Guidelines, Handbooks and Toolkits
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Policy Support
A Guide to civil Society Organizations Working on Democratic Governance
The Guide, from the Oslo Governance Centre, offers a snapshot of more than
300 Civil Society Organizations (CSOs)
working on democratic governance at the global and regional levels. It provides
information on CSOs across UNDP’s seven priority democratic governance areas or
Service Lines.
Governance Indicators: A User's Guide
Produced by UNDP's Oslo Governance Centre, through a joint collaboration with the European Commission, this guide provides direction on how to use and where to find sources of governance indicators. Intended for the non-specialist user, this guide is the first of its kind to bring together information on how to use indicators and where to find material on those sources in one easy-to-use package.
Parliamentary Development
Parliament, the Budget and Gender
This handbook, the sixth in a series produced by UNDP, the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), World Bank Institute, and UNIFEM, sets out practical examples of parliament's active engagement in the budgetary process. It seeks to advance parliament's own institutional capacity to make a positive impact on the budget, and to equip parliament, its members and parliamentary staff with the necessary tools to examine the budget from a gender perspective. Also available in French and Arabic
Strengthening Parliamentary Involvement in the Poverty Reduction Strategy Process and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
This series of handbooks was prepared by the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs in partnership with UNDP and with support from the Government of Belgium. Based on the experience of UNDP and NDI in conducting capacity-building activities with members of parliament and PRSP commissions in Malawi, Niger and Nigeria, and drawing on their experience in democratic development programming with legislatures around the world, the handbooks provides resources for MPs, parliamentary staff, civic leaders, social networks and the international community on legislative involvement in poverty reduction. Also available in French, Spanish and Russian
Toolkit 1: Legislative-Executive Communication on Poverty Reduction Strategies
Toolkit 2: Parliamentary-Civic Collaboration for Monitoring Poverty Reduction Initiatives
Toolkit 3: Legislative Public Outreach on Poverty Issues
Electoral Systems and Processes
Note of Guidance on Electoral Assistance
The Note of Guidance, issued jointly on 17 January 2001 by UNDPA and UNDP, provides the background for the UN’s efforts in providing electoral assistance. It describes the roles of different UN organs in delivering assistance, the types of assistance the UN can provide, and the preconditions required for electoral assistance. Also in French
UNDP
Electoral Assistance Implementation Guide
Electoral assistance is about more than supporting an election event.
Ideally, such support should be embedded in a democratic governance
strategy and provided throughout the ‘electoral cycle’.
UNDP has launched a new publication: the UNDP Electoral Assistance Implementation
Guide providing the ‘how to’ fundamentals of planning and
implementing electoral assistance using the concept of the electoral
cycle, as well as specific guidance on project design, resources, partnerships,
procurement, evaluation and other areas. Whilst this is designed as
a guide for UNDP staff, others can learn from UNDP’s approach
and access a wealth of resources on planning, formulating, implementing
and monitoring electoral assistance.
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download full colour version with cover page (PDF 2.14MB)
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download low resolution version without cover page (PDF 1.48MB)
Access to Justice
Programming for Justice: Access for All
Produced by UNDP's Asia-Pacific Rights and Justice Initiative, the Practitioner's Guide, Programming for Justice: Access for All, highlights practical linkages between the different components of the justice sector and the normative framework of human rights. This Guidebook primarily addresses UNDP staff who have the responsibility of supporting programmes to secure the human rights of people afflicted by poverty and other disadvantages in developing countries, but may also serve counterparts in governments and civil society organisations.
Human Rights
Indicators for Human Rights Based Approaches to Development in UNDP Programming: A Users’ Guide
The Guide contains separate sections on different aspects relating to the development and use of indicators across the key elements of human rights programming. It summarizes the normative evolution in human rights and explains how human rights have been mainstreamed into the activities of all UN agencies. It also reviews the existing indicators for human rights and shows how they can be used for human rights programming. Finally the Guide offers advice on how UNDP country offices can use indicators for all phases of programme design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation.
E-Governance and Access to Information
Communication for Empowerment: Developing Media Strategies in Support of Vulnerable Groups
Media can play a crucial role in empowering vulnerable and marginalized groups if media support and media capacity development is directed in a way that enables the media to better respond to and reflect the information and communication needs of these groups. As such, Communication for Empowerment is a critical driver for securing the necessary participation, ownership and accountability for achieving the MDGs. This practical guidance note identifies trends in the media, and highlights key opportunities and challenges, including the impact of liberalization and the ongoing struggle many media face in holding onto hard fought media freedoms.
Practical Guidance Note on Civic Education
This Practical Guidance Note has four parts. It aims to: (1) Heighten awareness and knowledge of Civic Education within UNDP country offices (COs). (2) Assist COs by providing practical information and
guidance for Civic Education programming and (3) Signpost additional resources and further reading. Part (4) is a summary and closing remarks. Also available in Russian.
Practical Guidance Note on the Right to Information
This Practical Guidance Note aims to: (1) Heighten awareness and knowledge within UNDP country offices (COs) on right to information generally and right to information legislation specifically (2) Assist COs by providing practical information and guidance for right to information legislation programming and (3) Signpost additional resources, sources of expertise and further reading. Also available in Arabic.
A Guide to Measuring the Impact of Right to Information Programmes
This guide complements the Right to Information Practical Guidance Note by focusing on the monitoring and evaluation side of right to information programming. The Guide outlines key considerations for understanding the baseline situation for monitoring right to information programmes, it explains the importance of establishing clear and specific right to information programme outcomes and it sets out guiding principles for selecting right to information indicators including providing example indicators.
Decentralization, Local Governance and Urban/Rural Development
UNDP's Local Initiative Facility for Urban Environment (LIFE): Strengthening Participatory Local Governance - Global Programme
LIFE is a UNDP global flagship programme to promote local-local dialogue and partnership between NGOs, CBOs, Local Governments and Private Sector for improving the living conditions of the urban poor and influencing policies for participatory local governance.
Public Administration Reform and Anti-Corruption
CONTACT (Country Assessment in Accountability and Transparency)
The United Nations developed CONTACT to provide the international development community with a comprehensive tool to assess the financial architecture and integrity systems of a country.
The main objective of CONTACT is to assist governments in conducting a self-assessment of their financial management and anti-corruption systems. In addition, it helps consultants, hired by development agencies or governments conduct missions to support governments in their self-assessment efforts or to review cooperation with a government.
CONTACT is a tool for quality control, performance and task measurement, and recommends improvements at desired stages of the accountability process. The CONTACT Guidelines are also available in French
Local Transparency Toolkit
From February to December 2004, UNDP supported nine Transparency Commissions in nine municipalities of Honduras with the purpose of promoting transparent management of resources at the local level. The Local Transparency Toolkit, a set of three publications, documents the experience and lessons learned, and seeks to provide the general public, and local transparency actors in particular, a series of tools and experiences to support the realization of local transparency initiatives.
