The Afrobarometer project was designed to assess attitudes toward democracy, markets, and civil s... more The Afrobarometer project was designed to assess attitudes toward democracy, markets, and civil society in several sub-Saharan African nations, and to track the evolution of such attitudes in those nations over time. This particular survey was concerned with the attitudes and opinions of the citizens of South Africa. Respondents were asked to rate South Africa's President Mbeki and his administration's overall performance, and to state the most important issues facing the nation. Opinions were gathered on the role of the government in improving the economy, whether corruption existed in local and national government, whether government officials were responsive to problems of the general population, and whether local government officials, the police, the courts, the overall criminal justice system, the media, the Independent National Electoral Commission, and the government broadcasting service could be trusted. Respondents were polled on their knowledge of government officials, their level of personal involvement in political, governmental, and community affairs, and the inclusiveness of the government. Respondents were asked to grade the way the country was governed under Apartheid, the current system of government, and the political system of the country as they expected it to be in 10 years. Economic questions addressed the past, present, and future of the country's and the respondent's economic condition, and whether great income disparities are fair. Societal questions addressed whether everyone should be responsible for themselves and their own success or failure, what characteristics respondents used to identify themselves, whether it was easy to obtain assistance with securing food, water, schooling, and medical services, and by what methods respondents did so. Background variables include age, language spoken most at home, education, current employment status, employment status over the last 12 months, employment history, family financial situation over the last 12 months, monetary support system, wheth [...]
... Rights in Africa Security Sector Reforms For Managing Sexual And Gender Based Violence By Dr.... more ... Rights in Africa Security Sector Reforms For Managing Sexual And Gender Based Violence By Dr. Annie Barbara Chikwanha Security sector ... Then there are also civil society organizations, the media, private military companies and non-state armed actors (Valasek 2007). ...
The past decade has seen an increase in the number of violent election related conflicts in Afric... more The past decade has seen an increase in the number of violent election related conflicts in Africa. The year 2008 alone saw Zimbabwe, Kenya and Anjouan/Comoros at some stage of the election conflict spectrum. The African Union (AU), as the continental broker, has often arrived at the scenes rather late and without much coercive authority to enforce its prescriptions. The AU has the responsibility for ensuring that democracy flourishes through electoral processes and has an extensive normative framework that is scattered in a number of protocols. African leaders have now consolidated many of these in the 2007 African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance (ACDEG). On the 16th of January 2012, Cameroon became the 15th Member State to complete the ratification process. This meant that on the 15th of February 2012, the ACDEG would finally come into force after a painfully slow ratification process. Recently, one of Africa's leading scholars, Ali Mazrui declared that: "Most of the continent is still in pre-democracy era, and many elections are notoriously rigged" (Mazrui 2010). Modern Africa has had three historical moments: a moment of colonialism; a moment of liberation; and a moment of democratization. While the first two moments now belong to archives, the last is unfinished business and in many instances, bloody business. From its transformation from the Organisation of African Unity in July 2002, the AU has been seized with Africa's third moment and the task has not been easy. Pivotal to the third moment are elections which are free, fair and credible. To this extent, the AU has incrementally fashioned the institutional infrastructure for ensuring such an outcome.
The Afrobarometer project was designed to assess attitudes toward democracy, markets, and civil s... more The Afrobarometer project was designed to assess attitudes toward democracy, markets, and civil society in several sub-Saharan African nations, and to track the evolution of such attitudes in those nations over time. This particular survey was concerned with the attitudes and opinions of the citizens of South Africa. Respondents were asked to rate South Africa's President Mbeki and his administration's overall performance, and to state the most important issues facing the nation. Opinions were gathered on the role of the government in improving the economy, whether corruption existed in local and national government, whether government officials were responsive to problems of the general population, and whether local government officials, the police, the courts, the overall criminal justice system, the media, the Independent National Electoral Commission, and the government broadcasting service could be trusted. Respondents were polled on their knowledge of government officials, their level of personal involvement in political, governmental, and community affairs, and the inclusiveness of the government. Respondents were asked to grade the way the country was governed under Apartheid, the current system of government, and the political system of the country as they expected it to be in 10 years. Economic questions addressed the past, present, and future of the country's and the respondent's economic condition, and whether great income disparities are fair. Societal questions addressed whether everyone should be responsible for themselves and their own success or failure, what characteristics respondents used to identify themselves, whether it was easy to obtain assistance with securing food, water, schooling, and medical services, and by what methods respondents did so. Background variables include age, language spoken most at home, education, current employment status, employment status over the last 12 months, employment history, family financial situation over the last 12 months, monetary support system, wheth [...]
... Rights in Africa Security Sector Reforms For Managing Sexual And Gender Based Violence By Dr.... more ... Rights in Africa Security Sector Reforms For Managing Sexual And Gender Based Violence By Dr. Annie Barbara Chikwanha Security sector ... Then there are also civil society organizations, the media, private military companies and non-state armed actors (Valasek 2007). ...
