Download good governance

Governance and NRM
Exploring the meaning of ‘Governance’ concepts in
NRM (with reference to the FLEGT process)
Wageningen International
Kumasi, May 2008
Contents
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Introduction
Governance
Good governance and accountability
Good Enough Governance
EU and FLEGT Governance
VPA in Ghana
Introduction
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Background: the project is also about
governance, but what does it mean and what
should it mean?
Objective of this session: Obtain more insight on
the development and application of ‘good
governance’ principles in the forest sector in
timber producing countries, in relation to the
FLEGT process and Sustainable Forest
Management.
We can question ourselves:
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What is the general thinking about ‘governance’,
‘forest governance’ and other ‘governance’
concepts with possible relevance for the project?
What can we learn?
How does the European Union deal with the
concept of ‘governance’? How does this compare
to general thinking about the concept of
‘governance’?
Take a look at the current Ghana VPA process
and discuss the extent to which forest
governance can be expected to improve?
Governance – ‘scientifically’
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From the ‘old’ style of governance – the government is
steering – to a new situation where more actors are costeering.
The government does not bear the sole responsibility for
the governance situation; every actor has to play a role.
Important aspects of this new situation are:
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multi-actor,
multi-level (national, international, and local) and
multi-meaning: different stakeholders may embrace different
values, interests and world views.
Definition of governance:
……..a way of executing (and contributing towards
the development of) policies which is focused on
cooperation whereby the representatives of
government, market and civil society participate in
mixed public and private networks.
Good Governance
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Aspirational, value-laden
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Important principles: participation, fairness,
decency, accountability, transparency and
efficiency.
‘Universally applicable’ because based on Human
Rights
Often used by donors and international
organizations (perceived link with poverty
alleviation)
Many definitions, each one with specific
emphasis, but not much contradiction
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Definition of good governance:
Often used as umbrella term for the quality of
governing institutions (including absence of
corruption, effectiveness, transparency,
impersonality and respecting rule of law
Or
 “Good governance is aspirational, concerned with
the distribution of power and authority in a society
in ways that best serve the widest cross-section
of the population (Ribot and Mayers, 2005)
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Civil
Society
Participatio
n
Fairness
Decency
Accountability
Transparancy
Efficiency
Economic
society
Government
Political
society
Bureaucracy
Judiciary
Accountability
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Vertical: elections
Horizontal: government to government
organization
Direct societal participation (social
accountability):
Lobbying and advocacy
 Media as watchdog
 Private Public Partnerships (PPPs)
 Citizen action (social mobilisation)
 Community score cards
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Accountability
Public Administration
•Rendering of services
•Development policies
•Spending of the budget
Vertical
elections
Elected representatives
Public Administration
•Independent observers
•Structures for checking
Horizontal (public) •Ombudsman
Civil Society
Media, NGOs, social audits, citizen/community score cards,
etc.
Good Enough Governance
Governance agenda unrealistically long
and still growing
 Democratic principles based on norms and
values which are culturally determined
 Values not automatically deeply embedded
in culture of a country
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Definition of “good enough governance”
…as a condition of minimally acceptable level of
government performance and civil society
engagement that does not significantly hinder
economic and political development and that
permits poverty reduction initiatives to go forward
(Grindle, 2004)
Good Enough Governance: what to do?
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Reduce the “good governance” agenda
Introduce a historical, country specific analysis
Sort out aspects critical for poverty alleviation
Assess priorities strategically
Think about alternatives, but don’t forget the
public sector
Concrete aspects of Governance within
FLEGT
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No clear definition of Good Governance
Strengthen land tenure and access rights;
Strengthen effective participation of all stakeholders;
Increase transparency in association with forest
exploitation operations, including through the
introduction of independent monitoring;
Reduce corruption;
Engage the private sector of the timber producing
countries in the efforts to combat illegal logging;
Address the financing of violent conflict
Roles of EU in FLEGT process
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Donor who promotes “good” (forest) governance
Buyer of products (as government or as
consumer) – setting standards
Party that influences other donors and agencies
FLEGT partner Country
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Government’s willingness to improve forest
governance is crucial
Major change process which aims to:
 Address
governance failures in the forestry
sector
 To ensure continued optimum contribution of the
forest sector to national socio-economic
development
 To enable Ghana continue to do business with
the international community (trade and
development cooperation)
What is included in the Ghana VPA process?
 Market
demanded and enforced legal standard
and accompanying Legality Assurance System
(LAS)
 Forest verification system (TVE) that monitors
and reports compliance to the standard
 Licensing system that provides assurance to
buyers that products have been legally sourced
 Participation of an independent forest monitor
 Democratised
policy formulation,
inclusion of all stakeholder groups
 Preparatory research in multistakeholder
sub-committees
 Policy advise (to the Minister) in
multistakeholder sub-committees
 Increased
participation of land owners and
communities in forest management
 Increased transparency in the award of resource
rights
 Addressing the ownership and tenure rights of
stakeholders
 Participation of small scale forest enterprises in
legitimate resource utilization
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Position industry to be processing hub in subregion
 Retool industry for downstream processing
 Use of small diameter plantation logs
 Promotion of lesser used species
 Use of substitute material (bamboo, coconut
wood)
Introduction of Mobile Recovery Teams and legitimising
small scale forest enterprises?
 Increased use of substitute material e.g. bamboo,
coconut wood etc.?
 Which direction will the legislative reforms go?
 Industry rationalisation = reduced employment?
 Will there be changes in benefit flow to communities
with increased transparency under VPA?
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 Plantation
development, what opportunities?
 Democratisation of policy formulation – greater
community participation?
Group work
Divide in 3 groups and critically assess the extent to
which the current VPA process in Ghana will
contribute to “good (enough) governance” in the
Ghana forestry sector
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Appoint amongst yourselves a discussion facilitator,
timekeeper and rapporteur; agree on the process to be
followed and define intended outcome (5 minutes)
Debate for 30 minutes;
Prepare for giving concise feedback to each other (10
minutes)
Give report (5 minutes)