Challenges to administration in Africa
Governance concept per se represents a challenge for Africa, since there is no common definition applied to it. Thus, it is vast and subject to different interpretations. However, although constant debates on governance, there is still some controversy about the good governance. However, according to the World Bank, the challenges facing the African continent towards adopting sustainable governance are as follows:
Empowerment of the civil society: in Africa there is strong belief that better governance is done when government is strengthened. Thus, people participation in governance is poor in the continent. However, African countries need to motivate participation of the civil society in the countries’ governance so that the society will be empowered to demand accountability from the public sector managers and avoid mismanagement of public goods. Therefore, it is crucial to developed and strengthen instruments that allows civil society intervention and participation in governance. On the other hand a massive participation of the society would require high levels of accountability, credibility and efficiency of civil society organizations (Kaufmann 1999 & Khan 2006).
Communication and media: the media plays a very important role in disseminating and divulging societies’ opinion regarding socio political views and also act as supervisor to public sector managers. Therefore, in Africa it has been a great challenge to promoting media’s freedom of expression combined with professionalism, capacity and credibility. Additionally, in some African countries the private media are limited due to finance constraints, thus, unable to function efficiently. Therefore, the majority of the media institutions are state controlled thus, lacking independent (World Bank 2005).
Decentralization: the leadership in most African countries is centralized, thus, the local government do not have the power and authority to take any decision. Therefore, it hinders efficient the capacity of the local administrations. Thus, the opinion of the population is not legitimated by the local governance. Additionally, due to lack of capacity and authority, the local governments are not efficient in providing public service, nor accountable for their local institutions (Kaufmann 1999 & World Bank 2005).
Leadership building and public administration: it is not possible to have good governance under poor leadership. Thus, it is crucial to build capacity for policy development that would require visionary leadership, adequate resource and information management and efficient public service delivery. The above mentioned capacity building are required in a changing environment and are in line with the millennium development goals. Additionally, reforms in the public services capacity are needed including provision of incentives to public servants, to ensure motivation and increased performance, accountability and reduction in corruption. Public service delivery should be improved through capable and effective institutions (World Bank 2005).
Parliamentary system: The parliament should play a major role in eliminating corruption and encourages good governance. On one hand, for this to effectively happen, members of parliaments need to be independent and reinforced in terms of human and institutional capacity. On other hand, internal organization and procedures such as training opportunities as well as minimum literacy level are critical. Additionally, the parliamentary need to be provided with institutional resources such as, libraries or documentation centres (World Bank 2005).
Peace and stability: Conflicts and crises such as civil strife have affected governance in Africa as well as the establishment of sustainable growth performance. Although some countries have recovered from civil wars, good governance remains a challenge. This includes boosting national capacity to avoid crises in governance, maintaining good internal relationship and peace building, as well as reinforcement of issues regarding national security reducing and crime (World Bank 2005).
Institutions and human rights: leaders and society need to respect constitutional rules as a pillar of the rule of laws. Thus, any disrespect of laws would be a threat to stability. Additionally, the integrity and independence of the judiciary should be improved as it can reduce structural constraints. Protection to people’s rights including minority groups and vulnerable population should also be improved (World Bank 2005).
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