Addressing the Political and Bureaucratic Challenges of Public Administration in Local Governance for Africa: Lessons from China

Local governance is an important conduit for delivering developmental initiatives to the citizenry. It empowers the people through broader participation in policymaking and governance through the decentralization of authority. Public administration is an indispensable part of local governance structure, but not without political and bureaucratic challenges. These challenges are more glaring in developing countries due to weaker institutions, corruption and increased rate of political interference. Africa is seemingly the least developed continent of the world but working assiduously through the political and economic engagements with other advanced nations for her development. In that regard, China’s relation with Africa has reached an unprecedented level, with China currently being Africa’s largest trading partner. Studies into China-Africa relations are on the rise, but very few discuss how the relations can be useful in addressing the political and bureaucratic challenges of public administration in the local governance of Africa. This paper by employing a qualitative research method and applying the interaction school of thoughts in public administration, analyzes the political and bureaucratic influence on public administration in Africa’s local governance. It further discusses how Africa can draw lessons through her cooperation and engagement with China for addressing such challenges. The study concludes that China provides many opportunities at the bilateral, regional and multilateral levels for interactions with Africa. Africa should through such avenues, learn from China’s reforms and the fight against corruption, then human resource development through direct contacts, to help in addressing the challenges.