LocationsA Significant Moment for Governance Statistics
February 27, 2026
Colourful crayons symbolising equality, participation, inclusion.
Reliable governance statistics are essential to understanding how institutions function and how people experience them.
Without credible data on participation and non-discrimination, policy debates rely on assumptions. Institutions may be reformed, but it becomes difficult to assess whether those reforms are inclusive, fair or effective.
For many years, governance was seen as difficult to measure within official statistics. Concepts were debated. Data were uneven. Comparability was limited. Governance was often described as too political, too context-specific, or too complex to standardize.
Over the past decade, sustained methodological work by national statistical offices and international partners has strengthened the foundations of governance statistics.
That situation is gradually changing.
At its fifty-seventh session, the United Nations Statistical Commission will decide whether to endorse new statistical instruments and guidance on participation in political and public affairs and on non-discrimination and equality. This decision carries weight. It is a formal recognition of governance as a mature statistical domain. It also reflects whether the progress achieved over more than a decade will now translate into sustained implementation across countries.
Measuring Participation: From Turnout to Inclusion
The Praia Group on Governance Statistics was created to “contribute to establishing international standards and methods for the compilation of statistics on the major dimensions of governance”. It developed a Handbook on Governance Statistics for National Statistical Offices, and more recently, it has completed four core instruments:
- A survey module on participation in political and public affairs
- Guidance on the use of electoral administrative data
- A survey module on discrimination
- Guidance on administrative data for measuring non-discrimination and equality.
These instruments are the result of six years of sustained work, building on earlier foundations. National statistical institutes, international organizations, human rights bodies, civil society and academia have worked together to translate complex governance concepts into practical tools. The process has involved consultation, testing and refinement across regions.
Leadership from several national statistical institutes, including Norway, Finland and Peru, has been central to guiding the technical work. Contributions from partners across the United Nations system have helped ensure that the instruments are rigorous, policy relevant and internationally grounded.
The instruments respond to a clear demand from countries. Governments need reliable data to understand whether participation is inclusive, whether institutions are responsive, and whether people experience discrimination in their daily lives. Without such data, reforms risk being poorly targeted or incomplete.
The participation module enables national statistical offices to collect structured information on how people engage with public institutions and where barriers persist. The discrimination module allows systematic measurement of experienced discrimination across different domains of life. When combined with administrative data guidance, it strengthens understanding of how institutions record and respond to complaints.
“The processes of producing these instruments and the supporting implementation guidance has been formidable, and the results are clear, comprehensive, sensitively spanning the daunting variety of country democratic practices.”— Mark Orkin, Visiting Professor, Development Pathways to Health Research Unit, University of the Witwatersrand (Wits)
A Major Step Forward
These tools do not redefine governance. They provide a more consistent way to measure it.
An important feature of the instruments is their emphasis on integration within national statistical systems. Electoral bodies, oversight institutions and complaint mechanisms already hold relevant administrative information. The guidance encourages coordination between these institutions and national statistical offices. This supports more coherent national data systems and reduces fragmentation.
For the United Nations Development Programme, this work is closely aligned with its core mission to support countries in strengthening effective, accountable and inclusive governance. Participation and non-discrimination are not abstract principles. They shape who has a voice, who is represented and whose rights are protected. Without meaningful participation, institutions lose legitimacy. Without non-discrimination, inequalities persist, and trust erodes.
From UNDP’s perspective, the instruments developed through the Praia Group represent a major step forward. They provide credible and comparable ways to understand whether governance systems are inclusive. But methodology alone is not enough. Implementation is key and depends on several factors, including country ownership, political commitment, institutional and statistical capacity, potential for a link with policymaking, and sustained partnership.
These conditions are not easy to secure, particularly in a context of fiscal pressures, polarisation and competing priorities. Yet they are achievable when governance data is embedded in nationally owned reform agendas and supported through coordinated partnerships. This is why UNDP has been actively engaged in the Praia Group’s work, not only to support the development of standards but to stand with countries that wish to implement them and ensure that the data generated leads to tangible improvements in people’s lives.
On Thursday, 5 March, the Commission has the chance to affirm this progress and to provide the confidence needed for countries to move from standards to sustained implementation.
This would represent a significant step, and we look forward to working together to strengthen the statistical foundations of inclusive and accountable institutions worldwide.
"The Praia Group task teams have been essential for advancing the development and standardization of measurements related to participation and non-discrimination. For Colombia, this support has been especially meaningful, as it strengthens our capacity to refine methodologies, align with international standards, and improve the quality and comparability of our governance-related statistics."— Alejandro Ramos, National Statistical Office of Colombia (DANE)