GOOD GOVERNANCE

Introduction

In contemporary day governance internationally, the subject regarding Good Governance has taken the front position as an obligatory prerequisite for social, monetary and political developments (UNESCO, 2005), yet improved governance persists to be a basis of worry along with a big challenge to the majority nations including Chisa. In spite of their constitutional provisions, in addition to the enormous financial resources, and enormous potentials of the nation, including the societal and economic programs that have been executed by consecutive administrations good governance persists to be indefinable to Chisa. Chisa’s Good Governance is made complex by the highly multi-ethnic factor and the heightened tension amongst the tribes because of the nation’s rich resources. Additionally the nation’s labeling that it is a ‘failed state’ makes it difficult to penetrate and implement Good Governance (Khan, 2009). 

As good governance refers to the process of resolution-making and the procedure through which decisions are executed, the scrutiny of governance emphasizes on the official and unofficial actors concerned with decision-making and executing the verdicts made and the official and unofficial structures put in place to identify and realize the decision (Grindle, 2004). This paper will look at ways to implement Good Governance in Chisa. Additionally, the Millennium Development Goals require “Good Governance to be exercised since it is the single mainly significant factor in abolishing poverty and fostering development.

Defining Good Governance Concept

The increasing precedence accorded the idea of Good Governance in worldwide dialogues, on politics and growth across the world has lead to steady definitions and redefinitions regarding what really defines Good Governance (Gisselguist, 2012). Good Governance agenda is a significant goal and a method, which impacts economic growth and development. In badly governed nations, fraudulent bureaucrats and politicians bluntly hinder development endeavors by misappropriating aid contributions along with misdirecting aid to unproductive projects. Less obvious but equally pernicious, governments that are not accountable to their citizens and with inefficient bureaucracies and weak institutions are unwilling or unable to formulate and implement pro-growth and pro-poor policies (Gisseltquirt, 2012).  Good Governance promotes democracy in national administration and mostly in nations that are multiethnic. In Africa corruption and tribalism has continuously led to bad governance since when once one tribe gets into power the others have no place in the administration of the national resources. Governance in the framework of this document refers to domestic politics and ways in which power is executed by governments in the running and distribution of a nation’s collective and economic resources.

Elements of good governance

Good Governance in Chisa will be implemented through a number of elements that will foster equality of resource allocation, democracy and understanding between the numerous ethnic tribes. These elements are discussed as below; 

1. Participation

Participation is an essential aspect of Good Governance and it implies the broad involvement of average citizens in resolution making along with governance. UNESCO (2005) article states that participation is a critical aspect for Good Governance through two ways. Firstly, citizens’ participation in decision-making procedures allows larger transparency and aids political decisions made be aligned with the requirements of the citizens impacted by them. Secondly, participation is imperative for democratic authenticity, which relies on the investment individuals possess as citizens in their self-governing aspect (Grindle, 2004). Thus, in Chisa the media along with other intermediate institutions should be introduced to stimulate citizen participation to foster Good Governance. The media’s responsibility in promoting participation is critical since the media reports about elements of decision-making procedures and award stakeholders a vote in the process (Eboh, 2003). Therefore, the media will allow participation through two methods; by facilitating and offering platforms for the people to have correct and adequate information that assist them in making lucid and informed decisions along with identifying the correct action advantageous to them.

Additionally, as a response mechanism, the media will grant the means for the people to record their feelings, communicate their consent, and dissent regarding varying issues. The media assumes the primary intermediaries role of information supply, which the society requires to participate effectively on governance issues (Eboh, 2003). Secondly, in order to improve and enhance public participation I recommend the establishment of vibrant civil society groups that will campaign and check the performance of the leaders. Civil society groups will be able to voice out the concerns of the many through various platforms and they will inform the public regarding all issues pertaining to bad governance in the nation. More representatives of the people in the national assembly should be fostered and the government should ensure equality in appointing government officials from all ethnic tribes (Eboh, 2003). This increases participation and representation of the publics’ view on issues affecting them and which will steer Good Governance. 

