ABSTRACT

When institutions function badly, poor and vulnerable people suffer most. But just as human development requires much more than raising incomes, governance for human development requires much more than having effective public institutions. The quality of governance is increasingly gaining recognition as both a precondition and foundation for sustainable development. From the World Bank and the UNDP to the European Union (EU) and its member states, good governance has emerged in recent years as a new donor criterion for selecting partner developing countries. Good governance, human rights, democracy and the rule of law are all integral to development co-operation programmes that aim to reduce and eventually eradicate poverty. In practice, the Netherlands maintains a long-term structural bilateral partnership with the recipient 'good governance' country based on a sector-wide approach. When selecting priority partner countries, the Netherlands does not consider good governance to be an absolute norm but rather as an emergent process.