A Users' Guide to Measuring Local Governance

Figure 1:
UGI Radar Chart for six in Sri Lanka
Effectiveness Sub-Index
1.00
0.80
0.60
0.40
Accountability Sub-Index
0.20
0.00
-0.20
-0.40
-0.60
-0.80
-1.00
Participation Sub-Index
Equity Sub-Index
Colombo
Kandy
Kotte
Moratuwa
Matale
Negombo
Source: http://www.undp.org/oslocentre/docs05/cross/4.%20Creatiog%20Local%20governance%20Measurements%20-%20shipra%20Narang.ppt
Gender focus
Two indicators specifically address issues relating
to gender: “proportion of women councillors” and
“proportion of women in key positions”.
Poverty focus
The Global Campaign on Urban Governance aims
explicitly at contributing to the eradication of
poverty through improved urban governance. The
UGI is a tool to further this goal. Two indicators
under equity – “existence of a pro-poor pricing
policy for water”, and “incentives for informal
business” – explicitly focus on the poor. However,
other indicators portray the general situation at
the municipal level, without emphasising the
situation of poor communities or citizens.
Strengths
• The UGI is a self-assessment tool that can be
used to initiate a dialogue among key urban
actors and stakeholders on development
priorities.
• By providing separate assessments for each
sub-index as well as normalised values for each
indicator, the UGI can be used to identify
precise weaknesses in local governance, and
determine policy reforms and capacity
building needs in consultation with stakeholders.
It can also be used to seek peer or donor
assistance for improving specific aspects of
governance.
• The UGI does not need extensive financial
resources or time to implement. A two-day
stakeholder workshop can generate most of
the questionnaire responses. However, it does
require a core group of committed
stakeholders who are willing to finalise the
questionnaire, calculate the results, put
together the narrative report and share it with
sother actors.
• The quantitative approach can help to
objectively review and monitor progress over
time. UN-HABITAT suggests that the UGI
indicators be collected at regular intervals of
two years, and be used as part of a city
monitoring and evaluation framework.
However, there is no evidence that this has
happened in the cities where the Index has
been applied.
58 UNDP Oslo Governance Centre