The crucial linkage – good governance and its role in promoting sustainable development – is actually what underlies the functions, processes and the structure.
If governance is not effectively implemented at the global, regional, national, sub-national/local levels, it is expected that the demands of the multiple actors that exist in these realms will not be met and it can and does generate tensions, particularly where there are resource constraints.
While I recognize that the global level governance makes provision for the legal and policy instruments for transnational relations, my discussions on governance have often focused on the national and sub-national/local levels because this is where the sustainability concept is operational and can be realized.
Firstly, the state is the principal agent of development and change and is structurally supported by the sub-national and local processes and institutions. Any analysis of what could promote good governance therefore, should make a deliberate attempt to assess the structures, the characteristics and dynamics of actors and actions influencing the quality of governance - i.e.the functions, processes and structure of good governance.
In this respect, practical levels of realizing good governance also provide the platform for dealing with issues of equity and equality and subsequently the framework for identifying deficits and building institutional capacities for implementing the defined legal and policy instruments.
My view is that institutional capacities underpin successful development, adoption and implementation of sustainable development - making room for effective and relevant technological designs and guiding the conceptualization of sustainable development strategies.
Given the interrelationships exiting at the different levels and within and among the functions and processes, perhaps we may want to then strive towards the definition of a multi-level framework of governance that embraces this diversity, but which allows for definition of effective operational actions, and which caters for the governance paradigm shifts at the sectoral levels.Whatever the framework, it must address the power, poverty and inequality issues that often hamper sustainability.
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ReplyDeleteGood call, communication between levels of governMENT is essential to good governance and sustainable development (and recognising that systems of governance extend well beyond government).
ReplyDeleteLiving in a government town I have a front row seat for the show. Canada's federal bureaucracy is big and unwieldy. There are dozens of different departments with many more groups, branches, etc, inside. While various policy and legislative initiatives seek to integrate, even effective communication within a given department is rare, let alone between different departments and levels of government and within the broader context of government.
The general consensus is that, among other things, there needs to be a cultural shift as well as any policy action. Analogous to moral versus regulatory action, the instinct to act (i.e. to communicate within and between levels of government as well as out to the broader system of governance) would come from within, rather than from an external policy driver.
Okay, so how does one affect cultural change (communication, collaboration, inclusion, transparency, etc) in an organisation as big and diverse as a federal government? Probably slowly – I’ve heard it said cultural change takes generations – and probably, in part, through clever application of new social media tools.
Here’s an interesting TED talk: www.ted.com/talks/clay_shirky_how_cellphones_twitter_facebook_can_make_history.html