A four day workshop on 'Country led governance assessments: sharing experiences and increasing political accountability' was held in Windhoek this week.

Addressing delegates at the opening session, director general of the National Planning Commission, professor Peter Katjavivi said governance assessments have been an increasing priority for donors and national development partners.

"As governance matters for development and for the effectiveness of development co-operation, the demand for monitoring the quality of governance has unsurprisingly increased. A critical starting point for increasing accountability is to have a good assessment framework that deals with the key governance issues within a country," he said.

According to Katjavivi, governance assessments may help to identify areas of democratic governance deficits within particular countries.

Governance assessments are also critical for the strengthening of national development plans.

For government institutions, these assessments should be aimed at improving efficiency, effectiveness and equality in service delivery.

Katjavivi said, governance assessments may also be helpful for civil society activists to demand answers and enforce political commitments, national development plans, in line with the Paris Declaration (2005) and Accra Agenda for Action (2008).

According to the programme, sessions will include monitoring and evaluating government plans; the role of African think-tanks in accountable politics; the impact of national studies that form part of regional or international assessment initiatives: examples from Namibia; how governance should be assessed: participatory monitoring of local governance; how can marginalised voices be included: practical methods for selecting pro-poor and gender-sensitive indicators; country-led governance assessments; and capacity development for governance assessments and outlook.

The workshop was attended by representatives from Angola, Botswana, Malawi, Nigeria, Uganda, Ghana, Sudan, South Africa, Niger, Senegal, Burundi, Liberia, Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania, Cameroon, Ethiopia, the United States of America (USA), Zambia and Zimbabwe.