Preamble
At first glance, Canada and Zimbabwe, continents apart, would seem to have little in common. Yet both nations are former colonies that are now established as independent republics and have inherited the Westminster system of government.
Since inception, ZUNDE has championed the cause of good governance and the rule of law in Zimbabwe and here we present material from Canada’s Institute on Governance to explore what good governance entails. There are striking similarities between what Canada strives for and what Zimbabwe needs. We look forward to the day when Zimbabwe is a free liberal democracy and an exemplar of good governance.
Defining
gov • ern • ance
The complexity of Governance is difficult to capture in a simple definition.
The need for governance exists anytime a group of people come together to accomplish an end. Though the governance literature proposes several definitions, most rest on three dimensions: authority, decision-making and accountability. At the Institute, our working definition of governance reflects these dimensions:
Governance determines who has power, who makes decisions, how other players make their voice heard and how account is rendered.
Governance is how society or groups within it, organize to make decisions.
As we unpack this simple statement three big issues come to the fore:
1
Who has a voice in making decisions?
2
How are decisions made?
3
Who is accountable?
1
Who has a voice in making decisions?
2
How are decisions made?
3
Who is accountable?
Governance challenges include:
In short, rigid government control over data, decisions, and the social agenda is just no longer tenable.
Five Principles of Good Governance
The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) enunciates a set of principles that, with slight variations, appear in much of the literature. There is strong evidence that these UNDP–based principles have a claim to universal recognition. In grouping them under five broad themes, the Institute on Governance recognizes that these principles often overlap or are conflicting at some point, that they play out in practice according to the actual social context, that applying such principles is complex and that they are all about not only the results of power but how well it is exercised.
The UNDP Principles and related UNDP text on which they are based
The UNDP Principles and related UNDP text on which they are based
The UNDP Principles and related UNDP text on which they are based
The UNDP Principles and related UNDP text on which they are based
The UNDP Principles and related UNDP text on which they are based