Can UN measure if better governance programmes work?

"Global leaders are considering including governance as one of the United Nations' new set of development goals, which will have a significant influence on how roughly $2.5 trillion in development aid is spent over the next 15 years.

"The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) under discussion at UN meetings in New York this week are due to take effect in 2016. The United Kingdom is a big supporter of a governance goal, and in a UN survey of more than seven million people, an honest and responsive government was among their top priorities.

"But a study  (http://www.copenhagenconsensus.com/post-2015-consensus/governance-and-institutions) by Mary Hilderbrand, economics professor at Texas A&M University, released this week by the Copenhagen Consensus think tank casts some doubt on whether a development goal focusing on transparency, responsive government and reducing corruption will be effective."

Read the article by Stella Dawson, in Thomson Reuters Foundation. http://www.trust.org/item/20150121203101-cbctk/?source=gep