Governance and Leadership in Africa (original) (raw)

The Plight of African States and Good Governance

2003

Promoting good governance and improving governance in Africa has drawn increasing attention from the international community as a new approach to solving a variety of problems such as military conflicts, poverty, and sluggish economic development. The question of how to achieve good governance came under the spotlight in the 1990s following the end of the Cold War era. Establishing good governance, along with democratization, has now come to be recognized an issue related to the “conditionality” imposed by donor countries on recipients in exchange for financial assistance. Structural reform programs crafted by the World Bank and the IMF in the 1980s were the first set of policy prescriptions by the world community to address sluggish development in Africa. Under “the Washington Consensus,” the World Bank and the IMF called for the battered economies of Africa, which were plagued with expanding budget and current-account deficits since the late-1970s, to reform their political and ec...

Democracy and Development in Africa: Contending Issues and Prospects for the 21st Centuries

Jurnal Penegakan Hukum dan Keadilan

The study examines contentious issues related to democracy and development in Africa. Substantially relying on secondary sources of data collection to adequately reflect the issues involved in this study, an interdisciplinary approach to historical research was adopted using content analysis. The study discovered empirical evidence supporting the argument that leadership changes are frequent or uncommon. In both situations, these leaders choose to govern in countries with weak or non-existent institutions, allowing them to avoid accountability for their corrupt behavior and abuse of office. According to the study, some challenges that have slowed development are lack of accountability, transparency, and democratic government, which must be addressed realistically for progress. Making the African system run more effectively and efficiently depends on the characteristics and eccentricities of those in authority.

IMPACT OF DEMOCRACTIC GOVERNANCE ON AFRICA`S DEVELOPMENT BY OTACHI ORINA [JACOB

In today’s democracies, citizens, elect individuals to represent them, a concept known as delegated power. However, a crisis of confidence seems to emerge between citizens and existing governance systems and the leadership. This paper explores “Africa`s Development” from an African democracy context and interrogates its successes as well as challenges. A description of pre-colonial and post-colonial forms of governance paths are postulated with their key set-ups. To augment this, the traditional, social and political governance systems as well as international institutions and their implications on African development have been expounded. Further, a characterization of contemporary African democracy alongside its key features is featured with a comparative analysis with best practice examples. A raft of common approaches are advanced that can be employed to put Africa on its right development path.

NEW PARTNERSHIP FOR AFRICA'S DEVELOPMENT (NEPAD) AND DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA

The New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) was designed to address the socio economic challenges like poverty, underdevelopment and marginalization facing the African continent. These challenges affect various classes in Africa (Proper and Lower class). This aim of this paper is to assess how the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) has fared since its inception in 2001. This paper adopts the Political economy theoretical framework in its analysis. Moreover, the key successes recorded are in agriculture, education, Information and Communication Technology (ICT), increase in export, increase domestic funding of NEPAD and institutional transformation of NEPAD secretariat into main stream of African Union (AU). However, the issue of funding NEPAD projects and programmes, corruption, leadership failure and poverty were key challenges discussed. Lastly this paper suggested that NEPAD required consolidating on domestic funding, commitment of NEPAD member states and re-focus NEPAD developmental pattern from growth oriented to human oriented development as well as good governance are critical in addressing Africa socioeconomic problems.

Democracy and Development in West Africa (ECOWAS)

Papers, 2023

Abstract: Democracy and Economic Development is a matter of absolute choice. In the context of West Africa and Africa, contemporary democracy and economic development is a matter of choice and the interplay of internal and external forces at play. The long-term negative effects of colonial legacies and lack of strong democratic institutions are the exact outcome of democracy and development in west Africa. Studies shows countries that have strong democratic intuitions develop faster and enjoys the dividends of democracy and development. Ghana is a good example of the dividends of democracy in west Africa, regardless democracy has never been practiced perfectly in any country in its true meaning. A new economic system is needed that can correct the wrongs and shortsightedness of neoliberal economic theories of capitalism. This will require a bold step in a new direction. Below we look at countries around the world with free democracy and those that are transiting and those that are not democratic according to freedomhouse.org 2016 report. One of the best-known organizations to develop such rating scales is Freedom House (https://freedomhouse.org) and they distinguish countries on a scale ranging from “Not Free” (depicted in purple) to “Partially free” (in yellow) to “Free,” (which is in green).From the findings below, there is a great deal of regime diversity across the African continent, with what we might call democracies and partial democracies in the Southern, Eastern, and Western regions of Africa, but not so much in central Africa. Another important question is, are countries with authoritarian system of government more progressive and successful? Or are countries with free democratic system of government around the globe more progressive and successful regardless of the different measuring aspects by freedom house or polity.