Developmental State Experiment in Africa: Ghana and South Africa Insights

[Music] this podcast is brought to you by the school of advanced study University of

London all of our podcasts are available from our website www.sas.com

[Music] to be to be with us um for Professor Joseph A's inaugural lecture asuku

visiting chair in combo studies um welcome to you all um the Aman you could chair is a is a vital part of the

Institute and let me just say a little bit about its history uh in

2001 The Institute launched a campaign under the patronage of the Duke of Westminster to endow a chair in combo

studies the chair was to be named uh in honor of chiefa yuku who served as Comm Secretary General uh from two from uh

1990 to 2000 and it's it's a great pleasure to see some of some of the people who were intimately involved in

that uh in that fundraising effort here today welcome welcome to you all um the appeal succeeded in

attracting the support from a a variety of public and private benefactors including the the federal republic of

Nigeria and three Nigerian state government these generous donations made possible

the appointment uh of uh Professor Richard cook uh as the first hold of the chair

in September 2003 and in 2007 uh the chair pass to Professor

James mayor both Richard and Jim uh occupied the chair with great distinction and it's a huge pleasure to

uh to have them with us uh today uh I keep getting I been worried about coming out with these dates because I'm sure

someone's going to contradict me at some stage but so far so far so good um on on Jim's retirement last year we decided to

reconfigure the chair as a visiting professorship Ted for a period of up to to six

months we felt that this would better reflect the institute's key mission to promote and facilitate research in the

area of comic studies it would enable uh a lead scholar from a non UK Commonwealth country to spend some time

in London uh in the process advancing their own research um developing links with the UK

higher education sector and very importantly enabling British Scholars to benefit from the findings of their

research we were therefore absolutely delighted that Professor Joseph A agreed to be our first uku visiting professor

of com studies he's an extremely worthy holder of the title uh Professor a is currently recor of mquest University

College in Acra in Ghana before that he was Deputy Vice Chancellor and head of the College of humanities at the

University of quaz Nal in South Africa from uh 2010 to 2013 uh Professor a is a highly

respected and dauntingly prolific writer uh on the politics uh and public administration of Africa with particular

reference to Ghana he's the author of no less than seven books um including an anatomy of public

policy implementation decentralization and conflict and my favorite title

um Saints demons Wizards and systems explaining the success or failure of public policies and programs as we all

know the Commonwealth has more than its fa share of D I say Saints demons and wizards um so it's particularly

particularly appropriate that he should be he should be our first visiting chair um a a mark of Professor A's

distinction is that at the end of last month uh he delivered the highly prestigious JB Dana Memorial lectures

organized by uh the Ghana Academy of Arts and social sciences taking it his as his theme leadership and the GH state

today Reflections and perspectives and we're very proud that he brought the name of the Institute of Commerce

studies and the school of study to Ghana in in in in those highly successful and wellu lectures and his title today is uh

the developmental State experiment in Africa the experiences of Ghana and South Africa

J thanks a lot director of The Institute of con studies you know

colleagues ladies and gentlemen I deem it a great honor and privilege as the makaku

visiting professor of Comm studies to deliver this inaugural lecture I would like therefore to

express my gratitude to The Institute of Comm studies for this honor and privilege I'm also grateful to

the to Chief U after whom the chair has been um named in recognition to his distinguished

career as Secretary General of the Commonwealth from 1990 to two to

2000 and of course I also I'm also grateful to those who helped or or you know assisted in setting up the chair

and I and I believe some of you are here this evening of course I would like to

appreciate the scholarship of my predecessors profor Richard Kook and Professor James Mina uh

who serve as the makaku chair of com studies and I'm proud that they here this evening to witness this inaugural

lecture last but not the least I'm very grateful to to Mr quari the founder of Mount Crest

University College in Ghana who flew from Acra purposely to attend this lecture and of course uh if you are here

please can you stand up for James you know hosan the son-in-law who drove him all the way from K

I'm to all of you for for coming in this rather chilly weather now as has been pointed out the

title of the lecture is the developmental State experiment in Africa the experiences of Ghana and

South Africa and I've chosen the topic for a number of

reasons and I think that the first reason why I've chosen this topic is

that uh if you look around Africa the discourse has been development and there are several strategies which have been

uh you know designed and implemented to bring development to Africa indeed if you look at the United Nations economic

commission for Africa 2011 report it identifies eight strategies that have been designed and implemented to bring

development to Africa but these strategies have not work out well they have largely failed because of several

reasons the reasons like the fact that uh the policies were poorly implemented reasons relating to

neopatrimonialism or you know patronage reasons relating to poor policy design reasons uh relating to policy

discontinuity reasons about slow industrialization and of course inadequate conducive environment to

promote development so there are several reason and of course the other reason is the fact that development in Africa has

failed because of the inability of governments to grow a strong private sector so there are several reasons that

uh have you know contributed to the lack of development or slow progress of development in

