ISAF Governance Working Group

• 22 pages
• For Official Use Only
• May 2010

What is ‘governance’?

• UN ESCAP: “ the process of decision-making and theprocessby which decisions are implemented (or not implemented”
• The World Bankdefines governance as the exercise of political authorityand the use of institutional resources to manage society’s problems and affairs.
• The Worldwide Governance Indicatorsproject of the World Bank defines governance as
The traditions and institutions by which authority in a country is exercised.This considers the process by which governments are selected, monitored and replaced; the capacity of the government to effectively formulate and implement sound policies and the respect of citizens and the state of the institutions that govern economic and social interactions among them.
• An alternate definition sees governance as
the use of institutions, structures of authorityand even collaborationto allocate resourcesand coordinate or control activity in society or the economy.
• According to the United Nations Development Programme’s Regional Project on Local Governance for Latin America:
Governance has been defined as the rules of the political systemto solve conflicts between actors and adopt decision (legality). It has also been used to describe the “proper functioning of institutions and their acceptance by the public” (legitimacy). And it has been used to invoke the efficacy of government and the achievement of consensus by democratic means (participation).

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