Governance and Leadership in Africa

Governance and Leadership in Africa
Author: Robert I. Rotberg
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 112
Release: 2014-09-29
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 1422288854

Many of the problems in Africa today, including widespread poverty and civil unrest, can be traced to the continents legacy of bad governance. In the post-independence period, authoritarian strongmen took control of many countries, enriching themselves and their cronies by exploiting the peoples labor and their countrys resources. In recent years, however, a growing number of African states have embraced democratic principles and established transparent and open governments. In this book the noted Africa scholar Dr. Robert Rotberg examines the current state of governance and leadership in Africa. He discusses the various types of government found in the continent, clearly showing the correlation between the quality of a countrys leadership and the quality of life enjoyed by that countrys people.

Governance and the Crisis of Rule in Contemporary Africa

Governance and the Crisis of Rule in Contemporary Africa
Author: Ebenezer Obadare
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 309
Release: 2016-02-09
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1137566868

This volume advances the discussions of leadership in Africa's specific history, culture, economy, and politics. The book promotes an understanding of leadership and its paradoxes and illuminates the conditions under which political leadership has been produced, and how those conditions have shaped leaders.

Governance for Development in Africa

Governance for Development in Africa
Author: David Booth
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 176
Release: 2013-10-10
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1780325967

Drawing on in-depth empirical research spanning a number of countries in Africa, Booth and Cammack's path-breaking book offers both an accessible overview of issues surrounding governance for development on the continent, whilst also offering a bold new alternative. In doing so, they controversially argue that externally imposed 'good governance' approaches make unrealistic assumptions about the choices leaders and officials are, in practice, able to make. As a result, reform initiatives and assistance programmes supported by donors regularly fail, while ignoring the potential for addressing the causes rather than the symptoms of this situation. In reality, the authors show, anti-developmental behaviours stem from unresolved - yet in principle soluble - collective action problems. Governance for Development in Africa offers a comprehensive and critical examination of the institutional barriers to economic and social progress in Africa, and makes a compelling plea for fresh policy thinking and new ways of envisioning so-called good governance.

Challenging the Rulers

Challenging the Rulers
Author: Duncan Okoth-Okombo
Publisher: African Books Collective
Total Pages: 302
Release: 2011
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9966258140

Challenging The Rulers: A Leadership Model for Good Governance brings to the fore the issue of leadership in developing countries like Kenya. Citing specific examples, it singles out bad leadership as the cause of stagnation and underdevelopment in Africa. This book advocates for a serious discourse on leadership as the most critical factor in a national quest for good governance and prosperity. Unlike other writers who bemoan the state of affairs in Africa without offering alternatives, the authors propose a leadership model that can ensure good governance. This is based on the premise that good leadership means good governance hence reasonable economic growth and development. Values and principles of good leadership are outlined. In 2010, Kenya took its pride of place among nations by enacting a new progressive constitution which among other things provides for a devolved government. However, the authors argue that good laws, structures, systems and policies simply provide the infrastructure for good governance. To move Kenya forward, good men and women of vision, who are committed to servant leadership, must rise up to activate these laws to bring about good governance as a means of improving people's quality of life. In a nutshell, this book advocates for reforms in leadership. Challenging The Rulers is a challenge to all leaders - present and aspiring - to adopt this leadership model. To ordinary citizens, it is a call to take necessary action to elect good leaders.

Political Leadership in Africa

Political Leadership in Africa
Author: Giovanni Carbone
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 393
Release: 2020-03-19
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1108423736

An innovative analysis of political leadership in Africa between 1960 and 2018, drawing on an entirely new dataset.

Perspectives on Thought Leadership for Africaís Renewal

Perspectives on Thought Leadership for Africaís Renewal
Author: Kondlo, Kwandiwe
Publisher: Africa Institute of South Africa
Total Pages: 726
Release: 2014-05-05
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0798304529

This book outlines perspectives of emerging and established African scholars on what one could describe as the debate on leadership and the articulation of the life of the mind in Africa's socio-economic, political and cultural life from the time of independence to date. The papers contained in the book cover the following thematic areas: Alternative Leadership Paradigm for Africa's Advancement; African Perspectives on Globalisation and international relations; Pan-Africanism and the African Renaissance; Scientific, Technological and Cultural Dimensions of African Development. The first section deals with alternative leadership paradigms for Africa's advancement. It also debates the 'thin line' separating management studies from leadership studies and untangles the hermeneutic complexities in the term 'leadership'. Section two examines among other things, the crucial challenge of globalisation and public ethics and others African perspectives. The section also interrogates the current complexities and credibility deficits in the global governance of trade and towards the end engages philosophical questions about conscience and consciousness in African development and progress. The debates in section three continue to section four and focus on the overall issues of language and liberation, the significance of Multi-, Inter and Trans-Disciplinary Approaches in the analysis of the African continent, appropriate indigenous paradigms for promoting the African renaissance as well as a series of debates on the meaning and prospects of regional integration in Africa's renewal. This provides just a snapshot of a very wide ranging and interesting debate contained in the publication.

