Africa in Fact
Africa in Fact is Good Governance Africa’s flagship quarterly publication containing contributions from high-profile academics, journalists, researchers and corporate leaders from across the African continent. Each edition is carefully themed to reflect the major challenges of the day and what can feasibly be done to confront and address them. The content is highly curated, has a credible pan-African reach, and offers significant advertising opportunity to corporate clients.
Our editorial mission is to provide unique, curated in-depth content on themes as diverse, pertinent and interesting to Africa as the digital revolution, the low-carbon energy transition, liberation movements and informal economies. The publication also provides a platform for a diverse range of pan-African contributors, including GGA’S own in-house researchers, to learn and hone the art of long-form journalism.
Africa in Fact
ISSUE 65
Africa in Fact is Good Governance Africa’s flagship quarterly publication containing contributions from high-profile academics, journalists, researchers and corporate leaders from across the African continent. Each edition is carefully themed to reflect the major challenges of the day and what can feasibly done to confront and address them. The content is highly curated, has a credible pan-African reach, and offers significant advertising opportunity to corporate clients.
Our editorial mission is to provide unique, curated in-depth content on themes as diverse, pertinent and interesting to Africa as the digital revolution, the low-carbon energy transition, liberation movements and informal economies. The publication also provides a platform for a diverse range of pan-African contributors, including GGA’S own in-house researchers, to learn and hone the art of long-form journalism.
Editorial – Good governance is inclusive
In setting out to interrogate what inclusive governance looks like and why it is a non-negotiable if Africa is to reach its development goals, this issue of Africa in Fact has harnessed the insights of a wide range of contributors, both old and new. A reading of the articles overall suggests that efforts to improve inclusive governance across the continent, however imperfect, require greater degrees of cooperation and transparency between government institutions and policymakers, civil...
Reimagining a new social contract
To achieve inclusive governance in an African context, it is quite clear that a capable, caring, and effective state is essential. The role of the state in driving meaningful economic transformation has become even more pronounced in the aftermath of the pandemic. However, the current capabilities...
Inclusive governance in Africa is urgent
After a decade of improvement in the quality of governance since 2012, Africa is back in the trenches, according to the 2022 Ibrahim Index of African Governance (IIAG) published in February this year. This time the decline in the standard of governance is attributed to high-risk security...
The crucial role of local governance structures
Across Africa, local government is the main governance authority responsible for connecting with local communities. Names given to these structures differ from country to country. Among the more common are “assemblies”, “councils” and “municipalities”. However, these naming distinctions belie the...
Reimagining a new social contract
To achieve inclusive governance in an African context, it is quite clear that a capable, caring, and effective state is essential. The role of the state in driving meaningful economic transformation has become even more pronounced in the aftermath...
Inclusive governance in Africa is urgent
After a decade of improvement in the quality of governance since 2012, Africa is back in the trenches, according to the 2022 Ibrahim Index of African Governance (IIAG) published in February this year. This time the decline in the standard of...
The crucial role of local governance structures
Across Africa, local government is the main governance authority responsible for connecting with local communities. Names given to these structures differ from country to country. Among the more common are “assemblies”, “councils” and...
The elephant in the room
Elephants are a wonderful metaphor, not least in Africa. The largest land-based animals on earth, they are an unmissable presence in any...
Why African democracies govern better
The wave of democratisation in sub-Saharan Africa in the wake of the Cold War was met with widespread scepticism. Many observers portrayed...
Mining sector ‘soft laws’ – do they really benefit African citizens?
The year 2023 marks two decades since the official launch of the Kimberley Process (KP) certification scheme. The certification process is an...
A false narrative of social justice
I first encountered Tisa Mothae in 2006 in a bustling part of Bree Street, Johannesburg, where homeless squatters and informal street traders had...
Young and restless
Since the establishment of the United Nations (UN) in 1945, the global multilateral institution has always paid attention to the plight of young...
Inclusion needs good leadership
Whereas the concept of “good governance” has a long history in politics, government policies, and anti-corruption activism, “inclusive governance”...
Malawi – The weakest link
Malawi remains one of the poorest countries in the world despite making significant economic and structural reforms to sustain economic growth. The...
Follow the money in the illegal wildlife trade
Every year Africa loses $50 billion in illicit financial flows. This represents a huge lost opportunity in funds for economic investment in jobs,...
