How to Improve Governance

                 This post is a summary of three articles. The first was published with the title above at        http://www.brookings.edu/research/books/2009/howtoimprovegovernance. The second was published at  www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2013/jun/12/fiscal-transparency-better-accountability-development. The third was published in December 2013 at  http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2013/12/16/fiscal-transparency-policy-outcomes

                In recent years, the developing world has seen a burst of efforts to reduce corruption, increase transparency and accountability and improve governance. Needless to say,this is an important and encouraging development. However, the lack of a reliable compass to describe where a country is a given moment, and where it could be heading in the absence or acceptance of proposed reforms, can result in disastrous missteps. The unfortunate absence of such a guide has helped lead to innumerable failed governments or ineffective regimes. This important book aims to fill that void. The book, "How to Improve Governance," emphasizes the need for an overall analytical framework that can be applied to different countries to help analyze their current situation, identify potential areas for improvement, and assess their relative feasibility and the steps needed to promote them. A country-specific analysis needs to be comprehensive, in the sense that it includes the four concepts of transparency, accountability, governance, and anticorruption throughout the cauculus. Without such analytic framework, any reform attempt is likely to flounder for lack of a shared understanding of the underlying problems and of the feasible reforms. The book gives special emphasis to the potential for civil society groups to play a stronger role in holding governments accountable for their use of public resources, and to the importance of developing politically, prioritized country strategies for reform. "Whether one looks at how to increase domestic demand for good governance, how to make government more accountable to the public, or how to build democratic processes that deliver results, the underlying issues are essentially the same....As development actors of various types....seek to help, more and more of them are calling for clearer conceptual framework to guide their efforts." From the introduction.

                The last few years have seen a flurry of international initiatives aimed at promoting transparency in a variety of areas of government action. The Open Government Partnership, launched in 2011, already has more than 50 member governments who have undertaken to promote transparency and openness and to allow for independent reviews of their efforts.Transparency initiatives have existed for longer in the extractive industries and foreign aid sectors, two areas that are both sensitive and very important for international development. In the more specific area of fiscal transparency, the Global Initiative for Fiscal Transparency has brought together key actors - governmental, non-governmental and inter-governmental - to design and promote improved global norms for transparency and citizen participation in the management of public resources. All of these efforts stem from two inter-related convictions. First, that having access to government information, including budget information is a right of every citizen. Second, that transparency and access to information will allow citizens to engage with policy processes and monitor government action, leading to improved accountability and better development outcomes. Research surrounding these questions shows that four main factors stand out as contributing to improvements in fiscal transparency and participation. These are: 1) Processes of political transition towards more democratic forms of contestation and alternation. 2) Fiscal and economic crises that forces governments to put in place enhanced mechanisms for fiscal discipline and independent scrutiny. 3) Widely publicised cases of corruption that give reformers political space to introduce reforms that improve public access to fiscal information. 4) External influences that promote global norms and empower domestic reformers and civil society actors. This body of research shows that while fiscal transparency can contribute to positive development results, such results and transparency itself can not be taken for granted. Many governments continue to resist calls for more transparency and responsiveness to their citizens. And transparency`s  impact on accountability relations and development outcomes depends on a host of additional factors, from active oversight institutions to a free and engaged media.

               The World Bank is launching a new Open Budgets Portal as part of its efforts to advance fiscal transparency and open data arround the world. High-quality budget data that can be easily accessed, visually compelling and used by a wide variety of stakeholders is essential to inform the decision making processes around public expenditures, and help citizens know how and where governments are spending their money. The Portal showcases a subset of countries that have released their entire public spending datasets and are dissemination them in accessible formats. This information will help evidence-based monitoring, analysis, and advocacy so citizens can hold their governments accountable for more efficient spending and improved services. Access to quality data supports the work of governments, civil society, media and development partners.

