Strengthening the Policy Environment for Volunteering for Peace and Development in Southern Africa

This paper proposes that for volunteerism to reach its full potential in contributing to peace and development, there must be a supportive and an enabling environment for volunteering. The components of such an enabling environment are a strong government and civil society partnership to ensure shared appreciation of volunteerism; supportive public leadership, policies and legislation; adoption of a diversity of approaches to facilitate inclusive volunteerism; and sustainable funding

Grassroots community participation as a key to e-governance sustainability in Africa

This article explores the theoretical sustainability of e-governance in Africa by assessing the nature of participation of stakeholders. It adopts an explanatory critique, drawing on perspectives debated in scholarly literature and based on reviews of country approaches. The exploration takes into account historical antecedents to participation in e-governance in Africa, revealing that dominant stakeholder interests effectively lock out the majority of citizens from active participation in e-governance, except as consumers of public services delivered through e-government. It considers the nature of attachment of stakeholders to e-governance projects. Global stakeholders increasingly have a low degree of attachment, while there is a relatively high degree of enrolment of local actors. The concept of e-governance remains solid, but is dispensable, since although government agencies have “embraced” the message of e-government, certain local actors are weakly mobilised. The policy process has failed to nurture the heterogeneity of actors, specifically grassroots actors, that is required for effective e-governance.http://link.wits.ac.za/journal/journal.htmlam201

Towards Ensuring Sustainable Urban Growth and Development in Nigeria: Challenges and Strategies

The accelerated rate of urbanization in all forms and the geometric population growth in Nigeria have been generating serious environmental problems and concern for both the government and interested stakeholders. Notably among which include problems of accommodation, over-stretched and poorly maintained facilities, roads, traffic congestion, undirected drainage systems, etc are few of the problems plaguing most of the country’s urban centres. It is the foregoing scenario that has necessitated the recent concern about the sustainability of our environment taking into consideration the increasing rate of environmental waste and degradation going on in the country. Despite the efforts of the various organizations and interest groups spear-heading campaigns for progressive changes in policies, laws, technologies and development strategies toward enhancing urban qualities, the achievement has been rather very low and minimal. This development has created great sustainable challenges for not only the government at various levels but also the stakeholders and other interest groups in the country especially in the area of human settlement and sustenance of the environment in the area of good transportation networks, potable water supply, sanitation, effective and efficient waste management, elimination of social conflict and crime. This paper examined the efforts of government at tackling the barrage of challenges hampering issue of sustaining urban growth phenomenon over the years through poverty reduction and economic empowerment strategies, good governance and enhanced urban development international partnership strategies. The paper concludes that sustainability of urban growth and development can only be anchored on government sincerity of purpose and committed political will in an atmosphere of peaceful democratic settin

Successful, safe and sustainable cities: towards a New Urban Agenda

There is a growing interest among national governments and international agencies in the contribution of urban centres to sustainable development. The paper outlines the new global agendas to guide this: the Sustainable Development Goals, the Paris Agreement and the New Urban Agenda. It then sets out the key challenges and opportunities facing urban governments across the Commonwealth in implementing these agendas and achieving inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable cities. This is hampered by significant infrastructure deficits (especially in provision for water and sanitation) and a lack of funding. After outlining the commitments agreed by national governments in these global agendas, the paper discusses the vital role in meeting these of city leadership, financing and investment, urban planning and local economic development. Whilst it is good to see recognition of the importance of cities to national economies, economic success in any city does not automatically contribute to a healthier city, a more inclusive city or a sustainable city. This needs capable and accountable urban governments working closely with local civil society, and the redirection of public funds and development assistance to support them

Property taxation and democratic decentralization in developing countries

governance;decentralization;developing countries;local finance;property tax;urban development

Web 2.0, ICT Infrastructure, and Training Provision for E-Government Readiness in Nigeria

This chapter presents a discussion on e-readiness, Web 2.0, social media, mobile/wireless technologies, and other Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) that can help to facilitate the attainment and sustenance of an e-ready environment necessary to enhance e-governance in Nigeria. The chapter aims to clearly articulate the necessary steps to be taken to provide all stakeholders with a blueprint of areas and factors on which to focus. An assessment of how e-ready the Nigerian government and its citizens currently are and the requirements necessary for further steps to be taken (such as policies, programmes, and processes to be put in place, infrastructures to be acquired, and training provisions to equip Nigerian citizens and government officials with the capacity to benefit from and sustain the use of acquired e-technologies) are also presented. Specific ways by which Nigeria can harness the various emerging technologies (social media, Web 2.0, and mobile/wireless technologies) are highlighted. If employed appropriately, these technologies can help to provide improved processes, increased efficiency, improved transparency, and citizen’s effective participation and involvement in governance to further improve the lives of Nigerian citizens

The potential of ICTs to empower rural women

The purpose of the study is to investigate the potential of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to empower rural women. A variety of ICTs are used by the rural women to develop their ICT skills. Participation in decision-making that affect their lives and the use of ICTs are crucial for the socio-economic empowerment of rural women. Mere availability and access to ICTs will not empower women. The paper highlights the need for rural women’s active involvement in ICT policy making and capacity building to give them ‘the strength and confidence to’ use ICTs. The telecentres can provide government services to the rural women, business opportunities and other income generation opportunities. ICTs should be provided at a reasonable cost to help rural women maintain the ‘networks’ with other community members and to develop ICT skills. Engendered ICT policies, gender sensitive and innovative programmes that target rural women are crucial for women to overcome the social barriers in accessing information and to improve their capabilities. ICTs have the potential to improve the quality of lives of rural women and can give them more control over their lives

