A considerable number of developing countries (30) have made important gains in controlling corruption over the past decade
At the same time, others have experienced deteriorations or no change in governance dimensions
Progress reflects reforms in countries that view good governance and corruption control as crucial for sustained and shared growth
June 24, 2008—This year’s updated version of the Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI), compiled by Daniel Kaufmann and Massimo Mastruzzi of the World Bank Institute and Aart Kraay of the Development Research Group, shows many developing country governments making important gains in control of corruption, and some of them matching rich country performance in overall governance measures.
The WGI cover 212 countries and territories, drawing on 35 different data sources to capture the views of tens of thousands of survey respondents worldwide, as well as thousands of experts in the private, NGO, and public sectors. This year’s study is the seventh update of the WGI, a decade-long effort by the researchers to build and update the most comprehensive cross-country set of governance indicators currently available.
The WGI are used by policymakers and civil society groups worldwide as a tool to assess governance challenges and monitor reforms, and by scholars researching the causes and consequences of good governance. The newly released set of the six updated aggregate indicators, as well as data from the underlying sources, are at www.govindicators.org.
Better governance helps in the fight against poverty and improves living standards. Research over the past decade shows that improved governance raises development, and not the other way around. When governance is improved by one standard deviation, infant mortality declines by two-thirds and incomes rise about three-fold in the long run. Such an improvement in governance is within reach, since it is a fraction of the difference between the worst and best performers.
Good governance has also been found to significantly enhance the effectiveness of development assistance in general and of World Bank-funded projects in particular.
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