Prof. Abiy Ford

Peacekeepers’ withdrawal from Somalia – A Somali Success Story or a new lifeline for Global Terrorism

Peacekeepers’ withdrawal from Somalia –

A Somali Success Story or a new lifeline for Global Terrorism

Public Lecture - RL Vol XI No CCCXIII, MMXVII

Costantinos Berhutesfa Costantinos, PhD

Professor of Public Policy & Sustainable Institutional Reforms

https://addisababa.academia.edu/CostyCostantinos

Abstract

Somalia has been labelled a failed state since 1991. The persistent threat from Somali Warlords, Islamic Courts and al Qeada & al-Shabaab had wreaked Somalia beyond repair. The international community’s response was to institute an active, regional peacekeeping mission. It is mandated to stabilise Somalia. Under its protection, in 2012, Somalia had its first presidential election since 1967. This year Parliament elected former PM Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, as president. The paper discusses the challenges posed by al-Shabaab, led mostly by foreign extremists that impose a foreign ideology brutally on the Somali people. It is the main threat to peace that AMISOM is fighting; in what has become al-Shabaab’s raison d’être. The presence of foreign troops has allowed it to flourish with its despotic pious decrees. Without a battle against peacekeepers to unite it, al-Shabaab would likely splinter into nationalist factions.

The move to increase martial power to AMISOM must resist the temptation to allow history to repeat itself. Instead, the leadership should negotiate with the moderate elements of the protagonists. The recommendations augur on a Strategy of Constructive Disengagement for international community, premises of Alternative Conflict Management (ACM) whose approaches derive from several factors that shape conflict management articulation of process and strategy - openness, political agency and ideology and identifying the root causes of the conflict. It argues for developing a culture of and constituency for peace in Somalia, building bridges between peoples, religious factions and the state and healing the wounds of war and displacement. In the end, we have seen how disastrous it is to rely exclusively on martial action to stabilise nations. The Iraq, Libya, Syria and Yemen military intervention has only produced mayhem on the local populace killing more than a million citizens and displacing half of their populations. Dialogue for peace with all stakeholders will finally prove that Somalia’s sheer un-governability is both its curse and its blessing.

Key words: Somalia, AMISOM, al-Shabaab, Alternative Conflict Management

See Lecture here or https://www.academia.edu/35444430/Peacekeepers_withdrawal_from_Somalia_-_A_Somali_Success_Story_or_a_new_lifeline_for_Global_Terrorism_RL_Vol_XI_No_CCCXIII_MMXVII

The Global Governance Architecture: Drifts in International Economic & Partnership

The Global Governance Architecture:

Drifts in International Economic &Partnership

The Bretton Woods Giants & BRICS (NDB & AIIB)

Public lecture RL Vol XI No XXVII, CXXIV, MMXVII

Costantinos Berhutesfa Costantinos, PhD

Professor of Public Policy & Sustainable Institutional Reforms

https://addisababa.academia.edu/CostyCostantinos

Abstract

The Bretton Woods Institutions are the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). They were set up at a meeting of 43 countries in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, USA in 1944. Their aims were to help rebuild the shattered post-war economy and to promote international economic cooperation. It was developed at the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference. It has been apparent since before the turn of the century that the post-World War II governance structures were untenable, because the assumptions that formed their foundation were beginning to crumble. Because of the challenges facing these institutions, the G20 finance ministers and central bank governors established an eminent persons group on global financial governance to make recommendations on how to reform the world economy’s institutional infrastructure.

Now, the world is now casting its eyes on Xiamen, the coastal city in China’s Fujian Province, as it just hosted the ninth BRICS Summit themed deepening the BRICS partnership and opening up a brighter future. Over the past decade, the BRICS bloc has transformed itself from a concept to an entity by strengthening dialogue, deepening cooperation and establishing the New Development Bank and Contingent Reserve Arrangement. The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank is a new multilateral financial institution founded to bring countries together to address the daunting infrastructure needs across Asia. There are two issues important issues here. One is whether the BRICS or the G20 will ignore or substitute for the views of the G77 or larger bodies of developing countries whose voices are only too rarely heard in international policy discourse. The second is whether the BRICS countries’ dealings with other countries of the South are following desirable patterns or simply replicating North-South interaction.