Democracy, Good Governance and Development in Africa

Democracy, Good Governance and Development in Africa
Author: Mawere, Munyaradzi
Publisher: Langaa RPCIG
Total Pages: 422
Release: 2015-10-24
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9956763004

Questions surrounding democracy, governance, and development especially in the view of Africa have provoked acrimonious debates in the past few years. It remains a perennial question why some decades after political independence in Africa the continent continues experiencing bad governance, lagging behind socioeconomically, and its democracy questionable. We admit that a plethora of theories and reasons, including iniquitous and malicious ones, have been conjured in an attempt to explain and answer the questions as to why Africa seems to be lagging behind other continents in issues pertaining to good governance, democracy and socio-economic development. Yet, none of the theories and reasons proffered so far seems to have provided enduring solutions to Africa’s diverse complex problems and predicaments. This book dissects and critically examines the matrix of Africa’s multifaceted problems on governance, democracy and development in an attempt to proffer enduring solutions to the continent’s long-standing political and socio-economic dilemmas and setbacks.

Leadership Concepts and the Role of Government in Africa

Leadership Concepts and the Role of Government in Africa
Author: Kwaku Abiam Danso
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2007
Genre: Economic and social development
ISBN: 9781425725006

The concepts of leadership and the specific role of government leadership in meeting the basic needs of the people seem poorly defined in many areas of African society. Many people in these poor societies seem desperate and anxious for service, contrary to what many external observers may seem to think as a state of contentment. This creates a management dilemma why government fails to deliver despite high expectations of the electorate. The case of Africa was studied using Ghana as an example of such societies where one can observe phenomenon from examples of traditional leadership of chiefs with certain powers but limited responsibilities that may not be clearly defined for modern development of the society. Whiles recognizing traditional leadership, people in these societies find themselves with shifted locus of power and control, owing loyalty and allegiance to some other elected leaders who seem not concerned about the interests of the electorate, even where very high taxes are collected and people have the money to pay for services. The case of Ghana was examined using a qualitative case study. Selected businesspersons were interviewed in the Accra-Tema metropolitan area to examine their experiences, expectations and perceptions of the leadership, using one indicator of business performance: the quality of utility service delivery regarding water, electricity, telephone and garbage. As well known and found by the World Bank and local Private Enterprise Foundation [PEF] and business groups, electricity and telephone services are indispensable elements of any modern business. In the 1990s, the facsimile machine became part of modern business to enhance data delivery in addition to voice transmission, and in 2006 the Internet and electronic mail have become an almost integral part of global business communication for more than ten years. The needs for these business tools become more critical if businesses have to compete at the global level in free-enterprise markets usually imposed by Western donor and lender conditions. Water and garbage service not only affect health in any society, but in Africa poor sewage treatment and open sewage are directly related to mosquito breeding and malaria. Malaria was reported to kill 15,000 children under five years of age and 2,000 pregnant women in 2005, and seem to reduce the average life expectancy of people in some sectors of the nation by more than six years (GhanaHomePage, 2006, May 12). The research study on Ghana by this author showed that inefficient service delivery was found to impact about 90% of businesses in almost all sectors, despite a high [73%] expectation from leadership. Despite the call for overseas investors, first-dial successful completion rate of telephone transmission from California to Ghana was only 4%, most fax machines tried were not functional, and more than 95% of the participant business managers and owners used in the study did not have regular use of the Internet. Fifty-six (56) types of leadership perceptions based on the culture evolved and were grouped into common themes, and compared with a similar study in the United States of America. Cultural factors were explored in order to understand the challenges in Ghana's socio-economic development compared with Euro-American and Asian-Confucian cultures. This book is based on a dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the PhD degree at Capella University's School of Business and Technology [Organization and Management - Leadership Option] in June 2006. I wish to acknowledge the help of Capella University as well as the supervision of Dr. Godwin Igein and Dr. Stephen Tvorik of the School of Business and Technology, and Dr. Kwesi Ngissah of Oakland, California who acted as outside dissertation committee member.

Resolving the African Leadership Challenge

Resolving the African Leadership Challenge
Author: Okechukwu Ethelbert Amah
Publisher: Emerald Group Publishing
Total Pages: 219
Release: 2023-01-26
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1802626794

Resolving the African Leadership Challenge: Insight From History examines leadership in pre-colonial, colonial and postcolonial modern Africa, exploring the origin of Africa’s leadership challenge, and providing lessons to enhance leadership effectiveness.