GOVERNANCE, ETHICS, CONFLICT MANAGEMENT INITIATIVES PRESENTED AT FIFTH AFRICAN GOVERNANCE FORUM

GOVERNANCE, ETHICS, CONFLICT MANAGEMENT INITIATIVES PRESENTED

AT FIFTH AFRICAN GOVERNANCE FORUM

NEW YORK, 24 May (DESA) -- The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) presented three governance-related databases at the fifth African Governance Forum in Maputo, Mozambique.  “We are introducing the latest version of the African Governance Inventory as well as new databases on Public Service Ethics and Conflict Management in Africa,” said Guido Bertucci, Director of the Division for Public Economics and Public Administration.  “These are all outputs of follow-up projects to previous African Governance fora that DESA has carried out in partnership with United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Africa,” he added.

The African Governance Forum is an annual event, sponsored by the United Nations Development Programme, Regional Bureau for Africa (UNDP RBA) and other partners.  It serves as a forum to discuss in depth pressing governance issues among stakeholders in Africa.  This year’s Forum, with the theme of Local Governance for Poverty Reduction in Africa, is also being supported by DESA and the Government of Italy.

Of DESA’s three databases presented, the African Governance Inventory, is a regional repository of financial and descriptive information on national governance programmes by country in 24 countries.  It was initiated in 1998 as a pilot follow-up activity to the first African Governance Forum, introduced in 1997, on the theme of Governance in Africa.  “In 1999, the pilot project was enlarged with the aim of assisting African Governments and their development partners to improve the coordination and programming of their current governance initiatives,” explained the Project Coordinator, Valentina Resta.  “We are hoping to cover 36 sub-Saharan countries and include national capacity building on data collection and management into the Inventory process.”  In addition, the project will produce national units trained in data management and analysis, manuals and training material, country reports on governance, and adatabase on governance initiatives accessible via the Internet.  These outputs will be made available to governments, donors and other interested organizations in order to assist in the coordination of their interventions, monitoring of their activities and the identification of financial gaps within national governance programmes.

The second database to be launched was created for a study on Public Service Ethics in Africa and is accompanied by a 2-volume report in English and French.  This study was carried out as a follow-up to the second African Governance Forum on Transparency and Accountability, held in 1998.  “This is a study about what is

and is not in place to guard the professional integrity of public servants in sub-Saharan African countries,” said Elia Yi Armstrong, Project Coordinator.  “Public confidence in public service performance is a key factor to investment and other decisions affecting a country’s development.  Added together, all these decisions have an impact at the regional level,” she stated.  Begun in 1999, this comparative study of ethics legislations, policies, programmes and practices covers Cameroon, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, and Uganda.  “The picture that we have at the moment is a little blurred, due to a weak capacity to systematically collect public service data and statistics in many of the study countries,” Armstrong continued.  “But the study shows that, generally, there is a discrepancy between the values and norms on the books and how they are acted upon.  This finding is not a surprise but confirms a popularly held view in the region.  I also think that this situation is not unique to this region but is found in many other parts of the world.”  The findings of the study are being disseminated in the countries which participated in the study.  The project Web page is at www.unpan.org/ethics.

The third database, the "Conflict Management Information Portal", is an interactive database offering up-to-date and customized data on conflict prevention and peace-building organizations, activities, and practitioners in sub-Saharan Africa.  The Web site has a comprehensive database of 300+ local non-governmental organizations, networks and specialists and their on-going activities.  “What is particularly unique about the site,” says Gay Rosenblum-Kumar, Project Coordinator, “is that users can enter their own organizational information and personal profiles, which encourages interaction across countries and regions.  We hope it will be a valuable tool for information exchange and joint action on prevention and peace-building.”  The Web site is to be launched on the UN Public Administration Network (UNPAN) site in the next month.  The Web site is a part of the Conflict Management Capacity-Building project which is also an outgrowth of the AGF process.  The project designs and offers training workshops on conflict analysis and management to help government officials and the civil society partners strengthen their capacities for anticipating, containing and managing conflict situations.  More information is at:  http://www.unpan.org/technical_highlights-conflictresolutionpage.asp.

“We are pleased to be able to publicize the fruitful cooperation that DESA has had with UNDP Africa in highlighting some of the key dimensions of governance in Africa,” stated Guido Bertucci.  “And we are very pleased that the Government of Italy has joined in this partnership through supporting both the Forum and the Inventory process this year,” he said.  “Such partnerships allow us to maximize our resources.  We would like to invite other potential partners to join us in the Forum and its follow-up processes,” Bertucci concluded.

For more information, contact: Guido Bertucci, Director, Division for Public Economics and Public Administration, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, United Nations, telephone: (212) 963-5859; fax: (212) 963-9681;

e-mail: bertucci@un.org

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