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governance indicators

Governance Matters 2009: Learning From Over a Decade of the Worldwide Governance Indicators

Submitted by Kaufmann on Mon, 2009-06-29 11:15

Today we are releasing the report Governance Matters VIII, which includes the new update of the Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI).   Now collaborating from the Brookings Institution, I continue to take part in this research project with my former World Bank colleagues Aart Kraay and Massimo Mastruzzi.

Global Corruption Barometer 2009: people's experience and perception about corruption

Submitted by Alfredo on Thu, 2009-06-04 13:52

Transparency International released its 2009 Global Corruption Barometer.   As opposed to TI's expert opinion survey -the Corruption Perception Index-, the Barometer is a public opinion survey that captures perceptions and experiences of corruption of more than 73,000 people in 69 countries.

Some of the corruption issues addressed by the survey are: perception of corruption in the private sector, petty bribery in general and in different services, perception of most corruption institutions/sectors, corruption denunciation and use of complaint mechanisms, and perception of governments' effectiveness in the fight against corruption.

Among the main results in this year's survey are:

Global Integrity's Grand Corruption Watch List and economic stimulus packages

Submitted by Nathaniel Heller on Fri, 2009-02-27 17:31

As Dani Kaufmann and others on this blog have rightly pointed out, the issues of “grand corruption” and “state capture” are increasingly being viewed as central to promoting more accountable and transparent governments, whether in the developing world or in wealthier countries.  The West has little to show to the developing world by way of successful models, and all countries clearly have plenty of homework to do when it comes to curbing the influence of special interests on the policy process.

In the Global Integrity Report: 2008, we created our first ever Grand Corruption Watch List. This list identifies 13 countries with exceptionally weak anti-corruption safeguards in key areas that lead us to worry about the potential for large-scale theft of public resources.  As national bailout programs and stimulus packages are being rolled out worldwide, these are the countries to keep a close eye on for disappearing funds at the highest levels of government.

Global Integrity Index: looking around the black box of corruption

Submitted by Alfredo on Fri, 2009-02-20 15:40

A couple of days ago, Global Integrity launched its Global Integrity Index 2008, which assesses whether or not key national anti-corruption mechanisms are set in place, work properly and are accessible to citizens to hold governments accountable. 

Different from other governance measurements, this index and the scorecard doesn't try looking into the black box of corruption or the perceptions about it.  Instead, the approach is to look at the inputs and outputs coming in and out of the box, trying to show the difference between de jure and de facto institutional realities of countries and how political economy dynamics within them matter.

Open Budget Index and the need of transparency in government spending

Submitted by Alfredo on Mon, 2009-02-09 16:52

Last week the International Budget Partnership (IBP) released its 2008 version of the Open Budget Index (OBI), which analyzes budget transparency in 85 countries all around the world.   Among its main findings, the OBI shows that the level of transparency in the budgetary process is deporable in most of the evaluated countries -only 5 percent of them provide adequate information on spending to the public, while almost 30 percent of them provide very few or any information at all.

Although a group of countries are moving forward on this matter, the current state of budget transparency opens the door to waste and misappropriation of public funds in most places.   This situation is and will always be delicate, but in this time of expansionary and stimulus policies, an appropriate disclosure of the use of resources becomes very sensitive. 

Mo Ibrahim Foundation: promoting good governance and leadership in Africa

Submitted by Alfredo on Thu, 2008-10-09 10:37

“Without good governance, Africa will go nowhere.”  This is the vision behind the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, a $400 million African initiative that aims building a better Africa by supporting civil society and democratic African leaders in the promotion of good governance.  While some of the Foundation’s approaches are traditional among governance practitioners, others are less common, such as a monetary prize for sub-Saharan African leaders committed to good governance and democracy.

On the civil society front, the Mo Ibrahim Foundation launched this week the second round of the Ibrahim Index of African Governance, a governance assessment and ranking of 48 sub-Saharan African countries according to five general criteria: (i) safety and security, (ii) rule of law, transparency and corruption, (iii) participation and human rights, (iv) sustainable economic opportunity, and (v) human development.  As other governance indicators, the Ibrahim Index’s goal is to assist citizens in holding their governments accountable and to highlight areas requiring a better performance.

The dilemmas of measuring corruption: is there an agreement of where should we move on?

Submitted by Alfredo on Thu, 2008-09-25 16:00

As corruption issues around the world seem to be endless, so is the debate about the best way to develop and use corruption indicators.  Whether aggregate or disaggregated; whether actionable or not; whether perception-based or experience-based; whether they should measure inputs or outputs; and whether assessments should be locally-owned or conducted by international institutions are just part of the on-going discussions in open forums and informal chats.

This month we witnessed the publication of two valuable efforts that move towards different directions on corruption measurement: (i) the 2008 Corruption Perception Index launched this week by Transparency International; and (ii) “A Users’ Guide to Measuring Corruption,” published at the beginning of this month by the UNDP Oslo Governance Centre and Global Integrity. 

While Transparency International’s approach relies on composite, cross-country and perception-based indicators, the User’s Guide suggests –among other things– the need for more locally owned assessments that capture the voice and experience of the poor and minority groups, as well as actionable measurements that give a better sense of what needs to be reformed.