Key words: BRICS, IMF, World Bank, China, NDB, AIIB,

See lecture here or https://www.academia.edu/35296389/Drifts_in_the_Global_Governance_Architecture_RL_Vol_XI_No_CCCXI_MMXVII.pdf

Artificial Intelligence, the Singularity, Critical Thinking & Policy Realisation

Artificial Intelligence, the 

Singularity, Critical Thinking & Policy Realisation

Policy Reflections in the Rarefied Ambience of Erudite & Jurisdictive Milieu

Public Lecture - RL Vol XI No XIII, CXXIII, MMXVII

Costantinos Berhutesfa Costantinos, PhD

Professor of Public Policy, School of Graduate Studies,

College of Business and Economics, AAU

Abstract

Habermas differentiates three primary generic cognitive areas in which human interest generates and interprets knowledge - termed knowledge constitutive, determining the mode of discovering knowledge as well as whether knowledge claims can be warranted. These areas define cognitive interests (learning domains) grounded in unique aspects of social existence -- work, interaction and power. Much of the historical-hermeneutic disciplines belong to the domain of the practical, while the emancipatory domain identifies self-knowledge or self-reflection - interest in the way one sees oneself, one’s roles and social expectations.

On the other hand, the 21st century will be dominated by algorithms, arguably the single most important concept in our world. Natural algorithms have ruled every century with life in it since Darwin discovered the fundamental algorithm of evolution. Out of that dumb process-logic, arises all the intelligence and complexity of all living systems. Algorithmic forces exist and exert their powers in systemic and relational ways; they are not driven by isolatable and intrinsic traits. They require sequential steps, built from iterative if-then-else logic, driven by richer information processes than physical forces. Closely associated with this is the Singularity, an era in which intelligence will become increasingly non-biological and trillions of times more powerful than it is today. It heralds the dawning of a new civilization that will enable people to transcend biological limitations amplifying their creativity. It emerges from Artificial Intelligence that denotes electronic, digital, virtual or other non-biological and/or disembodied entities, which exhibit the function of intelligence.

Machine-learning systems excel at prediction and governments have much to gain from applying algorithms to public policy, but controversies loom. (The Economist, 2016). Nevertheless, what does such critical thinking, singularity, algorithmic forces  & artificial intelligence have to do with public policy - a legal, ethical & moral dispensation by the executive branch of government, but emerging from constitutional, legislative and administrative laws, vis-à-vis a class of issues in a manner consistent with institutional customs?

Key words: critical thinking, public policy, algorithm, singularity, artificial intelligence

See lecture here or  

https://www.academia.edu/35490358/Artificial_Intelligence_Heralds_Titanic_Prospects_for_Humankind_-_Public_Policy_Trajectories_Financing_Developing_and_Regulating_Artificial_Intelligence_to_ensure_Public_Safety_in_a_Terror-Ridden_World_RL_Vol_XI_No_CCCX_MMXVII

A Battle of Verses for ‘Democratic Dominance’ RL Vol. XI No. CCXC, MMXVII

A Battle of Verses for ‘Democratic Dominance’ –

Existential Menace of an Emergent Post-Truth Politics in the East-West Throngs of an Emerging & World Order

Public Lecture - RL Vol. XI No. CCXC, MMXVII

Costantinos Berhutesfa Costantinos, PhD

Professor of Public Policy & Sustainable Institutional Reforms

https://addisababa.academia.edu/CostyCostantinos

Abstract

        Post-truth politics, a phenomenon that has now formally been adopted as an instrument of Global Governance, is a political culture in which politics (public opinion and media narratives) have become almost entirely disconnected from policy (the substance of legislation) (Roberts, 2010). Such is the post-truth era that when the Republican presidential hopeful, claimed that President Barack Obama ‘is the founder’ of Islamic State and the Democratic candidate, the ‘co-founder’, even some of his supporters were perplexed. Fake news – active misinformation that is packaged to look as if it comes from a serious news site – is a threat to democratic institutions. Nonetheless, such post-truth politics harping on nuclear threats, populism and trade relations is giving way for emerging market leaders such as China to fill in the void left by the ‘beacons’ of democracy, to chart new courses for global governance institutions. 

