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The purpose of this paper is to examine the determinants and convergence of government effectiveness in African and Asian countries.

The study utilizes data from 100 countries in Africa and Asia from 2002 to 2018. The panel-corrected standard error regression is used for the regression analysis, while both beta-convergence and sigma-convergence among the countries are tested.

Both beta-convergence and sigma-convergence exist among African and Asian countries. Asia performs better than Africa across all indicators except for press freedom, and voice and accountability. Corruption perception index, government size, voice and accountability, regulatory quality and economic wealth have a significant positive effect on government effectiveness. Press freedom negatively impacts on government effectiveness, suggesting that freedom is necessary but not sufficient if there are political actors whose actions undermine freedom. Similarly, the political constraint index, as reflected by checks and balances are necessary but not sufficient to enhance government effectiveness, especially in Asia.

The results reveal that for press freedom and political checks and balances to enhance government effectiveness, there is a need for a different and holistic approach. The results are relevant for policymakers, public sector practitioners and academics.

This study utilizes a new dataset and is premier in exploring the convergence of government effectiveness among African and Asian countries.

The much-trumpeted Green Climate Fund and several other official financial mechanisms for financing adaptation to climate change under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change have fallen short in meeting adaptation needs. Many poorer people are still grappling with the scourge of climate change impacts. Consequently, there has been a dominant research focus on climate change financing emanating from official development assistance (ODA), Adaptation Fund, public expenditure and private sector support. However, there has been little attempt to examine how migrants’ remittances can close adaptation financing gaps at the local level, ostensibly creating a large research gap. This paper aims to argue that migrants’ remittances provide a unique complementary opportunity for financing adaptation and have a wider impact on those who are extremely vulnerable to climate change.

The paper is aligned to the qualitative research approach. Both secondary and primary data acquired through interviews and focus group discussions were used for the study. Multiple sampling methods were also used to select the respondents.

The findings show that remittances are used to finance both incremental costs of households’ infrastructure and consumption needs, as well as additional investment needs to be occasioned by ongoing or expected changes in climate.

In the wake of dwindling government/public revenue, ODA and poor commitment of Annex II countries to fulfil their financial obligations, the study makes the following recommendations: First, the financial infrastructure underpinning money transfers in both sending and recipient countries should be improved to make transfers attractive. Second, significant steps should be taken to reduce the fees on remittance services, especially for the small transfers typically made by poor migrants. Finally, adequate climatic information should be made available to local people to ensure that remittances are applied to the right adaptation option to avoid maladaptation.

This paper aims to provide empirical evidence on the El Nino and its effects on maize production in three municipalities: Ejura, Techiman and Wenchi in the transitional zone of Ghana. Using a mixed approach, the study details the effects of the El Nino on rainy season characteristics, particularly, rainfall amounts and distribution, onset and cessation of rains, duration of the rainy season and total seasonal rainfall and how it impacted smallholder maize production.

The study used a mixed method approach in collecting and analyzing data. For stronger evidence building, (Creswell, 2013) the authors combined interviews and focus group discussions (FGD) to collect the qualitative data. Semi-structured questionnaires were administered to extension officers, management information system officers and other relevant personnel of the Ministry of Agriculture in the three municipalities. Six FGD’s were held for maize farmers in six communities in all three municipalities.

The study shows that the 2015 El Nino had dire consequences on farm yields, subsequently affecting farmer’s incomes and livelihoods. The study further finds that complex socio-cultural factors, some unrelated to the El Nino, aggravated the effects on maize farmers. These include the lack of adequate climatic information, predominance of rain-fed farming, a lack of capacity to adapt and existing levels of poverty.

The study recommends inter alia, appropriate use of seasonal rainfall forecasting to enhance better farming decision-making and the development of elaborate climate variability interventions by national and local agencies.

Leadership and governance are all about “people” and the “common welfare”. Africans have an Ubuntu philosophy which culturally calls on individuals to promote the welfare of collective society. It is therefore paradoxical to note how African leaders and governance regimes perform poorly when it comes to the usage of public resources to create conditions for collective human welfare. Why do leaders instead of championing societal advancement rather advance their selfish, egoistic and sectional interests? This study aims to unpack a prevalent paradox and discuss a new approach of linking the rich Ubuntu philosophy to Africa’s governance and leadership discourse.

This study discusses from secondary sources of data, mainly drawn from journal articles, internet sources and scholarly books relevant to leadership and public administration in developing African countries and how Ubuntu African philosophy can be deployed to ensure leadership ethos. In attempt to obtain a more comprehensive and systematic literature review, the search covered all terms and terminologies relevant to the objective of the study. The search process mainly comprised four categories of keywords. The first category involved the concept as approximately related to leadership: “leadership and civic culture”, “Ubuntu culture” and “African collectivist culture”. For the final category, words such as “crisis”, “failure” and “experiences” were used.

