What is the focus of this GGA Programme?
Articles from this programme
Unpacking malfeasance in South Africa’s municipalities
The impact of municipal maladministration and corruption on SA's local government elections In a briefing to the parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Accounts and the Standing Committee on the...
Mozambique and SADC – a case of strange bedfellows?
Extraordinary SADC Summit of Heads of State and Government hits an odd note in the face of insecurity in northern Mozambique According to the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the...
The state of local governance in South Africa
Why effective governance is important beyond the 2021 municipal elections As South Africa prepares for the upcoming Local Government Elections on the 27th of October 2021, the contested nature of...
Lesotho’s political impasse – a case of déjà vu?
Stuck in a rut “If we can just get to the next scheduled elections in 2022, that will be an achievement.” - Lesotho political commentator After barely a year in office, Prime Minister (PM) Moeketsi...
SADC technical deployment to Mozambique
It has been two weeks since the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Extraordinary Double Troika Summit was held in Maputo, Mozambique, on 8 April 2021.
Call for a National Dialogue in Zimbabwe
Reviewing the foundation for a meeting of minds A recent op-ed by Dr Ibbo Mandaza, director of the SAPES Trust, called for a paradigm shift to achieve reform in Zimbabwe, a country clearly in deep...
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Governance Delivery and Impact
Our GDI team performs the primary research role of monitoring and evaluating governance performance across the continent. We view governance through the simple lens of who gets what, when and how. In other words, governance is about the allocation of public resources. Good governance is the effective, efficient, broad-based distribution of those resources in a manner that grows economies to the benefit of all citizens.
To achieve good governance, it is our firmly held belief – informed by the evidence – that the basic building blocks must be in place:
- Governance must be transparent and accountable to citizens
- Rule of law must be adhered to
- Corruption must be rooted out in all spheres (in the private and public sectors)
- Media freedom must be upheld, respected, and reinforced at every opportunity
We therefore produce research that assesses whether these institutional building blocks are in place or at least being built. Where these are lacking, we produce policy briefings that inform government policymaking to strengthen key institutions to achieve the above four objectives. We similarly produce intelligence reports – driven by the ADD and procured by the GIA team – that indicate to the private sector how firms can become development partners to the end of achieving good governance.
The GDI team also evaluates service delivery quality. Effective delivery is ultimately a function of basic institutional building blocks being in place. Nonetheless, we focus on how well governments are doing in terms of providing access to electricity, water, sanitation and health for citizens. We similarly focus on education, evaluating what types of intervention are successful and which are not. Decent healthcare and education remain pivotal to development.
