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Key Text Handbook of Democracy and Governance Program Indicators

Author: G Hyman and R Silver
Date: 1998
Size: 277 pages (1.58MB)

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Summary

Recent shifts in donor practice have increasingly emphasised a results-oriented approach. Performance management is becoming a core facet of many donor-sponsored programmes. Such approaches pose considerable challenges in the realms of defining objectives, establishing benchmarks and assessing progress.

This handbook from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) offers an insight into the process of devising and applying performance-measurement indicators in the realms of monitoring democracy and governance. The indicators referred to have been derived from field tests carried out in Guatemala, the Philippines, Uganda and the Ukraine. The differing contexts of these nations enabled the usefulness of the indicators to be examined. Problems in terms of accessing good quality data are exposed.The handbook provides responses to key questions. How can indicators for measuring phenomena such as 'democracy' be devised? What logistical and theoretical challenges confront donors in identifying and collecting data?

Details of indicators are provided for the following democracy-related objectives: rule of law and human rights; political processes; political activity within civil society; and accountability of government institutions.

  • The handbook clearly indicates how indicators can be linked to overall agency objectives and intermediate results. Tables are provided to illustrate how indicators can be linked to data collection methods and the setting of targets.
  • The development of indicators is integrally bound up with the setting of a broader strategy and the deployment of the measurement indicators. It is important to ensure that the relative balance between these three elements is maintained and that measurement does not start to drive the overall process.
  • Developing indicators is a three-stage process involving brainstorming, exploration of potential data sources and the refinement of indicators. Quantitative and qualitative data are both applicable although discretion should be used in selecting any data source. There are no perfect indicators.

The USAID handbook is an important contribution to the process of devising performance criteria for donor-aid programs. Other agencies should not however treat it as a definitive guide. The following points should be borne in mind:

  • The indicators provided have been devised for specific objectives, programmes and country settings and so are not common indicators.
  • Multiple indicators are provided for each objective; these represent a menu of options for objective teams to work with.
  • Feasibility in terms of cost, time and logistics must be considered when devising indicators. Assessments of the prior availability of data in a given country must be undertaken.
  • Target setting in the context of democratisation is difficult due to the existence of different interpretations of democracy and weaknesses in data availability.
  • The handbook can act as a basis for forwarding our knowledge base in relation to performance management systems. Field officers and their partners must work collaboratively in devising appropriate measures.

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Source: US Agency for International Development, 1998, Handbook of Democracy and Governance Program Indicators, USAID, Washington D.C.
Author: Richard Silver , rsilver@usaid.gov
United States Agency for International Development - Democracy and Governance (USAID), http://www.usaid.gov/our_work/democracy_and_governance


 
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