Made2Measure

Several weeks ago on September 25, the U.N. General Assembly adopted the “Sustainable Development Goals” (SDGs), 17 goals and 169 associated targets, thereby setting a new global agenda for the next fifteen years. On the one hand, the SDGs agenda promises to engage the whole world community, not only governments but also multinational companies, philanthropic foundations, civil society, scientists, non-government organizations, scientists, scholars and students around the world.   The new agenda was hailed by U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon as “a defining moment in human history.” On the other hand, critics claim that the SDGs are unmeasurable and unmanageable. The more limited “Millennium Development Goals” (MDGs), which will expire at the end of this year, applied largely to poor countries and involved rich ones mostly as donors. The SDGs are broader and go much further than the MDGs; the latter are meant to be universally applicable to developing and developed countrie...

Around the world, the misuse of pretrial detention, the time period defendants are incarcerated between arrest and trial) is massive. In Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, the overuse of pretrial detention, most of it arbitrary and excessive, has reached “crushing proportions.” Of the 1,000 inmates in Nigeria’s Kiriki Maximum Security Prison, a total of 639 have not been convicted and are awaiting trial. Kayode Yukubu is among them. He was arrested in 2003.   After twelve years as Kiriki’s longest-serving inmate, no court trial date has yet been set for him.   He is among approximately 70 percent of Nigeria’s 56,785 pre-trial detainees who have not been sentenced, many of whom already have spent far longer time behind bars than the maximum period of the sentence for their alleged crimes. (Pretrial detention is intended to ensure an accused person will appear in court or pose a danger to others, not to punish or rehabilitate.) The Economist spotlighted Nigeria’s pr...

Made2Measure returns today to regular postings after a long hiatus (September 9, 2013 was the last post) during which it was suspended to avoid potential conflicts of interests while its principal, Ingo Keilitz, was seconded to the World Bank and the National Center for State Courts.   Performance measurement and management (PMM) is the (self) discipline of monitoring, analyzing, and using organizational performance data on a regular and continuous basis (in real or near-real time) for the purpose of improvements in efficiency and effectiveness, transparency and accountability, and increased public trust and confidence in government institutions. PMM is both a way of understanding the justice sector, as well as a discipline and a promising approach to solving serious global problems such as the high rate and length of incarceration, especially pre-trial detention. Relatively Small Space in the Toolbox of International Development Compared to two other disciplines ...