Good Governance: A World Bank Perspective

Governance is a concept that has been around for years and is commonly used by many people. According to the United Nations (UN), governance refers to the activities of all political and administrative authorities to govern their country. In the 1990s, the World Bank became the first international institution to adopt the concept of good governance into lending arrangements for developing countries and introduce the idea to the general public. Now, the term good governance has often been used by national and international organisations.

The World Bank's Governance Global Practice supports client countries to build capable, efficient, resilient, sustainable, inclusive, and accountable institutions. This is critical for returning to sustainable growth and is at the heart of the World Bank’s twin goals of ending extreme poverty and boosting shared prosperity.

In doing this, the World Bank focuses its efforts on strengthening Public Finances, Public Administration, and Public Institutions. The ability of governments to effectively provide public goods, to support an environment that can generate jobs and growth, to address market failures and to engage citizens in the process is more important than ever. Countries with strong institutions are more resilient, are better able to facilitate private sector growth, reduce poverty, deliver valuable services, address climate change, earn the confidence of citizens, and ultimately avoid conflict and fragility.

The Importance of Good Governance

Overlapping crises-from the war in Ukraine and the pandemic to climate change-affect governments' response in unprecedented ways. Citizens’ trust in public institutions continue to erode, and there is an urgency for renewing the current social contract in countries around the world. Public Sector Governance and Anticorruption continue to rank high among the most important development priorities. In this context, governments need to do more with less to meet increasing demands from citizens while removing obstacles for private sector development.

To effectively address climate change and pandemic risks there is a need for a stronger, flexible, and more responsive civil service which can incorporate risk management and has access to contingencies in an emergency. The lessons from the COVID-19 response point to the need to adapt models of government operations, service delivery and interactions with citizens, which include GovTech options for modernization of services to citizens and businesses. These lessons will be important in tackling climate change and future pandemic risks.

Key Principles of Good Governance

While definitions may vary, certain principles are consistently associated with good governance:

1. Participation: An opportunity for everyone to voice their opinions through institutions or representations.
2. Transparency: Every policy taken and implemented by the government must be carried out under existing regulations.
3. This fifth principle is related to the decision-making process.
4. Good governance ensures justice for the community.
5. Every decision-making process and its institutions must be able to produce decisions that meet every community need.

IDA20 and Governance

The Governance and Institutions Cross-Cutting Issue (G&I CCI) in IDA20 support capable, inclusive, and accountable public administration. IDA20 G&I CCI builds on the strong progress made in IDA19 and IDA18’s “Governance and Institutions” Special Theme and deepens commitments that reinforce fiscal sustainability and accelerate digital governance to improve service delivery, statistical capacity, and institutional strengthening. More specially, the policy commitments support debt transparency and fiscal sustainability, domestic resource mobilization, GovTech, and the fight against illicit financial flows. These commitments serve both as enablers and cross-cutting foundations for IDA’s effective investments in a green, resilient, and inclusive recovery.

The COVID-19 crisis exposed pre-existing weaknesses in the core governance systems of governments in IDA countries, as the experienced enormous strain to swiftly implement containment measures, respond to surging demands for health care services, vaccination campaigns, manage large-scale vaccination campaigns, deliver offsite/remote education services, and scale-up social protection programs.

The Role of Local Governments

The United Cities Local Governments (UCLG) has emphasised in the Global Agenda of Local Regional Governments that effective local governance can be a key pathway to solving the various challenges in development at the global level. The biggest example is, of course, towards the achievement of the 2030 Agenda or what we know as the Sustainable Development Goals, as well as addressing crucial issues such as climate change.

Local and regional governments demonstrate on a daily basis the potential that action based on proximity has to contribute to solving major global challenges. This is UCLG ASPAC believes that the development and improvement of people’s living conditions should be undertaken primarily at the local level. United Cities and Local Governments Asia Pacific is the voice of Local and Regional Governments in the region. We aim to ensure that our values are shared among our members.

Meanwhile, at the local level, UCLG ASPAC believes that vertical integration of national policies with local level implementation is key to enable greater impact in building a sustainable and resilient city.

It can be concluded that good governance is an ideal concept to achieve its goals. Yet, of course, implementing good governance is not as easy as it appears on paper. There are only a few countries that have proven successful in implementing this concept in their governance. Swift and responsible action from various parties will undoubtedly be very helpful in implementing good governance.

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