Growing without poverty: The role of good governance and pro-poor growth in the realisation of socio-economic rights and human development in Africa

Abstract

The idea of good governance has always occupied the discussions of public administrators, civil society and the development as well as aid communities. As a concept, good governance became popular as a response to the failures occasioned by the Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAP) of the 1980s. It however gained grounds with the disruption of constitutional orders in most African and developing countries in the late 1980s and early 1990s. In its traditional sense, good governance is usually used with particular reference to political governance. In this guise, it is related to such concepts as democracy, participation, human rights, rule of law and transparency, amongst others. Good governance ensures that political authorities and institutions are accountable to the guarantee of all human rights because all rights are universal, interdependent, interrelated and indivisible as enunciated by the Vienna Declaration+ It also means that traditionally marginalised rights like economic, social and cultural rights be given maximum attention in the design and implementation of economic policies.