Towards the bigger vision for Africa
The stochastic nature of political and social processes determines economic development of the world’s poorest continent, Africa! History plays a fundamental role in all these interactions! I was either unfortunate or fortunate not to have studied history, not because it was a very difficult subject for me since I was the best in my senior one when I last offered it! I will, however, always be appreciative to Professor Simba Kayunga, who taught me political education, then, at my senior three and four in which I excelled. There are some key elements that form the core requirements for a bigger vision for Africa of which any country whose governance system applies them is graded as more developed. One of them is learning from history, and preserving the good history to building on. Professor Ahmed Mohiddin, who studied and lectured at Makerere University, is a moving encyclopedia of the African leaders who have made Africa proud as far as sustaining good history is concerned and also otherwise in pursuit for a bigger vision for Africa. The other key elements are i) avoiding the blame game ii) amicably managing diversity iii) change process management iv) commitment and transparency v) accountability to the citizens vi) practicing self-last theory in governance vii) protecting constitutionalism viii) rule of law ix) professionalism (as a governance practice, human development and consultations) and x) democracy and human rights protection.
Africa Governance Report is a project by UNECA and UNDP to assess and monitor the progress towards good governance in Africa by identifying capacity gaps in governance institutions and subsequently propose policy interventions to promote good governance. So far, two publications have been made; AGR I that was published in the year 2005 applied three methods of statistical data collection; the expert panel survey, the household survey and the desk research to develop seven chapters of the report. AGR II was published in the year 2009 and used the same methodology as AGR I, with a target of a representative sample of 100 experts. On the other hand, AGR III intends to use expert panel, focus group discussions and desk research to collect data focusing on the otherwise tricky theme of elections and the management of diversity. The fascinating aspect of AGR is the fact that it is locally created by Africans and for Africans, hence a greater possibility of ownership. The other is that it’s collaborative nature between UNECA, UNDP regional and country offices, the national research institutions and the experts at country level.
Over to you…
Ronald Wesonga is a Statistician and a Specialist in Statistical Computing. Over the last decade, he has developed vast experience in data management...