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- Convenor:
-
Felix Danso
(National College of Defence Studies, Ghana)
Send message to Convenor
- Formats:
- Papers Mixed
- Stream:
- Political regimes and leadership
- Sessions:
- Wednesday 17 June, -, -
Time zone: Europe/London
Short Abstract:
What style or theories of leadership and governance structure is needed in Africa. How is African Regionalism responding to the threats of globalization and development? Are the governance systems in Africa proactive and responsive to African's development?
Long Abstract:
African states have from the 1960's been plagued with widespread conflicts, poverty and development challenges, particularly Sub- Saharan African. The late 19th century witnessed African States being colonized by European countries for a period less than 100 years (Carmody, 2011). Many of the leaders of African independence and liberation struggles, such as Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Julius Nyerere of Tanzania, Patrice Lumumba of Congo, among others envisioned an Africa with visionary leaders for development. After more than 50 years of independence of Africa, the issue of leadership is crucial, especially when discussing Africa's development challenges in today's globalized world. The 1990's witnessed the democratization of African States and societies and this period brought to test the quality of the new generation of leaders, in relation to building on the socio economic foundation of the early liberators, and structuring a new method of governance that would promote socio-economic development. Globalization is both a threat and opportunity to Africa. Whiles Pan- Africanists would see globalization as an old imperialist wine in a new bottle, African neo- liberalists would argue that the harnessing of the opportunities of globalization is the surest way to tackle the development challenges that Africa faces. This panel will critically discuss leadership and governance of Africa in the face of globalization. What should be the place of Pan Africanism in globalization?Do the roles of African traditional leaders, such as chiefs and other community leaders still relevant for development?
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Wednesday 17 June, 2020, -Paper short abstract:
How do 'growth-enhancing' governance structure differ from 'market-enhancing' structures? What do these two governance structures entail, within the African milieu, and what implications do they have for per-capita micro-economic development indicators in Africa?
Paper long abstract:
How do 'growth-enhancing' governance structure differ from 'market-enhancing' governance structures? What do these two governance structures entail, within the African context and what implications do they have for development in Africa? These are the thrust of this study. Following the end of the Cold War and the advancement of the capitalist agenda of the 'West' in African states; resulting in calls for entrenching democratic governance, respect for rule of law and protection of human rights, among others, development has arguably remained a façade in Africa, as many democratic states have either remained underdeveloped or, at best, have stayed developing for several decades, while most of the individuals in these societies have continued to suffer the worse forms of poverty and deprivations. This paper argues that while the capitalist agenda bears some positive outcomes, it has remained a guise for several other neo-imperialist policies that have constituted a 'clog in the wheel' of development in Africa. The paper therefore argues that development in Africa ought to, rather, be predicated on more pragmatic strategies and 'growth-enhancing' governance structures that have potentials of translating to micro-economic development deliverables such as increased per-capita income, employment opportunities, provision of basic amenities and overall higher standards of living in Africa.
Paper short abstract:
After over 60 years of independence in Africa, why are the African leaders unable to deal with the persistence of the border disputes despite the instruments for resolution and cooperation? To what extend is the role of the affected borderland communities in the persistence of the dispute?
Paper long abstract:
African borders are configured to mirror the European concept of nation-states. The post-independent African leaders agreed to respect the inherited colonial instruments defining the borders at the time of independence. Six decades after independence, territorial border disputes continue to persist. At the heart of the disputes are the borderland communities. Most borderland communities in Africa are caught in-between the demand for modern states and the retention of their homogeneous cross-cultural heritage and socio-political solidarity.
The study focused on the northern sector of Nigeria - Benin borderland in West Africa. The preoccupation of the population in the borderland is farming. The region is bedeviled by conflicts between the communities astride the border due to undetermined territorial border limits. Issues of citizenship, identity, land ownership and underdevelopment continue to take it's tall on the communities and has exposed them to structural margination dictated by center-periphery dichotomy.
The study investigates the extend of the role of the borderland communities in the persistence of the border dispute in the border region. Contrary to most findings in the existing literature, the study reveals that the persistence of border disputes was a mere diversion by the leadership of the states despite having the exclusive preserve for the border determination and the dispute is responsible for conflicts between the erstwhile united homogenous borderland communities.
Keywords: Borders, Borderlands, Disputes, Development, Citizenship and Identity
Paper short abstract:
The existing structure of Tanzanian local governments have not changed significantly as compared to the one established during the colonial British administration in 1950s. The article focuses on the effectiveness and efficiency of local government in delivering agricultural services
Paper long abstract:
The existing structure of Tanzanian local governments have not changed significantly as compared to the one established during the colonial British administration in 1950s. Using a case study approach, the article focuses on the effectiveness and efficiency of local government authorities in delivering public agricultural services in Tanzania. Overall, local governments, among other things, have failed to deliver public services in the agriculture sector as intended. Instead, they serve the interests of local elites including corrupt ones. For that reason, there is a call for a centralized welfare system with fewer amalgamated local governments to reduce expenses, rectify the shortfalls of the market economy in general and improve the performance of the local governments. The paper contributes to the fields of local government and development studies.
Keywords: local government, development, corruption, agriculture, gender, Tanzania
Paper short abstract:
How can Ghana's local governance system be responsive to sanitation issues?How can stronger institutions and effective leadership be built to ensure proper attention to sanitation service delivery?What lesson can be learnt from the role of traditional leaders towards ensuring healty andclean cities?
Paper long abstract:
In the past, predominantly rural communities and small towns were kept clean through regular communal labour and rules concerning ownership of latrines and safe disposal of waste. Further, sanitary inspectors took to the going of households to ensure general cleanliness and took necessary legal action against offenders of local bye-laws. These strong institutions and leadership ensured clean and healthy societies. Rapid urbanisation coupled with high population growth has led to complex sanitation challenges especially in urban areas. These have further compounded due to the ineffective institutional set-up and weak leadership for sanitation service delivery. Environmental Health Officers who are supposed to be in the forefront for ensuring sanitation service delivery lack the requisite educational training to understand the complexities of sanitation service delivery. Majority of the few Public Health Engineers who were posted to the various District Assemblies have also vacated their posts due to frustrations in the local government system. These institutional lapses have resulted in blatant disregard for local sanitation bye-laws leading to high open defecation rates, indiscriminate littering and dumping of refuse. 2017 saw the birth of a Ministry for Sanitation and Water Resources by the President who further declared his intentions to make Accra the cleanest city in Africa by 2020. Two years down the line, little has been done to ensure that this laudable pronouncement becomes a reality. Ghana's woeful sanitation coverage (20% of the population has access to basic sanitation facilities) makes one wonder if the country will achieve the SDG 6 by 2030.
Paper short abstract:
This paper explores the leadership in Nigeria from a historical and African comparative point of view, highlighting the major issues bedeviling the structure and nature of leadership in Nigeria, as well as the implications for delivery of good governance to the Nigerian people and Africa in general
Paper long abstract:
Nigeria is dubbed the African giant, and prides itself as the 'big brother' among the African comity of states, which is evidenced in the role of Nigeria in the African Union as well as the sub-regional Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). Unfortunately, leadership and governance have arguably remained some of the key challenges facing this 'giant'. This paper explores the leadership in Nigeria from a historical and African comparative point of view, highlighting the major issues bedeviling the structure and nature of leadership in Nigeria, as well as the implications for delivery of good governance to the Nigerian people particularly and the African continent in general. Also, the study investigates the process of inducting Nigeria into the globalized world, particularly in the context of regional and international politics, as well as the implications of Nigeria's globalization for development and growth within the Nigerian state.