        Machiavelli thought pivots around a central, uncomfortable observation: that the wicked tend to win. They do so because they have a huge advantage over the good: they are willing to act with the darkest ingenuity and cunning to further their cause. They are not held back by those rigid opponents of change: principles. They will be prepared to outright lie, twist facts, threaten or get violent. Global governance shared the same fate after WWII, where the acerbic state leaders won the final battle against the dilapidated people of Europe and Africa. Today, history repeats itself by the same token where state leaders that are willing and able to deploy their vast martial power on helpless nations and peoples such as Syria, Yemen and Libya. Global governance in most issue domains is provided by a complex combination of these different bases, rather than by any single one of them. In spite of all of the disorder and complexity associated with global security issues, however, there is a great deal of purposive and authoritatively rule-governed order present in the contemporary international system. It is not always a very just or efficient system of governance, but it is governance nevertheless, and is central to any understanding of attempts to address contemporary security challenges (Biersteker, 2009: 11).  

          The lecture augurs on the analyses of transition to global governance that are marked by several limitations. These include a tendency to narrow global governance to the terms and categories of immediate, not very well considered, political and social action, a naïve realism, as it were; and inattention to problems of articulation or production of global systems and process within local politics rather than simply as formal or abstract possibilities. Moreover, a nearly exclusive concern in certain institutional perspectives on global governance with generic attributes and characteristics of social, economic, cultural and political organisations and consequent neglect of analysis in terms of specific strategies and performances of nations in global governance creates ambiguities as to whether society is agent or object of global change. Further, inadequate analysis of the role of transnational companies and Bretton Wood Institutions and of relations between global and indigenous dimensions of global governance creates serious analytical limitations.

Key words: global governance, analytical limitations, post-truth politics, emerging market

See link here or http://www.academia.edu/35179180/A_Battle_of_Verses_for_Democratic_Dominance_Existential_Menace_of_an_Emergent_Post-Truth_Politics_in_the_East-West_Throngs_of_an_Emerging_and_World_Order_RL_Vol._XI_No._CCXC_MMXVII

Watersheds of Ethical Governance Crises Curbing Resource Plunders in Africa – Theory and Praxis - RL Vol. XI No. CCXCIV, MMXVII

Watersheds of Ethical Governance Crises
Curbing Resource Plunders in Africa –

Theory and Praxis

Public Lecture - RL Vol. XI No. CCXCIV, MMXVII

Costantinos Berhutesfa Costantinos, PhD

Professor of Public Policy & Sustainable Institutional Reforms

https://addisababa.academia.edu/CostyCostantinos

Public Administration Ethics: Theory and Praxis

Blocks I - Lecture and Seminar Notes, Series IV, AAU, Addis Ababa, 2013

Reviewed 2015

Abstract

Talks of mal-governance and corruption have been a clarion call for government in recent years. This paper looks at the theory and practice in public administration ethics that will be valuable for leaders to take systemic measures to combat unethical governance. In spite of fast growing economies and notwithstanding the slavery and colonial and neo-liberal legacy, that is still taxing the continent, new faces and forces of vulnerability and poverty haunt the Africa region. These series of lectures consider the relations between corruption, security and development. The public service suffers from the pressures of economies, no less than those of politics. The realities prevailing in Africa render expectations of Africa’s public service rather unreasonable. For most junior public servants in Africa daily survival is nothing less than a minor miracle because their wages lag behind the requirements of self-reproduction. At a structural-political level, structural-cultural level and epistemological level, is the conflict of the legitimacy of the received state. Its ‘public’ is nominal with the informal kinship-based; legitimacy of salient values of indigenous African cultures and those of the value systems of the modern state and the antimonies, distortions and confusions of an epistemological stance, which insistently privileges perceives Africa in the image of the West.