Culture Matters

             This post is a summary of an article with the title above, written by Former President of Costa Rica, Oscar Arias and published in February 2011 at  http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/67202/oscar-arias/culture-matters  

            Nearly two centuries after the countries of Latin America gained their independence from Spain and Portugal, not one of them is developed. Where have they gone wrong? Why have countries in other regions, once far behind, managed to achieve relatively quickly results that Latin America countries have aspired to for so long? Many in the region respond to such questions with conspiracy theories or self-pitying excuse. They blame the Spanish empire, or the American empire. They say that financial institutions have schemed to hold the region back, that globalization was designed to keep it in the shadows. In short, they place the blame for underdevelopment anywhere but on Latin America itself. The truth is that so much time has passed since independence that Latin Americans have lost the right to use others as the excuse for their own failures. Various outside powers have indeed affected the region`s fate. But that is true for every region of the world. Latin America nations began with conditions equal to, or even better than, those prevailing elsewhere. We are ones who fell behind. When Harvard University opened its doors in 1636, there were already well-established universities in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico and Peru. In 1820, the GDP of Latin America as a whole was 12.5% greater than that of the U.S. Today, with a population of about 560 million, some 250 million more than U.S. the region has a GDP that is only 29% of its northern neighbor. Tired of empty words and meaningless promises, people in the region are disillusioned with politics in general. Recognizing their own share of responsibility for the situation, however, could be the start of rewriting history. The key is accepting that four regional cultural traits are obstacles that need to be overcome for development to succeed: resistance to change, absence of confidence, fragile democratic norms, and a soft spot for militarism. Latin Americans glorify their past and instead of a culture of improvement, they have promoted a culture of preservation of the status quo. Constant, patient reform, compatible with democratic stability is unsatisfying. Latin Americans preferring a certain present to an uncertain future. Some of this is only natural, entirely human. But the fear is paralyzing, it generates not only anxiety but also paralysis. To make matters worse, the region`s political leaders rarely have the patience or the skill to walk their people through the processes of reform. In a democracy, a leader must be the teacher, someone eager to respond to doubts and questions and explain the need for and the benefits of a new course. But too often in Latin America, leaders justify themselves with a simple "because I say so." Latin America has more controllers than entrepreneurs. The region lacks effective mechanisms to support innovative projects. Someone seeking to start a new business must begin by wading through waves of bureaucracy and arbitrary requirements. Entrepreneurs get minimal praise or cultural reinforcement, little legal protection, and scarce academic support. The region`s universities, meanwhile, are turning out the kinds of professionals that development demands. Latin America graduates six professionals in the social sciences for every two in engineering and every one in the exact sciences. Visiting a Latin American university is like traveling to the past, to an era in which Russia and China had yet to embrace capitalism. Instead of giving students practical tools, such as technological and language skills, to help them succeed in a globalized world, many schools devote themselves to teaching authors no one reads and repeating doctrines in which no one believes. For development to occur, this has to change. Latin America countries must begin to reward innovators and creators. Their universities must reform their academic offerings and invest in science and technology. They must attract investment and promote the tranfer of knowledge. The second obstacle is the absence of confidence. No development project can prosper in a place where suspicion reigns, the success of others is viewed with misgiving, and creativity and drive are met with wariness. Latin americans doubt the true intentions of all those cross their paths. We believe that everyone has a secret agenda and that it is better not to get too involved in collective efforts.  We are captives to a prisoner`s dilemma in which each person contributes as little as possible to the common interest. It has been said that legal security is the protection of trust. They must be able to antecipate the legal consequences of their actions. The third obstacle blocking development is the fragility of the commitment to democracy. To be sure, with the exception of Cuba, the region is entirely democratic today. But the truth is that the victory is incomplete. Despite carefully crafted constitutions, Latin America still has a soft spot for authoritarianism. If Latin American democracies do not live up to their political and economic promise, if their citizens` hopes remain deferred, then authoritarianism will rise again. The way to prevent that is show the public that democracy works, that it truly can build more prosperous societies. Moving beyond political sclerosis, becoming more responsive to citizens`demands and generating fiscal resources. Increasing public income is no sufficient, those funds must also be spent wisely, to promote human development. Each year, the region spends $60 billion on arms and soldiers, double what it spent just five years ago. Why? Who is going to attack whom? The enemies of the people in the region are hunger, ignorance, disease and crime. They are internal, and they can be defeated only through smart public policy. Latin Americans must look in the mirror and confront the reality that many of our problems lie in ourselves. We must lose our fear of change. We must embrace entrepreneuship. We must learn to trust. we must strengthen our commitment to democracy. Only then will the region attain the development it has so long sought.