Africa but I think the second reason that that uh actually uh gave impetus to the choice

of the topic is more or less the renewed interest in the Paradigm of the developmental States now so if you have

eight strategies which have not worked out then of course you need to look at more or less a ninth strategy and the

ninth strategy has been the developmental States and that the Asian tigers uh have actually developed

because they have embrace the Paradigm of the developmental state so there has been renewed interest and a lot of

discourse on the developmental State and one of the things I want to do in this lecture is to actually make you know you

know contribution to the literature the second reason why I have decided to uh choose the topic is that I

have lived and work in Ghana and South Africa and therefore more or less I'll be I'll be talking from an insid

perspective about what has gone on the developmental State Paradigm progress made in both Ghana and South

Africa with regards to the developmental state but of course as an Insider I'm sure that I will not allow my judgment

to be clouded I'll be very objective uh uh as one as as far as possible a third reason why have I

chosen Ghana in South Africa I've chosen Ghana for a number of reasons Ghana is very unique in Africa

it is the first country in sou Saharan Africa to have achieved Independence in 1957 but Ghana saw a deep in its

political and socio Economic Development uh from [Music]

1957 uh to about uh 19 uh 1992

but even though it had suffered a deep in political and social soci economic development it

actually designed and implemented a structural adjustment program which has been reputed as one of the best on the

African continent indeed Ghana became the STA pupil of structural adjustment to the extent that the World Bank and

IMF decided that other African countries should follow the ghanian example and of course the another thing

which I've chosen why I've chosen Ghana is that it is one of the few African countries which have alterated

governments in 2001 the national Democratic Congress of of um jollins gave way to the new

government of uh the New Patriotic Party under kufur and then in 2009 it also there was an alternation of

government where the New Patriotic Party of uh New Patriotic Party government of kufur handed over power to the National

Democratic Congress and so in terms of political development in terms of democracy Ghana is seen as one of the

leading lives in Africa and of course the last one which I would like to uh make mention here is

that because of the democratic and economic credentials of Ghana we've had visits from previous American

governments previous American president had actually almost two or three of them had visited Ghana because of what is ter

the political and economic Miracle but one of the things that I would like to also flag here is that

Ghana is not reputed to be a developmental States it's not but there are

certain developmental indicators which it has achieved for instance the achievement of some of the objectives of

the Millennium development goals for instance poverty reduction even though we ourselves we are saying that we are

not there yet there has been an effort to reduce poverty there has been an effort to increase

uh enrollment targets and maternal mortality has also been increased so these are the reasons that have informed

my choice of Ghana as a case stand I've chosen South Africa also for a number of reasons the first one is

that South Africa is regarded as a giant it's regarded as a big brother is regarded as the most industrialized

country in Africa uh it's regarded as having a strong private sector is regarded as a country uh which has more

or less one of the most vibrant uh uh one of the most vibrant trade unions the KATU is regarded as one of the

countries which with a vibrant and unified political party in spite of few cracks within the African National

Congress and then of course I've chosen South Africa because it is it has been termed in different forms about his

ability to become a developmental State some people say that South Africa is a developmental state in Waiting others

said it is an emerging developmental State whil others said it is a developmental state in the making and

indeed if you look at official documents of South Africa uh by the NC and of course by if you look at the national

development plan of 2012 to 2030 there is a whole chapter a whole chapter devoted to the developmental

State entitled building a capable and developmental State and that is one of the few countries which has official

documents actually saying that we would like to to be a developmental state so my choice is informed by the fact that

