Since  2008,  the  Global  Programme  has  supported  country-led  governance  assessments  to  enhance  democratic governance,  based  on  the  principles  of  national  ownership,  capacity  development  and  alignment. Two  and  a half years into programming, an increasing number of UNDP staff and national counterparts have accumulated significant  knowledge. This  knowledge  is  both  substantive  on  the  issues  of  governance  indicators,  and  practical on  how  to  manage  a  process  of  country-led  governance  assessments.  Through  this  workshop,  as  well  as  the wave of reviews and evaluations that took place in 2011, the Global Programme has tapped into this reservoir of knowledge and distilled some of the lessons learned. The  purpose  of  this  report  is  to  enhance  peer-to-peer  learning,  thereby  strengthening  project  design  and management.  It  does  not  seek  to  assess  or  judge  the  performance  of  individual  projects  or  of  the  Global Programme. The  workshop  served  to  create  a  space  where  lessons  of  all  kinds  could  be  discussed  constructively. 

 

Based on the specific context and local demand, some projects focus more on government performance assessment (e.g.,  Kazakhstan  and  Viet  Nam),  others  more  on  the  quality  of  democracy  in  general  (e.g.,  Chile),  on  specific aspects of governance (e.g., corruption in Tajikistan; participation and transparency in Viet Nam) or on specific service  delivery  sectors  (e.g.,  FYR  Macedonia,  Viet  Nam  and  Egypt).  In  addition,  the  level  of  assessments  also differs, from the national level (e.g., Paraguay, Chile and Senegal) to the regional level (e.g., Mexico) and down to the local level (e.g., Nigeria and Viet Nam). To make sense of such diversity, this report has grouped projects around seven thematic topics that were selected to capture some of the innovative aspects on country-led governance assessments, with a view to reflect the more strategic questions that the projects have to deal with.