120th Birthday of Aldous Huxley

             A little more than four months ago, precisely on July 26th, the British writer Aldous Huxley would complete 120 years-old, so this post is a tribute to him. His writing contributed to reinforce the importance of education, an effective and inclusive democracy and human rights. This post is a summary of three articles. The first published at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldous_Huxley. The second was published at http://answerparty.com/question/answer/what-is-a-brave-new-world-by-aldous-huxley-about. The third was published at http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/bravenew/themes.html. The quotes were published at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/a/aldous_huxley.html

      Aldous Leonard Huxley (1894-1963) was an English writer and philosopher. He is best known for his dystopian novel "Brave New World" and the book, "The doors of Perception", which recalls experiences when taking a psychedelic drug. He also published a lot of essays, short stories, poetry, travel books and scripts. He spent the later part of his life in Los Angeles, from 1937 until his death. Huxley married Maria Nys, a Belgian in 1919. They had one child, Matthew, who had a career as an author and prominent epidemiologist. In 1956, he married Laura Archera, an author who wrote his biography. In 1960, Huxley was diagnosed with cancer and, in the years that followed, with his health deteriorating, he wrote the utopian novel "Island"  and gave lectures on Human Potentialities, which were fundamental to the forming of the human potential movement. Despite his interest in spirituality and mysticism, he called himself an agnostic. Huxley was a humanist and pacifist. He became deeply concerned that human rights become subjugated through the sophisticsted use of the mass media or mood-altering drugs or misapplication of sophisticated technology. In 1937 he pubished "Ends and Means" where he examines the fact that although most people in modern civilisation agree that they want a world of "liberty, peace, justice, and brotherly love", they have not been able to agree on how to achieve it. During 1939, Huxley started to earn a substantial income as a Hollywood screenwriter, and he used much of it to bring over Jewish, left-wing writer and artist refugees from Hitler`s Germany to the U.S. In 1949, Huxley wrote to George Orwell, author of "1984" congratulating him on "how fine and how profoundly important the book is." Huxley had deeply felt apprehensions about the future the world might make for itself. From these, he made some warnings in his writings and talks. Huxley outlined several major concerns: the dangers of world overpopulation; the tendency toward distinctly hierarchical social organisation; the importance of evaluating the use of technology in mass societies susceptible to wily persuasion.                                                                                            The book "Brave New World" is about the use of technology to control society and the dangers of an all-powerful state. It is published at 1932 and set in London in the year of 2540. The novel anticipates developments in reproductive technology, sleep-learning, psychological manipulation, and operant conditioning that combine to profoundly change society. In literature, especially in science fiction, genetic engineering has been used as a theme or a plot device in many stories. In 1999, the Modern Library, an American publishing company that polled its editorial board to find the best 100 novels of the 20th century. They ranked "Brave New World",  fifth on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the last century. "Ulysses" by James Joyce topped the list.

       The main themes of this dystopian novels are: the use of technology to control society. The book warns of the dangers of giving the state absolute control over new and powerful technologies. Including medical, biological and psychological tech. At the same time, however censor and limits some technologies that could be used as threatening to the state`s control. The consumer society, in which individual happiness is defined as the ability to satisfy needs. The incompatibility of happiness and truth. The novel is full of characters who do everything they can to avoid facing the truth about their own situation. The state prioritizes happiness at the expense of truth by design: people think that they are better with happiness than with truth. What are these two abstract entities that the state in this novel juxtaposes? It seems clear enough that happiness refers to the immediate gratification of citizens desire for food, sex, drugs, and other consumer items. It is less clear what the state means by truth. Truth and individuality thus become entwined in the novel`s thematic structure.The main theme is All-powerful State. Like George Orwell`s 1984, this novel depicts a dystopia in which an all-powerful state controls the behaviors and actions of its people in order to preserve its own stability and power. But a major difference between the two is that , whereas in 1984 control is maintained by constant surveillance, secret police and torture, power in Brave New World is maintained through technological interventions that start before birth and last until death.  Below there are some quotes from Huxley.