  Chronologically, one discerns two overarching themes - the organisational context in which individual administrators must work out ethical decisions and conduct, and democratic values as normative touchstones for public administrative ethics. Chronologically, the first to emerge clearly is that of the organisation as an arena fraught with complicating factors for any would-be rational ethical administrator. Democratic norms are found in the earliest of these works, but are developed neither as lucidly, nor as progressively as the organisational setting. Thus, democratic theory and values are deemed here to constitute a minor theme, not in the sense of being less important ultimately, but in terms of the attention paid to it in these works in particular, as well as in the literature in general. Increasingly serious and systematic attention devoted to the influence of organisational factors, both positive and negative, is quite clear. At the outset, democratic values are assumed the most basic values necessary for the study of public administration ethics...  

Key words: ethics, corruption, public administration, good governance

See link here or  http://www.academia.edu/35208062/Watersheds_of_Ethical_Governance_Crises_Curbing_Resource_Plunders_in_Africa_Theory_and_Praxis_Public_Administration_Ethics_Theory_and_Praxis

The Global Passion for Data-ism – Is it An Emergent Tool for Rapid, Adaptive Public Policy? RL Vol. XI No. CCXCIII, MMXVII

The Global Passion for Data-ism –

Is it An Emergent Tool for Rapid, Adaptive Public Policy?

The environment in which public policy is made has entered a period of dramatic change. Widespread use of digital technologies, the Internet and social media means both citizens and governments leave digital traces that can be harvested to generate big data. Policy-making takes place in an increasingly rich data environment, which poses both promises and threats to policy-makers. Helen Margetts, 2013

Public Lecture - RL Vol. XI No. CCXCIII, MMXVII

Costantinos Berhutesfa Costantinos, PhD

Professor of Public Policy & Sustainable Institutional Reforms

https://addisababa.academia.edu/CostyCostantinos

Abstract

In just four decades, the systems of statistics in Africa went through three seismic waves. The first of these occurred immediately in the aftermath of decolonisation. During this time, Africa experienced a decade of dramatic rise in the development of its systems of national statistics, particularly in the implementation of population censuses and household surveys. This lecture focuses on the emerging need for good social and economic data that can help African nations develop statistical systems that will provide on time information on socio-economic development that will affect resource mobilization and allocation more proactively. The research questions addressed the relevance Big Data may have to the huge range of public policy questions. Big data challenges policy makers because it can offer real-time results that require a rapid, adaptive policy in return. Big data is often a rich data, offering refined data points and high quality observations that span different levels of analysis and the data is often fragmented, so researchers spend time trying to locate and access diverse data sets. The data requires translation – between languages, and between disciplines. Data-ism is a recently coined term for a kind of data philosophy or ideology. Big data refers to a process that is used when traditional data mining and handling techniques cannot reveal the insights and meaning of the underlying data. Data that is unstructured or time sensitive or simply very large cannot be processed by relational database engines. The lecture further discusses data modelling, data augmentation, algebraic modelling & algorithm and research initiatives on Big Data and Public Policy. It further elaborates on the promises and threats of big data for public policy-making how big data has changed public policy. Data transformation deals with turning numbers into knowledge, conceptualizing data management: the information value chain mapping the flow of data, matching your needs to the software and triangulation.

Key words: data-ism, big data, algebraic modelling, algorithm data modelling, augmentation & transform

See link here

Sweeping Devaluation Version 2 -2017 Propelling the Wheeler-dealer Speculative Trade Regime & a Predator Parallel Currency Markets into a Whirlwind Tailspin - RL Vol. XI No. CCCXCIII, MMXVII

Sweeping Devaluation Version 2 -2017

Propelling the Wheeler-dealer Speculative Trade Regime & a Predator Parallel Currency Markets into a Whirlwind Tailspin

