Toolkit for Assessing Respect for Rule of Law in Public Administration

Toolkit for Assessing Respect for Rule of Law in Public Administration

January 29, 2015

UNDP and our partners at the Folke Bernadotte Academy of Sweden (FBA) have jointly developed a Users’ Guide for Assessing Rule of Law in Public Administration and a Guidance Note for Assessing Rule of Law in Public Administration.

 

Based on piloting in three different development contexts – Ukraine, Sierra Leone and the Philippines – the 'Rule of Law in Public Administration Users’ Guide' provides a simple and easily applicable tool for national and local State institutions to carry out self-assessments to determine whether they respect rule of law principles as an integral part of their relations with society. Meanwhile, the 'Guidance Note' provides a tool for UNDP Country Offices and other actors to support local counterparts in the process of putting rule of law principles front and centre in local administrations’ interaction with society.

 

These two publications represent the start of a series of steps to bring the Users’ Guide into UNDP programme design at the country level and to respond directly to requests from governments and service providers, particularly in transition and post-conflict countries.

5 key lessons provided by the toolkit:

  • Rule of Law and Public Administration are too often regarded as two disconnected practice areas – bridging this disconnect lays the ground for reaping considerable and durable development gains.
  • Respecting basic Rule of Law principles such as legality, access to information, accountability, and the right to be heard must be integral in public service delivery at national and local level.
  • The ROLPA assessment tools and analysis provides a relatively easy way to detect and decide on what needs to be done to improve access, accountability and transparency.
  • Integrating Rule of Law principles in the public administration improves State-society relations and create a stronger social contract.
  • The ROLPA tools translate the experiences and advantages of bridging the disconnect between RoL and Public Administration into practical guidance that can be applied at national and local level.