Are you concerned about poor management, lack of representation
or corruption in your municipal government? Or simply interested
in how to make your city's administration more democratic? UN-
HABITAT has developed the Urban Governance Index (UGI) for this
purpose. Its indicators will allow you to measure the quality of
your city's urban governance on the basis of how accountable,
effective, equitable and participatory it is. Ultimately good
urban governance is one of the best indicators of the quality of
life for a city's inhabitants. The Urban Governance Index is now
available as a downloadable programme and on CD-Rom. Once you
access it, we highly recommend you use this tool as part of a
participatory workshop. This is because using the UGI is as much
about the process as the final score. Assessing your city in a
participatory, transparent workshop is in itself an excellent
way of practicing good urban governance: you can involve and
focus on the needs of excluded groups -- like women and the poor
-- as you