State Fragility and State Building in Africa / United Nations University Series on Regionalism Bd.10 (PDF)

Dr. Dele Olowu is a freelance consultant on governance and capacity development. He was formerly Professor of Administration and Local Government in Nigeria and has taught and conducted research in numerous other countries, including the Netherlands, Ethiopia, Ghana, Botswana, Namibia, Canada and the United States. He has served as adviser to African governments and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa and the African Development Bank, as well as on development policy management boards in Africa and Europe. Olowu has pastored churches in Nigeria, Ethiopia and the Netherlands and currently oversees the network of Redeemed Christian Church of God churches in the Netherlands and the rest of mainland Europe. He has studied at the Universities of Ibadan and Ife and Birmingham University and is the author of several books and over 60 articles.

Dr. Paulos Chanie is an Ethiopian. He holds a Ph.D in Development Studies (2007) from The Institute of Social Studies, The Hague, Netherlands. Dr. Paulos has been teaching in tertiary level educational institutions, doing research and consulting for local and international organizations in areas of public policy and administration, development management, decentralization and civil service reform. He has published in the areas of public service management, ethnic politics, clientelism, civil service reform and decentralization. He has served as head of department at Addis Ababa University and General Secretary of Ethiopian Management Professionals Association. Dr. Paulos is currently an Assistant Professor at Addis Ababa University and the Director of Research at OSSREA (Organization for Social Science research in Eastern and Southern Africa).

In State Fragility in Africa: Impact and Capacity Building Approaches, Professor Dele Olowu examines the various manifestations of the subject through country case studies from Eastern, Central and Southern sub-regions of the African continent (Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Lesotho, South Africa, and Zimbabwe). Readers would find echoes of the issues examined in the book in the recent instability in Mali and the on-going crises in the Central African Republic and Southern Sudan. In a thoughtful and insightful concluding chapter, Olowu recommends a range of sensible measures for assuring strong governance institutions that can help mitigate the risks of fragility in African countries. This is a timely and well-researched contribution to the literature on state fragility in Africa.

• Ladipo Adamolekun, Professor of Public Administration and a former Lead Public Sector Management Specialist in the World Bank.