This study contends that the preponderance of corruption and poor leadership in Africa is anti-cultural, anti-human, anti-ethical and anti-African; hence, those individuals who indulge or encourage leadership paralysis are not “true Africans” by deeds but merely profess to be. Linking the African Ubuntu philosophy to public leadership, the study maintains that the hallmark of public leadership and governance is to develop the skills of all and caring for the society.

This study draws attention to the need for leaders to espouse virtues so that leadership becomes a tool to promote societal welfare. The hallmark of public leadership and governance is to develop the skills of all and caring for the society. It involves weighing and balancing professional and legal imperatives within a democratic and ethical context with an ultimate responsibility to the people and public interest. It is not a responsibility to a particular set of citizens, but a commitment to be just and equitable to all. The preponderance of corruption and bad leadership is anti-cultural, anti-human, anti-ethical and anti-African; hence, individuals who indulge or encourage leadership paralysis are not true Africans by deeds but merely profess to be.

This study draws a clear link between indigenous African cultural value system and ethical public leadership. It draws congruence between Africa's Ubuntu philosophy of civic virtue and Africa's leadership/governance. This will bring about a renewal of thoughts and practice of public leadership on the continent, as it has been demonstrated that a true African seeks collective social welfare and not selfish interest.

Global concerns over dysfunctional behaviours including bribery and corruption, embezzlement of funds and other conducts by leaders and public officials have become ubiquitous in organizations. Although national and organizational systems have been instituted to make these behaviours a high-risk and low-gain activity, these behaviours have been pervasive in the moral psyche of nations, especially in developing countries. The purpose of this study is to examine the underpinning factors exacerbating dysfunctional behaviours in Ghana's Public Service (GPS) and link these causes to social capital theory.

This is a qualitative case study, which employed semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions (FGDs) and documentary reviews as the data collection instruments. In all, 20 in-depth interviews and four FGD were conducted.

The following were used to explain how social capital contributes to dysfunctional behaviours: the extended family system, respect for the elderly, moral tone of the nation and in-group member effect, organizational politics and politicization of the service.

The main limitation of this research is the limited sample size, which does not portray the views of all employees working within GPS.

HR has a crucial role in intervening to ameliorate this challenge. The mechanisms to deploy include the development of employee awareness and skills on ethical behaviours, instituting ethical governance culture, encouraging, rewarding ethical behaviour and introducing effective performance management systems. This will enhance employees' behaviours and ensure improved engagement and overall good governance practices and ethical behaviour.

The main value of this research is its contribution in bringing to the fore some underlying causes of dysfunctional behaviours in the public service of developing countries.

The study aims to examine the relationship between organisational culture and employee efficiency and how organisational politics strengthens or weakens that relationship in the public sector of Ghana due to the perceived inefficiency of public sector employees.

The study employs cross-sectional survey design and quantitative approach to collect the data from public sector employees in Ghana. The analysis is done using descriptive statistics, correlation and hierarchical regression models.

The results show that negative organisational politics is the predominant perceived politics in the Ghanaian public sector. Further, organisational culture and employee efficiency have significant positive association and organisational politics (positive and negative) significantly moderate the association. However, negative organisational politics depicts negative interaction effect, meaning that negative organisational politics affects the positive influence of organisational culture on employee efficiency.

The findings imply that strategies such as formulation of organisational policy and strict enforcement of same to eradicate or minimise the practise of negative organisational politics, whilst positive organisational politics is encourages and awarded to induce employees to be efficient. This will enhance the overall effect of organisational culture on employee efficiency.

The study contributes significantly to extant literature by providing empirical evidence that organisational politics (positive and negative) effectively strengthens the association between organisational culture and employee efficiency from a developing country perspective.

Country comparative studies especially in Africa on public procurement reforms toward financial control and accountability of public expenditure are limited. Meanwhile, these kinds of studies have potential for providing useful insights on how value for money through public procurement is being ensured across Africa. This paper attempts to provide this. The purpose of this paper is to highlight several policy recommendations for public management aimed at improving public procurement and public financial management (PFM) systems in Africa.

The paper adopts a qualitative case study using secondary data drawn from Global Integrity Index (GII) of the Transparency International and the World Bank’s Country Policy and Institutional Assessments databases to investigate variables that influence public procurement practices in three purposively selected African countries. The comparative approach for presenting some of the experiences of countries in public procurement methods is used in this paper.

The findings suggest three main variables, namely, government structure and economic variables, complicated by socio-cultural values interact to influence public procurement and PFM systems in the case study countries.

Data for the GII indicators used were only available from 2013, which restricted the discussion of those indicators to a short span (2013–2015).

The socio-cultural milieu within which public procurement takes place has implications for how governance structures function to deliver value-for-money public procurement.

This study adds value by comparing three countries within Africa to reveal common variables which influence public procurement and PFM systems.