“Does the poor matter” in pro-poor driven sub-Saharan African cities? towards progressive and inclusive pro-poor tourism

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 392-411 ◽  
Author(s):  
Regis Musavengane ◽  
Pius Siakwah ◽  
Llewellyn Leonard
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Good Governance ◽  
Urban Tourism ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Content Type ◽  
African Cities ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
The Impact

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to question the extent to which Sub-Saharan African cities are progressing towards promoting pro-poor economies through pro-poor tourism (PPT). It specifically examines how African cities are resilient towards attaining sustainable urban tourism destinations in light of high urbanization. Design/methodology/approach The methodological framework is interpretive in nature and qualitative in an operational form. It uses meta-synthesis to evaluate the causal relationships observed within Sub-Saharan African pro-poor economies to enhance PPT approaches, using Accra, Ghana, Johannesburg, South Africa, and Harare, Zimbabwe, as case studies. Findings Tourism development in Sub-Saharan Africa has been dominantly underpinned by neoliberal development strategies which threaten the sustainability of tourism in African cities. Research limitations/implications The study is limited to three Sub-Saharan African countries. Further studies may need to be done in other developing countries. Practical implications It argues for good governance through sustainability institutionalization which strengthens the regulative mechanisms, processes and organizational culture. Inclusive tourism approaches that are resilient-centered have the potential to promote urban tourism in Sub-Saharan African cities. These findings contribute to the building of strong and inclusive Institutions for Sustainable Development in the Sub-Saharan African cities to alleviate poverty. Social implications These findings contribute to the building of strong and inclusive institutions for sustainable development in the Sub-Saharan African cities to alleviate poverty. Originality/value The “poor” are always within the communities, and it takes a community to minimise the impact of poverty among the populace. The study is conducted at a pertinent time when most African government’s development policies are pro-poor driven. Though African cities provide opportunities of growth, they are regarded as centres of high inequality.

Reducing corruption and bribery in Africa as a target of the sustainable development goals: applying indicators for assessing performance

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kempe Ronald Hope, Sr.
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Sustainable Development Goals ◽  
Good Governance ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Ethical Behaviour ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Illegal Activities

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to assess African performance for substantially reducing all forms of corruption and bribery on the continent by 2030, through the indicators for achieving Target 16.5 of the sustainable development goals (SDGs). Design/methodology/approach Drawing on the available and accessible relevant data from credible sources, this work quantifies, outlines and analyses the relationship between corruption/bribery and sustainable development as it applies primarily to sub-Saharan Africa; assesses the trends in the region through the official indicators for achieving Target 16.5 of the SDGs; and recommends other indicators for assessing ethical behaviour in African political, administrative and business leadership and institutions for achieving sustainable development and improved ethical performance towards significant reductions in all manifestations of bribery and corruption on the continent by 2030. Findings Corruption and bribery are found to affect all SDG-related sectors, undermining development outcomes and severely compromising efforts to achieve the SDGs in Africa. Consequently, prioritising corruption reduction including from money laundering, bribery and other illegal activities is a necessary requirement for achieving sustainable development, good governance, building effective and inclusive institutions as required by SDG 16, and funding the achievement of the SDGs. Originality/value The main value of the paper is the insights it provides through the very comprehensive compilation of statistical information that quantifies, and with analysis, the corruption/bribery avenues and the resultant deleterious effects on sustainable development in Africa.

Does economic freedom improve health outcomes in sub-Saharan Africa?