Africa’s diverse criminal landscape
The evolution of criminal networks across Africa is a complex tale crossing centuries – but the continent's integration into the global economy,...
A plague of flora and fauna crime
Africa is home to an abundance of animal and plant species that attract criminal wildlife exploitation. Wildlife crime is one of the most lucrative...
Whistleblowers – Stepping on the head of the snake
When Tiyamalu Kaswaswa arrived in Juba, South Sudan, in June 2018, he had high hopes for the prospects that his new job held out. An accountant from...
Wildlife under siege
Humans are inextricably entwined with wildlife; the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals highlight that the conservation, protection,...
Armed and dangerous
Present-day arms trafficking in southern Africa can be traced to the protracted civil wars in Angola and Mozambique, as well as the struggle against...
Transnational corruption in Namibia blights a legacy
Shockwaves are still reverberating through Namibia due to cross-border scandals that have deeply scarred Hage Geingob’s presidency. On 12 November...
The ‘dons’ of gold – organised illegal mining
When Francis saw a group of miners accompanied by mine security personnel approaching him, he breathed a sigh of relief. At last, his almost 12-hour...
When crime does pay
Marianne*, a woman from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) living in Nairobi, hosts two young women, one from Uganda and the other local, in her...
Africa Organised Crime Index 2021
The slippery slope
The University of Cape Town (UCT) is consistently ranked as the top performing tertiary institution on the continent. In the Times Higher Education (THE) rankings released in October 2022, it had climbed to 160th in the world, up from 183rd the previous year. More recently, in February this year,...
Closing the gender gap in Africa
Systematic and systemic marginalisation and the exclusion of any segment of a population in the democracy-building processes undermine the fundamental architecture of democracy. Aspiration Six of the African Union’s Agenda 2063 calls for “an Africa whose development is people-driven, relying on...
Bringing the diaspora home
In a bid to harness the skills and economic clout of its diaspora, Togo’s government has developed an inclusive strategy to encourage citizens abroad to carry out projects in the country and participate in economic, social and cultural development. The government recognises that the state cannot...
Meeting of minds – The role of government and civil society partnerships
In January 2015, during the African Union summit in Addis Ababa, member states adopted the Agenda 2063 framework. The ambitious economic blueprint aims to promote inclusive growth and sustainable development in Africa over the next four decades. It consists of seven aspirations and 20 goals...
Bringing the diaspora home
In a bid to harness the skills and economic clout of its diaspora, Togo’s government has developed an inclusive strategy to encourage citizens abroad to carry out projects in the country and participate in economic, social and cultural development. The government recognises that the state cannot...
BOOK REVIEWS
The Zimbabwean nightmare and tragic optimism of Mutambara
To mention Zimbabwe and the idea of a “dream” in the same sentence, as Professor Arthur Mutambara has done, is to be provocative and challenging. The provocation and the challenge come from the troubling Zimbabwean economic and political condition that can only be accurately described in terms of things nightmarish and horrific. In his latest book, Ideas and Solutions – In Search of the Elusive Zimbabwean Dream - An Autobiography of Thought Leadership VIII, Mutambara has written a troubling book about a troubled country. In projecting the “Zimbabwean dream” and describing the possible Zimbabwean “promised land”, Mutambara becomes a tragic optimist who is clear about the trouble that Zimbabweans are in but stubbornly holds onto the faith that the country, its polity and economy, can be recovered from the current state of chaos and dysfunction. In this difficult assignment, Mutambara deploys his formidable brain to describe a Zimbabwean...
Zimbabwe’s trust deficit
Zimbabwe goes to the polls in August in what looks likely to be a brawl between the ruling Zanu PF and the opposition Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) party. Concerns have been raised by civil society organisations regarding the country’s ability to hold free and...
E is for everyone
In the past five years alone, the global community has experienced a series of unprecedented events that have drastically impacted economies, societies, and governance structures. The outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, coupled with travel restrictions and supply chain...
Meeting of minds – The role of government and civil society partnerships
In January 2015, during the African Union summit in Addis Ababa, member states adopted the Agenda 2063 framework. The ambitious economic blueprint aims to promote inclusive growth and sustainable development in Africa over the next four decades. It consists of seven...
