"Without good governance, long-term sustainable development is not possible"

"Improving governance, reducing corruption and building democracy and accountability must be integral parts of Irish Aid’s work.”

White Paper on Irish Aid

Click here to view the White Paper and related documents: http://www.irishaid.gov.ie/whitepaper/

The White Paper on Irish Aid, which was published in September 2006, sets out the guiding principles of Ireland’s overseas development aid programme. One such core principle provides that improving governance, reducing corruption and building democracy and accountability must be integral parts of Irish Aid’s work.

The White Paper identifies governance as one of four priority areas that will be mainstreamed across the aid programme.

Good governance has a major impact on poverty reduction. Without good governance, development cannot be sustained. It influences the environment for economic growth, the way that resources are allocated and distributed, and how effectively essential services are delivered.

 Fighting corruption, fraud and bribery is an essential element of good governance and tackling these scourges will increase the effectiveness and impact of development assistance.

 Political will, enhanced state capacity and public accountability to citizens can all help to eradicate corruption and fraud. So also can efforts at international, regional and national levels to prevent bribery of foreign public officials.

"Poor governance is a problem in many developing countries, including some of Ireland’s programme countries."

White Paper on Irish Aid

The Challenge

Governance is essentially understood as the way in which power is exercised in the management of a country’s economic and social resources for development. Recent UNDP and World Bank Development Reports assert that without good governance, sustainable development is not possible.

Poor governance is a problem in many developing countries, including some of Ireland’s programme countries. But the problems of governance in developing countries must be understood in context. In Europe it has taken time to build societies with political systems that are accountable and effectively meet the needs of most of their citizens. Many of the poorest states in Africa achieved independence little more than 30 years ago and emerged in difficult circumstances. The evolution of fully accountable and responsive government in these countries will take time and is primarily the responsibility of the countries themselves.

Corruption is the abuse of power, often public power, for private gain. Political corruption thrives in countries where systems are weak. Weak governance does not always mean that there are high levels of corruption but it does make it more possible.

Weak governance and corruption greatly hinder development and reduce the effectiveness and impact of development assistance. They erode local and international confidence in government and in state institutions. The harmful effects of corruption are especially severe on the poorest, who are the most reliant on public services and the least capable of paying the extra costs associated with bribery and fraud. Increasingly, improving governance and tackling corruption, fraud and bribery are central features of international donor approaches to development assistance.

Governance and corruption must be key considerations in selecting new programme countries. In those countries where need is greatest, it can be expected that there may be difficulties with standards of governance. Nevertheless, the overall trend must be positive. The government(s) in question must also have the demonstrated capacity to take ownership of the development process, leading the work of donors, in line with their own priorities.

Ireland's Response

The recognition that good governance is a condition for sustainable human development marks a significant shift in development thinking in recent years. This change is, to a greater or lesser extent, influencing strategies for pursuing accountability reforms and improving institutional capacity.

Irish Aid insists that the principles of governance are universal: they include respect for human rights; respect for the rule of law; political openness; participation and tolerance; accountability and transparency; and administrative and bureaucratic capacity and efficiency. Clearly then, it must be recognized that governance has many attributes.

The emphasis in Irish Aid’s approach to all its activities is one which highlights the following major characteristics:

• capacity and competence, through support for Public Sector Reform initiatives/ Sector Wide Approaches, focusing on better quality of service delivery to the poor and on the improvement of implementing organizations and agencies;
• participation, by encouraging stakeholders to influence public policy decisions. This enables citizens to share control of resources and institutions that affect their lives- providing a check on the power of Government;
• transparency- encouraging the public availability of the policies of Government and indeed the nature and level of support from Development Partners;
• accountability, by emphasizing that all politicians, central and local, and all organisations charged with a public mandate should be held accountable for specific actions to the public from whom their authority is derived;
• rule of law, by supporting pro-development legal and judicial systems through which laws are clearly and uniformly applied; emphasizing access to justice by the poor; supporting the development of an objective and independent judiciary.

In recent years, spending has increased considerably on governance projects. This has included specific funding in Programme Countries as well as funding multilateral organisations such as the African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF).

For information on the OECD’s Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions and the relevant provisions of Irish law, please click on the following link: