final form, we realized that we had inadvertently compiled a “thematic section” on issues of evaluation and assessment. The fact that such a grouping of articles came together speaks to the salience of this matter for the field of practice and scholarship known as democratic citizenship education (DCE). Now more than ever, we...
The Hunger And Nutrition Commitment Index (HANCI 2012) Measuring the Political Commitment to Reduce Hunger and Undernutrition in Developing Countries
Civil Society, Global Index, Land Governance, Academic/Think TankThe HANCI compares 45 developing countries for their performance on 22 indicators of political commitment to reduce hunger and undernutrition. It looks at three areas of government action: Policies and programmes Legal frameworks Public expenditures The HANCI separately measures commitment to reduce hunger and commitment to reduce undernutrition, because hunger...
REFORM Toolkit: Expanding Access to Information
Civil Society, Corruption, Guide / Manual / Indicators, Academic/Think TankFree and open access to information is vital to a well functioning democracy and a market economy. Whether in markets or policy debates, transparency levels the playing field: equal access to information equalizes access to opportunity. In a democracy, citizens’ ability to participate effectively in the democratic process hinges on their ability to make informed choices. Similarly, citizens...
Assessing governance: methodological challenges
Article / Working Paper, Civil Society, Academic/Think TankThis paper focuses on the methods used for collecting data in 22 countries for the World Governance Survey (WGS). The Survey was based on the interview of a cross-section of well-informed persons (WIPs) in each country. These individuals were experienced in and informed about governance issues. The premise of this approach was that they would be able to provide the most knowledgeable ratings...
Internal Government Assessments of the Quality of Governance in China
Article / Working Paper, Asia and the Pacific, Civil Society, Academic/Think TankAuthoritarian governments produce internal assessments of the quality of governance that allow them to identify and address brewing problems before they threaten regime stability. This paper provides a theory of how the information necessary to produce such assessments is gathered. The empirical focus of the paper is on China, which is used to illustrate how information-gathering channels in...
Governance assessments for local stakeholders: What the World Governance Assessment offers
Article / Working Paper, Civil Society, Local Governance and Decentralization, Academic/Think TankThis report introduces the basic features of the World Governance Assessment (WGA) and highlights main findings of the second round of WGA that was conducted in 10 countries in the global South during 2006. The report also presents an overview of the methodology and the special Study Management System, a capacity-building component that is also an important part of what WGA offers. The...
Working Paper | Mobilisation associative et politique des citoyens maliens : les disparités socioéconomiques et régionales
Article / Working Paper, Civil Society, Academic/Think TankLe degré d’engagement associatif et/ou politique des citoyens constitue le thermomètre du dynamisme démocratique et civique d’un pays. Cet engagement est notamment indispensable dans les jeunes démocraties encore fragiles et pauvres comme celle du Mali. Il s’agit, dans le cadre de cette étude, d’évaluer, à l’aune de la participation politique et associative, l’engagement citoyen au Mali. Pour...
Citizen-led accountability Recommendations and key research findings for the post-2015 agenda
Article / Working Paper, Civil Society, Academic/Think TankPeople living in the greatest poverty and marginalisation want institutions at all levels that they can trust and are accountable, responsive and effective. According to the poorest and most marginalised groups in over 100 countries, a global framework must guarantee development that leaves no one behind; which does not demand impossible choices of the poorest and most vulnerable; which...
Citizen-Centric Governance Indicators: Measuring and Monitoring Governance by Listening to the People
Article / Working Paper, Civil Society, Academic/Think TankThis paper discusses governance indicators purporting to measure various aspects of governance quality. It argues that if governance assessments have to be useful for policy purposes, they must conceptualize governance and provide uniform and consistent criteria for measuring governance across countries and over time. The first section discusses the conceptual issues in measuring governance...
Are we making progress with building governance into the post 2015 framework?
Civil Society, Governance and MDG, Academic/Think TankMomentum is building for governance and accountability issues to have a greater profile in the post 2015 framework, and there is a growing recognition that we cannot afford to ignore governance even if it is politically challenging to incorporate. This briefing provides an assessment of some of the main proposals on the table that have been gaining traction in the debate, as...