This programme looks at the current realities of economic, social, and political governance challenges for sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), particularly in terms of decision-making and implementation.
ABOUT THE AFRICAN GOVERNANCE PROGRAMME
The economic, social and political governance challenges for sub-Saharan Africa remain immense. Despite progress in some health and education indicators, Africa needs more inclusive growth, jobs for its fast-growing population, and better social services and infrastructure. Their work is organized around three themes.
First, the programme will look in-depth at Ethiopia’s attempts at industrialisation and contrast it with experiences in other countries. Second, the programme will study the changing political economy of infrastructure and service delivery: how changing and at times maturing politics affect their impact, as in Ghana and Kenya and a number of other contrasting cases. Finally, researchers will study the current political and economic responses to the post-2014 reality for resource-rich economies, such as Angola and Nigeria, and what this will mean for the quest for economic diversification and the lessening of resource dependence in these economies.
The programme brings together researchers from six departments and several disciplines across the University of Oxford. The programme is led by Professor Stefan Dercon from the CSAE at the Department of Economics and the Blavatnik School of Government; and Professor Ricardo Soares de Oliveira at the Department of Politics and International Relations.
The Arts of Oil: A Cultural History of Port Harcourt
Is there a popular culture of oil? How is oil - its production, pollution, profit and politics - inflected in Nigerian popular arts? Can we understand how the oil industry is perceived through the popular arts that represent and resist it? This research examines what the popular arts tell us about understandings of African petro-states, resource curse, and post-oil futures in the urban hub of the Niger Delta.
This project was an effort to engage with the history of Nigeria's Railways through the perspective of a conversation between past, present and future. It linked the documentation and conservation of Nigeria's railway heritage infrastructure with how it is used, experienced and imagined today, and how that interacts with contemporary conversations on railway development.
The Productivity and Allocation of Public Personnel and Funds: Evidence from Government Health Facilities in Ghana
Frontline public services are delivered by government officials working in facilities spread across the country. Therefore, governments must decide how to allocate these scarce human resources and complement them with financial inputs. This project builds on an ongoing collaboration between the researchers and the Ghana Health Service (GHS) to estimate the returns to personnel and finance inputs in public service delivery.
Cash Transfers and Community Participation in Public Affairs: A Village-Level Randomized Controlled Trial in Kenya
How does a short-term spike in income affect community engagement? Do cash-villages become more or less active in tackling community matters? This study investigates the effects of delivering a large, one-off cash transfer (from an NGO) to the poorest 40% of households in 1,030 villages in Western Kenya on civic engagement and community behaviour.
The Politics of (Re)Distribution: Austerity Measures, Decision-Making and Elite Re-Negotiation in post-2014 Nigeria
This research project explores how the management of an oil-dependent economy combines with and/or morphs into the management of ethno-regional and religious differences and the implications of this for confronting the era of economic decline and renewed indebtedness. How is economic decision-making determined by the ‘vernacular’ of politics and Nigeria’s ethno-regional dynamics?
The Political Economy of Africa's new links with Asian International Financial Centres
The engagement between African states and Dubai, Singapore and Hong Kong remains understudied despite signs of their growing significance to Africa's external financial relations. This research aims to fill a gap in the global scholarly understanding of financial linkages between Africa and these international financial centres.
Political Economy of Provisioning Services for a Predominantly Female Workforce in Hawassa
This project explores women's experiences of employment in Hawassa and implications for empowerment, including gendered outcomes of development pathways.
The Politics and Economics of Industrialisation as a Route to Job Creation
This project examines the politics and economics of industrialisation as a route to job creation in Angola and Ethiopia.
Kate Orkin has won the ESRC award for Outstanding Public Policy Impact, for her role advising the South African government during COVID-19 and beyond. She influenced £4.87 billion in spending that helped 28.5 million people and saved 5.5 million from extreme poverty.
Kate Orkin and Ricardo Soares de Oliveira nominated for ESRC Impact Prize
Kate Orkin's work on cash transfers and Ricardo Soares de Oliveira's work on kleptocracy have been nominated for the ESRC Celebrating Impact Prize 2023.
An exhibition by Port Harcourt-born British-Nigerian artist Zina Saro-Wiwa and Oxford anthropologist David Pratten at the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, UK.
Nigeria's Rail Heritage: Digital Documentation Partnership launch
Nigeria's Rail Heritage: Digital Documentation Partnership Online Launch
01 November 2021, 2pm
Online event, Nigeria Railway Corporation, Legacy 1995 and University of Oxford
This report presents a synthesis of published and ongoing research by REACH which explores the relationship between water security, climate and climate adaptation decisions, drawing on findings from REACH research conducted in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.
Water Security for Climate Resilience: How Research Can Support Action
26 October 2021, 5 - 6:30pm
Hybrid event, Oxford Martin School, Oxford and via Crowdcast
