Chapter 10
Governance, Institutional Framework and Reforms
10.1 BACKGROUND
'Good governance' is the overarching objective of public administration in the civic arena. In virtually all sectors of public intervention and service delivery, it is now agreed that unless and until the state of governance is 'good', service or product delivery will not be proper. In the recent past, a large number of people and organizations have given a variety of definitions of what governance is all about. Governance is defined differently in terms of the context. According to one definition, " the ways in which stakeholders interact with each other in order to influence the outcomes of public policies " is public governance. According to the World Bank, " the manner in which power is exercised in the management of a country's economic and social resources for development " is good governance. There are today dozens of definitions of what governance and good governance is. However, if one has to summaries and list downs the ten characteristics of good governance, they would be:
- Citizen involvement, participation and satisfaction
- Transparency in all decision making
- Accountability of actions taken
- Equality and social inclusion
- Ethical and honest behaviour
- Ability to compete in a global environment
- Efficiency of service delivery
- Respect for democratic values
- Respect for the rule of law
- Use of appropriate technology and environmental sustainability
The United Nations-HABITAT launched a Global Campaign on Urban Governance in the year 1999 in order to support the implementation of the Habitat Agenda goal of "sustainable human settlements development in an urbanizing world ".
© 2006 nagarnigamagra.com
All Rights Reserved.
