Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Roundtable: Measuring Municipal Governance Strengthening: Empowering Government Officials to Measure and Track Their Own Administrative Reform

(Sustainable Government)

Local governance strengthening programs often use an index in monitoring and evaluation to measure impact, but once the program ends, there is no way for local governments to continue that measurement and engage in self-reflection. Global Communities has turned its index into a tool that local government officials can use to rate themselves. 

In Colombia, Ghana, Palestine, and Ukraine, Global Communities has customized its Municipal Capacity Index to measure important aspects of good governance in that country. This often focuses in on the topics of leadership or planning, management or administration, service delivery, resource management, financial management, and public or citizen participation.

In Colombia, the MCI measures 147 indicators across those issues on which the national government rates municipal performance and determines eligibility for funding. In Ghana, an interactive assessment tool enables partner Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies develop action plans for institutional strengthening, especially public financial management. In the West Bank, Global Communities developed the MCI with local governments, providing a participatory scoring tool across nine core competencies. In Ukraine, Global Communities is working hand in hand with local governments to apply the Index and develop action plans for institutional strengthening in a participatory way. Mayors and local government staff use the PMCI to set administrative reform priorities to reach the characteristics of a “model community” in Ukraine. It therefore becomes not only a program data collection tool, but also a participatory tool that local government officials can use to rate themselves and develop strategies for improvement.