Webinar: Local governance indicators – what is the global state of knowledge?

As part of its global webinar series on Elevating the Decentralization Debate, which seeks to bring together scholars and practitioners on issues related to decentralization, multilevel governance, and localized development, the Local Public Sector Alliance—in collaboration with the Forum of Federations, DeLOG, and a number of other global partners—was pleased to host a webinar discussion on Local governance indicators: the global state of knowledge.

Although decentralization and subnational finance are important policy topics around the world, major democracy and governance indicators have traditionally overlooked the subnational dimension of public sector governance. In order to fill this gap, different research initiatives have recently been undertaken to map out the state of subnational governance institutions. These efforts include regional and local governance indicators included in the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Research Project based at the Varieties of Democracy Institute, University of Gothenburg; the De/Centralisation Dataset (DcD) developed by a global team of researchers led by the University of Kent; and the Local Autonomy Index (LAI 2.0) developed by the University of Lausanne, which was recently applied to the EU, Council of Europe, and OECD.

As part of this webinar, lead researchers presented their various efforts to capture the state of subnational governance institutions around the world. The subsequent discussion focused on identifying the contributions of these various data sets to the state of knowledge on decentralization, multilevel governance, and local development, and the extent to which these indicators are able to inform real-world policy debates.

This webinar discussion was jointly hosted by Forum of Federations, DeLOG, and the Local Public Sector Alliance.

Wednesday, October 12, 2022: 9:00 am NYC/DC, 3:00 pm Paris, 4:00 pm Nairobi, 6:30 pm Delhi, 8:00 pm Bangkok

Watch this webinar session on You Tube

TopicContributor
IntroductionChas Cadwell, Local Public Sector Alliance
The V-Dem Subnational Government IndicatorsKelly McMann, Case Western Reserve University
The De/Centralisation Dataset (DcD)Paolo Dardanelli, University of Kent, UK
Local Autonomy Index 2.0Alexander Bastianen, University of Lausanne
DiscussantPhillip Gonzalez, Forum of Federations
DiscussantBenjamin Oloyede, DeLoG

This webinar is part of the Local Public Sector Alliance Webinar Series on Elevating the Decentralization Debate.