Governance

Refers to "all of processes of governing, whether undertaken by a government, market or

network, whether over a family, tribe, formal or informal organization or territory and
whether through the laws, norms, power or language." It relates to "the processes of
interaction and decision-making among the actors involved in a collective problem that lead
to the creation, reinforcement, or reproduction of social norms and institutions."
Good governance
Is an indeterminate term used in the international development literature to describe how
public institutions conduct public affairs and manage public resources. Governance is "the
process of decision-making and the process by which decisions are implemented (or not
implemented)".The concept of "good governance" often emerges as a model to compare
ineffective economies or political bodies with viable economies and political bodies.[2] The
concept centers on the responsibility of governments and governing bodies to meet the needs
of the masses as opposed to select groups in society.
The challenge associated with exercising good governance in least developed countries are as
explained below;

Incompetent legal framework.

Increasing the centrality of constitutional rules as groundnorms and ensuring their respect
by leaders and citizens alike is the central pillar of the rule of law. The lack of this respect
often poses a great challenge to stability. The independence, integrity and performance of the
judiciary, needs also improvements which can also reduce structural constraints including
inadequate funding and remuneration, modernizing facilities, increasing professional
personnel and training, etc as Alphonse M. and Valentina R (2005) emphasize. Also There
seems to be less strong punishments to those found guilty of violation of law. For example on
the issues of corruption, government leaders and other officials tend to be given low
punishment thus it doesnt strike fear on other officials in the wrong doing. This challenges
the exercising of the good governance process.

Low Level of Education.

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Another preventing factor is the level of education. As the developing countries have
low level of education, the governance and administration becomes difficult to be
implemented in terms of improving the welfare of the people. Especially in local
governments the level of interpreting various uprisings to make correct decisions which
depends much on the ability to lead and level of knowledge is low and hinders the
accomplishment of good governance. Lack of training also to government officials due to
small budgets accompanied with these countries causes the lack of understanding on
issues of transparency and integrity

Corruption.
Many African countries are characterised with the problem of corruption due to bureaucracy and the need for quick success. This upsets the balance and accomplishment of good
governance. Corruption is tool for violation of rights and revokes the trust or the people
entrusted to various resource management. Many least developed countries are characterised
with misuse of public resources and involvement in contracts which favour their personal
needs rather than that of the public. This poses a challenge to the implementation of good
governance. Also due to bureaucracy, it is difficult to supervise the lower departments hence
they can become vulnerable to corruption.
. Greediness and lack of democracy
Many leaders in least developed countries never want to step down from leadership when
their time is up. Under the terms of democracy there has to be a free and fair leadership and
right to choose whoever the people want to lead them. There has been an up rise of strong
opposition parties where they challenge the leading parties in election very strongly, but due
to unwillingness of these leaders to step down, they tend to use power in undermining the
opposition so as they remain in power themselves. For example the case in Burundi where
President Nkuruzinza ordered the capture of opposition leader and presidential contestant to
be captured due to political issues and the unwillingness to step down from presidency.
Alphonse M. and Valentina R. (2005) describe that Shortfalls however still remain with
regards increasing the independence of electoral commissions and the liberalization of
registration procedures. Several constraints still exist in terms of giving full freedom to
opposition parties to compete on the same grounds as the established parties.
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 Misuse of power.
Underlying the litany of Africas development problems is a crisis of good governance. By
governance is meant the exercise of political power to manage a nation's affairs. Because
countervailing power has been lacking, state officials in many countries have served their
own interest without fear of being called to account analysed by World Bank (1989:60-61).
For example in Tanzania, the District commissioner who used police force to cane teachers in
Kagera District in 2009 due to the district being last in standard seven national examinations
results.
Poverty.
The least developed countries are associated with poverty where they have small budgets
to combat and enforce strategies which will help implement good governance. In order to
have good governance, you have to have sufficient resources in the form of infrastructures
and other equipments to enable economic activities to be carried out in a transparency
manner. The resources to make follow up on government officials and other institutional
officers are not efficient or not available. This makes the enforcing of good governance
difficult. Lack of funds to conduct thorough training and seminars emphasizing good
governance and competent leadership is caused by poverty striking these countries. The
countries tend to focus much resources on other issues concerning their economy and leave
ethical development issues.

Lack of freedom of speech.

One of the components of good governance is the relationship between media and
government. It is believed the media is the voice of the people, but in these countries the
media is vastly undermined and underutilised. There are various cases like in East Africa,
Tanzania where journalists have been threatened or murdered like Mwangosi in Morogoro.
These people are there to expose the shortcomings of governments and its officials, but they
are being threatened even if sometimes they want to publish normal issues which people have
a right to know, this acts as a serious challenge to the implementations of good governance.

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CONCLUSION.

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In least developed countries patriotism is not exercised much due to the fact that many people
view leadership in these countries is an opportunity to get away from poverty instead of
trying to protect the oath sworn to protect the resources for the benefits of the fellow
countrymen. This is mainly due to poverty.
Due to poverty and uncivilised societies, it has proved so difficult to implement good
governance from local government to the central government. Issues of corruption are the
main highlights and characteristics of these countries and pose a great threat in an attempt to
exercise good governance. It is difficult to have transparency due to high level of bureaucracy
and lack of discipline in work areas.
Many national elections in these countries are almost similar where leaders do not want to
give up power easily, or certain political parties do not want the opposition to lead the
country, in the process violation of human rights can be visible through killings and using
police force to shut up the society on what they want or believe. This makes sure no good
governance is implemented.

REFERENCES:

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Alphonse M. & Valentina R. (2005) Governance Progress in Africa: Challenges and

Trends Division for Public Administration and Development Management United

Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs.

Governance and Public Administration Programme (2003 2005), 4th Pan-African

Conference of Ministers of Public Service, May 2003.

http://www.goodgovernance.org.au/about-good-governance/what-is-good-

governance/ (VLGA)
World Bank, ( 1989), Sub-Saharan Africa: From Crisis to Sustainable Growth.

Washington DC; World Bank.

United Nations Development Programme, Reconceptualising Governance, New York,
January 1997.

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