South Africa is more or less a developmental state in the wait uh in the in the waiting and then of course

the fact that uh it has this idea of a developmental state has been expressed in official

documents now I just want to move on to what is a developmental State and the state of the art and I'm not going to be

uh here for too long there has been a wealth of scholarship which has built up about the

developmental State I mean if you look at the writings of charma Johns 1982 to date we have a lot of scholarship built

around it and the scholarship can be divided into two the first St of scholarship will look at the two scools

of thought which have emerged about the development of last state and the second set of of of uh of literature uh relates

to the five view points about the developmental State and I would like to take the two schools of thought first

the two schools of thought about the developmental state are the political school and the economic School the

political School indicates that state capacity is important to bring development without

the capacity of the state there cannot be any development and then of course uh so so

the legitimacy of the state depends on its ability to bring development

the the economic school of thought postulates that in any developmental State you need

need economic policies and programs which will bring development so emphasis is placed on removing Market

imperfections so that you can fix those Market imperfections or you can build some institutions which will be able to

redress those Market imperfections and I think that it is very important that if you look at the developmental State you

are dealing with the political issues and of course the economic issues but those political and economic issues must

be dealt in it within the confines of the linkage between National and international

actors now I don't want to bore you with the various definitions but of course there are several definitions of the

developmental state but to this paper a developmental State refers to a state which has the capacity to promote

development and Link that development to National and international actors even Scholars have not actually agreed on the

definition of a developmental state but to me or to this paper if you are looking at a developmental State you are

looking at a state which has the capacity to promote the development and use the development to connect with

local and international uh you know stakeholders now I just want to look at

the five view points about the developmental stage the first one which has

been more or less made pronounce is the fact that the the Paradigm of the developmental state is not alien to

Africa that if you look at African countries after Independence Ghana and Tanzania under Julius Neri then of

course um Zambia under kaunda and then seal under Le single these leaders have had

exp developmental Vision about their countries so because of this uh some Scholars have said that look the idea of

develop bogos is is not new to Africa uh we've had developmental St but I have tended to disagree with them because if

you are talking about the development the developmental Vision ofum Julius sing and and Kenneth

kunda they have not LED Africa to the Paradigm of Developmental what we had during those

periods what we had um was more or less status policies status policies without industrialization or little or no

industrialization and so to me and then of course the other thing is the fact that we had patronage we have R seeking

activities States policies which did not actually promote development so if you tell me that in Africa we have

developmental States I have I'm a bit cautious because of this because the promotion of the developmental vision of

these leaders did not make their countries quote and unquote developmental

States the second Viewpoint which which has been raised is the fact that well we don't need developmental States in

Africa we need Democratic developmental States and the argument is that if you look at the Asian tigers uh uh they uh

you know Singapore Indonesia all of the all those you know China all of them they were not they only promoted

development but they did not take account of the political issues that the political regime was not necessary

indeed the Asian tigers the political regimes of the Asian tigers were dictatorial

authoritarian and so what we need in Africa rather is democratic velopmental States and not the developmental States

uh we had in Asia uh where you had the uh the countries living under authoritarian uh you know

regimes the t view of the developmental state is the fact that the developmental state is no longer relevant it is a

cake it is it is dead and the reason is that the development state was not able to deal with the Asian uh economic

crisis in 2000 and the global crisis of 2008 so if if if the Paradigm has not been able to uh uh resolve those global

crisis then we don't need you know the con African uh you know countries do not have any business uh uh uh uh related to

you know the concept the fourth Viewpoint which has been raised only Point only pointed at

gaps in the literature for instance that if you look at the developmental State literature the tendency is to address

the capacity of the state but not its motivations and people actually indicated that well if you are dealing

with the state then of course you not deal only with the with the with the capacity of the state but of course with

the with the motivations uh you know the motivation and then of course if you also look at the lature on the

developmental State emphasis was put on on the on the depolarization of the bureaucracy and the argument which has

been made is that you cannot in any cont within the context of Africa within the context of any state the the

depolitization of the bureaucracy is a meth so what we need to do is to also take into account

both competence and then of course partisan considerations in appointing people so the soal myth of a

depoliticized bureaucracy as in this AG in the developmental State cannot actually hold and then of course the

final one is the fact that the vental state is not a sustainable Paradigm that it comes and

goes depending on the country depending on the context depending on several factors and the fifth Viewpoint which I

want to leave with you is that we cannot have developmental state in Africa because of certain negative things that

that are in African countries and they mention rain seeking activi lack of commitment uh to development NE

neopatrimonialism inadequate human resources and the fact that state intervention in the economy has become

redundant and irrelevant so uh you can because of globalization so what is the whole big issue about the

development but to me as far as I am concerned and as far as the literature part of the

literature is concerned it seems that there has been this renewed interest in the developmental State and indeed in

the in the writings of Peter Evans he has made a very important point that if the developmental state is important to

the 20th century State then it is equally more important to the 21st century States but apart from that on

the African contest the economic commission for Africa's report on Africa in 2011 actually made a

plea to African countries to embrace the idea of the developmental State because it is the way forward to transform