  "Every man who knows how to read has it in his power to magnify himself,

to multiply the ways in which he exists, to make his life full, significant and interesting."

            

                   "Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored."

        "It is with bad sentiments that one makes good novels."

Teaching Human Rights

               This post is a summary of a teaching material published at http://www.un.org/wcm/webdav/site/visitors/shared/documents/pdfs/Pub_United%20Nations_ABC_human%20rights.pdf

         Teaching Human Rights talks about us as human beings. It talks about the process of teaching and learning the significance of the inherent "dignity and worth of the human person" which is the "foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world" (Universal Declaration of Human Rights, preamble). And it talks about the rights that belongs to us all. These are lessons for life. In this sense, human rights education means not only teaching and learning about human rights, but also for human rights: its fundamental role is to empower individuals to defend their own rights and those of others. The realization of human rights is our common responsibility, and its achievement is entirely dependent on the contribution that each and everyone will be willing to make. Human rights may be generally defined as those rights which are inherent in our nature. They are based on humankind`s increasing demand for a life in which the inherent dignity and worth of each human being are accorded respect and protected. Their denial is not only an individual tragedy but also creates conditions of social and political unrest, sowing the seeds of violence and conflict within and between societies and nations. Since the adoption of the UDHR, human rights have become central to the work of the United Nations. Within the United Nations system, human rights are furthered by a myriad of different mechanisms and procedures. Not least of these activities to promote human rights is human rights education. The U.N. assembly affirmed that "human rights education should involve more than the provision of information and should constitute a comprehensive life-long process by which people in all strata of society learn respect for the dignity of others and the means and methods of ensuring that respect in all societies. Central to this text is the idea that teaching about human rights is not enough. For this reason the largest part of this text consists of activities. These create opportunities for students and teachers to examine the basic elements that make up human rights - life, justice, freedom, equality and the destructive character of deprivation, suffering and pain - and then to use them to work out what they truly think and feel about a wide range of real-world issues. Teachers carries a great responsibility for communication of the human rights message. Opportunities to do this may vary: human rights themes may be infused into existing school subjects, such as history, literature, arts, geography, or may have a specific course allocated to them. Human rights education may also be pursued through less formal education arenas such as after-school activities and youth forums. Ideally, a human rights culture should be built into the whole curriculum, as part of the established curriculum in the social and economic sciences and humanities. The history of human rights tells a detailed story of efforts made to define the basic dignity and worth of the human being and his or her most fundamental entitlements. These efforts continue to this day. Research has shown that some upper primary and secondary school students suffer from lack of confidence that limits their ability to socialize with others. It is difficult to care about someone else`s rights when you do not expect to have any yourself. Where this is the case, teaching for human rights could require going back to the beginning and teaching confidence and tolerance first.The focus of human rights education is not outward but also inward on personal values, attitudes and behaviour. For the basic principles of a human rights culture to survive, people must continue to see a point in defending them: "I have a right to this. It is not just what I need. It is my right."  Unless people have the chance to work out such reasons for themselves, they will not claim their rights when they are with-held or taken away, or feel responsibility to defend the rights of others. At its most complex, hypocrisy raises profound questions about how to protect and promote the human dignity. The fact that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights have global validity and applicability is very important for teachers. By promoting human rights standards, the teacher can honestly say that he or she is not preaching. Teachers have a second challenge, however: to teach in such a way as to respect human rights in the school itself. For learning to have practical benefit, students need not only to learn about human rights but to learn in an environment that models them. This means avoiding any hipocrisy. At its simplest, hypocrisy refers to situations where what a teacher is teaching is clearly at odds with how he or she is teaching it. A human rights culture attempts to define principles for the positive conduct of all human behaviour. What follows are issues involved in realizing these principles. As some of these issues may prove to be controversial, the teacher`s sensitivity and discretion are required. Teachers who want to concentrate on specific issues ( e.g. world development, prisoners of conscience, privacy, anti-racism or anti-sexism ) should present them in a human rights context. This general understanding will provide depth. Teachers who specialize in different aspects of human rights should work side by side to provide understanding in depth.     

