The NGO Factor in Africa


Book Description

The book breaks new ground in understanding the role of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in Africa. The book historicizes NGOs using the Rockefeller Foundation as a case study, looking at its tripartite paradoxical roles as an agent of colonialism, globalization and development/underdevelopment. It deploys interdisciplinary devices to show how the RF projects have engaged in marginalization, patronage and ‘othering’ of African values and customs and the ensuing controversies. Using globalization, postmodern and postcolonial theories the book deconstructs the long-held myths about NGO inviolability, and opens ground for understanding their strengths. It interrogates sites of contestation, apprehension and possibilities that the RF has produced. Using RF projects, it looks at structures of hegemony, race, power, class and gender that the RF has created. The book illustrates the extent to which the RF has been instrumental in spreading capitalism, imperialism in economic, political, cultural and social realms through globalization. It desists from the grand narrative approach that has dominated African history in the past but instead gives agency and voice to those that have previously been marginalized.




Allies or Adversaries


Book Description

Governments throughout the developing world have witnessed a proliferation of non-governmental, non-profit organizations (NGOs) providing services like education, healthcare and piped drinking water in their territory. In Allies or Adversaries, Jennifer N. Brass explains how these NGOs have changed the nature of service provision, governance, and state development in the early twenty-first century. Analyzing original surveys alongside interviews with public officials, NGOs and citizens, Brass traces street-level government-NGO and state-society relations in rural, town and city settings of Kenya. She examines several case studies of NGOs within Africa in order to demonstrate how the boundary between purely state and non-state actors blurs, resulting in a very slow turn toward more accountable and democratic public service administration. Ideal for scholars, international development practitioners, and students interested in global or international affairs, this detailed analysis provides rich data about NGO-government and citizen-state interactions in an accessible and original manner.




Collaborative capacity development to complement stroke rehabilitation in Africa


Book Description

This scholarly book focuses on stroke in Africa. Stroke is a leading cause of disability among adults of all ages, contributing significantly to health care costs related to long term implications, particularly if rehabilitation is sub-optimal. Given the burden of stroke in Africa, there is a need for a book that focuses on functioning African stroke survivors and the implications for rehabilitation within the African context. In addition, there is a need to progress with contextualised, person-centred, evidence-based guidance for the rehabilitation of people with stroke in Africa, thereby enabling them to lead socially and economically meaningful lives. The research incorporated in the book used a range of primary and secondary methodological approaches (scoping reviews, systematic reviews, meta-analyses, descriptive studies, surveys, health economics, and clinical practice guideline methodology) to shed new insights into African-centred issues and strategies to optimise function post-stroke.







Public Procurement Reform and Governance in Africa


Book Description

This book presents an interdisciplinary exploration of the governance of public procurement reform in Africa. Through a bottom-up approach to case studies and comparative analyses, scholars, practitioners, and social activists write about the organizational mechanisms and implementation gaps in public procurement governance in light of the general premises of national reform. Reforming the ways in which government purchases works, goods, and services from the private sector is one of the most sweeping policy reform undertaken in Africa in the past decade. Despite the transnational scope of policy change, very little is known about the mechanisms of public procurement governance at the subnational level. The argument in this volume is that policy reforms that mitigate contractual hazards along the three-dimensional “law-politics-business matrix” are more likely to bring about meaningful institutional transformation and broader social accountability. Key to substantive transformation of public procurement is the revitalization and professionalization of the public sector to meet the opportunities and challenges of development by contract.




Disease and Mortality in Sub-Saharan Africa


Book Description

Current data and trends in morbidity and mortality for the sub-Saharan Region as presented in this new edition reflect the heavy toll that HIV/AIDS has had on health indicators, leading to either a stalling or reversal of the gains made, not just for communicable disorders, but for cancers, as well as mental and neurological disorders.




The Palgrave Handbook of African Politics, Governance and Development


Book Description

This handbook constitutes a single collection of well researched articles and essays on African politics, governance and development from the pre-colonial through colonial to the post-colonial eras. Over the course of these interconnected periods, African politics have evolved with varied experiences across different parts of the continent. As politics is embedded both in the economy and the society, Africa has witnessed some changes in politics, economics, demography and its relations with the world in ways that requires in-depth analysis. This work provides an opportunity for old and new scholars to engage in the universe of the debate around African politics, governance and development and will serve as a ready reference material for students, researchers, policy makers and investors that are concerned with these issues.




The Idea of Development in Africa


Book Description

An engaging history of how the idea of development has shaped Africa's past and present encounters with the West.




Nongovernmental Organization Culture and Ethics in Kenya


Book Description

This book examines the relationship between organizational culture and ethical practices among NGOs in Kenya. It highlights the need for greater oversight and anti-corruption policies to better control corrupt practices from within and avoid adverse implications and financial effects due to a lack of accountability and unethical behaviors.




AID EVAPORATION


Book Description

Aid Evaporation is a new Nortion. It is based on an academic study that comprehensively examined how ODA is governed from the source to the destination. Key ODA parameters emerged from the existing ODA governance frameworks namely; mechanism, ideology, development approach and processes. By unpacking elements contributing to aid ineffectiveness through these parameters, exploring the existence of the aid evaporation and examining the key enablers of ODA Evaporatoon, the study discovered supply side factors contributed significantly to Aid ineffectiveness. It exposed different AID Evaporation enablers which play different hidden functions such as ODA Door Openers, Appetixers, Softeners, Sponges, Convertors, Controllers, Distorters as well as Carrot and Stick among others. Key findings revealed that the prevailing perception that aid ineffectiveness was a demand side problem was only part of the story because supply side challenges were probably more responsible for billions of ODA that could not be accounted for. It has recommended the re-writing of the narrative that ODA ineffectiveness is predominantly premised on demand side by incorporating supply side factors. Findings demonstrated that while there were indeed demand side challenges such as bad governance, corruption and lack of strong institutions, there were also supply (donor) side challenges such as over-reliance of donor's own inefficient ODA governance frameworks as well as ODA delivery mechanisms, the entrenchment of bilateral interest in ODA processess and geo- political interests among other factors. In this regard, the study confirmed that the 62% of the ODA that could not be accounted for according to existing literature was either held up in the pipeline or evaporates mostly from the supply side. This finding brought clarity on the weak impact of ODA and corroborated with existing literature on the mystery of unaccounted ODA. While the notion of aid evaporation emerged as an attribution and part of a reflection on the problem of ODA dissipation at the preliminary stage of the literature review, it became the central issue of focus throughout the research investigation which involved substantive field work to bring clarity on the problem. The study has made theoretical and practical contributions to the existing concepts on ODA governance and proposed a new concept, namely the “Supply Baggage Concept”. The new concept should inform the Post Paris era in achieving Aid effectiveness by weding out Evaporation, using the Aid Evaporation Detection Framework proposed in this book.