The Local Government Barometer: Assessing and Strengthening Local Governance

1. The Local Government Barometer: Assessing and Strengthening Local Governance Dr Shirley Kaye Randell Senior Advisor, Governance for Empowerment, SNV Rwanda , East and Southern Africa

2. SNV –Netherlands Development Agency • SNV Rwanda is dedicated to a society where all people enjoy the freedom to pursue their own sustainable development. • Its advisors contribute to this by strengthening the capacity of local organisations.

3. SNV –Netherlands Development Agency • SNV is concerned with achieving impact in reducing poverty by focussing on basic service delivery (in education, biogas and water, sanitation and hygiene) and production, income and employment (coffee, beekeeping and tourism). • The crosscutting issue of Governance for Empowerment is applied in all impact areas to ensure consideration of gender, social inclusion, HIV/AIDS and sustainable environment.

5. Local Governance Barometer CDT Ethiopia, Peer Review of IDASA South Africa and SNV Ghana

6. Good Governance • Good governance is the single most important factor in eradicating poverty and promoting development” Kofi Anan. • While good governance is the foundation for all our efforts to eradicate poverty, it is at the same time a complex and rather vague concept

7. Local Governance Barometer • The Local Governance Barometer (LGB) makes governance at the local level more concrete, tangible and measurable. As are result, stakeholders can discuss the quality of governance, then plan and implement measures to improve the situation. • The LGB can offer a means of determining which capacities of governing authorities need to be strengthened to achieve good governance.

8. Impact Alliance • In 2004, SNV became a founding member of the Impact Alliance, together with IDASA (Institute for Democracy in South Africa) and PACT (Building Capacity Worldwide) to develop the Local Government Barometer, a growing global initiative developing a tool for measuring good governance at district level. • It was first developed in 2006 to answer the current evident need of an objective and localized tool to assess governance in order to promote development

9. Local Governance Barometer CDT Ethiopia, Peer Review of IDASA South Africa and SNV Ghana

10. Collaboration We are collaborating with: • Local authorities as the main beneficiaries of the LGB • Organizations as technical partners • Donors as financial partners

11. Governance matters • Governance is a means to achieve the Millennium Development Goals and human development • Governance is an end in itself – as values, policies and institutions that are governed by human rights principles. • Governance has become a priority for many governments worldwide.

12. Measuring Governance Matters Too • Improving governance starts by assessing it. • Sound and reliable knowledge is needed to identify and monitor relevant and effective actions:    § What is the overall performance level of the current governance system? § What should be enhanced or maintained)? § How far and where actions are needed?

13. Features of the LGB • The LGB is a Knowledge Model, built with a Knowledge base. • It measures governance performance using a set of universal criteria and localized indicators through a scoring system. • It has five main criteria: Effectiveness and Efficiency, Rule of Law, Accountability, Participation, and Equity.

14. Features of the LGB (cont) • Its results allow identifying strengths and weaknesses of a governance situation. • Through the universal criteria, the results are comparable over time and across space. • The LGB can be used to measure any governance situation of any sector at any geographical level.

15. Local Governance Barometer CDT Ethiopia, Peer Review of IDASA South Africa and SNV Ghana

16. Features of the LGB (cont)

17. Implementation process • The LGB is a participatory process. • The LGB process sees effective and active involvement of Public sector, Civil Society and Private sector representatives. § from the identification of the local indicators § to the interpretation and analysis of the results § and the action plan development to improve the governance situation. • The LGB process is flexible enough to be adapted to the available competency and resources.

18. Implementation process

19. Outputs • Score of each criterion and indicator between 0 (the worst) and 100 (the best). • Score of the local/sectoral performance in governance. • Local/sectoral perception of what good governance is through the identified local indicators. • Elements for a participative capacity building plan.

20. Some Key Results • The LGB is now used to assess governance in 20 localities within 6 countries: Cameroon, Ghana, Madagascar, Mozambique, South Africa and Tanzania. • Urban and Rural district and communal governance, education governance, forest governance and water and sanitation governance have been measured.

21. Some Key Results (cont) • Wherever the LGB is used, dialogues between actors have been catalyzed. • The decision makers’ but also the actors’ knowledge of governance has improved. • Action plans are being developed in a participatory and transparent manner to improve the governance situation.

22. Current Implementation Local authorities have used LGB to • Acquire more knowledge for use in decision making; • Enhance participation in local governance and service delivery; • Strengthen links and partnerships among local actors; • Identify priorities for governance and service delivery in specific areas and sectors.

23. South Africa • The main aim of LGB application has been to help the municipal authorities and their affiliates in four provinces develop the capacity for reform by analyzing current performance and identifying needs and options for capacity reinforcement.

25. Cameroon • The focus has been on identifying the capacities required by rural and urban municipal councils to institutionalize the reforms consistent with decentralized governance and service delivery.

26. Tanzania • One application focuses on primary education within a district. The aim of LGB application is to identify the capacities that should be strengthened to improve governance and overall performance within this priority sector

28. Ghana • The LGB has been used to identify key performance standards and indicators for the National Health Insurance plan in several districts, and devise an appropriate capacity building plan.

29. Local Governance Barometer CDT Ethiopia, Peer Review of IDASA South Africa and SNV Ghana

30. Implementation phases The LGB process is designed and facilitated in a way that • promotes local dialogue, • facilitates learning, • supports local leadership of processes, • encourages local ownership of the results and • Fosters collaboration among key actors.

31. Understanding the context • Identification of the main beneficiary’s expectations and objectives; • Identification of the governance main rationale and issues in sector and geographical area to be assessed; • The evaluation of the other existing tools to avoid duplication

32. Preliminary operations • The identification and sensitization of the main stakeholders that will be involved

33. Modelling data collection and processing • Specific model participatory development; • Data collection: 3 main data collection methodologies are recommended: -the desk research/literature survey, - focus group discussion - surveys. • Data processing: software is produced by the LGB technical team to allow local organizations and authorities to do their own data processing

34. The final operation • Results are presented back to the stakeholders • Results are analyzed and interpreted in a participatory way • An action plan is developed to improve the situation

35. The LGB • increases local knowledge about good governance, • provides an assessment of the existing capacity, • promotes relationships and partnerships among different stakeholders, and • helps them identify alternative processes and actions to improve the situation.

36. Enhanced awareness knowledge and skills • Increases local actors’ knowledge about the attributes, criteria and processes of governance. • Provides decision makers with information and tools to help them monitor, assess and improve governance in the local situation. • Raises local people’s awareness about the relationship between good local governance and development

37. More effective relationships • Acts as a catalyst for better communication and cooperation among actors in the public, private and civil society sectors. • Provides a platform for multiple stakeholder collaboration in local governance and development. • Generates greater understanding about the roles and responsibilities of different actors in local governance. • Increases the motivation and enthusiasm for broad participation in local governance.

38. Improved vision for service delivery • Generates a shared vision of what an improved governance looks like, and how stakeholders will be affected. • Indicates the aspects of local governance that should be addressed to achieve the desired standards for effective, inclusive, equitable, and accountable service delivery by local authorities. • Indicates the factors which have enabled the current system of local governance to achieve the desired standards. • Yields proposals for practical and achievable actions that can be taken to improve the existing governance situation

39. Key Benefits (cont) • Greater understanding, appreciation of, and commitment to the principles of good local governance among the key actors. • More knowledge on how the various dimensions of local governance affect the delivery of services to local communities. • More knowledge to be used in decision making by the key governing actors.

40. Key benefits • Justification and motivation to pursue alternative processes and mechanisms for governance and service delivery within a geographic area or sector. • Improved relations among the key actors in local governance and service delivery.