Nairobi: Kenya and eight other African countries have signed a continental charter targeting to standardise public service procedures. The African Charter on the Values and Principles of Public Service and Administration also aims at promoting regional and continental integration. Public Service Minister…

Nairobi: Prime Minister Raila Odinga has said that corruption in Africa and abuse of public office is the root cause of the failure of public management. Noting that the twin vices had reached epidemic proportions on the continent, the PM pointed out that failure to…

Johannesburg: In South Africa frequent protests by ordinary citizens is a clear indication that public servants do not always deliver the goods. This was confirmed by President Jacob Zuma when he said "Faced with these problems, citizens become dissatisfied and disillusioned with the public service.…

Nairobi: The Treasury has summoned seven permanent secretaries over delays in the completion of key projects under the Sh22 billion Economic Stimulus Programme. The initiative was meant to spark economic growth by creating employment and income generation opportunities in all constituencies. The permanent…

Arusha: The orientation seminar for ministers and senior state executives ended here yesterday, with the government saying donor dependence would be reduced from the current 25 per cent to 10 per cent by 2015. Reading resolutions of the seven-day orientation seminar yesterday, Chief Secretary, Philemon…

Dar es Salaam:  President Jakaya Kikwete has allowed the National Governance and Corruption Survey report to be made public without passing through bureaucratic procedures, thus ending a tug of war over the publication of the document. The president's decision was confirmed yesterday by the Prime…

Nairobi: The rot in public hospitals in the country has been exposed in new reports by the anti-graft agency. Two studies conducted by the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission (KACC) between October 16 and December 20, 2009, found that provincial general…

Nairobi: Almost half of Zimbabwe's civil servants are either not qualified or are not working, according to a leaked World Bank report. Trade unions estimate that $15m ($9m) of state money is being lost each month paying such workers. Auditors found that one ministry appointed nearly 7,000 people…

Johannesburg: The municipal election campaign is in the toilet, literally -- the delivery of the most basic service of all has come to dominate what may be the first democratic poll in South Africa fought principally on issues of government performance. A Cape High Court judgment a fortnight ago slamming…

Nairobi: While the rising food and fuel prices that Kenyans and other Africans face stem from both internal and external causes, their intensity is primarily due to inefficiency, corruption and poor planning in African countries. It is plausible to argue that fuel shortages would not be as severe…

Tunis:  Like a long dormant volcano that suddenly erupts, the revolutions that have swept across North Africa - against a backdrop of strong economic performance - took all by surprise. Prior to the explosion, average annual GDP growth in the region had been humming along at 4.6 per cent for a decade,…

Pretoria:  Over dinner in Algiers recently, we asked each other whether the youth-led revolutions unfolding in northern Africa presage the awakening of economic lions throughout the continent. Could the changes unfolding in the Arab north usher in an Africa-wide industrial revolution? If so, it would…

Johannesburg: Both the African National Congress's (ANC's) candidate selection process and the government's proposals to strengthen ward committees are aimed at ensuring more, not full, community participation and are not, on their own, solutions but aspects of an overall strategy to incrementally…

Harare: The Zimbabwe Coalition of Debt and Development (ZIMCODD), Poverty Reduction Forum (PRF) and Women's Action Group (WAG) with the support of Reality of Aid (RoA) convened a CSO Consultative Meeting on the Implementation of the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness (PD) and the Accra Agenda…

In November 2011, the Fourth High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness will convene in Busan, Republic of Korea, to determine the principles and commitments that will guide development cooperation in the coming period. The forum will unite developing countries, development agencies, international organisations…

Washington: With hard times and budget austerity dominating politics in the rich world, the aid community is moving from a longtime emphasis on the quantity to the quality of aid. There are high hopes that the successor meeting…

London: I have just come back from a conference on payment for performance (P4P) and results based

Engagement with China is an important phenomenon for the African continent. Beyond the quantitative impact of growing aid, finance, trade and investment flows, this engagement may have significant qualitative impacts on African development, positive and negative. It is often alleged that the heavy…

Johannesburg: Thank you for the background note prepared for this Dialogue. It starts off by referring to the challenge to attain the Millennium Development Goals and the role of the private sector in alleviating poverty. This prompts me to ask the lawyers' question - what is the mischief that we…

New York: Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo - both professors at M.I.T. - have helped changed the practice of economics. Mr. Banerjee and Ms. Duflo have pushed anti-poverty programs in developing countries to become more serious about evaluating whether they are actually improving people's lives.…