According to Douglass North, governance is the set of rules of the game in force in a society, binding together all social actors including the State, which shape behaviour and expectations and which contribute — or fail to contribute — to growth. Those rules of the game, that system of incentives, are the institutions, whether formal or informal. To varying degrees and in many different ways, those rules create the essential framework that allows one party to enter — or not to enter — into a transaction with another, and to commit — or not to commit — to a long-term undertaking such as investing or educating one’s children: acts that lie at the heart of the creation of wealth and of its extension, economic growth. That framework supplies, or fails to supply, the fundamental element in the process of wealth creation: the reduction of uncertainty. That reduction of uncertainty is the confidence individuals have that the rules will be observed across society as a whole. It is what makes transactions secure and allows actors to form expectations.
Described in these terms, ‘good governance’:
conditions respect for individual and collective rights,
makes contracts secure,
strengthens the administration and makes it effective,
strengthens and democratises political institutions,
favours the separation of powers,
establishes the confidence individuals have that the rules will be observed across society as a whole,
consolidates social cohesion,
creates social emulation,
establishes an effective system of control and of conflict resolution, while minimising socio-political conflict.AUDICO’s experts are available to support any State in putting good governance practice into effect, so as to encourage the long-term development and growth of its economy and its social cohesion. They have command of every factor that generates confidence between actors and reduces uncertainty in economic, social and political relations — in Africa above all.
