Suchergebnisse

As a continent, Africa is often branded as the continent plagued with wars, terrorism, coups and a range of social self-inflicted woes. The narrative is changing as the Continent's citizenry becomes increasingly aware of democratic practices and governance processes taking place in other countries. This is, in the main, buoyed by telecommunications and, particularly, social media, which is increasingly playing an educational role in Africa's citizenry. Signe and Gurib- Fakim (2019) commented that the transformation that Africa has undergone in recent decades has been remarkable. Africa is shaping its own destiny and should be referred to as the 'African opportunity' instead of the threat. Recognising Africa as an opportunity rather than a threat is critical for governments, citizens and researchers globally as it will position Africa's countries to face challenges and further boost desired development trends. In this edition of the African Journal of Governance and Development, we explore issues of foreign aid, secondary education, higher education and social media. We explore these issues with a view to scope out the opportunities and challenges in shaping Africa's development trajectory and build the Africa we want.

Water is a crucial issue for sustainable livelihoods, and a lack of it impacts human life. Catchment areas play an essential role in water provisioning, and their management is fundamental for sustained water availability. The UN-endorsed Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) approach best expresses catchment management ideals that resonate with South Africa's constitutional ideals of efficient and equitable distribution of resources. South Africa has a history of inequality that led to severe neglect of rural areas in many facets, including the water sector. Despite the country's reformed laws and policies, sustainable water provision and access remain challenging, particularly in rural-based municipalities where land degradation and a weak revenue base interact to reduce access to water for most communities. This paper reports on a study that sought to understand participatory processes for catchment management in the upper Umzimvubu catchment within Matatiele Local Municipality in the Alfred Nzo District Municipality in the Eastern Cape Province. This study used a qualitative approach to data collection and document analysis. The findings show that participatory water governance strategies exist and tend to coalesce around non-governmental structures. The findings also show that there is room for improving water governance in rural communities, including the need to finalize the establishment of Catchments Management Areas (CMAs) in all nine existing Water Management Areas (WMAs) while incorporating strong community involvement and strengthening the capacity of rural municipalities.

Despite the numerous structural problems that plague the African continent, many governments in Africa continue to show a commitment to poverty eradication. The ever-growing rural-urban migration and related challenges have contributed to a renewed focus on rural areas where themajority of the poor reside. The decentralisation of government services has created immense gains in many places across Africa where the governance structure has morphed into a transfer of authority and resources from central to subnational governments. Sadly, these small gains aresometimes overshadowed by persistent ethnicity and sentiments of ethno-nationalism, conflicts and separatism. This is particularly evident where federalism rather than decentralisation has taken root, as in the case of Nigeria and Ethiopia. In this issue of the African Journal of Governanceand Development, we showcase attempts to fight poverty in Ghana and the commitment to bring higher education services to rural Rwanda. We also reflect on the genesis and impact outcomes of federalism in Ethiopia and Nigeria. Lastly, we reflect on fiscal policy and governance on theContinent and, specifically, their effect on human development in the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA).

This paper reports on research that examined the challenges encountered by the City of Tshwane in responding to citizen demands for social accountability. The research draws on data collected through a mixed-method approach in selected communities within the City of Tshwane in the Gauteng province of South Africa. The research established that a range of challenges hamper public officials' quest for social accountability mechanisms. These include not just a lack of political will or a lack of interest by the citizenry but also to a lack of the requisite skills and resources needed to carry out a full blown consultative and communication process.

In this paper, the use of print media in university curricula is considered, in order to help theorise our practice in higher education in South Africa and elsewhere. Furthermore, the potential contribution of such media to the kind of education to which we aspire, is interrogated. Our reflections are based on an assessment of the use of different media (hard copy or web-based content of newspaper articles) in a third year community development module, at a large contact university in South Africa, over a five year period. The module focused not on academic literacies per se, but on disciplinary content, work-related skills, and the development of critical thinkers and citizens. We considered Blooms (amended) taxonomy of learning objectives and activity theory to structure our reflection. It is concluded that the use of popular media can add value to the class learning experience, although there are notable concomitant challenges, which are discussed.

This paper discusses network governance and its contribution to the capacity of local governments (LGs) to deliver local economic development (LED) in Uganda. Although a formal LED policy was only established in Uganda in February 2014, there have been LED-inspired practices in the past decade. Various scholars and practitioners have observed that the autonomy and capacity of LGs to deliver LED is limited, but have been hopeful that new governance strategies like network governance would increase the capacities of LGs. However, neither network governance arrangements among LGs, nor their potential to improve governance capacity, have been documented. In a case study of Kyenjojo District, this paper finds that existing network governance arrangements have been fundamental in improving financial autonomy at this LG, delivering some income to invest in LED activities, although no evidence was found of reduced transaction costs in transforming local economies. The study further reveals that network governance arrangements have not led to the development of specialised skills in regulation or law enforcement, and capacity gaps are evident amongst staff and members in understanding the private sector and how it works. On a positive note, there is clear evidence of attempts by the LG to be innovative. Based on these findings, this study recommends that LGs need to consider a multi-pronged or multi-network governance approach to LED, which in turn will require a refocusing of governance mechanisms to become more dynamic and responsive, and offer incentives to the various actors in the development sector.

This paper discusses network governance and its contribution to the capacity of local governments (LGs) to deliver local economic development (LED) in Uganda. Although a formal LED policy was only established in Uganda in February 2014, there have been LED-inspired practices in the past decade. Various scholars and practitioners have observed that the autonomy and capacity of LGs to deliver LED is limited, but have been hopeful that new governance strategies like network governance would increase the capacities of LGs. However, neither network governance arrangements among LGs, nor their potential to improve governance capacity, have been documented. In a case study of Kyenjojo District, this paper finds that existing network governance arrangements have been fundamental in improving financial autonomy at this LG, delivering some income to invest in LED activities, although no evidence was found of reduced transaction costs in transforming local economies. The study further reveals that network governance arrangements have not led to the development of specialised skills in regulation or law enforcement, and capacity gaps are evident amongst staff and members in understanding the private sector and how it works. On a positive note, there is clear evidence of attempts by the LG to be innovative. Based on these findings, this study recommends that LGs need to consider a multi-pronged or multi-network governance approach to LED, which in turn will require a refocusing of governance mechanisms to become more dynamic and responsive, and offer incentives to the various actors in the development sector.

The effectiveness of a government's communication, especially in times of crisis, is crucial to its legitimacy, reputation, disaster management and its ability to ensure the wellbeing of its people. This paper examines the focus and trends in press statements published on South Africa's official coronavirus website during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Government decisions, successes and challenges were frequently communicated to the public through these statements. The study aimed to understand what was communicated regarding government's priorities and the factors that shaped them. Data were extracted from 483 press statements published between 05 March 2020 and 15 January 2021. Thematic analysis and mean scores were used to identify the focus and trends in the messages, while the Wilcoxon signed rank test (WSRT) was used to identify the significance of the changes in the mean scores. The results showed a coordinated and persistent effort to inform the public with credible, accurate, timely and empowering information. The most persistent priority of the government was to control the spread of the virus, while several issues relating to the socio-economic wellbeing of the people were prioritised at different stages of the pandemic. There was a parallel movement between the trajectory of the disease and government decisions, suggesting that government response was mostly reactive to the behaviour of the pandemic. The South African government needs to be more proactive in its disaster response and demonstrate a nuanced understanding of its citizens and their challenges.