Working Paper 82 - Public Sector Management in Africa

Even though the public sector in African countries was expected to spearhead socioeconomicdevelopment to reduce poverty, it has proved largely ineffective in performingthis task. Some of the reasons for this ineffectiveness are excessive politicization, lack ofaccountability and representation, inability to promote the public interest andauthoritarian tendencies. The ineffectiveness has led to the call for a redefinition of therole of the public sector. As a contribution to the debate over the proper role of the publicsector and how it has coped with the New Public Management reforms, this paperassesses the state of public sector management in Africa by focusing specifically on thestrengths and challenges facing the state and its bureaucracy in relation to socioeconomicdevelopment and how the challenges can be addressed.Some of the issues the paper examines include:• the existing and/or evolving theoretical paradigms and their relevance to thepublic sector management;• the inability of the African state to promote development in comparison to theAsian “developmental” state;• various public sector reforms (civil service, decentralization, privatization,deregulation, co-production, public-private partnerships, judicial, tax) initiated toimprove state capacity and their outcomes;• the effectiveness of strategies implemented to promote accountability andminimize corruption; and• the issues and problems in aid management and coordination in Africa.In addition to these issues, the paper also highlights possible policy options for the futureand their relevance in addressing the challenges facing public sector management.

Christian Perspective on Intercultural Communication

This paper is a revision of a four-year paper presented by Dr. Ayee to the Faculty Status Committee at Dordt College

Reflecting on our past: reconciling a divided nation through listening

The miracle of a relatively peaceful transition from apartheid to a non-racial democratic rule in South Africa stunned political pundits and observers. After decades of dehumanising laws which led to unbelievable racial conflict and the killing of many people, the country witnessed the birth of a new dispensation. This article briefly recounts the tragic history of South Africa, the current challenges the country faces for sustainable peaceful coexistence between the various racial groups, and the role that listening played and should continue to play in the process of national reconciliation

Ghana continues to be a beacon for democracy in Africa

Joseph Atsu Ayee provides a comprehensive overview of the 2016 elections in Ghana

The National Electoral Commission is under scrutiny ahead of #GhanaDecides 2016

Joseph Atsu Ayee examines the challenges facing the Ghana Electoral Commission in what could be pivotal elections for the West African country

Human communication revisited – A biblical perspective

Communication is very important in our daily lives. It is the most common everyday activity and it is at the core of all human contact. It permeates every aspect of who we are and what we do, and is a highly complex human phenomenon. The ability to communicate is a gift from God to enable us to develop relationships with others and to create culture. Studying and theorising about communication will enable us to discover ‘serviceable insights’ to help us to become good stewards of everything that God has entrusted to us. The Bible gives us a grand historical narrative of the cosmos, helping us to understand the fact that God created the world and its people. This article argued that the Creation-Fall-Redemption motif or theme, which is a highly schematised version of the Bible’s grand narrative, could be used as a framework to help us understand and teach communication from an integrated Christian perspective. The clarion call is to redeem communication so that it can be appropriately used directionally for what is true, noble, right, pure, lovely and admirable (Phlp 4:8). As far as communication is concerned, integration of faith and learning should encompass what we teach (content), how we teach that content (pedagogy), and how what we teach impacts the way we think, what we believe, and how we live (our character).Menslike kommunikasie herbesoek – ’n Bybelse perspektief. Kommunikasie is baie belangrik in ons daaglikse lewens. Dit is die mees algemene alledaagse aktiwiteit en vorm deel van die kern van alle menslike kontak. Dit deurdring elke aspek van wie ons is en wat ons doen en is ’n hoogs-komplekse menslike fenomeen. Die vermoë om te kommunikeer is ’n geskenk van God wat ons in staat stel om verhoudings met ander te ontwikkel en kultuur te skep. Die bestudering en teoretisering oor kommunikasie sal ons in staat stel om ‘diensbare insigte’ te ontdek, wat ons sal help om goeie rentmeesters te wees van alles wat God aan ons toevertrou het. Die Bybel gee aan ons ’n uitgebreide historiese narratief van die kosmos wat ons help om te verstaan dat God die wêreld, asook die mens geskep het. Hierdie artikel het geargumenteer dat die Skepping-Sondeval-Verlossingstema of –motief, wat as ’n hoogs- geskematiseerde weergawe van die Bybelse uitgebreide narratief beskou kan word, as ’n raamwerk kan dien om ons te help om kommunikasie vanuit ’n geïntegreerde Christelike perspektief te verstaan en te onderrig. Die wekroep is om kommunikasie vry te maak sodat dit rigtinggewend en gepas gebruik kan word vir wat waar, rein, regverdig, lieflik en loflik is (Fil 4:8). Wat kommunikasie betref, behoort die integrasie van geloof en leer te omsluit wat ons onderrig (inhoud), hoe ons die inhoud onderrig (pedagogie), asook die wyse waarop dit wat ons onderrig ons denke, ons geloof en hoe ons leef (ons karakter) beïnvloed

