Making Democracy Deliver Effective governance for human development

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Making Democracy DeliverEffective governance for
human development

• Pippa Norris
• Harvard University

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Structure

• The development challenge
• Does democracy deliver?
• UNDPs strategic plan 2008-11
• Conclusions
• Democratic governance has intrinsic value for
  choice and self-determination
• Instrumental value? Complex and conditional links
  between democratic governance and development
• UNDP case studies suggest that, when combined,
  two conditions make democratic regimes more
  responsive to social needs
• Empowerment of the poor, and
• Strengthened state capacity.

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I. Does democracy deliver?
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Millennium Development Goals

• Eradicate Poverty Hunger
• Achieve Universal Primary Education
• Promote Gender Equality
• Reduce Child Mortality
• Improve Maternal Health
• Combat HIV AIDS, Malaria and Other Diseases
• Ensure Environmental Sustainability
• Develop a Global Partnership for Development
• Target deadline 2015

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Is there progress towards the MDG goals?

• The past 25 years have seen the most dramatic
  reduction in extreme poverty that the world has
  ever experienced. Spearheaded by progress in
  China and India, literally hundreds of millions
  of men, women and children all over the world
  have been able to escape the burdens of extreme
  impoverishment and begin to enjoy improved access
  to food, health care, education and housing.
• Yet at the same time, dozens of countries have
  become poorer, devastating economic crises have
  thrown millions of families into poverty, and
  increasing inequality in large parts of the world
  means that the benefits of economic growth have
  not been evenly shared. Today, more than a
  billion people one in every six human beings
  still live on less than a dollar a day, lacking
  the means to stay alive in the face of chronic
  hunger, disease and environmental hazards. In
  other words, this is a poverty that kills. A
  single bite from a malaria-bearing mosquito is
  enough to end a child's life for want of a bed
  net or 1 treatment. A drought or pest that
  destroys a harvest turns subsistence into
  starvation. A world in which every year 11
  million children die before their fifth birthday
  and three million people die of AIDS is not a
  world of larger freedom.

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi A. Annan
In Larger Freedom March 2005
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Annual growth in real GDP per capita
Real GDP per Capita Mean Ratios
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Yet persistence of extreme poverty
Note Pop living on less than 1/day,
1990-2001. High income nations are
excluded. Source Millennium Development Goals
Report 2005
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The urgent need for action

• "We will have time to reach the Millennium
  Development Goals worldwide and in most, or
  even all, individual countries but only if we
  break with business as usual. We cannot win
  overnight. Success will require sustained action
  across the entire decade between now and the
  deadline.

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi A. Annan
In Larger Freedom March 2005
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II. Potential links between democratic governance
and MDGs?
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Context the growth of democracies worldwide,
1972-2004
Note The graph shows the growth of in the
proportion of democratic regimes worldwide as
monitored using standardized 100-point scales by
Freedom House, Cheibub and Gandhi, Vanhanen, and
by Polity IV.
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Four claims

• Rising boats thesis
• Democracy generates prosperity, thereby shrinking
  inequalities between nations
• Economic equality thesis
• Democratic governance strengthens economic
  equality within each nation
• Welfare services thesis
• Democratic governance delivers better public
  services
• Conditional links with democratic processes
• Specific processes and institutions make
  democratic states more responsive to social needs
  

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Democracy and Infant Mortality (MDG 4)
Note Countries with annual per capita GDP (in
PPP) less than 5000 (World Bank) and year 2000.
Democracy is measured by the Freedom House index
of political rights and civil liberties, 2000,
standardized to 100 points, where high is more
democratic. www.freedomhouse.org. Prevalence of
infant mortality estimated by the World Bank,
where low represents fewer cases (World
Development Indicators 2004).
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Democracy and Education (MDG 2)
Note Countries with annual per capita GDP (in
PPP) less than 5000 (World Bank) and year 2000.
Democracy is measured by the Freedom House index
of political rights and civil liberties, 2000,
standardized to 100 points, where high is more
democratic. www.freedomhouse.org. Secondary
educational enrollment rate estimated byUNESCO,
where low represents fewer cases (UNESCO 2004).
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MAKING DEMOCRACY DELIVER
National social, cultural, and economic context
Policy demands by the poor
State capacity to deliver
Policy Outputs
Civil society
Executive and public sector bureaucracy
Reduce conflict, build peace
MDGs, Reduce poverty, expand health care,
improve schooling, gender equality, etc
Elections and parties
Parliaments
Public opinion
Judiciary and courts
E-governance and the media
Local and regional governance
Strengthen human rights
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III. UNDPs strategic plan democratic governance
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Principles and role of the UNDP

• National ownership
• Capacity development
• Gender equality and womens empowerment
• Multilateral cooperation, technical assistance,
  and aid effectiveness
• South-south cooperation
• Long-term sustainable human development
• Values from the Millennium Declaration
• (Freedom, Equality, Solidarity, Tolerance,
  Respect for Nature, Shared Responsibility)

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UNDP Focus Areas
Source UNDP Strategic Plan 2008-11 Focus Areas
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UNDP expenditure, 2005
DG is the largest area 1.4bn
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UNDPs Democratic Governance
Regional bureau/SURF governance advisers Country
offices focal points for governance Members of
the DG knowledge network
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Draft DG Integrated Results Framework UNDP
Strategic Plan 2008-2011
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Partnerships and collaboration

• Within the UN family
• UN Department of Political Affairs/Electoral
  Assistance
• UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human
  Rights,
• Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery,
• UNIFEM
• UN Department for Economic and Social Affairs
• UN Department of Peace Keeping Operations
• UN Office on Drugs and Crime
• World Bank, Etc.
• External partners
• Multilateral organizations
• ICNRD, CD, IPU, IDEA, IFES, Transparency
  International,
• Regional organizations eg African Union
• Bilateral organizations eg NDI, ABA, national
  donors,
• Private-public partnerships eg Microsoft, CISCO

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IV.Conclusions
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Conclusion

• Democratic governance is to be valued as an end
  in itself
• No simple automatic linkages
• The relationship between democracy and
  socio-economic development is complex and
  conditional.
• Two broad necessary conditions
• Inclusive participation which empowers the poor
  and marginalized, and
• Effective state capacity to facilitate the
  delivery of public services
• Strategic policy mechanisms
• The challenge for policymakers is to identify the
  most effective strategies and mechanisms which
  can be up-scaled
• More details www.undp.gov

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New UNDP report, Making Democracy Deliver
(www.undp.org/governance forthcoming)