Africa and the New Global Order

This book examines how African states and societies are navigating a changing global order, and what this demands of the institutions charged with delivering sustainable development. Governance quality is widely regarded as decisive for development outcomes, but it is usually assessed against a narrow template of formal institutions which fail to capture African customary authority, kinship obligations and informal norms. Bringing together an interdisciplinary group of contributors, this book argues that sustainable development in Africa is ultimately a governance challenge — though not in the terms donors have conventionally set, turning instead on state capability, legitimacy, geopolitical positioning, and inclusive resilience. Chapters address state-building and informality, traditional leaders as mediators of gender and sustainability agendas, AI-enabled disaster preparedness, agricultural transformation and food security, the future of work, universal health coverage and health technology assessment, South-South cooperation with China and India, and donor-funded citizen accountability initiatives. Together they offer a politically grounded account of what good governance and home-grown solutions might look like across diverse African settings. This book will be a valuable resource for students and researchers of politics, sociology, economics, development studies and African studies, as well as for policymakers, aid practitioners and civil society practitioners and activists.