• Rule of law:

This is and remains the basis of Good Governance. This is because Good governance needs fair lawful structures that are impartially practiced (Dournbos, 2003). Rule of law refers to a group of practices that permit the law to execute a mediating function between diverse stake holders in community and as a normative principle cited by members of community that reveal their consent to this standard (UNESCO, 2005). Certainly, the evident expression of deficiency of Good Governance regards the existence of arbitrariness along with disregarding rule of law. Rule of law can be best viewed as a platform where unprejudiced laws enforcement is practiced in all sectors of the society. Thus in Chisa in order to promote the unprejudiced exercise of rule of law fair legal structures should be put in place to enforce impartiality. This additionally requires complete shielding of human rights, mostly those of minorities (Dournbos, 2003). Most importantly, Chisa requires an impartial and independent judiciary, which will be able to execute their duties of interpreting the law and punishing the offenders irrespective of their status in the society. In addition to the impartial judiciary, Chisa requires an incorruptible police force that will enforce the law without favoritism and observing the human rights regulations (Gisselguist, 2012).  Thus, through funding of these reforms (the judiciary and police) the nation will experience a better positive consideration of the rule of law. Citizens must recognize that rule of law comprises of a group of institutions, practices and laws that are founded to avoid the subjective exercise of power.

• Transparency:

 This is usually described as institutions openness; to be precise the extent to which outsiders can scrutinize and assess the deeds of insiders Dournbos (2003). The rationale of transparency regards allowing people, to hold accountable the institutions and governments for their strategies and performances. Additionally, transparency can be described as official business performed in ways that substantive and technical information is accessible to and largely understandable by, citizens and groups in the community, conditional on reasonable limits shielding privacy and security (Bellver & Kaufmann, 2005). Among the various elements of Good Governance, transparency is widely recognized as a core principle. In Chisa transparency must be closely associated with accountability and should permit people to hold government and institutions accountable of their performance and through this way decrease corruption in government. The root towards transparency concerns the provision of sufficient information, since transparency involves providing information in an open approach.

In Chisa the media should be strengthened since it is the main instrument for disseminating awareness to the electorate. Liberated and autonomous media (Dournbos, 2003) guarantee information access by the media and subsequent dissemination. The media should play a crucial role in checking government responsibility to the public by explaining state policies and deeds. Therefore, funding should be directed towards enabling the media check the transparency of the government. Secondly, for transparency to actually take root in the public institutions the state require to formulate regular auditing of the state departments usage of resources. This can be done through establishing an anti-corruption agency to check the actions of state officers in regards to their accountability of the usage of resources (Gisselguist, 2012). A majority of the conflicts emanate from biased resource allocation, since Chisa is heavily endowed with resources, the allocation of benefits must be transparent.  Thus, the government and NGOs requires carrying out campaigns regarding resource allocation and distribution awareness and using the same institutions to oversee their allocation (Khan, 2009).

Thus, the NGO will lobby governmental departments to periodically present to the public their performances and usage of their allocated resources. Additionally, campaigns regarding the transparency of the elections will be done to empower the public on matters transparent elections and to help them identify fraudulent electoral practices.

• Responsiveness:

According to Dournbos (2003), good governance calls for institutions and processes to serve every stakeholder within a rational timeframe, by reacting to grievances, requirements and aspirations of the people. Who is answerable to who varies depends on if decisions are made internally or externally to a body or institution. Generally, an organization is answerable to those who are affected by their decisions or actions (Doornbos, 2001). Responsiveness for instance towards ethnic conflicts is going to be awarded more attention since the government might be slows towards reacting to such problems. Through the provision of aid and resources required during the times of conflict. Additionally, campaigns to train state officers along with the citizens regarding the responsive strategies towards conflict such as prevention of conflicts way before they start will be initialized. The organization will analyze and give results of responsiveness towards aspects that affect the public.

