Building the African economy. Is President Obama’s entrepreneurial public management program sustainable in Africa?
| Pages | 92-107 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JEPP-12-2015-0036 |
| Published date | 10 April 2017 |
| Date | 10 April 2017 |
| Author | Ademola A. Adenle |
| Subject Matter | Strategy,Entrepreneurship,Business climate/policy |
Building the African economy
Is President Obama’s entrepreneurial public
management program sustainable in Africa?
Ademola A. Adenle
Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA;
University of Oxford, Oxford, UK and
United Nations University-Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability,
Headquarters, Tokyo, Japan
Abstract
Purpose –The purposeof this paper is to assessthe strengths andweaknesses of the PresidentObama Youth
African Leadership Initiative (YALI) program with evidence from experts and other relevant stakeholders.
This study examines YALI program with a focus on entrepreneurship and public management.
Design/methodology/approach –Qualitative semi-structured interviews used in this study explore the
understanding and diverse views of various stakeholder experts on training of young leaders in
entrepreneurship and public management in Africa regarding the YALI program.
Findings –The study provides insight into the importance of the YALI program, but questions whether it can
make a positive impact and be effectively implemented in Africa. The findings suggest that there is lack of clarity
in the objectives of the program, particularly with regards to the role of the key stakeholders including academics,
government institutions, policymakers and the private sector. The results underscore the need for sound and
clear-cutgovernmentpolicies towardentrepreneurshipdevelopment thatwill foster a betterrelationshipbetween
the African governments andthe United States Agency forInternational Development program.
Research limitations/implications –The study focused on academic experts and a number of
policymakers and may not have been representative of all stakeholders.
Originality/value –The study specifically emphasizes policies that target entrepreneurship training and
education for women and youth, using a participatory approach and multi-stakeholder partnership to
promote innovative entrepreneurship and social development in the continent.
Keywords Africa, Entrepreneurship, Public management, US foreign policy
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
The United States (US) foreign policy sometimes is described as soft power that attracts
others to ideas (Nye, 2004), and has been used for public engagement with different
countries around the world including countries in Africa (Carson, 2013; van de Walle, 2009).
This remains one part of a broader strategy that serves their foreign policy interests on
issues such as economic, security and humanitarian work. The USA has been a key partner
in many African countries for more than five decades and has been at the forefront of
campaigning for democracy, good economy, poverty reduction and disease eradication.
The Clinton and Bush administrations had demonstrated initiatives through their programs
such as trade and investment, fighting malaria and HIV/AIDS in Africa, which had positive
impact. For example,according to the BBC, the Bush administration injected $18 billion (US)
into fightingHIV/AIDS that saved thousands of livesthrough providing anti-retroviraldrugs.
Because this legacy must be sustained and continued under US foreign policy interests in
Africa, it therefore has implication for Obama administration (van de Walle, 2009).
President Obama’s Youth African Leadership Initiative (YALI) program is yet another
part of a broader strategy of US foreign policy interests in Africa. The YALI program,
launched in 2010, is designed to promote training programs in three tracks: business and
entrepreneurship, civil leadership and public management (YALI, 2010).The efforts of the
YALI program are to help train the next generation of African leaders in driving economic
growth, strengthening civil society and promoting democratic governance. In 2013, the
Journal of Entrepreneurship and
Public Policy
Vol. 6 No. 1, 2017
pp. 92-107
© Emerald PublishingLimited
2045-2101
DOI 10.1108/JEPP-12-2015-0036
Received 14 December 2015
Revised 6 August 2016
Accepted 18 August 2016
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/2045-2101.htm
92
JEPP
6,1
YALI program was renamed to the Mandela Washington Fellowship, and since 2014,
young African leaders are invited to the USA for a six-week training addressing each
of the three tracks. In addition, three YALI regional leadership centers have been
established in the Eastern, Western and Southern regions of Africa, expected to be run
as a public-private partnership and in collaboration with the American institutions
on different training programs under the umbrella of the United States Agency for
International Development (USAID).
An analysis of the policy levers directly influencing the implementation of the YALI
program is required to know how the program will help young leaders achieve
entrepreneurial success in Africa. Therefore, it is worth examining how the YALI fellows
develop their skills further after the training. Further, considering the lack of clarity in the
objectives of the YALI program it is worthwhile to study how the program can form
partnerships with African governments and other key stakeholders. This research looks at
the claimed importance of the YALI program and a foreshadowing of the issues and
problems associated with the program while focusing on entrepreneurship and public
management. This study addresses the following questions:
RQ1. What is the importance of YALI entrepreneurship and public management
education program?
RQ2. What challenges may be associated with the implementation of the program?
RQ3. How can the YALI program engage key stakeholders to realize the promise of the
emerging “Africa rising trajectory?”
Semi-structured, Skype/phone and face-to-face interviews with a sample of 28 stakeholders
from African governments, universities and research institutes, the private sector and
fellows in the YALI program, were used to analyze the context of entrepreneurship and
public management and importance of education and training as it relates to the YALI
program and stakeholder partnership in the YALI program. This analysis clarifies that
achieving the goals of the YALI program will require working together with the African
governments to enhance sustainable entrepreneurship development.
The following section reviews the existing knowledge on youth unemployment and
challenges facing entrepreneurship and the potential role of education. Section 3 describes
the methodology used for the study. Section 4 analyses the perspectives of stakeholders on
entrepreneurship and public management, respectively, and then notes the concerns of
stakeholders on the development and implementation of the YALI programs. Section 5
provides recommendations based on the viewpoints of the stakeholders. The last section
concludes with policy implications.
2. Theoretical background
Entrepreneurship is defined asthe process of creating wealth bycommitting time and effort to
produce goods and services (Ronstadt, 1984). The entrepreneurial discovery approach was
described by (Kirzner, 1973) as a theoretical framework to understand the market process
which requiresa notion of competition. Entrepreneurs must be ableto exploit opportunities in
order to engage in competitive entrepreneurial activity. According to Schumpeter’stheory
(Schumpeter, 1934), an entrepreneur is an innovator who acts in equilibrium by creating
opportunities with disruptive innovations, otherwise known as quality competition.
To develop entrepreneurship that fosters economic growth and generates employment,
it will require skills and knowledge through promotion of good corporate governance, strong
institutional building and training programs. Entrepreneurial success will be largely
determined by the ability to manage new processes, develop new products and adopt new
innovation with superior skills to exploit entrepreneurial opportunities and engage in
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Building the
African
economy
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