Connecting Good Governance Principles to the Public Affairs Curriculum: The Case of Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration

Abstract

For more than two decades, good governance reform policy has swept through sub-Saharan Africa like a wildfire. Although government watchers have assumed that this reform initiative is critical for achieving development, little attention has been paid to how it affects and is affected by public affairs education and training. Drawing on the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), this article examines how the curriculum integrates unique local and regional conditions with good governance principles advocated by several international entities. Then it compares the curriculum to the new NASPAA standards of public affairs education and training and assesses how well it matches those standards. The analysis shows that there is a substantial convergence between the GIMPA curriculum and NASPAA accreditation principles and standards. We question how these principles can be reconciled with local sociocultural conditions. We conclude by making observations about how to strengthen the curriculum and improve the quality of public affairs education and training for development management.

Keywords:

• governance
• training
• development
• management

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Peter F. Haruna

Peter Fuseini Haruna is an associate professor of public administration and MPA program director at Texas A&M International University. He is also 2010–2011 Fulbright Senior Scholar to Ghana. His research interest focuses on comparative public administration and public service education and training. His previous research work has appeared in Public Administration Review, Administrative Theory & Praxis, and Public Integrity, among other journals.

Lawrence A. Kannae

Lawrence Akanweke Kannae is deputy chair of the Ghana Public Services Commission. He has previously served as deputy rector at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration. His research interest centers on change management, management development, and public sector monitoring and evaluation. He has published in the Journal of Comparative Family Studies, Journal of Asian and African Studies, and Greenhill Journal of Administration.