Fostering Good Governance

Mercy Corps' definition of good governance - "the system and process of accountable, transparent, just, responsive and participatory governance" - tells us what it means in the abstract. However, it does not tell us how we get there from the status quo, let alone how to ensure the practice of good governance is maintained once it has been achieved.

As we solicited articles from some of our country offices, we asked authors to consider the following questions:

• How does your program define "good governance"?
• What aspects of the program indicate that it is a governance program?
• What were the primary objectives of the governance programs?
• What activities were undertaken? With whom? For whom?
• What tools were used? Which were particularly germane/useful?
• Who was the donor?

We hope their answers to these questions will provide staff throughout the agency with some information on the different approaches we take to fostering good governance.