1 Third meeting of GfD Working Group 1 on Civil Service and Integrity Paris, 7 December 2006 Better Measurement of Government: A common language for reviewing government activities Presentation by Jürgen Blum, OECD

2 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

3 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:

4 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

5 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

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

7 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:

8 HOW WILL GOVERNMENT AT A GLANCE COMPLEMENT OTHER GLOBAL DATASETS? Existing aggregate datasets Government at a Glance utilitycommunicationpolicy formulation purposerankingbenchmarking and self- assessment type of data subjectiveobjective aggregatespecific

9 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:

10 HOW TO WORK TOWARDS A „COMMON LANGUAGE“? Pilot-approach based on a few interested countries; Focus on a core set of data;

11 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?