African economies and make them more relevant uh to their societies So based on these based on the u United Nations

economic commission for Africa's um what report based on part of the literature which has emphasized the importance of

the developmental State I now proceed to look at to what extent have Ghana and South

Africa promoted some of the features of the developmental State and here I'm going to look at seven features

of the developmental State and find out the progress which Ghana and South Africa uh uh you know made towards the

realization of of these uh of the developmental St now and I'm going to do this U by

looking at the seven features of the developmental state if you read the literature on the developmental State

there again is No agreement on which features are important or not but there's agreement on four of the

features which which are important the first one is you need a political leadership which has a developmental

Vision that one there is agreement a political leadership with a developmental

Vision the second one is a capable and autonomous bureaucracy which means that there must the bureaucracy must be the

politize the third one is the fact that there must be a symbiotic relationship between the bureaucracy and of course

the private sector and then of course the fourth one is that there must be policy interventions which will promote

economic growth to me looking at the literature looking at the pros and cons of the

literature I've have decided to build on these four uh features of the development of the developmental State

and come out with seven features which I think are relevant in explaining the progress made by Ghana and South Africa

uh uh with regards to the developmental State the first one the first feature that I would like

to use to evaluate uh progress made relates to transformational or developmental oriented leadership do we

have this in Ghana or South Africa and over here I would like to say that Ghana and South Africa have had two

great leaders quam Kuma in Ghana and Nelson Mandela in South

Africa these are to me development oriented transformational leaders and and in spite of their Vision

developmental Vision the vision to unite the country to bring development these leaders had weaknesses in Ghana for

instance K Kuma was authoritarian was dictatorial and did not even give a free hand to the

bureaucracy to actually operate if you look at Mandela on the other hand within the four years of

course people said that the 4 years not enough from him he was not able to bring the inequality and then of course

provide the Public Services in the Township in South Africa the poor Township so people blame me for not

being able to uh redress the in inequalities or inequities and then of course provide basic services to poor

black townships but to me I think that four years not enough for leader to to redress the imbalance of

aath so we have two great leaders it seems to me that after these two great leaders Ghana and South Africa we've not

had leaders who have mared up to their stature who have much who have been development oriented who have been able

to have that development Vision to carry their countries forward and I think to me it seems that leadership in these two

countries have been de deved by several weaknesses the first one is that I think leadership in the two countries have not

made hard hard choices and decisions what we have seen if you look at policies if you follow policies and

programs of the leaders the the policies were mainly ad hoc mainly peac meal not coordinated mainly

uh you know politically motivated just to actually gain legitimacy and then that's

it consistency in policy hard choices have not become the order of the day in these countries and I think even to the

extent that I think I'll I I'll give examples here if you go to South Africa they have a policy called transformation

transformation means that you replace whites with qualified Africans it does not say

unqualified Africans but if you look at the way the policy was implemented most often than not you you

you see unqualified Africans being promoted to take over from qualified whites but if you look at the essence of

the policy itself is that there must be a gradual replacement of of uh what of quality ified blacks of qualified qu

with qualified blacks if you go to Ghana a there has been discontinuity of

policies and program even policies which are meant which which have been doing well I mean so the example of if you

read if you follow the news you know in Ghana we have a big problem now with judgment Debs the payment of judgment

Debs where governments were supposed to pay huge debts to you know people uh who

they had who the cours have decided that they should be paid uh monies but if you look at it even getting records on these

on some of these judgments have become problematic why under the New Patriotic Party government there was a filing

system which would track all these when the uh NDC government came to power in 2001 a simple process of the this filing

system was more or less discontinued so the point I want to raise is that simple things policy discontinuity and

meanwhile the ghanian Constitution has indicated that governments must as far as practicable follow policies and

programs of their uh what predecessor governments so the point I'm I want to raise here is that we have

problems with governments making hard choices sticking to policies which are good and

trying to actually Forge uh development the second issue why I said U Ghana what the the shoes of K Kuma and

Nelson Mandela are too huge for succeeding leaders to to wear is the fact that systemic you know corruption

has been the order of the day and it has been to the extent that in 2012 if you look at the corruption

perception index Ghana uh was round

64 South Africa was round 69 and if you follow closely there has been a consistent draw in the corruption

perception index so the leaders are interested in stamping out

corruption but the argument is that they have more or less not that they have not the commitment to do so uh and and you

know obviously uh and to the extent that the leaders will say that well if any citizen

has uh a cause to uh complain about being corupt they should go and report them who in Africa which cities in

