Download or read book The Political Economy of Decentralization in Sub Saharan Africa written by Bernard Dafflon and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2013 with total page 343 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For two decades now, experiences in decentralization and federalization have been in progress in many countries, particularly in Sub Saharan Africa. How can these processes be understood and improved? Focusing on four Sub-Saharan countries (Burkina Faso, Ghana, Kenya and Senegal), this volume applies an original approach to address such questions. No attempt is made to transpose an ideal Western model - which does not exist. Here, decentralization is viewed as a sequential process, implying choices that are the sole responsibility of the country concerned. For each of the four countries, the authors provide a diagnosis of how decentralization is organized in practice and compare this with the institutional architecture adopted. This analysis of the gaps separating what is formally targeted and what has been achieved on the ground suggests possible directions for reform. A guide for analyzing decentralized policies is proposed, which is useful to help identify the issues at stake, point out stumbling blocks and ensure the coherence of decisions on decentralization.
Download or read book Lessons for Effective Fiscal Decentralization in Sub Saharan Africa written by Mr.Niko A Hobdari and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2018-07-06 with total page 63 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fiscal decentralization is becoming a pressing issue in a number of countries in sub-Saharan Africa, reflecting demands for a greater local voice in spending decisions and efforts to strengthen social cohesion. Against this backdrop, this paper seeks to distill the lessons for an effective fiscal decentralization reform, focusing on the macroeconomic aspects. The main findings for sub-Saharan African countries that have decentralized, based on an empirical analysis and four case studies (Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda), are as follows: • Determinants and effectiveness: Empirical results suggest that (1) the major driving forces behind fiscal decentralization in sub-Saharan Africa include efforts to defuse ethnic conflicts, the initial level of income, and the urban-ization rate, whereas strength of democracy is not an important determi-nant for decentralization; and (2) decentralization in sub-Saharan Africa is associated with higher growth in the presence of stronger institutions. • Spending assignments: The allocation of spending across levels of gov-ernment in the four case studies is broadly consistent with best practice. However, in Uganda, unlike in the other three case studies, subnational governments have little flexibility to make spending decisions as a result of a deconcentrated rather than a devolved system of government. • Own revenue: The assignment of taxing powers is broadly in line with best practice in the four case studies, with the bulk of subnational revenue coming from property taxes and from fees for local services. However, own revenues are a very small fraction of subnational spending, reflecting weak cadaster systems and a high level of informality in the economy.
Download or read book African Political Economy written by Kempe Ronald Hope, Sr. and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-09-16 with total page 237 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a multidisciplinary book that analyses the problems and issues of development in Africa along with the attempts at, and outcomes of, policy reform measures that have been implemented to surmount those problems. Topics covered include the economic crisis in Africa, urbanisation and urban management, uneven development, the socio-economic context of AIDS, bureaucratic corruption and reform, and proposed development solutions.
Download or read book Federalism and Decentralization in Sub Saharan Africa written by Jan Erk and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-12-07 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 1990s were marked by democratic reforms throughout Africa, which went in tandem with decentralization reforms. The chapters of the volume all highlight the gradual changes that have taken place since. Long-term structural uncodified factors – be it societal, economic, geographic, demographic – seem to have interacted with the constitutional clauses introduced during the reforms. Some chapters look at how decentralization slowly gave way to recentralization because none of the new subnational entities were politically and economically strong enough to balance off the center; some look at how inherent deficiencies in infrastructure and personnel at the subnational level brought the central government back in; some look at how different subnational units ended up working differently due to differences in demographic and social factors; some look at how uncodified factors came to determine how national politics functioned; some look at how decentralization created new conflicts between ethnic groups competing for the control of the new entities; some look at how decentralization blew new life into traditional authorities. This book was original published as a special issue of Regional and Federal Studies.
