Ending Hunger in America, 2014 Hunger Report Full Report | Page 173

CHAPTER 5 mine progress. Good governance, on the other hand, is an enabling condition and a prerequisite to lasting change. Good governance includes many elements, but the most relevant for reducing poverty have to do with creating space for a strong civil society that can hold governments accountable for making progress; building effective institutions to manage and deliver public services; and respecting the rule of law—for example, by protecting the rights of minorities and ensuring that people have recourse to redress for injustices. Most of the work to put these elements in place must be done by national governments and by civil society in developing countries. What the United States and other countries can do as partners is set high expectations for levels of accountability and transparency. Additionally, they can provide technical know-how, strengthen global institutions that foster good governance, and support leaders who want to govern well. The United States and other development partners should explicitly support a goal on good governance, effective leadership and the institutions that make them work. This should include a focus on citizen participation and strengthening capacity for institutional and policy change. An example in Ghana shows how the U.S. government could support this kind of capacity strengthening through its development partners in the NGO community. The Development Action Association (DAA) is a Ghanaian NGO that provides technical assistance to women farmers in villages across the country. DAA’s leaders received advocacy training from the U.S. NGO Women Thrive Worldwide. The training came in handy in 2012 when DAA members participated in a nationwide lobbying effort to change the laws that affected their livelihoods. In Ghana, the traditional way agricultural products are measured is with cups and bowls, a practice that makes it easy for buyers to cheat producers, especially those who are poorly educated, which describes many of the women farmers in DAA. Before they received the advocacy training, few of the women from DAA who participated in the lobbying campaign would have dared to speak up in public, but the training gave them the confidence. In 2012, the government banned the use of the traditional measuring instruments in place of scales. Leveling the playing field so that women and men have equal chances to actively engage socially and politically—to make decis ions and shape policies—is likely to lead over time to more representative and more inclusive institutions and policies. Evidence suggests a direct correlation between a country’s policy and institutional framework and progress towards the MDGs.36 This also will help local stakeholders “own” national development goals. Both the High Level Panel on the Post-2015 Development Agenda and the U.N Secretary General www.bread.org/institute? Todd Post/Bread for the World Villagers in Guatemala’s Dry Corridor region receive cook stoves and training to assemble them. The stoves and training were provided through USAID. ? 2014 Hunger Report? 163 n