Africa will go and Report the head of state to you know to maybe the uh in South Africa it's called the the public

protector in Ghana it's called the commission of Human Rights administrative

Justice how many citizens will have the guts to go and say that well leader AB b c and d they are corrupt so they should

be investigated the point I want to raise is that the the eradication of corruption has become a public relations

host by the leaders and so there has been this consistent systemic corruption in these two countries the building of

patronage has always been there the office of president in the two countries have have actually overgrown in

size why is that so people want to reward their political friends and allies etc etc

the management of the economy has always been problematic admittedly I'll say that the two governments if you look at

Ghana and South Africa there have been several state of the nation addresses several development plans which shows

that which show that the leaders have had the commitment to actually uh what manage the economy in the budget

statements efforts have made to actually address some of the issues but again as one will have pointed out the economy of

these two countries have uh the the economies have not actually made uh made uh you know progress for instance in

South Africa the debt to gross domestic product ratio for 2012 is 38% whilst in Ghana the

the Deb to GDP ratio in December 2012 is 49.4%

49.4% in Ghana and 38% in South Africa meanwhile I'll come and

argue later that the development T State the idea of a development State also hinges on a very very robust

fiscal foundation for the states but so if these two countries uh if the economies are not robust how can we

achieve developmental state of course if you look at the auditor general report of the two

countries there are instances of uh morphism in several areas financial miscoded and M

fees now from this we wies it seems to me that it's clear that the two countries uh have not exhibited what we

call transformational leadership but what what has been called transactional leadership patronage rewarding activist

uh ad hoc policies and programs trying to gain legitimacy but not taking drastic measures drastic policies which

would actually promote development now but having said so uh I would like to say here that if you look

at the policies and the plans there are they they have they have

contained in them very important issues about developmental Vision etc etc now let me just now move on

to the state autonomy as the second feature and it's over here we want to look at has the state got the capacity

to design and formulate policies and programs are the policies being owned by the governments

or what is called what policy ownership to what extent have the policies been actually debated by civil

Society organizations because if you are talking about State autonomy you're also talking

about has the state got the capacity to has the state got the capacity to interact with stakeholders to refine

policies etc etc and what I would like to State here is that if you look at the two countries efforts are being made to

involve stakeholder participation in the policy process if you look at the legislative um uh uh what the

legislative uh the legislators in both countries the all the Committees of the legislature would have invited uh uh

stakeholders to send memorandum or memoranda to the various committees uh if you look at uh uh uh What uh Civil

Society organizations they've also involved in policy uh refinement Etc so there has been some D effort in this

area to actually involve policy makers and refine to refine policies and programs but the point is that in the

literature it becomes difficult to identify to what extent have Civil Society organizations or other

organizations uh to what extent have they influenced the outcome of the policy is not clear if you look at the

cases of Ghana and South Africa well they will tell that if it's educ we have involved uh schools we have

involved uh you know other stakeholders in the uh in the process but to what extent if it's if it is education to

what extent have they been able to refine or find tune or make inputs to public policies and programs is not

clear in the in the literature and also if you are dealing with nonstate actors have state institutions be able

to accommodate nonstate actors in the experiences of Ghana and South Africa there is evidence to

suggest that if if nonstate actors will want to be very proactive very more or less aggressive in CA they are not more

or less liked by the state institution because the state institutions are always not sure whether the the nonstate

actors are on their side or not and this has therefore led to some attempts in Ghana and South Africa to coort some of

the non-state actors and of course if if the attempt is made to corrupt you then of course uh uh What uh you have not be

able to uh agree of course you are labeled as an anti- government uh you know non-state

actor now I will say that it seems to me that the policy process has evolved in these countries and so there are several

ways of uh Consulting one of them is uh the fact that

leaders have decided to go to the public and ask for their views in Ghana it's called The People's assembly the

president once a year would like to go will go to a village or will go to town and meet the you know the public answer

questions of course to what extent have these been able to feed into public policy in South Africa it is the

same they call it in zizo meaning public gards where uh leaders are both national uh provincial and local government

levels would would actually hold uh what public Gatherings and ask for views about people but if you're asking for

views about people sometimes how do you measure is is being fed into the policy process is very difficult to uh uh you

know say so but overall in spite of the of these problems I think that the two

constitutions the 1992 Constitution and the 1996 South African con in have laid the basis for the interaction between