Download or read book Corruption Good Governance and the African State written by Ganahl, Joseph Patrick and published by Universitätsverlag Potsdam. This book was released on 2014-02-18 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: African states are often called corrupt, indicating that the political system in Africa differs from the one prevalent in economically advanced democracies. This, however, does not give us any insight into what makes corruption the dominant norm of African statehood. Thus we must turn to the overly neglected theoretical work on the political economy of Africa in order to determine how the poverty of governance in Africa is firmly anchored both in Africa’s domestic socioeconomic reality, as well as in the region’s role in the international economic order. Instead of focusing on increased monitoring, enforcement and formal democratic procedures, this book combines economic analysis with political theory in order to arrive at a better understanding of the political-economic roots of corruption in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Download or read book African Political Economy in the Twenty First Century written by Emeka C. Iloh and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2023-09-12 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book contributes to the debate concerning the future of the political economy of African development by addressing the important question of how African countries can strategically approach global political economy at multilateral, continental, and regional levels in view of North-South versus South-South configurations.
Download or read book Economic Change and Political Liberalization in Sub Saharan Africa written by Jennifer A. Widner and published by . This book was released on 1994 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Aims to establish the nature of the relationship between the economic challenges of the 1980s and the steps toward greater political openness taken by governments at the end of that decade.
Download or read book Understanding Africa written by Richard A. Fredland and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2001 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Africa is a fascinating, complex, and infuriating place. This valuable work covers a broad range of topics aiming to make Africa comprehensible to the general reader. Richard A. Fredland based this book on his extensive travels and research in many African countries. The author offers a systematic and integrated portrait of the continent and its peoples through detailed analysis of African history, political systems, social, cultural and economic development, and present-day problems and prospects. The book is richly illustrated with photographs and supplemented with tables and appendices. A Burnham Publishers book
Download or read book Beyond Structural Adjustment written by Nicolas Van de Walle and published by Springer. This book was released on 2006-08-30 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As the World Bank famously put it back in 1989, 'underlying the litany of Africa's development problems is a crisis of governance.' This is a collection of authoritative essays bringing together prominent Africanists in political science and public administration to look at the role of governance in African development. The goal of the book is to move beyond the status quo debates about 'structural adjustment' and to look at all the public and civic institutions which are likely to play a critical role if Africa is to overcome its economic crisis.
Download or read book Decentralization in Africa written by James Tyler Dickovick and published by Lynne Rienner Pub. This book was released on 2014 with total page 317 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In recent decades laws passed by African governments to transfer power and resources to local and other subnational governments (SNGs) have been greeted by many in the policy community with enthusiasm. But how far has decentralization really gone in Africa? How well does it work? And what have been its consequences? The authors of Decentralization in Africa work within a common conceptual framework to examine the process in 10 countries contrasting clear increases in the legal authority of SNGs with the reality of limited successes in deepening democracy.
Download or read book The Political Economy of Economic Performance written by Voxi Heinrich Amavilah and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2020-05-28 with total page 147 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Extant research continues to perpetuate a myth of Sub-Saharan African countries (SSACs) as ever stuck in the past and with incurable growth maladies. However, during the years just before the great global recession some of these countries performed better than countries in other regions. What explains this turnaround? How can it be ignited everywhere in the region and made to stick? The Political Economy of Economic Performance is among a few competitors that celebrate the successes of the region and argue for the positive economics of performance of at least some countries. Organized around two themes which are pursued in six chapters, the book provides a comprehensive, balanced, and thorough analysis of the factors and forces behind the unusually good performance of SSACs just before the great global recession, and shows that there is a way forward for them. The book makes a significant contribution to both policy and research, because while its structure is scholarly and logical, with a writing style that is coherent and easily understandable to all interested readers worldwide.