2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (12) ◽  
pp. 1633-1649
Author(s):  
Anand Sharma
Keyword(s):  
Mortality Rate ◽  
Life Expectancy ◽  
Health Outcomes ◽  
Economic Freedom ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The World ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
The Impact

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine the impact of economic freedom on four key health indicators (namely, life expectancy, infant mortality rate, under-five mortality rate and neonatal mortality rate) by using a panel dataset of 34 sub-Saharan African countries from 2005 to 2016.Design/methodology/approachThe study obtains data from the World Development Indicators (WDI) of the World Bank and the Fraser Institute. It uses fixed effects regression to estimate the effect of economic freedom on health outcomes and attempts to resolve the endogeneity problems by using two-stage least squares regression (2SLS).FindingsThe results indicate a favourable impact of economic freedom on health outcomes. That is, higher levels of economic freedom reduce mortality rates and increase life expectancy in sub-Saharan Africa. All areas of economic freedom, except government size, have a significant and positive effect on health outcomes.Research limitations/implicationsThis study analyses the effect of economic freedom on health at a broad level. Country-specific studies at a disaggregated level may provide additional information about the impact of economic freedom on health outcomes. Also, this study does not control for some important variables such as education, income inequality and foreign aid due to data constraints.Practical implicationsThe findings suggest that sub-Saharan African countries should focus on enhancing the quality of economic institutions to improve their health outcomes. This may include policy reforms that support a robust legal system, protect property rights, promote free trade and stabilise the macroeconomic environment. In addition, policies that raise urbanisation, increase immunisation and lower the incidence of HIV are likely to produce a substantial improvement in health outcomes.Originality/valueExtant economic freedom-health literature does not focus on endogeneity problems. This study uses instrumental variables regression to deal with endogeneity. Also, this is one of the first attempts to empirically investigate the relationship between economic freedom and health in the case of sub-Saharan Africa.

scholarly journals The mobile phone as an argument for good governance in sub-Saharan Africa

2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 897-920 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simplice Asongu ◽  
Sara le Roux ◽  
Jacinta C. Nwachukwu ◽  
Chris Pyke
Keyword(s):  
Mobile Phone ◽  
Mobile Phones ◽  
Good Governance ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Empirical Inquiry ◽  
Governance Indicators ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Mobile Phone Usage

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present theoretical and empirical arguments for the role of mobile telephony in promoting good governance in 47 sub-Saharan African countries for the period 2000–2012. Design/methodology/approach The empirical inquiry uses an endogeneity-robust GMM approach with forward orthogonal deviations to analyze the linkage between mobile phone usage and the variation in three broad governance categories – political, economic and institutional. Findings Three key findings are established: first, in terms of individual governance indicators, mobile phones consistently stimulated good governance by the same magnitude, with the exception of the effect on the regulation component of economic governance. Second, when indicators are combined, the effect of mobile phones on general governance is three times higher than that on the institutional governance category. Third, countries with lower levels of governance indicators are catching-up with their counterparts with more advanced dynamics. Originality/value The study makes both theoretical and empirical contributions by highlighting the importance of various combinations of governance indicators and their responsiveness to mobile phone usage.

scholarly journals Revisiting the Relationship between Poverty and Environmental Sustainability in Sub-Saharan African Countries using Dynamic Econometric Models

Economy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 16-25
Author(s):  
Owusu Samuel Mensah ◽  
Chen Jianlin ◽  
Fu Chuambo ◽  
Hu Qio
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Econometric Models ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
The Impact

Sustainable development remains an important issue in the quest to achieve a safe and a better world. The expansion of the 8 millennium development goals into the 17 sustainable development goals is a testament of the conscious desire to improve the human environment to ensure better quality of life for its citizens. This study assembles a collection of four sophisticated econometric models to determine the impact of poverty and other variables on two indicators of environmental sustainability. Beside, economic development, the study confirmed the negative impact of poverty on both indicators of sustainable development. The results prove that poverty in sub-Saharan Africa is a threat to environmental quality and its consequential challenges. The call to promote environmentally responsible behaviours should not be focused on developed countries alone. Poverty is also associated with high levels of pollution and poor countries including countries in sub-Saharan Africa contributes must equally restrategise for effective environmental goals. The study further discloses that poverty is one of the strongest factors that affect environmental sustainability. This observation is not a contradiction to the well-established fact that prosperity or economic growth is a major precursor of unsustainable environment. On the contrary the evidence in this paper amplifies a consequence of a social crisis if they fester at both ends. In one breath, whereas economic growth or economic prosperity can compromise the quality of the environment. In conclusion, this result implies that African countries in their pursuit of economic growth, education and effective healthcare to ameliorate poverty must incorporate other aggressive strategies to hasten poverty reduction.

