10.09.2013: Is Good Governance good for Development? – The real Challenges for African governance, Berlin

The Initiative Southern Africa (INISA) and the Society for International Development (SID-Berlin) cordially invite you in cooperation with the Afrikahaus to the next Berliner Afrikakreis:

Is Good Governance good for Development? – The real Challenges for African governance

Tuesday, 10. September 2013, 18:30 – 20:00 Uhr Afrika-Haus
Bochumer Str. 25, 10555 Berlin (U-Bahn: Turmstr.) 

Speaker: Dr. David Booth (Overseas Development Institute, London, former Director of the Africa Power and Politics Programme 2007-2012)

Discussant: Dr. Julia Leininger (German Development Institute DIE)

Chair: Rene Gradwohl (Initiative Südliches Afrika, INISA e.V.)

The discussion will be in English. No registration necessary

Invitation: invitation_african-governance_100913.pdf

Since the 1990s Governance is increasingly seen as the key variable to unlock Africa´s potential for economic transformation. The Africa Power and Politics Programme (APPP) set out to tackle one of the most important and challenging development questions of the early 21st century – what sort of governance does Africa really need and how is it going to get it? It aimed to do so by generating a new body of comparative research findings and empirically-grounded theory.

The starting point was the realization that the concept of good governance is insufficient and questionable in the face of African realities and the continent´s challenges for economic transformation. Solutions need to be realistic about material and social constraints and build on local arrangements that are known to work. The currently emerging “good fit” approach is seen as a useful step forward, but much of the new context-sensitive governance programming continues to look much like the old kind. The real challenges for governance in Africa lie, according to the APPP, in overcoming institutional blockages underpinned by collective action problems. Against the background of identified shortcomings, what would an alternative reform agenda look like and what does that mean for African reformers and the global agenda?

The APPP Synthesis Report “Development as a collective action problem: Addressing the real challenges of African governance” can be downloaded here.

We are looking forward to an interesting debate!

Presentation David Booth at FES RoundTable "Development as a collective action problem" (pdf)