State institutions and nonstate institutions it's a question of how do they come together the other point I

would like to stress is the fact that is there a relationship between the state institutions and

non-state institutions sometimes they are not there in certain areas they are there

but the point is that we need to actually deepen this uh you know interaction and which will enable public

policies and programs to be fine tuned um for uh you know development I now move on to the third

feature which is the developmental public administration or public service

indeed this just how do you strike a balance between the appointment of competent people and partisan

considerations and it seems to me that the two countries have not be able to manage the balance well it seems that

the scale has tilted more to political considerations being taken into account in making most appointments

it's a big issue because in certain areas yes appointments are based on competence but in most cases how do you

balance and some have made the point that when we are talking about a

depoliticized public service we at the same time referring to the proper balance

between between political considerations and competence but my from what I've seen there has been more uh what more of

political appointments rather than a rather than a combination of competence and and uh political conentration

now I'll give examples the two countries have introduced what is called the new public

management reforms uh privatization decentralization Financial reforms a justification etc etc uh and and in the

case of South Africa South Africa has introduced what is called the Senior Management Service the SMS Ghana has not

the two countries have introduced contract appointments but you see the idea of a

Senior Management Service is based on the on the US model of appointing competent people but at the same time

with some partisan leadings but if you look at appointments to the South African Public Service

there are more of political appointments and not the balance between the two uh again if you look at the ghanian context

several Studies have shown that uh the the balance between competence and political affiliation has not actually

been part of the uh you know appointment to the extent that politicization has become very

rampant and the new uh public management reform were supposed actually to do a way or minimize the politization of the

public service and I think that part of the the developmental state is the fact that how do you

ensure a depoliticized public service and to me a depoliticized public service will be competence and political

affiliations others will say no let us look at competence but within the context of Africa within the context I

still believe that the proper balance between between the two must be struck I'll now move on to the issue the

fourth feature which is production oriented private sector I have made the point earlier on

that South Africa is reputed to be more or less a country with with the strongest private

sector and it has been pointed out indeed Ben Fine has made a very important point that the South African

economy is dominated by a minerals energy complex which has forg a relationship between the state and

private capital it's a very important point and because why is that so because South Africa has

conglomerates especially in the mining sector so that Alliance has been there so it's a very important issue if you

look at so policies have been implemented to actually create an enabl environment for the private sector to

the extent that the thec government has has a policy to promote black empowerment black empowerment uh which

is a very important uh you know policy which actually is to create an AF a black African and what entrepreneurial

class it's a very important one so there has been that encouragement but of course the black empowerment strategy

has also been criticized because it has not actually uh benefited the country as it should and and if you look at the

literature some of the scholars have have indicated that it has actually uh uh What uh become a way of promoting or

building patronage uh you know in the country so yes we have a strong relationship between the state and

private capital in South Africa but to what extent has this been transformed to development I'll answer

that later now let me come to the ghanian context if you look at all the policy documents all the speeches of the

of of of the leaders there have been the empasis to create a a LLY environment for the private sector indeed some of

the governments uh even introduced what they call a business friendly year declared two 2003 the New Patriotic

Party government of president kufur in in 2003 declared that year a business friendly year or even policies on the

Golden Age of business or even the presidential initiative on casaba agriculture etc etc so there has been

that effort to actually create the N environment but you see it's one thing saying these things is the the other

thing is how you implement them and if you look at uh Ghana and South Africa they share a common experience Ghana

hasn't got a strong private sector it's true is it's been acknowledged even by government Publications is being

acknowledged by government leaders South Africa on the other hand has a strong private sector but to what

extent has the private sector been used as an ining up if you look at the South African economy it's more or less

growing but not actually benefiting the majority of the people and I think that's the most important point if you

look again at the private sector in Ghana is very slow but not benefiting the majority of the people but the point

which which I want to stress here is that even though the governments are interested in creating an enabling

environment for the private sector the very good things or the very positive things which will make the private

sector grow are not actually there a classic example is infrastructure water electricity in 2010 South Africa did not

have electricity did not have water in the township did not have electricity in the townships in 2012 in

Ghana there has been since 2012 or even previously Electric there has been constant load shedding for the past 10

years other times you say one year is good the other year load shedding and since last year August there has been

consistent load sharing throughout it have been aggravated by

inadequate water supply intermittent actually and these two key things water electricity are important to the private

sector are important for industrialization and if you want to be a developmental

state water doesn't run electricity is intermittent then of course you cannot you are far away from the Paradigm of

the developmental States and I think that when we are thinking about industrialization these

little things water electricity electricity very important the fifth one effective