Does regional currency integration ameliorate global macroeconomic shocks in sub-Saharan Africa? The case of the 2008-2009 global financial crisis

2014 ◽  
Vol 41 (5) ◽  
pp. 737-750 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregory N. Price ◽  
Juliet U. Elu
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Financial Crisis ◽  
Global Financial Crisis ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Parameter Estimates ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Macroeconomic Shocks ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
The Impact

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to consider whether regional currency integration in sub-Saharan Africa ameliorates global macroeconomic shocks by considering the impact of the 2008-2009 global financial crisis on economic growth. This suggests that Central Africa Franc Zone (CFAZ) eurocurrency union membership amplifies the effects of global business cycles in sub-Saharan Africa. Design/methodology/approach – The authors estimate the parameters of a quantity theory model of economic growth within a Generalized Estimating Equation (GEE) Framework. Findings – Parameter estimates from GEE specifications reveal that the contraction in credit during the financial crisis of 2008-2009 had larger adverse growth effects on sub-Saharan African countries who were members of the CFAZ eurocurrency union. The authors also find that sub-Saharan African countries who were members of the CFAZ eurocurrency union were more likely to experience a contraction in credit. Originality/value – As far as the authors can discern, no existing empirical growth models use a GEE framework to estimate parameters of interest. The GEE parameter estimates are distribution-free, robust with respect to unknown forms of heteroskedasticity, and control for a wide variety of error structures that can induce bias in panel data parameter estimates.

scholarly journals “DELIVER AFRICA FROM DEBTS”: Good Governance Alone is not Enough to Save the Continent From Debt Onslaught

World Affairs ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 004382002110255
Author(s):  
Abel Kinyondo ◽  
Riccardo Pelizzo ◽  
Mwoya Byaro
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Economic Performance ◽  
Good Governance ◽  
Government Debt ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Growth Data ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Original Dataset ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
The Impact

The present article analyzes the debt–economic growth nexus in African countries while controlling for the impact of good governance indicators. In contrast to a long tradition of scholarship that has consistently suggested that government debt has a detrimental impact on economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa, recent studies have actually shown that government debt, when coupled with improvements in the quality of government, is actually a driver of economic growth. By analyzing an original dataset that covers the 2002–15 period and additional debt–economic growth data going up to the year 2020, we are able to suggest three conclusions. First, in the absence of debt, good governance matters in improving economic growth. Second, some dimensions of governance are better predictors of economic performance than others—as the “good enough governance” literature has in recent years suggested. Third, under no circumstances is debt government growth beneficial for the economic performance of African countries. Building on this evidence, we suggest that the COVID-19 pandemic—which has already slowed down African economies and increased their debt exposure—may prevent African countries from making greater progress along the developmental path.

The nexus between records management and perceived corruption in sub-Saharan Africa

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kofi Koranteng Adu
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Sustainable Development Goals ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Records Management ◽  
Access To Information ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose This paper aims to chronicle perceived corruption cases emanating from poor records management in selected countries in sub-Saharan Africa by examining the nexus between records management and perceived corruption in Africa. Design/methodology/approach Using a content analysis approach, based on auditor’s report and detailed analysis of available literature, this study examines the nexus between records management and perceived corruption in Africa. Findings It observed that government agencies can easily be corrupted by inefficiencies in records management. However, a clear commitment to records management, underpinned by transparency and accountability, ensures that public office holders can be held accountable for their actions. Free and unhampered access to information promotes transparency in the administration of public funds and public participation. Research limitations/implications The study selected only 14 African countries for the study to establish the nexus between corruption and records management. Further studies are needed to cover all the countries in Africa. Practical implications The paper contributes to the ongoing debate that effective records management is crucially important in the prevention of corruption. It does this at a time when most African countries have made commitments towards the 17 goals of the 2030 Sustainable Development goals of the UN. The implementation of these goals can effectively be achieved in an environment where there is an effective records management system to ensure that public officers have access to information in the delivery of their duties. Originality/value The paper is written at a time when most African countries have made commitments towards the 17 goals of the 2030 Sustainable Development goals of the UN.