Download or read book From Mines and Wells to Well Built Minds written by Bénédicte de la Brière and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2017-05-17 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sub-Saharan Africa's natural resource-rich countries have poor human development. Children in these countries are more likely to die before their first birthday, more likely to be stunted, and less likely to attend school than children in other countries with similar income. Despite the current price downturn, extractives will remain an important part of Sub-Saharan Africa's growth story—using resource rents wisely remains a long term challenge. Governments must choose how to allocate resource rents between spending, investing in human or physical capital, or investing in global financial assets. The return to investing in physical and human capital will be high in countries where the capital stock is low. Moreover, higher levels of human capital make investments in physical capital more productive, which suggests that the optimal portfolio will involve investing in both. Human capital should be prioritized in many of Sub-Saharan Africa’s resource-rich countries because of the low starting point. Investing effectively in human capital is hard because it involves delivering services, which means coordinating a large number of actors and activities. Three dimensions of governance are key: institutions, incentives and information. Decentralization and leveraging the private sector are entry points to reforming institutional structures. Revenues from natural resources can fund financial incentives to strengthen performance or demand. Producing information, making it available, and increasing social accountability helps citizens understand their rights and hold governments and providers accountable. Improving the quality of education and health services is central to improving human capital. Two additional areas are promising. First, early child development—mother and newborn health, and early child nutrition, care, and education—improves outcomes in childhood and later on. Second, cash transfers—either conditional or unconditional—reduce poverty, increase household investments in child education, nutrition, and health, and increase the investment in productive assets which foster further income generation.
Download or read book An Analysis of how Decentralisation Contributes to Good Governance Holistically and in Africa with Particular Emphasis on Its Impact in the Republic of Kenya written by Michael Ferendinos and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2009 with total page 26 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seminar paper from the year 2007 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Region: Africa, grade: B, Stellenbosch Universitiy, course: Southern African Political Economy, 13 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: Dele Olowu and Soumana Sako (2002) point out that it is no secret that governance on the African continent has been under the spotlight, and for all the wrong reasons. Their have been improvements, however, with a shifting from autocracy to democracy in many African states; this has resulted in a move to better or good governance due to this democratic change. Good governance is a complex issue and there is no distinction between good, democratic and participatory governance. Furthermore, there has been little consensus pertaining to the criteria that distinguishes between good, bad, or better governance. This paper will not delve into the conceptualisation of good governance due to length restrictions. The bulk of the paper will provide a detailed analysis of decentralisation, as well as looking at systems of government and models of local government. That will be followed by an overview of decentralisation on the African continent, with specific reference to its impact on the East African state of Kenya. The influence of decentralisation has produced mixed reactions, depending on who it effects; the adequate conceptualisation and method of implementation of the term has also been disputed. This paper holds the position that decentralisation has had a positive effect on the continent as a whole as well as on Kenya. [...]
Download or read book The Political Economy of Democratic Decentralization written by James Manor and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 1999 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nearly all countries worldwide are now experimenting with decentralization. Their motivation are diverse. Many countries are decentralizing because they believe this can help stimulate economic growth or reduce rural poverty, goals central government interventions have failed to achieve. Some countries see it as a way to strengthen civil society and deepen democracy. Some perceive it as a way to off-load expensive responsibilities onto lower level governments. Thus, decentralization is seen as a solution to many different kinds of problems. This report examines the origins and implications decentralization from a political economy perspective, with a focus on its promise and limitations. It explores why countries have often chosen not to decentralize, even when evidence suggests that doing so would be in the interests of the government. It seeks to explain why since the early 1980s many countries have undertaken some form of decentralization. This report also evaluates the evidence to understand where decentralization has considerable promise and where it does not. It identifies conditions needed for decentralization to succeed. It identifies the ways in which decentralization can promote rural development. And it names the goals which decentralization will probably not help achieve.
Download or read book A Political Economy of the African Crisis written by Bade Onimode and published by . This book was released on 1988 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Political Economy of Development written by Ameet Morjaria and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Political Economy of Africa written by Vishnu Padayachee and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2010-06-10 with total page 454 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Political Economy of Africa aims to fill a major gap in the existing literature by exploring the economy and economics of Africa. The book has a critical approach from the perspective of political economy rather than mainstream economics. This book addresses the seemingly intractable economic problems of the African continent, and trace their origins, but also always to bring out the instances of successful economic change, and the possibilities for economic revival and renewal.