Day of Teachers 2014

               Last Wednesday, October 15th all the Brazil celebrated the day of teachers. So this post is a tribute to these very important professionals. Many times do not so recognized as they should be. This post is a summary of two articles. The first with the title of, "World Teachers` Day 2014." Published in October at http://www.unesco.org/new/en/unesco/events/prizes-and celebrations/celebrations/international-days/world-teachersday-2014 .    The second with the title of, "Value teachers as much as education." This article was published in March of 2014  at http://www.providencejournal.com/opinion/commentary/20140315-value-teachers-as-much-as-educat

                Teachers are an investment for the future of countries. What today`s children will face in adult life can not be predicted and so the teachers of today and tomorrow need the skills, knowledge and support that will enable them to meet the diverse learning needs of every girl and boy. This year, we celebrate the 20th anniversary of World Teachers`Day. The day commemorates the adoption of the ILO/UNESCO Recommendation concerning the status of teachers in 1966. This recommendation is morally binding for all countries. In many countries, the quality of education is undermined by a deficit of teachers. 1.4 million teachers are missing in classrooms by 2015, according to the UNESCO. Added to the challenge of numbers is one of quality: all too often, teachers work without resources or proper training. It is essential that teachers remain a priority. The Global Thematic Consultation on Education in the Post-2015 Development Agenda states the essential for supporting teachers` effectiveness: 1) good conditions of employment, including appropriate contracts and salaries, and prospects for career progression and promotion;  2) good conditions in the work environment, based on creating schools contexts that are conducive to teaching;  3) high-quality training for teachers, based on respect for human rights and the principles of inclusive education. 4)  effective management, including teacher recruitment and deployment. The international community and governments need to stand united to support teachers and quality learning worldwide, but especially in those countries where the highest number of out-of-school children exists. This Teachers` day UNESCO and its partners invite all to help spread the message that invest in teachers is key. After all, an education system is only as good as its teachers.

              I am a high school student, and my university search has begun, and this include questions about our anticipated university majors and career plans. The way people react to our answers provides important insights into societal values: When young people say they aspire to be physicians, lawyers, or scientists, are they assumed to be intelligent and ambitious? What about those who want to be teachers? When I have revealed that this is my plan, I have been met with a less than enthusiastic response. Sometimes it seems like my years of hard work and diligence in school have been reduced to this one question, and my answer leaves some unimpressed. I have been taught to value my teachers and that education is sacred. Yet my interest in education as a career does not seem to be celebrated by society, nor necessarily seen as a positive reflection of my intellect or academic achievements. Could it be possible that the lack of respect for the profession is a driving force behind the underperformance of our nation`s education system? One country with different values and better results than ours is Finland. In PISA tests Finland has achieved strong results. Finland is often studied because of its focus on reforming its education system, a process that began in the 1980s and culminated in its current status as one of the top-performing education system in the world. One obvious cultural difference between Finland and the U.S. is the respect shown for individuals in the teaching profession. It is said that Finnish teachers are looked upon as favorably as doctors, engineers and economists. This is reflected in their compensation. In Finland, there is more non-teaching classroom time, and this time is spent on lessons plans, discussions with other teachers, curriculum development, and so on. This foster the culture of a learning community in which continual improvement and professional development are encouraged. Research shows that countries with the best scholastic performance typically pay teachers a higher wage than countries with lower performance. Countries that have succeeded in raising the status of teaching as a profession have done so not only by increasing compensation but also by giving teachers a voice in educational reform. The education of our children should be one of our top priorities, especially given our academic outcomes relative to those of other countries. Perhaps the answer to the concerns about our education system is a simple one: Our society should value teachers as much as we ask our students to value education. A shift in the collective attitude toward teaching may be surprisingly beneficial. 

