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Governance Statistics in the COVID-19 Era: A Praia City Group Guidance Note

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September 16, 2020

Governance Statistics in the COVID-19 Era: A Praia City Group Guidance Note

Source: Praia Group

This Guidance Note builds on the detailed recommendations made in the first ever global, member-state led Handbook on Governance Statistics published in early 2020 by the Praia Group on Governance Statistics. One major driver of demand for statistics in this area was the inclusion of governance in the indicator framework for the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development. The Handbook aims to provide a foundation for the development of inter- national statistical guidance and standards for eight dimensions of governance – namely non-discrimination and equality, participation, openness, access to and quality of justice, responsiveness, absence of corruption, trust, and safety and security. This Guidance Note examines the same eight thematic areas, this time from the perspective of COVID-19 and re- lated governance challenges, and for an audience of time-pressed and resource-constrained governance data stakeholders.

The premise for the Handbook was a recognition that NSOs are strategically positioned to coordinate the production of official statistics on governance: they bear the hallmarks of methodological expertise and rigour that make them trustworthy, and they are best placed to ensure the sustainability of national data collection systems. Furthermore, since governance is a public good, there are important benefits to be gained if public bodies produce statistics on these issues. In the COVID-19 era, these comparative advantages of NSOs are becoming even more valuable: the proliferation of false, inflammatory and misleading information that has accompanied the COVID-19 outbreak has greatly increased public demand for reliable and trusted data on all aspects of the crisis. 

Click here to see the report.

Focus areas

This Guidance Note builds on the detailed recommendations made in the first ever global, member-state led Handbook on Governance Statistics published in early 2020 by the Praia Group on Governance Statistics. One major driver of demand for statistics in this area was the inclusion of governance in the indicator framework for the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development. The Handbook aims to provide a foundation for the development of inter- national statistical guidance and standards for eight dimensions of governance – namely non-discrimination and equality, participation, openness, access to and quality of justice, responsiveness, absence of corruption, trust, and safety and security. This Guidance Note examines the same eight thematic areas, this time from the perspective of COVID-19 and re- lated governance challenges, and for an audience of time-pressed and resource-constrained governance data stakeholders.

The premise for the Handbook was a recognition that NSOs are strategically positioned to coordinate the production of official statistics on governance: they bear the hallmarks of methodological expertise and rigour that make them trustworthy, and they are best placed to ensure the sustainability of national data collection systems. Furthermore, since governance is a public good, there are important benefits to be gained if public bodies produce statistics on these issues. In the COVID-19 era, these comparative advantages of NSOs are becoming even more valuable: the proliferation of false, inflammatory and misleading information that has accompanied the COVID-19 outbreak has greatly increased public demand for reliable and trusted data on all aspects of the crisis. 

Click here to see the report.

Focus areas