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Third meeting of GfD Working Group 1 on Civil Service and IntegrityParis, 7 December 2006

Better Measurement of Government:A common language for reviewing government

activities

Presentation by Jürgen Blum, OECD

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WHY WORK TOWARDS A COMMON LANGUAGE FOR MEASURING GOVERNMENT?

individual countries to do robust benchmarking with common units of analysis

OECD-wide lessons-learning concerning:

 ...to guide public management reforms

Governance at a glance aims at providing better, comparative data, that can help:

Sector efficiency and institutional effectiveness Observed relationships Absorptive capacity

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WHAT IS GOVERNMENT AT A GLANCE?

provide any overall, single score measures rank or evaluate countries on the basis of overall

government performance

 It will: provide a “suite” of separate datasets across

OECD countries provide the best information at hand, enabling

governments to compare their systems with others

 It will not:

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WHAT DATA ARE COVERED BY GOVERNMENT AT A GLANCE?

Types of data: Government revenues, inputs, processes, outputs and outcomes

Wide coverage of public management aspects:

Human resources management Ethical infrastructure and oversight Public Sector Procurement Fiscal and budgeting practices Governance Structure

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10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40%

Ireland

Korea

Portugal

Australia

Austria

Japan

Netherlands

UK

France*

Finland

Norway

USA

Sweden

1995 2005

EXAMPLE 1: Input: Proportion of workers above 50 at the national/federal government, in 1995 and 2005

Source: OECD (2006) Report on ageing in the civil service, Paris

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EXAMPLE 2: Process: Openness of government posts (P10.2)

Policies Countries

In principle, all levels of posts are open for competition …

… including posts at senior and middle levels

Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Hungary, New Zealand, Slovak republic, Switzerl.

  … except the most top-level posts which are filled by appointment of the government

Australia, Canada, Italy, Norway, Sweden

Posts both at senior and middle levels are partially open for competition

Korea, Luxembourg, UK

No posts are open for competition …

… both at senior and middle levels 

Japan, Spain

  … with the exception of some posts at middle level

France, Ireland

Source: OECD (2004), Trends in Human Resources Management Policies in OECD countries: An analysis of the results of the OECD survey on strategic human resouces management, Paris

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EXAMPLE 3: New data collection possibilities

new process metrics on management of risk areas (procurement, lobbying, etc.) and on application of safeguards

new outcome metrics on confidence in public service providers

new outcome measures concerning employee satisfaction / trust in government as an employer

new process measures on the depth of political involvement in HRM

HRM Management:

Integrity:

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HOW WILL GOVERNMENT AT A GLANCE COMPLEMENT OTHER GLOBAL DATASETS?

 

  Existing aggregate datasets

Government at a Glance

utility communication policy formulation

purpose ranking benchmarking and self-assessment

type of data

subjective objective

aggregate specific

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WHAT COULD BE THE POTENTIAL BENEFITS OF A „COMMON LANGUAGE“ FOR GFD?

Deepening the regional policy dialogue

lesson-learning and identification of best practices among Arab and OECD countries

Working towards „a common language“ on government activities and institutional arrangements within GfD 1 could provide the basis for:

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HOW TO WORK TOWARDS A „COMMON LANGUAGE“?

Pilot-approach based on a few interested countries;

Focus on a core set of data;

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QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

Is there potential value in moving beyond the existing available broad governance indicators to specific measures of institutional arrangements?

What could be the priority dimensions for measurement?

What could be the next practical steps?