National development planning again if you look at the lature all the two countries have actually uh uh

developed plans but unlike in the case of South Africa it has a comprehensive development plan

Ghana has not had any comprehensive development plans since Independence apart from Vision 2020 all the plans

were medium-term plans but South Africa has a plan a comprehensive plan which which is called which will end in

2030 so the point is that comprehensive planning is important to any country and I think this is where uh Ghana has

failed South South Africa has has taken the lead in this matter and of course with plans you need a strong institution

in South Africa the institution is called the national Planning Commission in Ghana the institution for planning is

called the national development Planning Commission Now if you look at the composition of the members the national

Planning Commission of South Africa has 26 members in Ghana the national development Planning Commission has 37

members the national Planning Commission of South Africa is not a presidential body or it doesn't function under the

Office of the President even though it is headed by a minister at the presidency Trevor man

in Ghana the national development Planning Commission is a unit under the Office of the President it actually

reports to the Office of the President it is it is supposed actually to advise the president now if you look at the

literature the impression one gets is that that these planning commissions are not insulated from partisan politics

even some in the case of Ghana never do well politicians are damed to the National development Planning Commission

where you it's more or less the perception is that it's more or less like a Siberia if you have fallen out of

favor with the government they put you there as a member of the so the point I want to stress here is that yes we have

plans medium-term plans comprehensive plans long-term plans in the two countries but again implementation is is

it's not as good as one would have been expected and then of course the institutions are not strong enough the

capacity of the of the institution to implement has not been as strong as one would have you know expected the sixth

one Fe IID like to deal with is the expansion of human capacity this is a very important issue that if you are

talking about human capacity you are talking about capacity building for State institutions you are talking about

infrastructure you are talking about education you are talking about health you are talking about the achievement of

the Millennium development goals now if you look at the two countries it seems that Ghana's progress towards the

achievement of the Millennium development goals Ghana's progress is a little bit better than South Africa

because one in terms of poverty reduction Ghana has actually moved at by 5% in terms of enrollment targets Ghana

has actually uh has more uh uh schools more enrollments etc etc but these are not as good the progress towards the

achievement of the Millennium development goals in South Africa uh has not been as strong as the one we have in

Ghana but I've talked about all this but the most important one which I want to Flat in terms of human capacity building

is the ability to conduct research and this is where again Ghana and South Africa will differ in South Africa it

the country has what they call the national Research Foundation which actually rates researchers you apply and

you are rated a BC you know and every year you get money because you are rated researcher so there is money available

for research there's emphasis on p uh production of pads the reverse is rather and of course pads in some universities

you it is uh What uh they get scholarship or Fellowship isues in Ghana it is the reverse indeed there is no

State funding for research in Ghana un like in you know South Africa in in addition to this state institutions are

charging more for postgraduate studies that's also a disincentive for for postgraduate studies so the point I want

to stress here is that if you look at Japan if you look at Singapore the developmental state was achieved through

massive research massive uh what injection of of funds to support institutions universities

research institutions to promote research but in the case of Ghana research has been at no State funding

for research of course we have research institutions in Ghana but the unlike the South African Research Foundation which

actually raise researchers and gives them money to conduct research the case has not been in in Ghana so I think that

when we are talking about expansion of human capacity we should also be talking about how do we find research in these

countries finally the fifth uh the seventh one is good governance and this is uh an everyday uh uh you know s in

the in the donor agenda so I don't want to sing it too much but the point is that

transparency and transparency accountability all these features are very important

and if you look at the 1992 ghanian Constitution and the 1996 ghanian Constitution they are clear on this that

you must have a framework or the requirements of good governance are important in achieving development

progress again made but there are what I call good governance deficits in the two countries and I just want to list a few

of them the first one is is the crime and the polarization of society especially in South Africa there is

crime in Ghana there is polarization of society in Ghana but South Africa R higher than Ghana in terms of crime and

polarization the second one is the fact that there is always if you read the literature lack of coordination between

or among State institutions I mean they are supposed to do the same thing they are not doing well I mean it becomes a

big problem I've not I have indicated to you that in Ghana there is load shading for when it comes to electricity but

there are six institutions which have to produce electricity in Ghana they have not be able to do that all of them are

blaming they are blaming uh each each other the problem with lies with you that in South Africa escom is the only

institution which which produces electricity but at least in terms of comparison South Africa's uh uh uh

energy problem is not as bad as Ghana one institution doing these six institutions in Ghana not actually doing

their work so the point on lack of coordination in several areas is been stated then of course we have the the

