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What We Do

Institutions and Democracy

A society is only as fair as the institutions that serve it. We track whether public institutions are becoming more capable, and strengthen the civic mechanisms that hold them to account.

An empty polling unit exterior with queue rails running diagonally and a notice board of unresolvable papers, one distant figure.

A state that cannot deliver cannot protect its people or sustain growth. The Nigerian Governance Transformation Index (NGTI) will track whether public institutions are becoming more capable of delivering reform. Using only public data, it will assess 20 to 30 institutions – revenue agencies, service-delivery bodies, regulators, and states – on six dimensions: capable, coherent, accountable, adaptive, reform-ready, and transparent. It gives more weight to what institutions do than to what they publish, and shows how much evidence stands behind each score.

The Index does not reform institutions. It changes what is visible, and in doing so changes the incentives around reform. It is not a verdict on any government.

With the Centre for Democracy and Development and UMass Boston’s Center for Peace, Democracy, and Development, we helped build the Africa-wide Democracy Network (DemNet), which connected more than 50 activists in ten African countries holding elections in 2022–24.

Programmes

  • Nigerian Governance Transformation Index

    Show, from public data, whether key institutions are becoming more capable of delivering reform

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Data & Publications