Public Lecture - RL Vol. XI No. CCCXCIII, MMXVII

Costantinos Berhutesfa Costantinos, PhD

Professor of Public Policy & Sustainable Institutional Reforms

https://addisababa.academia.edu/CostyCostantinos

Abstract

Once again, the Birr has seen a round of devaluation, shearing off 15% of the purchasing power vis-à-vis other currencies, driving the parallel market from 1$ to 27 Birr to 30+ Birr and meteoric rise of prices of goods in stock. Birr has had two drastic & numerous stealth devaluations since the 90s but the nation is still unable to improve its balance of payments; hence, the assumed actions of the state for more devaluations to right this evil. This lecture argues that devaluation alone may not prove right, as aggregate supply suffers after devaluation because of more expensive imported production inputs, wage indexation and costlier capital.  Further, Ethiopia’s trade performance has been held back by a recipe of factors that require macro policy therapy: high trade costs, onerous red tape, baffling macroeconomic framework and policy mix ups that seem with reach, only elude, appears manageable only to resist realisation. Only targeted structural transformation and regional cooperation, juxtaposed to trade-friendly macroeconomic policy and financial reforms would, if properly sequenced, enable it to use its abundant factors of production.

The panacea for its per­sistent balance of payment deficit and debt unsustainability is import substitution of food products by production of cereals (wheat, maize, barley malt etc., edible oil, sugar, fertilizers and other items) that are draining the nation billions. Ethiopia has 72 million hectares of arable land and its river drain 122 billion cubic meters of water out the nation. With proper policy and strategy, this can be and must done. Imports part of the value chain of domestic production (machinery, spare parts, raw material, etc.) for exports have a high import gist; devaluation badly hurts their competitiveness in foreign markets. This can be ascribed to poor governance and fragility of states. Economic governance involves improvements in the technical competence and efficiency under a more accountable, transparent and predictable public domain, whose missing links point to the dismal performance of states. While its economic performance is invigorating, Ethiopia faces predictable armour of trials rife in poor nations with too few wherewithal, while also wrestling with the perpetual glitch of sequencing policy reforms, all subject to doctrinal reins. Given the slim margins for manoeuvre imposed by a complex knit in its governance fabric, getting the priorities right are the central issues to be addressed.

Key words: economic governance, policy, strategy, devaluation, parallel market,

See link here

Statutory Trails in the Research, Policy and Practice Nexus Continuum - RL Vol XI No XL, CXXIV, MMXVII.pdf

Statutory Trails in the

Research, Policy and Practice

Nexus Continuum

Legislative and Institutional Pathways interfacing the Research, Policy and Practice (RPP) Nexus

Translating Research Evidence through Policy to Practice

Public Lecture - RL Vol XI No XL, CXXIV, MMXVII

Costantinos Berhutesfa Costantinos, PhD

Professor of Public Policy & Sustainable Institutional Reforms

https://addisababa.academia.edu/CostyCostantinos

Abstract

The research augurs on challenges and opportunities in interfacing research, policy and practice for sustainable Develop­ment is an integrated package of policy, technology, investment strategies and appropriate decision-making tools which are used together to promote sustainable livelihoods by building on local adaptive strategies. The aim of the research is the production of knowledge on current and priority issues on the research-policy-practice nexus in order to better feed into the requirements of participatory assessment, planning and research-outreach inter­face in policy formulation and results-oriented strategic pro­gramme management.  The methodology presents questions, guidelines and issues which the study must address and adhere to. In order to realise the goals and objectives of the nexus, the research seeks to capture the synergies arising out of the in­teraction between contemporary and indigenous knowledge, and the conditions and processes which produce and reinforce home growing actionable policies. Analytical challenges to the research-policy- practice nexus are  gener­ally are marked by several limitations: a tendency to narrow the nexus to the terms and categories of immediate, not very well considered, political and social ac­tion, a naïve realism, as it were; inat­tention to problems of articulation or produc­tion of global systems and process within local politics rather than simply as formal or abstract possibilities; a nearly ex­clusive concern in certain institu­tional perspectives on the nexus with ge­neric attributes of social, economic, cul­tural and political or­ganisations and conse­quent neglect of analysis in terms of their specific strategies and perfor­mances; ambiguity as to whether civil society, African academia and think tanks are agents or objects of  change; and inadequate treatment of the role of policy transfers from the Bretton Wood Institutions and of relations between global and indigenous aspects or dimensions of these policy transfers. The study concluded that there is no single factor that influences implementation, and there is no single theory that explains implementation challenges. The political context and intellectual environment with in which policy is formulated and imple­mented explains the success in interfacing the research-policy- practice nexus.