Privacy From State Snooping Defines a True Democracy

              This post is a summary of two articles. The first with the title above was published in April of 2012, at http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/apr/03/privacy-state-snooping-true-democracy. The second was published in August 2012 at  http://www.salon.com/2012/08/05/privacy_why_it_matters_much_more_than_you_think/

           As we welcome the glimmers of democracy in Burma and applaud the heroic struggle for freedom and rights in countries such as Russia, China and Syria, it beggars belief that Britain now contemplates a law that will allow police and security services to access data from every phone call, email, internet connection and text message, without a warrant. The millions who suffer under dictatorships will be astonished that we are about to let slip, with so little protest, the freedoms for which they continue to sacrifice so much. Privacy from state snooping is the defining quality of any true democracy. If the bill next month is made law, Britain will overnight become a substantially less free country, our status as one of the beacons of freedom seriously diminished. This is among the most serious threats to freedom proposed anywhere in the democratic world. It compete with the very worst authoritarian laws and the last government`s morbid obsession with personal information. Those promoting the law, which will allow real-time surveillance of a person`s communications and their web usage, insist that the state only wants to know who is calling who, and the content of message, emails will remain private. It is an assurance that should be treated with the greatest scepticism for two reasons. The law of function creep means that opressive measures passed to address terrorism and crime are invariably deployed in much less threatening contexts. For example, the spread of surveillance under the last government`s Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act resulted in local councils using counter-terror methods to mount undercover operations against fly-tippers and those suspected of lying in school applications. Once the police have these powers to insist that internet and phone companies hand over our data without our knowledge, it will be a short step for the same people to argue that they need to start reading our communications. These things ought to be a deal-breaker for the coalition because they go against everything Liberals Democrats they believed before the last election, and indeed against the coalition agreement itself, which placed an emphasis on privacy and civil liberties. Perhaps one thing in the politicians defence is that both the surveillance bill and the proposal to greatly increase secret hearings were inspired by civil servants and agency heads, rather than politicians: this is the agenda of the unelected officials who never have to go before the electorate and can run their affairs without being inconvenienced by too much public scrutiny. The bill, if becomes law, will vastly increase state power, which is why officials have been lobbying for measures like these. Politicians are there to defend us against such people. When the head of MI5 (Military Intelligence section 5), United Kingdom Security Agency, Jonathan Evans, make these suggestions, they should be told in no uncertain terms that they are unacceptable in a democracy. It is worth fighting in an age when google and the phone companies know so much about us already? The answer comes from the german philosopher Wolfgang Sofsky, who wrote: "Privacy is the citadel of personal freedom, it provides defence against expropriation, importunity and imposition, against power and coercion." The more practical objection is that police and security services are capable of getting things wrong as well as abusing a system that allow such power over ordinary citizens. Given the countless cases of police misconduct and present worries about the standards of Britain`s police, it is probably wise not to hand them such an intrusive tool. This surveillance system is the instrument of a Kafkaesque state that grants itself the right to universal suspicion, while enjoying the protection of a new law, that allows evidence of official misconduct to be heard in secret.

             The greatest threat to privacy in contemporary America is a pervasive indifference. Many citizens are willing to give up a certain amount of their personal information to obtain credit cards, post photos on Facebook. After all, if you you are not doing anything wrong, what do you have to hide? At least that is the logic flitting through many minds. Read it to jolt your imagination into new territory, and to understand why privacy that many of us sacrifice so readily ought to be held more dear. Garret Keizer, a writer who lives in Vermont, points out, "the chief purpose of privacy is to reconcile his profound desire to be let alone with his faith in community and collective enterprise. Yankee reticence combined with town-hall meeting citizenship , reminiscent of Robert Frost`s belief that good fences make good neighbors. Keizer aims to show that privacy, and respect for privacy, are core humanist values that should be enshrined in the heart of any society aspiring to social justice. He argues this against two distinct points of view that treat privacy as uninportant. The first, and by far the most common, regard privacy as a relatively minor right that can and often should cede precedence in favor of commerce and security. But there is another type of skepticism toward privacy rights. To the tech moguls who seems to think we ought to blithely hand over our personal information, he retorts. "If privacy were not a good thing, the wealthier would not enjoy more of it than less wealthy do." Keizer`s observations on the embattled privacy of the poor, the distinctions between privacy and loneliness and the essential link between the degradation of public life and disrespect for the sanctuary of private life will serve readers of all political flavors.  I am not totally sure if Keizer successfully demonstrate the compatibility of privacy and to each according to its need. Yet I am entirely convinced by Keizer`s argument that a society that does not value personal privacy can not plausibly claim to value humanity. This may be a far bigger conundrum than one slender book can solve, but the book "Privacy" by Keizer is a step in the right direction.

