A Users' Guide to Measuring Local Governance

11
Council of Europe’s Guide to Developing Well-Being / Progress
Indicators with Citizens – Application of the Governance
Module in Timisoara (Romania)
Producer
Council of Europe, Inter-réseau Européen des
Initiatives Ethiques et Solidaires, Territoire
Responsable: Groupe de Coordination Timisoara,
European Commission.
History
The Council of Europe published in 2005 a
methodological guide entitled “Concerted
development of social cohesion indicators”, which
sets out the broad concepts and methods and
proposes a database of possible indicators. In the
wake of this publication, at the suggestion of the
Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, various
experiments in applying the principles set out in
the guide were carried out at local level, in order to
construct indicators of progress / well-being with
citizens. In these applications, eight dimensions of
well-being were systematically reflected in the
criteria put forward by citizens: Feelings (subjective
well-being), Social balances, Relations between
persons, Access to essential resources, Personal
balance, Commitment/participation, Relations
with institutions, Living environment.
The Well-being Indicators have been used in
Timisoara as an experimental application of the
guide of the Council of Europe. Given the focus of
this guide on decentralised governance, only the
governance module of the indicators system
developed in Timisoara will be considered.
Objectives
The well-being indicators aim to foster, among
those concerned in a particular area or institution,
shared responsibility for the well-being of all and
ensure that the parties concerned actually take
part in fulfilling this responsibility.
Applicability
The indicators are applicable to a variety of
different local contexts, ranging from municipalities
and districts (where citizens are involved in the
assessment process to obtain data that are often
not available from statistical departments) to
school establishments and private companies (to
analyse the impact of human activities on
well-being.)
Types and sources of data used
Data (both subjective and objective information)
are collected through statistical records, studies,
activity reports, well-informed persons and
citizens’ surveys.
Methodology
The Indicators were elaborated and measured
through a five-stage process, involving about 250
citizens. In the first stage, different citizens’
categories were organised in small, homogeneous
groups of eight to ten people. These groups were
invited to consider well-being issues individually
(by writing “post it” notes) and then collectively
(taking stock of their thoughts together) in light of
three simple and completely open questions:
1) What do you understand as “well-being” in
Timisoara?
2) What you understand as “ill-being” in
Timisoara?
3) What do you do to ensure your own well-being
in Timisoara?
This generated almost 300 highly varied criteria for
well-being. In the second phase, these criteria were
pooled and organised according to the main facets
of well-being, so as to produce a consolidated,
inclusive set of 31 indicators organised along 7
principal dimensions. The following table presents
the indicators chosen for the dimension on
governance.
Each indicator of progress/well-being can be
evaluated on the basis of a 5-point scoring scale
expressing the existent situation with respect to
each indicator: from 0 = very bad situation to 5 =
ideal situation. The following table provides an
example of such a scoring scale for the governance
indicator “institutional relations with citizens.”
A Users’ Guide to Measuring Local Governance 99