What is the focus of this GGA Programme?
Articles from this programme
SADC extraordinary summit on Cabo Delgado
Crisis meeting on the insurgency in Cabo Delgado The Southern African Development Community (SADC) held an Extraordinary Double Troika Summit, in Maputo, Mozambique, on 8 April 2021 on measures to...
The COVID-19 pandemic a year on
On 5 March 2021, South Africa reached an important milestone: 100 000 vaccinations were administered to healthcare workers. Exactly a year to the day after South Africa recorded its first case of the coronavirus, it is a bittersweet triumph, but in these uncertain times, a triumph nonetheless.
SADC COVID-19 Pandemic – an Opportunity to Strengthen Governance
To many in the research community, Africa remains an anomaly, as it has experienced less of the coronavirus burden than many other regions in the world. According to the Africa Centre for Disease...
SADC and Mozambique – a quiet (loud) change in approach?
On Friday 27 November 2020, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) hosted an Extraordinary Organ Troika Summit in Gaborone, Botswana. According to the SADC press release, “The SADC Organ...
SADC calls the Tanzania election more of the same: Did we expect anything different?
It has been a week since Tanzania held its general election. As the dust settles, a closer examination of the Southern African Development Community’s (SADC) response and validation of the election...
President Mnangagwa eschews election observers for a reason
On a recent state visit to Zimbabwe, President Emmerson Mnangagwa praised Malawi for successfully holding its election re-run without the presence of foreign observers and questioned whether they...
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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.
