
What is Sustainable Governance?
Sustainable governance can be defined as a method for dealing with a broad range of conflicts to achieve mutually satisfactory and binding agreements through negotiations and cooperation. This method includes the creation and implementation of rules and for the establishment of different levels of institutions and organizations that regulate and enforce collective activities within given jurisdictions. Sustainable governance provides an effective way to deal with the broad ranging issues of sustainable development.
Sustainable governance is, among other things, participatory, transparent and accountable. It is also effective and equitable. And it promotes the rule of law. Sustainable governance ensures that political, social and economic priorities are based on broad consensus in society and that the voices of the poorest and the most vulnerable are heard in decision-making over the allocation of development resources.
Governance has three legs: economic, political and administrative. Economic governance includes decision-making processes that affect a country’s economic activities and its relationships with other economies. It clearly has major implications for equity, poverty and quality of life. Political governance is the process of decision-making to formulate policy. Administrative governance is the system of policy implementation. Encompassing all three, sustainable governance defines the processes and structures that guide political and socio-economic relationships.
Benefits of Sustainable Governance
Sustainable governance has all the characteristics of efficient government, successful businesses and effective civil society organizations, in addition to well defined characteristics of societal terms. These characteristics include:
Participation – All men and women have a voice in decision-making, either directly or through legitimate intermediate institutions that represent their interests. Such broad participation is built on freedom of association and speech, as well as capacities to participate constructively.
Rule of law – Legal frameworks are fair and enforced impartially, particularly the laws on human rights.
Transparency – Transparency is built on the free flow of information. Processes, institutions and information are directly accessible to those concerned with them, and enough information is provided to understand and monitor them.
Responsiveness – Institutions and processes try to serve all stakeholders.
Consensus orientation – Sustainable governance mediates differing interests to reach a broad consensus on what is in the best interests of the group and, where possible, on policies and procedures.
Equity – All men and women have opportunities to improve or maintain their well-being.
Effectiveness and efficiency – Processes and institutions produce results that meet needs while making the best use of resources.
Accountability – Decision-makers in government, the private sector and civil society organizations are accountable to the public, as well as to institutional stakeholders. This accountability differs depending on the organization and whether the decision is internal or external to an organization.
Strategic vision – Leaders and the public have a broad and long-term perspective on sustainable governance and human development, along with a sense of what is needed for such development. There is also an understanding of the historical, cultural and social complexities in which that perspective is grounded.
Interrelated, these core characteristics are mutually reinforcing and cannot stand alone. For example, accessible information means more transparency, broader participation and more effective decision-making. Broad participation contributes both to the exchange of information needed for effective decision-making and for the legitimacy of those decisions. Legitimacy, in turn, means effective implementation and encourages further participation. And responsive institutions must be transparent and function according to the rule of law if they are to be equitable.
How can Beyond Smart Cities help?
Beyond Smart Cities believes that societies should aim, through broad-based consensus-building, to define which of the core features are most important to them, what the best balance is between the state and the market, how each socio-cultural and economic setting can move from here to there. We can help in this approach by engaging stakeholders and global organizations to create sustainable governance programs and policies for implementation on national, regional, or local levels.
Our involvement in the development of sustainable governance insures impartiality, while we pursue appropriate mandates with national priorities. Beyond Smart Cities has the capacity to facilitate global and interregional programs for sustainable governance that allocate support for policy formulation, decentralization and strengthening of civil society. Beyond Smart Cities draws from its experience in management development, government policy consulting, and sustainable development implementation to assist government entities that aim to better their societies.