Governance Assessments

      This post is a summary of three articles. The first with the title above was published at http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/ourwork/democraticgovernance/oslo_governance_centre/governance_assessments/ . The second was published at http://cityindicators.org/Deliverables/Measuring%20Governance_1-2-2007-836890.pdf.The third was published http://siteresources.worldbank.org/EXTWBIGOVANTCOR/Resources/wpf36governan

            Through the Global Programme on Democratic Governance Assessments, UNDP seeks to assist developing countries in producing desaggregated and non-ranking governance indicators to enable national stakeholders to better monitor performance toward democratic governance reforms. The aim of the programme is to develop the capacities of governments, national statistical offices and civil society in the collection, maintenance and analysis of governance-related data and to assist development of an inclusive, consultative framework for systematic assessment and monitoring of democratic governance goals and targets expressed in national devlopment plans.

                  Since the 1990s, development researches have focused on "good governance" as both a means of achieving development and a development in itself. The World Bank has defined "good governance" as "epitomized by predictable, open and enlightened policy making; a bureaucracy imbued with a professional ethos; an executive arm of government accountable for its actions; and a strong civil society participating in public affairs. In response to the growing demand for maeasures of the quality of governance, a number of aggregate governance indicators have been produced, such as the World Bank`s Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI). The WGI rank countries with respect to six aspects of good governance: Voice and Accountability,  Political Stability and Absence of Violence,  Government Effectiveness,  Regulatory Quality,   Rule of Law,  and Control of Corruption. Since the 1950s, public evidence of construct validity has been required for proposed measurements of abstract constructs. Developing a meaningful measurement of a construct is an iterative process that involves a theoretical specification of the construct and its relationship to observable variables, model testing as against predictions, and refinement. The process of accumulating evidence to support a hypothetical measure is one that involves the scientific community, and as such, an investigator must provide evidence of construct validity and make available the raw data, models and results that would allow the community to make independent judgments.

                  Good governance results when nation-states provide a decentralized method of delivering public goods to persons. When nation-states perform effectively and well on behalf of their inhabitants. The social contract between ruler and ruled embodies effectively delivery of these public goods. The hierarchy of political (public) goods begins with the supply of security, rule of law, political and civil freedoms, health care, educational instructions, roads, railways, communications networks, money system, fiscal and institutional context within which citizens can prosper, support for civil society, and regulating the sharing of the environmental commons. Together these goods constitutes governance, and the extent to which nation-states do not or do  so perform can, at least in theory, be measured. The most comprehensive set of global governance indicators has been compiled by the World Bank and combines subjective and objective attributes. Qualitative global governance assessments have neen compiled through the World Economic Forum`s Global Governance Initiative, and the United Nations`s World Governance Survey. Various regional governance assessment are listed as well as the subjective and qualitative democracy measures. Tackling the issue of measuring governance was the premise of a meeting of scholars, data experts, clients, donors, and policy makers at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University in May 2003. The conferees at the meeting stated that objectively measuring governance could lead prescriptively both to improving the welfare of the peoples of the developing world, and to increase in the rigor with which governance in Africa, Asia and Latin America is discussed by the policy making and research communities in the G8, and by civil society in the countries concerned with improving their governance. In this era, nation-states are responsible for the task of governing and providing public goods to those who reside within their borders. Many of these nation-states have corrupt leaders who drain the country`s treasures and provide little or no security, education, infrastructure, or any other public good to their constituents. Measurements of governance could set standards for improvements and achievements as well as indicate where funds could best be of use and where policy might prove most effective. Some policy makers propose that comparative aggregate rating index would act as a "shaming" nechanism or as an incentive for developing nations to improve the lot of their inhabitants, to reduce corruption, and to improve their economies. For instance, Transparency International`s Corruption Index has influenced elections outcomes in Nigeria and has "galvanized" other countries such as Pakistan to address corruption. Although Nigeria`s low rating on the Corruption Index has not necessarily altered corrupt practices, it has encouraged open debate about the harmful practices of corruption. And strengthens the best instincts of civil society.