«Dialogue with Youth», episode two: governance and how to strengthen it

What is governance? What are its levels, dimensions, and mechanisms of application? And what is the role of civil society organisations in giving it effect?

These questions were answered by Abdallah Hasanein and Sami Shaqoura, members of the civic-education body at Pal-Think for Strategic Studies, and Bakr al-Turkmani, investigations coordinator at the Independent Commission for Human Rights, during a radio episode within the programme “Dialogue with Youth”, broadcast on Zaman radio every Sunday — implemented by “Pal-Think for Strategic Studies” and funded by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), within the project “Civic Education”, which aims to strengthen democratic values and human rights among Palestinian university students.

The episode was opened by the civic-education body member Sami Shaqoura with a review of several definitions of governance, most prominently the World Bank's definition: the manner through which authority is practised and the society's resources are managed with the goal of bringing about the development process.

He pointed out that good governance speaks of the accordance of public policies with the people's needs. Among the most important things that contribute to good governance: making available the opportunities of individual and collective accountability, providing civil and political freedoms as being necessary, providing freedom of the media, a stable political life, a peaceful alternation of power, the government's capacity to present public services to people, setting suitable legislation, and providing a judiciary that enjoys transparency.

What are the three dimensions of governance? Shaqoura answers, saying: the first dimension is the administrative and institutional, related to the effectiveness and efficiency of the public administration; the second is the economic and political dimension, related to the nature of public policies in the political and economic fields; and the third is the political representative dimension, related to the nature of authority in the state, the legitimacy of its representation, and the requirements of the political-development process.

For his part, the civic-education body member Abdallah Hasanein said that the criteria of governance differ with the difference of the institution that set this concept. The United Nations Development Programme set eight criteria, considered the most comprehensive and diverse, namely:

Political participation: every man and woman has a right and a voice in the decision-making process; transparency and what falls under it of the free flow of information and the ease of obtaining it; equality and equal opportunity; accountability, including the public and private sectors and civil society; the rule of law, such that it is the sole frame of reference for all disputes in society; effectiveness and efficiency — that the institutions, each in its competence, produce what meets society's needs; and also the optimal use of resources; the accord of will and the prevailing of the public interest over the private interest, or what is known within the frame of the harmony of difference; and the institutions' short- and long-term vision and strategy.

Hasanein made clear that there are three levels of governance: the level of the public sector, which is the government and the institutions of implementing governance; the level of the private sector, whose frame of reference is the code of conduct and corporate governance in Palestine of 2009; and the frames of civil society.

He affirmed the effect of civil society's role in strengthening good governance, it being the link between society and the public and private sectors, and playing the decisive role in many communal and pivotal issues — such as: strengthening the principles of governance within its own policies; playing an awareness role in acquainting people with governance, its principles, criteria, and methods of application; and also among its tasks strengthening transparency, and giving effect to its oversight role over the performance of the government and civil society institutions.

In this context, Bakr al-Turkmani, investigations coordinator at the Independent Commission for Human Rights, said: “We do not have a law on obtaining information in Palestine. But we lean on some principles contained in the anti-corruption law, which pointed to some clauses concerning transparency — considering that the Palestinian Authority and the State of Palestine signed and committed to them, such as: the law on illicit gain and combating corruption.

He added: “We have many laws locked away in the drawers, and the lesson is not in the existence of a legal text; and although in our scattered laws, there are various legal texts that speak of the possibility of access to information. The AMAN institution submitted a draft law on the right of access to information, and this is missing with us. Despite the priority of this law, it is not a priority with the governing bodies. And this is a very dangerous indicator — the absence of a law organising access to information, the time span for obtaining the information, and the cost of reaching it.”

Al-Turkmani continued: “But there is information that must be available to the public without charge; there is information whose access is prevented except within a narrow circle; and there is information we reach only upon request. All these matters were included within the draft of the draft law on the right of access to information, and unfortunately the draft remained shelved in the drawers, and was not presented to the Legislative Council or to the President, and was not passed by either of them.”

He went on: “There is some information that may be available to journalists and not available to others, and they face great difficulty in obtaining information — whereas if we had an actual law holding to account whoever does not provide information, the matter would change: whoever is safe from punishment misbehaves. Meanwhile we find some institutions making their information available, to avoid the subject of doubt-casting and to reduce suspicions. Even if the institution were upright and withheld its information, this harms it.”

What is the effect of obtaining information? The lawyer answers, saying: “The individual renders their obligations at ease, and knows where the taxes or the funding go, and thereby is satisfied with the government's performance at a time when accountability has been absent.”

He affirmed that the elections revived hope among the youth that there would be diversity in the Legislative Council, which is counted the most important instrument of accountability — pointing out that all the sessions of the Legislative Council and the government are supposed to be public; taking into consideration that there is information related to citizens' names, and other information difficult to publish for its sensitivity, but there exist mechanisms for reaching it.

Al-Turkmani added: “If we went back to the reports of the World Bank or Transparency International or the AMAN Coalition concerning the pillars of integrity, or the study of the national integrity system that measures the pillars of integrity such as the judiciary, security, civil society organisations, and the civil sector — we would find that civil society institutions are among the highest institutions on the pillars of integrity, committed to the criteria of transparency and accountability. This is plain at the practical level, embodied in the disclosure of financial reports and their functions. It is true there are obstacles and problems, but these problems require a joining of efforts in order to overcome them.”