Good Governance Africa

South Africa’s water sector is at a critical juncture. Poor service delivery, weak governance, and mounting ecological pressures are undermining water security. At the same time, government is streamlining regulatory and legislative frameworks to facilitate partnerships between municipalities and the private sector in support of service delivery and development objectives.

The emergence of the Islamic State Sahel Province (ISSP) in Northwest Nigeria marks a significant escalation in the country’s evolving security landscape. While public discourse has frequently conflated ISSP with Lakurawa, a locally rooted armed group operating in the region since at least 2017, this report demonstrates that the two organisations are distinct, independent, and actively hostile toward one another.

How do they make ends meet? Where unemployment hits hardest, people cobble together survival through a patchwork of grants, family solidarity, informal hustle, borrowing, and constrained shared living. For nearly one in four households (23.4%), social grants are the primary income source, according to Stats SA General Household Survey 2025. Sassa spent R267 billion on social grants in the 2024/2025 financial year, reaching 19.2 million beneficiaries.

Africa Day, observed every 25 May, celebrates the continent’s unity and its democratic and institutional progress since the founding of the Organisation of African Unity in 1963. While much has been achieved, unity remains a fractious thing. This is largely because it depends on the integrity of the channels through which Africans receive information, understand public issues, and make political choices. In many parts of the continent, that channel is still radio.

The ballot is not just a right; it is a responsibility. By rejecting leaders who exhibit arrogance, intolerance, dishonesty and disregard for the rule of law, South Africans can safeguard their democracy and contribute to a more stable and just worldThe ballot is not just a right; it is a responsibility. By rejecting leaders who exhibit arrogance, intolerance, dishonesty and disregard for the rule of law, South Africans can safeguard their democracy and contribute to a more stable and just world.

From the crowded neighbourhoods of Lagos to the open fields of Kano and the school compounds of Ibadan, young people gather daily to play across Nigeria. On dusty football pitches, improvised basketball courts, and worn-out running tracks, they chase more than a ball; they chase opportunity, identity, and a future. Yet for most, these aspirations never move beyond the spaces where they are born. This is not a failure of talent; it is a failure of governance.

Despite decades of advocacy, female genital mutilation (FGM) continues to affect millions of girls. The World Health Organization (WHO) indicated that over 230 million girls and women alive today have undergone female genital mutilation in 30 African countries, the Middle East and Asia, where FGM is practised. Meanwhile, Africa accounts for the largest share of this total, with over 144 million. Asia follows with over 80 million, of which six million are in the Middle East.

Good Governance Africa – Horn of Africa Regional Office (GGA-HARO) initiated a three-part pre-election public dialogue series based on the conviction that evidence-based policy dialogue among political parties and key stakeholders significantly contributes to efforts to improve governance, civic participation, and broader socioeconomic development.

As geopolitical competition intensifies over critical minerals and energy supply chains and the current US-Iran war reshapes oil markets and global trade routes, Africa finds itself increasingly at the centre of the emerging global order. Few geographic facts capture this reality better than the simple observation that Africa is the only continent located in all four hemispheres.

The phenomenon of African resources benefiting external economies more than local ones has long defined the continent’s resource story. Now, as demand for carbon sequestration (as a commodity) grows, Africa’s natural capital is being recognised as a vehicle for wealth and value creation. Whether this value ultimately benefits the continent remains an open question.