inadequate provision of basic Services just like like you know like sanitation it's a basic common

thing Richard and I have looked at sanitation issues in Ghana and the Vue which came out is that the findings are

clear that the basic thing which any town city in Ghana will need has not been performed so there has been a

wholesale condemnation of the public services for not being able to deliver and then of course I would like to touch

on the issue of the excessive use of force by the police it's not only in South Africa but also in Ghana there are

several good governance deficits in these countries I've listed here 14 of them I don't want to go into details in

all of them so what I want to say is that if there are infractions on good government

governance the governments have taken steps to redress them or to address them but one will have thought that there

will be a consistent way of dealing with the issues now what is my conclusion of of all

this well from what I've said so far I'm sure all of you are saying that but have we made progress or we have not made

progress I think some of you are or where are we do we need it or do we don't or or or we do not need it I think

that the two countries have made what I call modest progress with regards to uh the developmental State uh and I always

say that the road to the developmental state in this two countries have been slow and

bumpy uh even though South Africa's progress uh from Avail from available evidence seems better than that of Ghana

I've also not painted a big picture of the of the progress but one thing that I would like to say is that

the achieving the status of a developmental state is not an end in itself but a means to an end I think we

must get this message clear that the developmental State Paradigm is not an end in itself but the means to an end

and there is a note of optimism um because there is the recognition in both Ghana and South

Africa that more work needs to be done if the dream of a developmental state is is to be

achieved now so what can the two countries do what can they do to speed up or to deepen the developmental State

process I've listed four of them here but five of them sorry the first one is

that there should be the realization on the part of the key players that building a developmental state is an

expensive Venture and depends on the robustness of the fiscal foundation of the state the fiscal foundation of the

two states especially Ghana is weak as reflected in the high level of Deb to GDP ratio and as a result the resources

are not available for a significant State Le developmental uh you know

initiative the second thing I would like to stress here is that political leadership in both countries should be

reminded that they enjoy the support of their of the citizens because they are associated with promoting rapid economic

growth and providing economic benefits to both the ruling Elites and to the general

citizenry you know consequently the leaders must demonstrate a genuine commitment to development I think that

the key word a genuine commitment to development a commitment to reduce poverty and to begin to

address concerns about transforming the economy and then of course industrializing if you look at the two

countries industrialization has lagged Ghana is behind South Africa South Africa is moving but it needs to be

Ginger it needs to be actually uh uh what transformed so industrialization is very important and the leaders must know

right away even though I'm sure those of us here will say that what the leaders know is one thing knowing is the other

thing is how to implement that's the key thing the third issue which is dear to my heart is capacity building

for State institutions not only capacity building if you are talking about capacity building we also saying that

you must make resources available to the institutions to do their work and and I think quite often we get

carried away when we talk about capacity building training sessions taking people out for one one week 3 weeks maybe in a

porch Hotel they come back train them with ideas they don't have the resources to implement those things so I think

that getting resources capacity building must also include giving resources to the institutions to work and of course

if these things are done why not Service delivery will have improved because to me as as a student of public

administration I'm interested in how are Services delivered to everybody because if you go to countries they are talking

about sanitation they talking about water they talking about electricity they talking about basic public services

so capacity building very important and the third ISS the fourth one which I also want to flag is that whether we

like it or not development is a political process this may seem a trism but this is often forgotten and I think

that's why when we are talking about the developmental State we should be talking about how everybody see sees development

people must be able to see what is development and how do they link up with local and international actors to

actually Forge a common front to pursue development and finally finally I would like to say

that development the developmental State agenda in the two countries will need to be

consolidated and one of the things that we need to do is that we must vigorously implement the requirements of good

governance because without good governance without leaders not becoming too parochial not becoming corrupt not

uh building page without the leaders uh uh not trying to adhere to good governance I think the

developmental State Paradigm will become a me thanks a lot for now there's a nice tradition that we

don't work lecturers too hard in an inaugural lecture so although I'm sure loads of you are are itching to ask

questions what I'm going to suggest is that you pose the questions to Joseph face to face over a glass of wine P of

in the comparative warmth of the gessle room and it's all it's all waiting for you it's all waiting for you there but

this has been a tremendous a real to of force a wonderful lecture a great way to launch the Aman yuku visiting

profess so so mayor from the my heart thank you Joseph for for being here uh in The Institute uh and giving this

wonderful lecture to us all today and I hope you'll you'll all join us for a glass of but first let's thank Joseph

once again [Applause]