The relationship between corporate governance, corruption and forward-looking information disclosure: a comparative study

2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 284-304 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben Kwame Agyei-Mensah
Keyword(s):  
Corporate Governance ◽  
Descriptive Analysis ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Listed Firms ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Forward Looking

Purpose This paper aims to examine the relationship between corporate governance, corruption and disclosure of forward-looking information in listed firms in two African countries, Botswana and Ghana. Design/methodology/approach The study uses 174 firm-year observations between the period of 2011-2013 for listed firms in the two countries. Each annual report was individually examined and coded to obtain the disclosure of forward-looking information index. Descriptive analysis was performed to provide the background statistics of the variables examined. This was followed by regression analysis which forms the main data analysis. Findings The findings show that firms in the least corrupt country, Botswana, disclose more forward-looking information than firms in Ghana, one of the most corrupt countries in sub-Saharan Africa. This confirms the relationship between the transparency level of a country and the transparency level of the listed firms in that country. Originality/value This is one of the few studies in sub-Saharan Africa that considered the impact of corporate governance factors on transparency and disclosure of forward-looking information. This study contributes to the literature on the relationship between corporate governance and disclosure by showing that disclosure of forward-looking information in Ghana is associated with the proportion of independent board members. The disclosure of forward-looking information in Botswana on the other hand is influenced by board ownership concentration. The findings of this study will help market regulators in Ghana, Botswana and sub-Saharan Africa, Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Sub-Sahara African Exchanges in evaluating the adequacy of the current disclosure regulations in their countries.

Financial freedom, market power and bank margins in sub-Saharan Africa

2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 283-299 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emmanuel Sarpong-Kumankoma ◽  
Joshua Abor ◽  
Anthony Quame Q. Aboagye ◽  
Mohammed Amidu
Keyword(s):  
Market Power ◽  
Generalized Method Of Moments ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Interest Margins ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose This paper examines the effect of financial (banking) freedom and market power on bank net interest margins (NIM). Design/methodology/approach The study uses data from 11 sub-Saharan African countries over the period, 2006-2012, and the system generalized method of moments to assess how financial freedom affects the relationship between market power and bank NIM. Findings The authors find that both financial freedom and market power have positive relationships with bank NIM. However, there is some indication that the impact of market power on bank margins is sensitive to the level of financial freedom prevailing in an economy. It appears that as competition intensifies, margins of banks in freer countries are likely to reduce faster than those in areas with more restrictions. Practical implications Competition policies could be guided by the insight on how financial freedom moderates the effect of market power on bank margins. Originality/value This study provides new empirical evidence on how the level of financial freedom affects bank margins and the market power-bank margins relationship.

Political institutions and developmental governance in sub-Saharan Africa

2004 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 163-187 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rod Alence
Keyword(s):  
Political Institutions ◽  
Institutional Economics ◽  
Good Governance ◽  
Policy Formulation ◽  
New Institutional Economics ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Democratic Institutions ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
The Impact

This article addresses the question of whether, or under what conditions, democratic institutions contribute to ‘developmental governance’ in sub-Saharan Africa, in forms such as coherent policy formulation, effective public administration, and limited corruption. While few dispute the desirability for Africa of democracy and good governance in theory, many remain sceptical about whether the two necessarily go together in practice. Using a simple framework informed by the new institutional economics, I analyse the impact of political institutions on governance quality in a sample of 38 sub-Saharan African countries. The main finding is that a combination of democratic contestation and institutional restraints on governments' discretionary authority substantially improves developmental governance. Judged against liberal democratic ideals, Africa's emerging democracies have many shortcomings. Yet the article shows that democratic institutions systematically enhance African states' performance as agents of development.

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