Gedion Onyango – författare

This important new handbook provides a comprehensive assessment of contemporary public policy and governance in the Global South. It offers incisive comparative analyses and presents policy-specific case studies from across Asia, Latin America, Middle East, and Africa. The aim is to inform future governance research, policy, and practice in these regions.

This book is timely as it responds to how governments in the Global South are dealing with recent complex series of challenges and crises of the 21st Century. These range from the pressures of a global pandemic to the impacts of climate change, democratic backsliding, deteriorating public services, and the realignments in the international political economy following the rise of China. In doing so, it reflects on the political transformations, global convergences, and underlying regional, as well as national, trajectories that have taken place recently, focusing on among others:

• Democratic governance and institutional trust

• Public service delivery, motivation, and governance outcomes

• Policy crises, disaster management, and climate change

• Policy successes and failures

• Policy innovations, digitalisation, and policy research in the Global South.

Different authors bring together varied and specialised perspectives and experiences, which are important for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers wishing to understand emerging governance models, innovations, and challenges within the Global South.

This important new handbook provides a comprehensive assessment of contemporary public policy and governance in the Global South. It offers incisive comparative analyses and presents policy-specific case studies from across Asia, Latin America, Middle East, and Africa. The aim is to inform future governance research, policy, and practice in these regions.

This book is timely as it responds to how governments in the Global South are dealing with recent complex series of challenges and crises of the 21st Century. These range from the pressures of a global pandemic to the impacts of climate change, democratic backsliding, deteriorating public services, and the realignments in the international political economy following the rise of China. In doing so, it reflects on the political transformations, global convergences, and underlying regional, as well as national, trajectories that have taken place recently, focusing on among others:

• Democratic governance and institutional trust

• Public service delivery, motivation, and governance outcomes

• Policy crises, disaster management, and climate change

• Policy successes and failures

• Policy innovations, digitalisation, and policy research in the Global South.

Different authors bring together varied and specialised perspectives and experiences, which are important for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers wishing to understand emerging governance models, innovations, and challenges within the Global South.

‘This volume is a major contribution to comparative policy analysis by focusing on the policy processes in Kenya, a country undergoing modernization of its economic and political institutions. Written by experts with a keen eye for the commonalities and differences the country shares with other nations, it covers a range of topics like the role of experts and politicians in policymaking, the nature of public accountability, the impact of social media on policy actors, and the challenges of teaching policy studies in the country. As a first comprehensive study of an African nation, Governing Kenya will remain a key text for years to come’. 

—Michael Howlett, Burnaby Mountain Chair of Political Science, Simon Fraser University, Canada 

‘A superb example of development scholarship which sets aside ‘best practice’ nostrums and focuses on governance challenges specific to time and place while holding on to a comparative perspective. Useful to scholars and practitioners not only in Kenya but across developing areas. I strongly recommend it!’ 

—Brian Levy teaches at the School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University, USA, and the University of Cape Town, South Africa. 

‘This book is an exploration of important deliberations - of interest for those of us interested in deepening the understanding of public policy theories and their application within a specific African setting’. 

—Wilson Muna, Lecturer of Public Policy, Kenyatta University, Nairobi, Kenya 

‘This collection of think pieces on public policy in Kenya gives the reader theoretical and practical hooks critical to the analysis of the implementation of the sovereign policy document in Kenya, the 2010 Constitution’. 

—Willy Mutunga, Chief Justice & President of the Supreme Court, Republic of Kenya, 2011-2016 

‘Governing Kenya provides acomprehensive analysis of public policymaking in Kenya. The book integrates public policy theory with extensive empirical examples to provide a valuable portrait of the political and economic influences on policy choices in this important African country. The editors have brought together a group of significant scholars to produce an invaluable contribution to the literature on public policy in Africa’. 

—B. Guy Peters, Maurice Folk Professor of American Government, University of Pittsburgh, USA

This book analyses major themes in twenty-first-century east African politics. Predominantly authored by researchers and academics from the region, it examines recent political developments, public policy and governance across east and southern African countries. The book advocates for a regionally-focused comparative approach across Africa, arguing that it provides a greater level of analysis than a complete continental study. Adopting a multidisciplinary approach, it covers numerous topics relating to politics, public policy, state and nation-building in Africa. Filling an important void in current literature, the book will appeal to academics, practitioners, politicians and students of politics, public policy and governance.

Chapter 16 and 20 are available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

This book examines the ways in which government-owned technologies (GovTechs) and technologies owned by civil society organisations (CivicTechs) can be integrated into policy processes to enhance interactions between citizens and governments, and ensure effective, efficient, and accountable public service delivery. It takes stock of current technological innovations, and assesses the ways in which they can be aligned with GovTechs and CivicTechs to improve African governments'' capacities in public policy and governance processes. 

The first part of the book traces the emergence of digital technologies in public administration, and assesses their benefits and challenges, especially in the Global South. The following chapters present case studies from across Africa and various policy sectors to show how GovTechs and CivicTechs operate. They demonstrate how digital platforms can be used to protect data, enhance democracy, improve food systems, and reduce corruption.

The book will appeal to all those interested in public policy, public administration, emerging technologies, and African politics.