Governance Assessments and the Paris Declaration

1
Governance Assessments and the Paris Declaration

• CMI Issues Paper
• Prepared for the UNDP Bergen Seminar
• September 24-25 2007
• Lise Rakner lise.rakner_at_cmi.no

2
The question is

• Is it possible to carry out governance
  assessments and develop diagnostic tools for
  governance while adhering to the principles of
  the Paris Declaration?

3
Three forms of assessments

• Being assessed by external parties
• Being assessed by peers
• Self assessments National governance assessments
  strategies

4
Peer reviews and the Paris Declaration

• How can external donors contribute to advancing
  the positive achievements of the APRM?
• How can civil society engagement be enhanced in
  the APRM processes? Which parts of civil society
  should be involved?
• How can peer reviews be utilised by government
  and development partners?
• Is it feasible for donor governments to based
  their governance assessments of peer reviews?

5
Being assessed and the Paris Declaration

• Considering donor governments varied aid
  portfolios and assessment needs, is greater
  harmonisation of assessments possible?
• When do individual donors governance assessments
  constitute a problem?
• When and how may external pressure and a
  harmonised donor approach crowd out internal
  mechanisms of democratic accountability?

6
Self assessments and the Paris Declaration

• The intellectual origins, methods, and funding of
  national assessments are largely external- how
  can this dilemma be addressed?
• How can external donors utilise national
  assessments in their own governance assessments?
  Can national assessments be structured to meet
  some of these needs?

7
Towards a conclusions

• A key challenge for implementing the Paris
  Declaration is the proliferation of governance
  assessment initiatives
• Work already done is duplicated
• Competing and multiple demands are placed on poor
  countries with low governance capacity

8
Towards a conclusions

• To address problems of proliferation, all
  external assessments should be aligned with
  exisiting self assessments and peer-review
  mechanisms
• Building on to national assessments may reduce
  the risk of an over-politicised governance agenda
• Self assessments may enhance local capacity
  through the development of local databases and
  evidence that stakeholders can use to advance
  demands and interests