It is with honor and immense pleasure that I accept to chair the newly formed Section on African Public Administration (SAPA) from April 2019 to 2021 and to introduce SAPA new Executive Team and Advisory Board. 

I would like to share a furtive parenthesis about the section’s debut and foundational story. SAPA came into existence to meet a long held collective dream, that is to create a distinct forum led by a dedicated circle of Diaspora, American and global scholars and practitioners with a shared goal of exploring the 55 African countries’ most pressing public and nonprofit sector governance, management and leadership issues. SAPA became ASPA’s newest section in December 2018, thanks to a handful of foundational members’ feverish mobilization and to ASPA Board’s unequivocal support. Within the space of one year, a meager treasury, and voluntary inputs scattered around the nation and globally, SAPA was able to organize its first successful Round Table on African Development Governance under the auspices of ASPA’s Washington-DC 2019 Annual Conference, with support from GW Elliot School of Public Affairs and USC Price School of Public Policy IPPAM Program, bringing together scholars, political officials, think tank representatives and students to weigh in on a rich palette of hot-button public sector governance issues facing selected African countries. The goal of the round table was to set the tone clear about the section’s ideals:

1. Development governance, management and leadership require a multidisciplinary approach bringing together both scholars and practitioners to the conversation table;

2. For a continent experiencing the most heightened “youth bulge” worldwide, it was imperative to engage young scholars, practitioners, development activists and social entrepreneurs to ponder together the future of the continent;

3. The section took a pledge toward embracing and institutionalizing diversity, inclusion and fairness in respect to its internal and external organizational processes.

This is in a nutshell the foundational story of an ambitious, while still emergent section.

Subsequent to the March 2019 elections, the newly formed executive team left the Washington DC held ASPA 2019 National Annual Conference with a strong commitment to grow the newly emergent section and take SAPA to the next level of scholarship dissemination, global outreach and institutional collaboration centered around African development governance and public Service.  

I am excited to collaborate with Dr. Gedeon Mudacumura (Penn State University & CEO of Interdisciplinary Action Research Centers), as Chair-Elect and co-founder of SAPA section. This section would not have seen the light without his vision, leadership and generous voluntary inputs.  Gedeon, a long time valued ASPA member and leader, brings tremendous experience and expertise in running ASPA Section Affairs. Dr. Aminata Sillah (Townson University), SAPA Secretary, is entrusted with the section Secretariat, making sure members are regularly connected and informed; She too brings long time involvement with ASPA and a good dose of humor much needed during crunch times and moments of self-doubt. Last by not least, Dr. Bakry El Medni (Long Island University) elected as the guardian of SAPA Treasury, brings positive energy as well as fiscal responsibility, two critical assets to run a section’s Treasury. Also please join me to welcome the newly elected SAPA Advisory Board members (2019-2021) and thank them for their valuable voluntary contributions to grow the section and propel it to the next level of performance:  Dr. Peter Haruna (University of Texas), SAPA founding member and first Chair; Dr. Jessie Rose Mabutas (United Nations & African Capacity Building Foundation), a generous supporter of the section’s and a strong global advocate of sound public governance; Dr. Genevieve Meyers (University of Detroit Mercy), a long time champion of African Scholarship, a regular injector of sound judgment and wisdom ; Dr. Atta Ceesay (Buffalo State University of NewYork), bringing onboard her Zen leadership and on the ground knowledge of the social sector merits and challenges and Ms. Sombo Muzata Chunda (Virginia Commonwealth University), the face of the future generation of scholars and leaders. 

With the support of both the current Executive Team and Advisory Board, I pledge to build upon the founding members’ contributions and the leadership of SAPA first interim past Chair, Dr. Peter Haruna. We will also ensure that ASPA’s support to its international and regional sections does not go in vain. As the elected Chair of SAPA, it is my sincere wish that all members, individually and collectively, will forge mutually beneficial collaborations with the African continent’s public administration scholars and practitioners, seek strategic alliances with higher education institutions, think tanks, government agencies and all institutions working on African public sector governance and leadership capacity in an effort to share cutting edge theory, analytics and smart practices. The conversation is set to start on weaving fresh and forward looking narratives about public sector governance, community participation, ethical leadership and sustainable development that will culminate into innovative and useful scholarship. Please be on the lookout for SAPA’s first Symposium scheduled under ASPA’s 2020 National Conference, on April 3rd 2020 in Anaheim, California. Additional information about the Symposium program is found on both SAPA’s Website (http://thesapa.org/) and ASPA’s Website

(https://www.aspanet.org/Conference2020/Panels/SAPA/Conference2020/Panels/SAPA.aspx).

We are pleased to have you as a valued member and we look forward to an intellectually stimulating Symposium. We are still at the building stage, not free from occasional tribulations, working on growing membership, scholarship, endowment and visibility. Your inputs, concerns and advice are always welcome.  It takes an engaged audience to build a vibrant section. Please do not hesitate to drop us a line at http://thesapa.org/

Sincerely,

Rym KAKI, Ph.D.

Chair (2019-2021; 2021-2024)

Section of African Public Administration

American Society of Public Administration

rym@usc.edu