A Users' Guide to Measuring Local Governance

Box 3:
Report extract – Bulgaria country report using Indicators of Local Democratic Governance
The Bulgaria country report is included in the book “The State of Local Democracy in Central Europe”, published in 2006.
Data was collected between 2002 and 2003. The tables below present two examples of the information used to
produce the country report, based on the Indicators of Local Democratic Governance. The first table is related to the
sources of municipal e-government, within the area of local democracy assessment related to the “Transparent and
Accountable Government”. The second table shows the level of education of Local Representatives, within the area of
local democracy assessment related to the “Local Representatives”.
Sources of Municipal E-government [%]: Yes No Total
Municipal government has a website (N 183) 67.2 32.8 100.0
Local government provision of information by e-mail (N 183) 58.5 41.5 100.0
E-mail usage by local representatives (N 953) 28.2 71.8 100.0
Internet usage by local representatives (N 950) 39.1 60.9 100.0
Source: face-to-face interview with Local Chief Administrative Officials
Level of Education of Local Representatives:
Not Completed
Primary
Primary Trade School Secondary Higher
Education
Total
Councillors 1
0.1%
6
0.7%
147
17.3%
36
4.2%
662
77.7%
852
100%
Mayors 8
8.4%
3
3.2%
84
88.4%
95
100%
Total 1
0.1%
6
0.6%
155
16.4%
39
4.1%
746
78.8%
947
100%
Source: LRS 2003.
Source: http://lqi.osi.hu/publications/2006/340/Soos_complete_low_res_2.pdf
Key actors/stakeholders
The central actors in this exercise are the chief
administrators of municipalities, elected
representatives, including Mayors and Councillors,
and citizens. The primary beneficiaries and target
audience of this initiative are national policy- and
decision-makers. Results can also be useful to
donors and policy analysts for assessing technical
assistance needs for improving local governance.
Results reporting format
Results are represented by two outputs: a dataset
compiling responses from the two surveys, and a
country report on local democracy. The country
report addresses three main areas: local
governance performance, representation in local
government and local civil society. Each area is
further divided into sub-themes and a general
leading question is elaborated for each sub-theme.
Table 8 shows the manner in which the reports are
organised and Box 3 provides an extract from the
Bulgaria country report published in 2006.
Coverage
The Indicators of Local Democratic Governance
focus on transition countries of Central and Eastern
76 UNDP Oslo Governance Centre