Open innovation systems and public policy in Africa

Information technology has been a crucial lever of transition in an environment of growing uncertainty and change. It is expected to be influential in all areas of legislative and institutional reform (e.g. Zhang 2019; Fung 2003). It has also opened up several ways to improve internal management performance, decision-making and public services consistency for citizens (Kalu 2019; Moore 2005). There are pervasive and drastic advances in information technology, mainly mainframe and personal computers, geographic information system (GIS), websites, journals, Facebook, etc., in the public sector. These should facilitate the development of e-government to address time, distance responsiveness and productivity barriers as citizens benefit from e-government adoption and application. Implementing Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in public administration could decrease the level of bureaucracy in state authorities and organizations. It could increase the distribution of public utilities by establishing a new structure or layers of bureaucratic cooperation between state agencies at the inter-organizational levels (Mensah and Jianing 2016).

Other Information

Published in: Routledge Handbook of Public Policy in Africa
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
See chapter on publisher's website: https://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9781003143840-62