Development Administration in Contemporary Africa

This chapter explores the definitional and conceptual issues in the academic field of development administration and highlights the views about Western models within the grain of African traditional society. It identifies a major set of socio-cultural and economic parameters that strongly characterise or otherwise influence development administration in contemporary Africa. It finds that, in general, Western-oriented approaches remain incongruent with African traditional conventions. The chapter concludes that if a growing emphasis on the socio-cultural components within development administration discourse is a direct response to historical and environmental situations in contemporary Africa, then it is an essential consideration that must shape the field.