Key words: analytical challenges, research, policy and practice

See link here or https://www.academia.edu/34932934/Statutory_Trails_in_the_Research_Policy_and_Practice_Nexus_Continuum_-_RL_Vol_XI_No_XL_CXXIV_MMXVII.pdf

Developing Political Culture in Fledgling African Democracies RL Vol XI No XLIII, CXXIV, MMXVII

Developing Political Culture in Fledgling African Democracies –

What are the Political Transition Elements that are Amenable to the Architecture of a ‘Western’ rendition of a Democratic State in Africa?

Public Lecture - RL Vol XI No XLIII, CXXIV, MMXVII

Costantinos Berhutesfa Costantinos, PhD

Professor of Public Policy & Sustainable Institutional Reforms

https://addisababa.academia.edu/CostyCostantinos

Abstract

At the dawn of political liberalisation in Africa, students, churches and labour unions are among civil society organisations that played a crucial role in resisting arbitrariness. These organisations have been spearheading the demo­cratic struggle well before the recognition of political parties & induction of pluralism. The leading role in the transition was without doubt played by the press, the pri­vate press in particular, which reported daily on what was stake in the repression of the pro-democracy struggle. Better yet the interdictions, the multiple trials against journalists have not dampened the combative fervour of a free press. It is assumed that the inception of transition signifies the end of a stable set of rules that depict the previous regime, and that the completion of the transition is marked by the establish­ment of a new rule equilibrium. Nonetheless, ethnic and religious purchased elections are prescription to perpetuate the new tyrants. Po­litical participation is not just a casting of votes - it is a way of life, hence, elections are vital, but not a sufficient, condition for democracy. Electoral bodies should develop ex­tensive indicators for democratic political culture development where the key to transition is the endowment of political rules and institutions conducive to democratic transition (Costantinos, 1996). Good economic performance de­creases the probability of losing while the provision of public goods in the election period affects the probability to accept an election outcome. High tertiary education enrolment, eth­nic religious fractionalisation increase the probability of contestation of election results by the chal­lenger when the incumbent claims victory (Ncube, 2013). Political factors, such as the strength of the opposition, multi-party system, civil incumbent and power alternation increase the probability of the challenger winning and taking over power. Abundant natural resources increase the probability of incumbent losing but then deciding to cling to power, where empirical evidence also shows that the type of former-colonizer of the country matters.

Key words: elections, political liberalisation, democracy capacity development, political rules and institutions, multi-party system, opposition, former-colonizers

See lecture here or https://www.academia.edu/34976733/Developing_Political_Culture_in_Fledgling_African_Democracies

Globalism’s Promises of Progress or Disorientation & a Shoddily -Prepared African Leadership - RL Vol XI No XXVI, CXXIV, MMXVII

Globalism’s Promises of Progress or Disorientation & a Shoddily -Prepared African Leadership

Public lecture RL Vol XI No XXVI, CXXIV, MMXVII

Costantinos Berhutesfa Costantinos, PhD

Published by Fortune Addis

Abstract

Initial efforts by the African Union and the OAU to develop and integrate Africa included the most comprehensive programme adopted – The Lagos Plan of Action, Final Act of Lagos, Monrovia Symposium, Arusha, Khartoum, and Addis Ababa Declarations, African Common Market, Cairo Agenda for Action, Abuja Treaty. Africa also actively participated in a myriad of vastly costly exercises in numerous multilateral initiatives. In the Libreville Declaration, African countries declared that they ‘are committed to enhancing our cooperation at the international level and to adapting the structure to meet the new challenges and to taking advantage of the opportunities arising from the new environment’. Integration into the international economic system underpins the need to search for and provide a fresh and renewed focus in programming for the demands of globalisation, develop approaches for integration, train policy makers in the art and techniques of analysing global trends, learn from best practices in the areas of resource mobilisation, borders trade and formulate and execute a system-wide regional decade programme for human capacities in Africa.

