A research agenda for African smart public value governance – Insights from a webinar series

Abstract

The article discusses key insights gained from a webinar series that the authors of this article launched when founding the “Centre for African Smart Public Value Governance” (C4SP). As a research centre that aims to improve the quality of public governance approaches in Africa, C4SP invited international scholars and practitioners to talk about their perspectives on “Public Value Governance”, “Unpacking the African Context”, and “Smart Government” during four webinars, taking place between April 2021 and March 2022. The discussions revealed that: i) Smart Public Value Governance (SPVG) is a promising approach to tackle grand challenges; ii) local particularities might hamper the implementation of SPVG approaches in African countries; iii) it exists as a necessity to “listen” deeply to Africa. On this basis, we provide an outlook for future research on SPVG by suggesting studies that can be conducted along three guiding questions that can be addressed by a people-oriented or a concept-oriented research approach.