Determinants of Successful Implementation of Early Childhood Development Education by County Governments in Kenya; Implementing Partners Perspective

The purpose of this study was to assess the determinants of successful implementation of Early Childhood Development Education (ECDE) by County Governments in Kenya from the implementing partners‟ perspective. This study was guided by the following specific objectives: to determine the influence of the capacities of the County Government staff on the implementation of early childhood development education by County Governments in Kenya, to determine the how management of early childhood development education affects its implementation by County Governments in Kenya, to assess how availability of physical facilities affect the implementation of early childhood development education by County Governments in Kenya and to examine how policies affect the implementation of early childhood development education by County Governments in Kenya. Decentralization theory and organization learning theory were used to explain the relationship between the study variables. Descriptive research design was used in the study. The population for the study was implementing partners working with County Governments in Kenya to support ECDE. Purposive sampling technique was used to select the respondents to participate in the study. A total of 100 respondents were targeted from the 10 organizations studied out of which 70 participated giving a response rate of 70%. Questionnaire was used as instrument for data collection. Both qualitative and quantitative data analysis techniques were used to analyze the data. The study found that the implementation of ECDE by County governments in Kenya was generally successful from the implementing partners‟ perspective and indicated by 56.8%. It is also worth noting that beside the general success, there were myriads of challenges facing the implementation of the program by county governments. Findings from regression analysis showed that the coefficient of determination indicated that 63.5% of the variations on the implementation of ECDE by county governments can be explained by staff capacity, management of ECDE, availability of physical facilities and ECDE policies. The remaining 36.5% can be explained by other variables not included in the study. R square and adjusted R is above average an implication that an above average variation can be explained by the model. The study recommended that county governments should allocate more funds for the renovation and construction of more ECDE centres, allocate adequate funds for the implementation of ECDE and that they should organize consistent in-service training for ECDE teachers and at the same time employ more ECDE staff to cater for the large number of children in ECDE centres.

Citizen Participation and Service Delivery at the Local Government Level: A Case of Ise/Orun Local Government In Ekiti State, Nigeria

Service delivery is an essential function in the relation between government bodies and citizens. According to Eigema(2007), Service delivery is the government’s key task.The best yardstick to measure government performance of good governance is through service delivery to the people. A government is expected to deliver better services to its people, and the indices of measuring service delivery to the people include low inflation, better education, provision of improved health care at affordable rates, provision of clean water, provision of good roads and good road networks to the rural areas for the transport of agricultural products and raw materials etc. (Akanji et al, 2011). Despite Nigeria earning over $800 billion in oil revenue in 56 years since oil was first discovered in the country in the South-South in 1956(Izuora,2013), poverty index remain very high. According to African Development Bank, “The proportion of people living below the national poverty line has worsened from 65.5 per cent in 1996 to 69.0 per cent in 2010. “Poverty is higher in rural areas at 73.2 per cent than in urban area at 61.8 per cent.” (theeagleonline,com.ng/news/nigerias-poverty-level-has-worsened-afdb/). The creation of local government anywhere in the world stems from the need to facilitate development at the grassroots. The importance of local government is a function of its ability to generate sense of belongingness, safety and satisfaction among its populace. The Nigerian state therefore created local government as the third tier of government whose objective is to ensure effective, measurable and efficient service delivery to the people (Arowolo, 2008). The need to improve local government service delivery cannot be overemphasized.Mathoho argued that government’s service delivery is a response to moral obligation and is attached to the economic growth and the alleviation of poverty(Mathoho, M.).The demand for social service at rural level is on the increase because of the increase in population. More than 70 percent of the Nigerian population reside in the rural areas and are directly or indirectly affected by services rendered by the third tier governments(Agba et al, 2013)

The Relevance of Information and Communication Technology in Enhancing Representative Democracy in Nigeria

The paper examines the concept of representative democracy and election as its foundational hallmark. It focuses on election in Nigeria and the role of information and communication Technology (ICT). Elections in Nigeria and the nature of the electoral process are usually fraught with sectarian conflicts between ethnic groups and the multivariate religions that exist thereby exposing the process to violence and fraud which consequently have led to perennial leadership failures. This paper therefore, aims to x-ray the role and relevance of ICT in affecting the outcomes of elections in Nigeria. In particular, it seeks to examine how the deployment of advanced technology in the form of introduction of card readers and permanent voters card (PVC) can enhance the electoral process and management. There is also the revolutionary impact of the social media on election and voters’ awareness with more engaging and participatory conversations through various social platforms that have helped to shape public opinions and reposition elections not only in Nigeria but also in other climes. Communication and diffusionist theories are adopted as the theoretical framework. The findings reveal that innovation in the management of elections especially by introducing ICT will lead to minimal electoral fraud and more credible elections that will be acceptable to both the contestants, electorate and the international community. The paper recommends that government must play the leading role to ensure ICT is fully deployed in the conduct of elections in Nigeria. It further recommends that government should create the enabling environment to investors both local and foreign to engender competitive innovation in the area of software and IT development. The Nigerian youth are ICT savvy and if given the opportunity, will develop more suitable technology that could be used to solve the perennial electoral conundrum. Keywords: Information & communication technology, New media, Representative democracy, Political participation, Diffusionist approach DOI: 10.7176/DCS/10-11-07 Publication date: November 30th 202