The past decade has seen an increase in the number of violent election related conflicts in Afric... more The past decade has seen an increase in the number of violent election related conflicts in Africa. The year 2008 alone saw Zimbabwe, Kenya and Anjouan/Comoros at some stage of the election conflict spectrum. The African Union (AU), as the continental broker, has often arrived at the scenes rather late and without much coercive authority to enforce its prescriptions. The AU has the responsibility for ensuring that democracy flourishes through electoral processes and has an extensive normative framework that is scattered in a number of protocols. African leaders have now consolidated many of these in the 2007 African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance (ACDEG). On the 16th of January 2012, Cameroon became the 15th Member State to complete the ratification process. This meant that on the 15th of February 2012, the ACDEG would finally come into force after a painfully slow ratification process. Recently, one of Africa's leading scholars, Ali Mazrui declared that: "Most of the continent is still in pre-democracy era, and many elections are notoriously rigged" (Mazrui 2010). Modern Africa has had three historical moments: a moment of colonialism; a moment of liberation; and a moment of democratization. While the first two moments now belong to archives, the last is unfinished business and in many instances, bloody business. From its transformation from the Organisation of African Unity in July 2002, the AU has been seized with Africa's third moment and the task has not been easy. Pivotal to the third moment are elections which are free, fair and credible. To this extent, the AU has incrementally fashioned the institutional infrastructure for ensuring such an outcome.
Introduction Whilst the conceptualisation of culture as what organisation 'has', has largely dete... more Introduction Whilst the conceptualisation of culture as what organisation 'has', has largely determined the epistemology of the African state bureaucracies, the importance of more recent historical experiences have not been acknowledged. A partial solution is thus to create new perspectives on organisational culture that integrate a historical component, acknowledge the importance of varied recent experiences and that try to overcome both the dualism of the modern and the traditional. Such approaches should also question the notion that everything is moving or must move in the direction of an ideal Western bureaucracy. The argument in this paper starts by briefly discussing the definition of organisational culture from two perspectives. The first one is that culture is what organisation 'has' and the second one is that culture is what organisation 'is' (Smircich 1983). I then attempt to relate the implications of these perspectives on the organisational cultures in the African state bureaucracies. The next step is the analysis of the general environment these bureaucracies operate in and this requires highlighting some crucial cultural issues that arise therein. The notion of a 'liberation culture' is then proposed as a contribution to the renewal of an organisational culture that takes account of recent historical specificities. I will finally examine the approaches that have been used in the study of the African bureaucracy from several angles. The main focus will be on how they have treated the concept of organisational culture. The conclusion is that a universal and homogenising approach is inadequate for studying and understanding the socio cultural and historical differences amongst the fifty three African states' bureaucracies.
This paper analyses the anatomy of conflicts in the EAC by using a conceptual framework that mesh... more This paper analyses the anatomy of conflicts in the EAC by using a conceptual framework that meshes different discourses on causes of violent conflicts. Though the explanatory power of the grievance and greed models and their limitations are acknowledged, the argument put forth is that the conflicts in the region are largely a quest for citizenship by groups that are actively seeking non-discriminatory inclusion in the nation state project. Introduction The politics of greed, scuffles over dwindling resources and bad governance in the East African Community (EAC) (Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi) all tend to result in a type of violence that uproots citizens as well as provide a fertile breeding ground for criminals. Containing these conflicts has been a perennial problem for the region. In general, contemporary African states struggle to contain violent conflicts for a number of reasons. Part of the problem is that most triggers of conflict: structural, political, economic, social and cultural, are all at play in the region as they are everywhere else on the continent. Likewise, all types of conflict are also present: violent and non violent; intermittent, endemic and intractable. These conflicts and the resultant crime challenge the legitimacy and capacity of African states especially in providing human security 2. Many authors concur that these conflicts are not just about power and resources but are rooted in the denial of human needs such as identity, security, respect and recognition and these are ultimately needs to do with the human spirit and social reality (Ndayizigiye 2005:3) .
Excerpts from this paper may be reproduced in any form following the usual conventions and specif... more Excerpts from this paper may be reproduced in any form following the usual conventions and specifically on condition that the source is cited and there is no misrepresentation of the data. Views expressed in the report are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Development Foundation for Zimbabwe 2 Zimbabwe has signed charters, treaties and covenants that embody the broad values of governance and that have specific obligations and responsibilities that citizens should hold governments accountable for complying with. However, many of these signed commitments are yet to come into force and when they do get ratified, the probability that capacity to domesticate them and to adhere to the provisions remains quite low in the country. The amount of time it has taken to comply with the Global Political Agreement (GPA) provisions is an indicator of this low capacity and also a need for rigorous efforts on improving governance. This paper aims to suggest some ideas that can enhance Zimbabwe's efforts in pushing for respect for human rights, compliance with the rule of law and inclusive good governance practices as specified by the many commitments signed by the head of the state. It is sincerely hoped that the suggestions of how to broaden the active citizen arena to the Diaspora residents will go a long way in closing the good governance deficit in the country partly caused by the failure to fulfill national, regional and international commitments. There is clearly a need to be innovative in a way that would clearly herald change in the way Zimbabwe's democratization and development efforts are going. NB. The concept 'Regime' is used in this paper to refer to a 'system'.
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