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PASSO has been working in the framework of the EU Sustainable Development Strategy (SDS), and more in particular the work carried out by Eurostat to assess progress towards the SD path by means of Sustainable Development Indicators (SDIs).
The SDI framework is based on ten themes, among which Good Governance is considered the one most needing further analysis as the lack of a satisfactory set of indicators is generally acknowledged. To meet this need, PASSO has identified an innovative methodology to assess the Sustainable Development Indicators on Good Governance and its cross-cutting features from a social perspective, using a participatory approach.
The participatory process:
The starting point has been the list of SDIs adopted in the context of the EU Sustainable Development Strategy on the Good Governance theme. Alternative sets of governance indicators from international initiatives (e.g. World Bank, the US Agency for International Development, Transparency International and the Bertelsmann Foundation) have been considered too. From this very beginning of the analysis, it became clear that indicators as such could not been assessed without the provision of a dedicated framework, in the form of criteria and sub-criteria, representing the main issues underpinning the concept of Good Governance.
These sets of indicators and the first suggestion for a PASSO framework have been subject to a participatory assessment process allowing Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) members to react to RTD performers, statisticians and experts' views in an iterative manner. To this purpose, a small interdisciplinary International Expert Group (IEG) composed of 18 members representing both CSOs and RTD performers has been created for a first professional review of the existing indicators.
The results of the first assessment have been submitted for consultation to a Europe-wide large CSOs network. National CSOs consultations have been running in parallel in Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, France, Romania, Spain and Luxembourg.
On the basis of the results of the national consultations, the International Expert Group has been gathered for a second time to re-assess the updated list of indicators and the inputs received on the GG framework. Finally, the public at large was called to give their opinion at the occasion of the final forum, which was organised as well using a participatory methodology. At the end of the overall process, PASSO provided a series of outcomes built on the consensus among all social actors concerned.
- An innovative Good Governance Framework, comprising 5 guiding principles or criteria: 1) participation; 2) capacity; 3) transparency & accountability; 4) responsibility; 5) use of best available knowledge and founded on an important prerequisite - the rule of law - which is a condition sine qua non for any democratic society, and it is heavily influenced by another important enabling factor, i.e. the presence of civic culture and social capital (norms, values and trust levels among people and institutions). Each criterion is further defined by a set of subcriteria.
- A final set of 30 indicators, each of them related to one of the 5 Good Governance criteria (and also to one subcriterion) of the PASSO framework. For each indicator, the unit of measure has been identified. It is also indicated whether the indicator was already existing or was suggested by the PASSO group (best available, best to be developed).