"Toilet wars" : urban sanitation services and the politics of public-private partnerships in Ghana

There is a continuing debate over the value of public-partnerships in providing public services in poor urban areas. Many policy-makers in the developing countries have been persuaded that the main problem with established direct public service provision lies in principal-agent problems, i.e. the alleged lack of incentive for regularly-employed public servants to provide a good service. They have therefore sought to involve local communities, citizens and the private sector more directly in the management of services. This paper examines the impact of the new forms of partnership between the public authorities and private/citizen-based organisations on urban environmental sanitation in the two largest cities of Ghana – Accra and Kumasi. It traces the history of public toilet policies in the two cities and analyses the factors that contributed to their relative failure in poor neighbourhoods. Toilets consistently have been poorly managed and have been the site of local political conflicts – toilet wars – despite efforts at franchising them and involving communities in their management. This is attributable to the politics of patronage at the urban level, the relationship between city government patronage and community level groups, and the failure of regulation. Public-private partnerships have not worked. The provision of reasonable sanitation facilities may require: full public provision of basic infrastructure; transparent, independent and rigorous regulation of any contracts for service provision given to non-state agencies; and the enforcement of “conflict of interest” laws applying to elected local representatives

Social inclusion and service delivery in a fragile and post-conflict environment in Africa

The post-colonial state in Africa has attracted great interest from scholars and development partners because of the recognition that no development can take place without a proper functioning state. The state is expected to provide and deliver goods and services to its citizens in order to promote its legitimacy before its citizens. However, in fragile or post-conflict states, the capacity of the state to deliver services to all citizens is not possible because of weak infrastructure, weak public service delivery and weak state institutions which lack the capacity to deliver service and thereby become illegitimate. This has led to the increasing recognition that service delivery interventions or initiatives in fragile states should aim to ameliorate the negative effects of social exclusion of marginalized and vulnerable groups. Against this backdrop, this paper discusses how social inclusion can be promoted and improved by service delivery in fragile states in Africa in the light of the fact that their different contextual variables (such as history, politics, culture and geographical location) affect their ability to develop their capacity to deliver services to their citizens. In other words, why is social exclusion in service delivery in fragile states challenging and what are the reasons for it? The paper shows that a combination of the inability of fragile states to perform their governance functions as a result of their peculiar circumstances and the adoption of the “one-size-fits-all” strategies to deliver services have largely contributed to social exclusion in service delivery. It ends with some policy recommendations. KEY WORDS: social inclusion; service delivery; state legitimacy and fragility; state capacity; fragile/post-conflict countries; governance functions; Africa

Lipoprotein-Induced Increases in Cholesterol and 7-Ketocholesterol Result in Opposite Molecular-Scale Biophysical Effects on Membrane Structure

Under hypercholesterolemic conditions, exposure of cells to lipoproteins results in a subtle membrane increase in the levels of cholesterol and 7-ketocholesterol, as compared to normal conditions. The effect of these physiologically relevant concentration increases on multicomponent bilayer membranes was investigated using coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations. Significant changes in the structural and dynamic properties of the bilayer membranes resulted from these subtle increases in sterol levels, with both sterol species inducing decreases in the lateral area and inhibiting lateral diffusion to varying extents. Cholesterol and 7-ketocholesterol, however, exhibited opposite effects on lipid packing and orientation. The results from this study indicate that the subtle increases in membrane sterol levels induced by exposure to lipoproteins result in molecular-scale biophysical perturbation of membrane structure

An assessment of cash management (in the case of Dashen Bank S. Co.)

Cash is the most important current asset for the operations of the business. Cash is the basic input needed to keep the business running on a continuous basis, it is also the ultimate output expected to be realized by selling the services or product manufactured by the firm. The study attempt to find out problems related with Cash Management in Dashen Bank S.Co, at Head Office, And thus, it will provide valuable information and better approach to deal with maintaining a better Cash Management level in the Organization. Therefore, this study will investigate the cash management practices in Dashen Bank S.Co.in the year of 2009 - 2013. The researchers use a sample design of descriptive research method in order to present data in tabular form. In addition to this, financial ratios are used for analyzing the last five years. In this study, the Bank holds idle cash that will reduce its future profit. Besides, Dashen Bank can use up to 80% of its own deposit for loan, but almost for the all years the bank did not use the deposits as a loan, the way that Dashen Bank administers the cash gap between the limit and excess have still some undefined problems. Furthermore, the objective of the study is to attempt the render activity of Dashen Bank as fairly and acceptable way of Banking transaction services