Presentation of the OGC Governance Indicators Project

Measuring and assessing governance policies, institutions and processes

An increasing number of organizations are giving greater priority to the need to assess democracy and governance as part of their development assistance programmes. Assessment tools and frameworks build on a number of known democracy and governance related datasets which enable comparisons over time and across countries and regions.

However, while this data is a rich source of information for a range of analysis, it does not necessarily point to particular institutions as the cause of governance challenges, nor does it help identify operational solutions and performance improvement processes. Most importantly, such tools:

  • Often lack national ownership;
  • Rarely include the necessary disaggregation to capture the impact, experiences and perceptions of marginalized groups in society;

  • Do not address the capacity deficits that exist to ensure an effective monitoring system.

For UNDP, the value of a nationally owned governance indicator system is that it serves as a critical accountability mechanism for local stakeholders, especially the citizens of a country and non-state actors. A nationally owned system provides upward internal rather than external pressure for reform. And through the transparency of information stemming from it, it also provides a catalyst for greater citizen engagement in democratic governance processes and for demanding greater effectiveness of government.

The Governance Indicators project hosted at the Oslo Governance Centre seeks to address the above by assisting countries develop their own governance indicators that are:

  • gender sensitive and pro-poor;
  • precise and objective measurements of governance related challenges and performance trends at the national level;
  • informed from bottom up processes rather than top down assessments.

The OGC project supports developing the capacities of national stakeholders including government policy makers, Civil Society, the media, parliament, political parties as well as the national statistics agency or office. Queries regarding the project can be directed to joachim.nahem@undp.org

Bjørn Førde
Director of OGC





Staff changes
The Oslo Governance Centre staff gathered together on Friday 25 May for an affectionate farewell and presentation to valued colleagues Alexandra Wilde, Governance Specialist, and Noel Matthews, Learning and Capacity Development adviser.
Alex has been with OGC since August 2002, working first on the Access to Information service line, which she helped to establish, and since June 2005 driving the flagship Governance Indicators project forward. She is now moving to Washington DC with her Norwegian diplomat husband Odd Inge and daughter Mali.
Noel Matthews joined the OGC in March 2006, as its first adviser in the area of Learning and Capacity Development, where he has made a great contribution to building up this area of OGC’s work. He and his wife Sallyanne, and daughters Lauren and Fianna will be moving back to Cambodia where, among other activities, he will take up the post of Regional Director, South East Asia for NGO Traidcraft. Both Alex’s and Noel’s dedication to OGC’s work, and their good companionship, leave a lasting mark with us as we move forward.

Staff coming to OGC
Joachim Nahem has already taken over from Alex in the area of governance indicators. A replacement for Noel and a new adviser for Civil Society will start in July. They will all be presented in the next issue of OGCNewsflash.



Inter UN Agency mission to Madagascar (7-14 May 2007)
The Centre participated in a UN inter-agency mission to Madagascar (FAO, UN-Habitat, IFAD, the ILC and UNDP-DDC and OGC) as a follow-up activity to the workshop on land governance organized by OGC in January 2007. The mission sought to understand the land administration reform process in Madagascar, learn from the activities supported by UN agencies on the ground and identify possible areas of collaboration.
Next steps include aligning the activities of the different agencies to achieve greater impact on the reform process. That would include the development of governance indicators, and enhancing access to information and civil society engagement in the land administration process as key governance areas which would strengthen the pro-poor and gender sensitive impact of the process of land administration reform.

The Oslo Governance Centre supports a dialogue on Governance for Sustainable Human Development in Tunisia
As part of the UNDP Tunisia programme on Governance and Development, the Oslo Governance Centre facilitated a two-day workshop attended by representatives of key ministers and academics on “Good Governance Indicators and Sustainable Human Development.”

Working groups discussed the notions and usages of governance indicators and debated public administration reform, national ownership of governance indicators and challenges of building governance indicators databases. The workshop enables the establishment of a Tunisian taskforce on governance indicators, supporting an inclusive locally-owned dialogue on governance for sustainable human development in Tunisia.




