Decentralized governments: local empowerment and sustainable development challenges in Africa

Abstract

This study examines the extent to which decentralization is being utilized as a vehicle for sustainable economic development outcomes at all levels of governance in Africa. Research shows that decentralization is missing the triple-bottom line of sustainability: economic, social and environmental prosperity that meets current needs and does not take away from future generations in regions settled by indigenous communities. In this study, selected peer-reviewed literature and reports from conservation organizations on decentralization are analyzed. This research explores ways decentralization can be integrated with sustainability to minimize the short-term and longrun consequences of human actions on the environment at local levels. Factors enabling local sustainability-the legal structures, mediating factors and the decision-making sphere-are used to identify sustainability processes and activities in the governance and decentralization outcomes. This study is guided by the argument made by the United Nations in Agenda 21 and the 2030 Agenda that local governments are best placed to implement sustainability through the development of programs that educate and engage with local communities. Under these circumstances, the best avenue to advance sustainable development initiatives is through the framework of decentralization in order to produce durable economic outcomes, minimize civil disputes and improve the living standards of local communities. The results demonstrate that there are no concrete national initiatives that have been developed to date to promote sustainability within the decentralization framework.

Sustainable Development of African Countries: Minding Public Life, Education, and Welfare

“…At present, many literature papers have studied the SD of African countries, especially in the aspects of governance, economy, resources, and environment, like Selmier and Newenham-Kahindi ( 8 ), Mutiiria et al ( 9 ), Asongu and Nnanna ( 10 ), and Liyanage et al ( 11 ), but the research on public life, education, and welfare is not enough. For example, Atisa et al ( 12 ) studied legal structures, governance, and sustainable development in African countries.…”

Sustainability and Sustainable Development Research around the World

“…Some of the identified challenges that undermine efforts towards sustainable development in the African continent include: poor infrastructural support to harness renewable resources (Bugaje 2006), high population growth and inadequate employment opportunities (Ahenkan and Osei-Kojo 2014), low climate change adaptive capacity (Tumushabe 2018;Bauer and Scholz 2010), and the covid-19 pandemic (Ekwebelem et al 2021;Ozili forthcoming.a). Despite these challenges, there seems to be a consensus that sustainable development in Africa should begin at the local level (Annan-Aggrey, Bandauko, and Arku 2021), and should be driven by the local governments (Atisa, Zemrani, and Weiss 2021). Also, there is a consensus that policy coherence and coordination between the local, state and federal governments is a prerequisite to promote sustainable development in African countries (Auriacombe and van der Walt 2021).…”

Theory-Based Roadmap for Assessing Sustainability in the Collaborative Economy

“…The TBL sustainability framework has been widely adopted in government, for-profit, and non-profit sectors to evaluate sustainability performance (Aguiñaga et al, 2017;Rezapouraghdam et al, 2019;Song and Moon, 2019;Atisa et al, 2021;Ghannadpour et al, 2021). However, there is no universal standard method for calculating the TBL.…”