IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bcp/journl/v8y2024i7p2248-2258.html

Benchmarking Public Service Delivery in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Critical Evaluation

Author

Listed:
  • Hassan, Afees Olumide (PhD)

    (Department of Public Administration, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile–Ife, Nigeria)

  • Hassan, Hayatullah Boladale

    (Department of Public Administration, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile–Ife, Nigeria)

  • Muslim Akinbola Akintola

    (Department of Public Administration, University of Ilorin. Ilorin, Nigeria)

Abstract

The study critically evaluated public service delivery in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) benchmarking with the global service delivery average. Relying on cross-country time series data from 2010 to 2020, the study covers 30 Sub-Saharan African countries. In the methodology, it adopted Governance Effectiveness Index and Road Quality Index as indicators of service delivery performance. The findings revealed significant discrepancies in service delivery among SSA countries, While some countries like Mauritius and Botswana performed above the global average, others like Chad and Angola lagged much behind. It identified challenges like inadequate funding, corruption, political instability, and infrastructure deficits facing many countries of the region. The study concluded that improving public service delivery in SSA required robust governance, increased infrastructure investment, technological integration, and development of human capital. Its recommended adoption of transparency measures, and leverage on public-private partnerships to enhance service delivery and promote sustainable development in the region.

Suggested Citation

  • Hassan, Afees Olumide (PhD) & Hassan, Hayatullah Boladale & Muslim Akinbola Akintola, 2024. "Benchmarking Public Service Delivery in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Critical Evaluation," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 8(7), pages 2248-2258, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:bcp:journl:v:8:y:2024:i:7:p:2248-2258
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.rsisinternational.org/journals/ijriss/Digital-Library/volume-8-issue-7/2248-2258.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://rsisinternational.org/journals/ijriss/articles/benchmarking-public-service-delivery-in-sub-saharan-africa-a-critical-evaluation/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. repec:bla:devpol:v:28:y:2010:i:1:p:97-115 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Francis Fukuyama, 2013. "What Is Governance?," Working Papers 314, Center for Global Development.
    3. repec:wbk:wbpubs:2692 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Jenny C. Aker & Isaac M. Mbiti, 2010. "Mobile Phones and Economic Development in Africa," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 24(3), pages 207-232, Summer.
    5. Paul Collier & Anke Hoeffler, 2004. "Greed and grievance in civil war," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 56(4), pages 563-595, October.
    6. Michael Clemens, 2007. "Do Visas Kill? Health Effects of African Health Professional Emigration," Working Papers 114, Center for Global Development.
    7. Pranab Bardhan, 2002. "Decentralization of Governance and Development," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 16(4), pages 185-205, Fall.
    8. Barro, Robert J. & Lee, Jong Wha, 2013. "A new data set of educational attainment in the world, 1950–2010," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 184-198.
    9. repec:wbk:wbpubs:2612 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Atkinson, Sarah & Medeiros, Regianne Leila Rolim & Oliveira, Paulo Henrique Lima & de Almeida, Ricardo Dias, 2000. "Going down to the local: incorporating social organisation and political culture into assessments of decentralised health care," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 51(4), pages 619-636, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Anos Chitamba & Strinivasan Soondrasan Pillay, 2025. "Meritocracy vs cadre deployment in the global South: an integrative review," International Journal of Business Ecosystem & Strategy (2687-2293), Bussecon International Academy, vol. 7(3), pages 387-393, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hanson, Gordon H. & Xiang, Chong, 2013. "Exporting Christianity: Governance and doctrine in the globalization of US denominations," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(2), pages 301-320.
    2. Oleg Badunenko & Daniel Henderson & Romain Houssa, 2014. "Significant drivers of growth in Africa," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 42(3), pages 339-354, December.
    3. Cingolani, Luciana & Thomsson, Kaj & de Crombrugghe, Denis, 2015. "Minding Weber More Than Ever? The Impacts of State Capacity and Bureaucratic Autonomy on Development Goals," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 191-207.
    4. Eichengreen, Barry & Park, Donghyun & Shin, Kwanho, 2014. "Growth slowdowns redux," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 65-84.
    5. Justino, Patricia & Martorano, Bruno, 2018. "Welfare spending and political conflict in Latin America, 1970–2010," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 98-110.
    6. Thomas Apolte & Lena Gerling, 2018. "Youth bulges, insurrections and labor-market restrictions," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 175(1), pages 63-93, April.
    7. Blanco-Álvarez, Jose & Parsons, Christopher & Tang, Sam & Wang, Yong, 2022. "Brain Refrain and Human Capital Formation in Spain," IZA Discussion Papers 15400, IZA Network @ LISER.
    8. Matata Ponyo Mapon & Jean-Paul K. Tsasa, 2019. "The artefact of the Natural Resources Curse," Papers 1911.09681, arXiv.org.
    9. Hortas-Rico, Miriam & Rodríguez-Crespo, Ernesto, 2025. "How does women's political empowerment relate to subjective well-being? The moderating role of institutional quality," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    10. Zorzeta Bakaki, 2020. "The Joint Effect of International and Domestic-Level State Capacity on Civil War Risk," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 9(5), pages 1-14, May.
    11. Ackermann, Klaus & Awaworyi Churchill, Sefa & Smyth, Russell, 2021. "Mobile phone coverage and violent conflict," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 188(C), pages 269-287.
    12. Ruth Maria Schüler, 2018. "Education Economics from a Historical Perspective," ifo Beiträge zur Wirtschaftsforschung, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, number 78, April.
    13. Gıovanıs Eleftherıos & Özdamar Öznur, 2025. "How Business Environment Constraints Shape Firm Performance: Evidence From Global Micro-Level Data," Review of Economic Perspectives, Sciendo, vol. 25(2), pages 123-146.
    14. Sarah Brockhoff & Tim Krieger & Daniel Meierrieks, 2012. "Great Expectations and Hard Times — The (Nontrivial) Impact of Education on Domestic Terrorism," Working Papers CIE 47, Paderborn University, CIE Center for International Economics.
    15. Campante, Filipe R. & Chor, Davin, 2014. "“The people want the fall of the regime”: Schooling, political protest, and the economy," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(3), pages 495-517.
    16. He, Xiaoyu & Zheng, Yawen & Chen, Yiwen, 2025. "Weapons and influence: Unpacking the impact of Chinese arms exports on the UNGA voting alignment," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    17. Williams, Kevin, 2017. "Do remittances improve political institutions? Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 65-75.
    18. Andrés Rodríguez-Pose & Vassilis Tselios, 2019. "Well-being, Political Decentralisation and Governance Quality in Europe," Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(1), pages 69-93, January.
    19. Ines A. Ferreira, 2018. "An empirical analysis of state fragility and growth: The impact of state ineffectiveness and political violence," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2018-29, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    20. Gustavo Javier Canavire-Bacarreza & Christopher Cotton & Michael Jetter & Alejandra Montoya-Agudelo, 2019. "Polarized education levels and civil unrest," Working Paper 1417, Economics Department, Queen's University.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bcp:journl:v:8:y:2024:i:7:p:2248-2258. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Dr. Pawan Verma (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://rsisinternational.org/journals/ijriss/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.