Nevertheless, powerful forces and trends of unity and disunity, chaos and order mark this moment of global transformation. The forces of globalisation are dissolving old boundaries in a network of dialogue, flows of information and trade. In advancing the case for world-class leadership in Africa, it requires the defiance of the boundaries of inward-bound insight (common sense), as an essential paradigm shift, of patterns of thinking and behaving which, over the years, have built themselves into routines that pacify African leaders to everlasting dormancy. Whatever we, as animators of development and facilitators of entrepreneurial leadership, choose to be, we must have the zeal, commitment, diligence, greatness of spirit, consistency and strength to transform change management chaos into economic opportunities that can project our communities on an irreversible global growth trajectory. Nonetheless, the issues are whether the BRICS or the G20 will ignore or substitute for the views of the G77 and whether the BRICS transactions with LCDs can alter North-South interaction.

Key words: globalism, Africa, leadership, policy, strategy, structure, process

See lecture here or https://www.academia.edu/34482601/Globalisms_Promises_of_Progress_or_Disorientation_and_African_Leadership_RL_Vol_XI_No_XXVI_CXXIV_MMXVII.pdf

Political Governance Underpinnings Private Sector Contribution to Growth & Transformation RL Vol XI No XXI, CXXIV, MMXVII

See lecture here or https://www.academia.edu/34339487/Political_Governance_Underpinnings_Private_Sector_Contribution_to_Growth_and_Transformation_RL_Vol_XI_No_XXI_CXXIV_MMXVII

Civil Society under Siege: Community of Practice Gizmos - Block chain Technology as a Social Media Tool -RL Vol XI No XX, CXXIV, MMXVII

Civil Society under Siege:

Community of Practice Gismos - Blockchain Technology as a Social Media Tool

Public Lecture - RL Vol XI No XX, CXXIV, MMXVII

Costantinos Berhutesfa Costantinos, PhD

Professor of Public Policy, School of Graduate Studies,

College of Business and Economics, AAU

Abstract

The military states, which succeeded the colonial regimes, it is now widely acknowledged, thrived on graft and influence peddling and existed for the benefit of the powerful African elites. The state effectively disenfranchised the poor from participating in the decision-making processes and resource allocation. The main drivers of the Arab Spring have been poverty, rising prices, social exclusion, anger over corruption and personal enrichment among the political elite, and a demographic bulge of young people unable to find work. Moreover, Governments in many na­tions are proclaiming laws that limit the remit of civil society organisa­tions to empower citizens in the framework of a political society and in some cases to make such institutions illegal.

It stands to reason that the vistas for political transi­tion hinge on the actuality of a system of supportive civil society institutions. Nevertheless, how can Communities of Practice be able to recog­nise institutional gaps that inhibit a transition to designing programmes to help fill them? If social media (facebook, twitter…) can bring about the Arab Spring, then there is no shortage of possible applications for blockchain tools across Communities of Practice globally. This lecture will explore blockchain’s potential as an elec­tronic platform for mobilising citizens is insightful and not just for digital currencies, which were the first to make use of it. Currently, civil society communication records, experiences in em­powering citi­zens on social media and internet exchanges are all private domains. The need to create and connect Communities of Practice globally among civil advocated is long overdue.

Key words: communities of practice, civil society, advocacy, social media, block chain, political transition, 

Picture credit @ Floyd Pennington

See lecture here or https://www.academia.edu/34192642/CoP_Gismos_-_Blockchain_Technology_as_a_Social_Media_Tool_-_RL_Vol_XI_No_XX_CXXIV_MMXVII.pdf