• Consensus oriented:

According to Eboh (2003), Good Governance calls for mediation of the dissimilar interests in nation to acquire a wide consent in society regarding the whole community’s best interest and ways this can be attained. Consensus in Chisa requires a wide and long-term viewpoint on what is required for sustainable human development along with ways to attain the goals of such growth. This could only result from recognition of the chronological, cultural along with social contexts of societies or communities. Funding will be directed towards the provision of information; edification and illumination of the electorate; to ensure that they make knowledgeable decisions and take actions leading thereof towards the benefit of the people (Grindle, 2004). Additionally, by providing expertise in conflict areas whether political or social the organization will promote understanding between communities to and the small ‘states’ to be able to make national decisions regarding development together. The conflicts of resources extraction in Chisa have rendered them useless due to conflicts, thus the organization will take a mediation position to unite the ‘states’ and encourage consensus on issues affecting the citizens.

• Equity and inclusiveness:

According to Khan (2009), a community’s well being relies on ensuring that every one of its members feels that they possess a share in it and not debarred from the majority of society. Therefore, this requires every group, predominantly the mainly vulnerable, to be awarded opportunities to get better and/or preserve their welfare. The organization in the distribution of aid and other resources will focus on equity on all communities across Chisa.

Challenges

Despite the well-laid program towards implementing Good Governance in Chisa there exist numerous challenges. Among them is the fact that the country is divided in small ‘states’ and bringing sanity to these entities is quite hard (Grindle, 2004). Additionally, conflicts have arisen due to the control of resources, ensuring an equitable resource sharing will be tricky. The highly volatile country poses dangers to lives of the staffs working with the communities and the government since there is no structured security system.

Opportunities

Despite the challenges identified this country has previously initiated efforts to reduce the already escalated conflicts, therefore, the appearance of this organization as a third party mediator of the varying ethnic groups and states will greatly help appease the parties Dournbos (2003). Therefore, the actuality that the organization is state based its autonomy in dealing the available problems and attempting to foster Good Governance will be fruitful.

Conclusion

Attaining Good Governance, calls for understanding and contribution of all members of the society. Nevertheless, it has been indicated that for a just and democratic governance to be accomplished leaders need to utilize their power sensibly and for the larger good. Systems and processes need to be established to impose controls on power and persuade state officials to carry out their duties in the citizens’ best interests. The organization sees success in the implementation of the plan since it encompasses all the areas of conflict affecting Chisa. Good Governance in the country is highly critical towards avoidance of the restlessness and suffering experienced by the citizens of the country.

References

Bellver, A., & Kaufmann, D., 2005. Transparenting Transparency: Initial Empirics and Policy Applications, World Bank Policy Research Working Paper, (forthcoming) (Washington) http://www.worldbank.org/wbi/ governance

Doornbos, M., 2001. ‘Good Governance’: The Rise and Decline of a Policy Metaphor? Journal of Development Studies, 37(6), 93-108.

Dournbos, M., 2003. ‘Good Governance’: The Metamorphosis of a Policy Metaphor. Journal of International affairs, 57(1), 3-17.

Eboh PM., 2003. Philosophy, Women and Responsible Leadership in Africa. In J.O. Oguejiofor (Ed.), Philosophy, Democracy and Responsible Governance in Africa, New Brunswick and London (pp. 13-26). London: Transaction Publishers

Gisselguist, R.M., 2012. Good governance as a concept , and Why This Matters for Development Policy. UNU-WIDER Working paper No. 2012/30. Retrieved from http://doc-08-94-docsviewer.googleusercontent.com.

Grindle, M., 2004. Good Enough Governance: Poverty Reduction and Reform in Developing Countries. Governance: An International Journal of Policy, Administration, and Institutions, 17(4), 525-48.

Khan, M.H., 2009. ‘Governance, Growth and Poverty Reduction’. DESA Working Paper 75. Department of Economic and Social Affairs, United Nations

UNESCO, 2005. Good Governance. retrieved from http://portal.unesco. org/ci/en/ev.php-unesco url_id=5205& url_do=do_printpage &url_section=201.html.