Public Budgeting in African Nations aims to provide usable budgeting and fiscal policy management information to development practitioners interested in improving the performance of governments in the context of good governance. It shares regional and cross-cultural experiences with international audiences and gives reflective attention to comparative budgeting and fiscal policy management. With a promising economic and fiscal forecast, such information is timely for international development practitioners and for scholars and researchers interested in advancing development management. This book adopts an interdisciplinary/pragmatic approach to analyze and present research findings on public budgeting as a sustainable development tool. The central argument is that development practice will benefit from a bottom-up, decentralized approach to budgeting and fiscal policy management, involving national, sub-national, and civil society institutions. From this perspective, a balanced budget should draw from and reflect values and priorities across the full spectrum of social and political life.

With contributions from leading regional scholars, Public Administration in Africa: Performance and Challenges examines the complexities of the art of governance from the unique African perspective. The editors bring together a cohesive study of the major issues and regions by taking an analytic approach with the strong problem-solution application. Regions addressed range from South Africa, Congo, Uganda, Nigeria, Ghana, Mauritius, and Botswana. Themes include colonialism, reform, poverty, economy, decentralization, financing, media, political structures, and more. Beginning with an analysis of the relationship of policy design and its destination, service delivery, the book discusses the historical development of a state that has gone through upheavals in government and explores a decayed political economy that ultimately results in a need for sweeping measures. The text examines the issues emerging policy-makers in Africa must tackle, namely poverty and the denial or lack of resources to keep a dignified human life. It highlights how the media can be a catalyst for good governance and provides analytical aspects of implementing good governance reforms. The book concludes with an examination of the concepts of decentralization and devolution in measuring service delivery performance and an exploration of Africa's economic success story. It also details the African Peer Review Mechanisms in selected African countries and provides a holistic analysis of local government functioning in Africa. These features and more make it an interdisciplinary reference for diverse social, economic, political, and administrative issues.

There is a growing global interest in Africa and how to improve the quality of life of its people-and for good reason. The world can no longer afford to ignore the democratic changes that have occurred across the continent over the past two decades, changes with tremendous implications for professional education and training for the tasks of nation building. Public Administration Training in Africa: Competencies in Development Management presents research findings related to talent and competency development within the framework of public service institutional capacity building. The book focuses on public administration questions as they relate to training, development, and competency building that will strengthen public managers' capacity to implement governance policies and work toward improving development management. It draws on unique national experiences to provide research and scholarship that advance the dialogue on training and development relevant to African culture and history while at the same time contributing to enhance the field of practice. In addition to offering detailed descriptions and analyses of unique national experiences, the book also integrates transnational issues of training and development and ties the discussions back to the body of knowledge and scholarship defining the field and discipline of public administration. As scholars and experts in their own right, the authors make a reasoned case for rethinking and re-examining training and development in Africa in light of the emerging governance approach to public administration. The comprehensive empirical descriptions and analyses of education and training contexts and cultures written by some of the best minds in the subfield give you the latest research findings and distill relevant experiential and theoretical knowledge, tools, and skills based on case analyses, including carrying out development activity in different cross-cultural contexts.