The UN Secretariat has published a paper authored by members of the Committee of Experts on Public Administration (CEPA), seeking to elaborate “a coherent and monitorable indicator framework linking the principles of effective governance to sustainable development outcomes.” The paper explores options for data-based measurement across countries and across time, identifies institutional quality gaps, and proposes “evidence-based approaches to leveraging administrative capacity as a strategic resource in times of reduced development financing.”

Titled, ‘Measuring Effective Governance for Sustainable Development,’ the report (E/C.16/2026/3) was prepared by CEPA member Alina Mungiu-Pippidi in consultation with CEPA members Rolf Alter, György Hajnal, Pamela Monroe-Ellis, Måns Nilsson, Paul Smoke, and Lorenzo Valeri.

The paper notes that CEPA first recognized the importance of linking the principles of effective governance for sustainable development to work on governance indicators in 2019, advancing work at its subsequent sessions in 2020 and 2023. Recalling the “long-standing debate about whether sustainable development can be achieved primarily through increased investment, or whether it depends… on the effectiveness of governance and public administration,” the authors note that strong fiscal pressures give this question particular salience in low-income countries (LICs) and middle-income countries (MICs) where access to public services, decent work and economic growth, and industry, innovation and infrastructure, among other development objectives, continue to pose significant challenges.

The report puts forward a matrix of proxy indicators aligned with the principles of effective governance. The selection process took into account measurability, transparency, empirical validation, and cross-country comparability. Having conducted a trend and gap analysis of public administration quality and its linkages to sustainable development outcomes, the authors formulated a set of conclusions and strategic implications for CEPA’s consideration with a view to recommend a way forward.

The report’s key observations include:

• The quality of governance remains a critical explanatory factor for progress across the SDG framework.
• Assessments of core governance features, such as public integrity and the quality of bureaucracy, point to stagnation at the global level, with particularly weak progress in least developed countries (LDCs).
• Measurable progress is more visible on the supply side of digital governance, with many LDCs lagging behind.
• Increasing levels of Internet access continue to increase the number of digitally literate citizens able to make use of public administration services.
• There is a widening gap between demand and supply in digital governance, and between transparency commitments and their implementation.
• Operationalizing the principles of effective governance through empirically validated indicators helps bridge the gap between “normative guidance and actionable diagnostics.”
• Constrained finance weakens institutional capacity, leadership and values, innovation, and digitalization.

Among other recommendations, the report calls for: continued emphasis on the diagnostic use of the principles of effective governance; and focusing future work on sequencing reforms around high-impact priorities, to bridge implementation gaps in transparency, integrity, and digital public infrastructure.

Dated 2 February 2026, the report was published in advance of CEPA’s 25th session, taking place in New York, US, from 13-17 April. [Publication: Measuring Effective Governance for Sustainable Development] [Committee of Experts on Public Administration]