The role and impact of international bureaucrats in policymaking in Africa

Policymaking in developing countries, especially in Africa, continue to be of great concern in development policy. While the governance literature has focused on “citizen participation,” there is also recognition of the extensive involvement of international organisations (IOs) and foreign consultants in the policymaking process in Africa and globally (Knill and Bauer. 2016). The involvement of what may be described as “external actors” in the policymaking process and their interaction with developing countries has led some scholars to question whether African countries make their own policies (Conteh and Ohemeng 2009; Horowitz 1989). Indeed, fewer studies look into international bureaucrats’ (IBs) role in African countries’ policymaking. Instead, most focus is on the World Bank (WB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), with little attention to the bureaucrats who make these organisations “think” through policy transfer/difusion of ideas and institutions in developing countries. However, it is clear that IBs matter regarding policymaking (Eckhard and Ege 2016). They are active participants in the policymaking process across Africa. In fact, in some instances, they have become the principal actors by pressurising and infuencing these countries to accept policies and/or reform existing policies through conditionalities and policy transfer (Nedley 2004).

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Published in: Routledge Handbook of Public Policy in Africa
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
See chapter on publisher's website: https://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9781003143840-12