Analysis and Prioritization of Indicators of Good Rural Governance in Border Areas Case Study: Zarivar Village of Marivan City

Optimal management of rural areas and good rural governance are essential elements of sustainable rural development. Meanwhile, border villages are fragile areas where a good rural governance approach through decentralization, public participation, resource management, partnership between government and civil society and the private sector as an effective process in all pillars of rural management can lead to the development of rural areas. The present study was conducted to analyze and prioritize the indicators of good rural governance in the border villages of Zarivar. This research is applied in terms of purpose and the research method is descriptive-analytical. Data and information were collected in the form of documents and field (questionnaire). Also, the indicators of governance include: participation, consensus, accountability, justice and equality, responsibility, transparency, rule of law, legitimacy, efficiency and effectiveness. The statistical population includes the heads of households in the villages of Zarivar rural district. The sample size of 336 households was calculated based on the Cochran's formula and the questionnaires were distributed randomly among them. Data were analyzed through the mean rank and one-sample t-test, Shannon entropy technique and RALSPI model. The results showed that the situation of good rural governance in the studied villages is undesirable. In this study, the effectiveness index using Shannon technique had the highest score (0.0160) and the regularity index had the lowest score (0.074). According to the RALSPI model, Oskol-e Sofla village was ranked highest in terms of good governance among the villages of this district and Kulan village was ranked the lowest. Due to the existence of poverty and unemployment in this region, helping to increase people's income, reducing poverty, solving the problem of unemployment, with efficient management combined with planning and real participation of the people, many of these problems can be reduced. Also, providing an entrepreneurial environment in the villages can be a way forward and as a result of increasing the quality of life of border residents, good rural governance will be achieved.