Institute of Development Studies

Power and Politics in Africa

'Discovering institutions that work for poor people'

The Africa Power and Politics Programme has one overarching objective: to identify ways of exercising power, doing politics and building states that might work better for development and poverty reduction in sub-Saharan Africa rather than the arrangements now in place. Our starting point is that the Good Governance agenda as presently formulated does not provide adequate guidance on this crucial problem. One reason is that it does not draw sufficiently on directly relevant experience, especially evidence of what works well under the particular conditions of Africa today. How to get better evidence on this subject poses a substantial challenge, aspects of which were tackled during the programme's 12-month design phase (2007-8).

In September 2008, the main results of the design process were drawn together. It was agreed to organise the bulk of the programme's research and policy engagement work in six Research Streams, each devoted to gathering new evidence and insights in a particular field of governance for development in Africa. The research streams are:

• Business and politics
• State bureaucracies
• Parliamentarians
• Local governance and leadership
• Local justice provision
• Formalising schooling

Further details on this programme are available on the Power and Politics in Africa website.

 

• IDS key contact: Richard Crook
• Project dates: April 2007 - March 2012
• Project status: Open
• Funder: Department for International Development (DFID)

Researchers

• Richard Crook