Worried by the rising challenge of poor governance and its attendant effects of poverty, unemployment, insecurity and many more, the Citizen Network of Nigeria (CNN), a civic-tech organisation dedicated to promoting good governance, has launched the country’s first indigenous Governance Performance Index (GPI).
The GPI is a transformative civic tool for assessing and tracking governance performance across the country. It provides a shared framework for the assessment using specific and measurable indicators, which have been extensively reviewed by stakeholders and strategic partners.
Founded in 2018, the CNN is focused on connecting and empowering citizens and policy makers to solve the problem of poor democratic governance beginning from the grassroots.
The youth-led registered non-profit civic organization, headquartered in Ibadan, Oyo State, is on a mission to inspire positive transformation that is anchored on good governance and quality leadership sustained by an empowered citizenry.
According to the Communication Associate of the organisation, Bosede Braimo, a lawyer, the ultimate goal of the GPI is to improve governance performance outcomes in Nigeria, which will in turn improve the welfare and quality of life of Nigerians.
“Citizens are at the centre of the GPI because they are directly impacted by government’s policies and their implementation, and therefore are rightly placed to provide assessment on governance performance. Citizens can provide this assessment by logging onto the Citizen Portal at app.govmeter.ng
“In the coming weeks, citizens and policy makers will have access to real time data on governance performance across the country via the GPI portal produced from Citizens Responses via the Citizens Portal along with data contributions from partners across the country.
“The GPI is an important intervention at this point in Nigeria’s democratic evolution. Good governance is ultimately indispensable for the development of the nation. The GPI will play an important role in enhancing the quality of governance performance in the country. Citizens are enjoined to key into the GPI as a tool they can use to improve governance performance in Nigeria,” she said.
While describing governance as the most important factor contributing to citizens’ quality of life, Braimo said it is unfortunate that the country lacks the requisite framework to help citizens understand and assess it. “This is what the GPI is going to help to resolve. By evolving a locally relevant framework that citizens can identify with, we are able to arrive at a commonly acceptable tool or shared basis, for assessing and measuring governance performance, both quantitatively and qualitatively.
“Also, by gathering data, processing and producing the GPI, we provide citizens with a very simple (yet powerful) tool that helps to better understand governance, appraise performance on any sector of interest, and become more efficient and objective with civic engagement using the GPI as a reference point. The development of a digital platform for hosting the GPI also provides a public repository for relevant data on governance performance in Nigeria that is accessible to everyone.”
According to the organisation, the cumulative effect of this initiative is that both citizens and policy makers will be empowered to push for a consistent improvement in governance performance outcomes across the country.
Braimo said this will also enhance the works of various civic groups and community-based organisations that are working on various aspects and segments of democratic governance in Nigeria as they will have access to the relevant data and tools they require to have more efficient engagements with leaders and policy makers.
While speaking on the method of actualising this, Braimo said the GPI relies heavily on technology for data gathering, processing, presentation and delivery, which enables high efficiency.
“Data processing is managed by a dedicated system called the GPI Processor. This is an automated system that computes the GPI based on the data fed into the system from Citizens Research and Partners Research with zero human interference. This allows the GPI to be near real-time as the GPI can be computed multiple times in a day.
“The GPI is built from a set of 102 indicators that reflects the different dimensions of governance. Those indicators track outcomes, not inputs, which makes them a true reflection of the quality of life of Citizens.”
“The GPI provides four sub indexes namely – Human Development Index, Economic Opportunity Index, Safety & Rule of Law Index, and Inclusion & Human Rights Index. Together, the GPI provides a 360 degree view of governance performance in the country.
“The GPI relies primarily on data from two sources – Citizens Survey and Partners Research. This mirrors the type of data required for assessing the indicators, which can be broadly categorised as quantitative and qualitative. The indicators that require qualitative data typically rely on Citizens Survey, while those requiring quantitative data rely more on partners’ research and independent contributors.
Source: The Guardian Newspaper