Guidance Note on Governance and Conflict Prevention
The OGC is working jointly with the Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery in the development of a Guidance Note on Governance and Conflict Prevention. The guidance note represents an effort by BDP and BCPR to strengthen UNDP’s governance efforts in countries at risk of descending into conflict and those countries recovering from it. 
It will not attempt to provide an exhaustive analysis of all relevant issues, but will instead focus on building on UNDP’s own experience and lessons learned in order to provide UNDP, UN agencies and other development partners with an introductory overview of key considerations that link, more effectively, governance policies and strategies that explicitly support peace-building and conflict prevention. It will also consider strategies  that strengthen  democratic governance transitions in a transformational and peaceful  manner.
The  guidance note is being developed as a response to demand from UNDP programme country offices for better tools to:

  • help understand the complex linkages between democratic governance and conflict prevention and poverty;
  • provide user-friendly advice to enhance programme design and implementation;
  • share UNDP experiences and good practices to date.

It is anticipated that the Note will be published in the autumn of 2007.





Mobilizing Poor People for Active Citizenship – a discussion paper
This paper explores the potential of civil society to promote active citizenship for poor and marginalized people. It suggests that active citizenship can help create a mutually reinforcing link between democratic governance and human rights and poverty reduction, and the MDGs. Drawing on case studies from Malawi and Tanzania, it considers how civil society works to promote active citizenship, including: raising awareness, providing a voice to people who are otherwise not heard, acting as an intermediary between citizens and the state, facilitating problem solving, building capacity, promoting dialogue, mobilizing and organizing people and lobbying for change.

This paper has been developed by Katrine Riisgaard Pedersen, an independent research consultant, in collaboration with Elizabeth McCall, former Civil Society Adviser with the OGC.

CIVICUS workshop on Participatory Governance
The OGC Director participated in the CIVICUS World Assembly in Glasgow [23-27 May] to discuss how the global programme on participatory governance can enhance the capacity of southern civil society and government actors to promote and practice PG at the national and local levels. This is closely linked to present and future activities of the OGC in the area of inclusive participation.



Fellowship Programme
The revised 2007 Democratic Governance Fellowship Programme was launched in mid May, offering a mini-sabbatical of up to seven weeks for UNDP staff members.  This year’s improved programme is open for fellows wishing to research emerging issues within one of the following areas:

  • Democratic Governance and Land Rights;
  • Democratic Governance Assessments;
  • Democratic Governance and Conflict Prevention;
  • Communication for Empowerment

Applications were accepted up until 10 June, and the selection committee will be looking for innovative proposals with a strong cross-regional relevance and with ideas that can benefit the development of DG policy and practice at the institutional level. The first fellows are expected to arrive at the Oslo Governance Centre in mid August. More information can be found on the DG Fellowship Programme page. Queries regarding the programme can be directed to hege.hermansen@undp.org.



HURITALK E-Discussion
At the end of April HURITALK launched an e-discussion on: “How to Strengthen Engagement with the International Human Rights Machinery” -chosen earlier in the year by members as the top priority area to be addressed on the network.  The discussion has been divided into three parts:

  • Using International Human Rights Norms and Standards, in particular Human Rights Treaties in the National Context;
  • Engaging with Special Procedures;
  • How can Human Rights Treaty Bodies and other Special Procedures Contribute to Development Programming and Public Policy?

The discussion has been jointly moderated by UNICEF, OHCHR and UNDP. It is hoped that the experiences and insights shared on the network will feed into practical guidance and tools for UN agencies working in this area.





United Nations Development Programme
Oslo Governance Centre

Borggata 2B, Postboks 2881 Tøyen,
0608 Oslo, Norway

Phone +47 23 06 08 20, Fax +47 23 06 08 21 oslogovcentre@undp.org
www.undp.org/oslocentre