Group relaunches journal on democracy, development in West Africa

An advocacy group, Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), has resuscitated its flagship journal, “Democracy and Development: Journal of West African Affairs,” after a years-long pause.

The journal, which focuses on democracy and development in West Africa, was first launched in the late 1990s when some countries in the region were short-changing between military rule and civilian government.

The Director of CDD, Idayat Hassan, in a statement, said the relaunch of the journal was necessitated “in order to meet the challenges of a sub-region in the throes of rapid change.”

While the journal comes in a new format, it maintains its previous commitment to running informed commentaries on democracy and development in West Africa.

“Democracy and Development is committed to being the hub for sophisticated analyses of issues affecting democratic and developmental evolution in West Africa, and welcomes essays and reviews from scholar-practitioners on issues under this broad rubric,” Ms Hassan said.

As it focuses on the interaction of democracy and development in West Africa, the journal, the CDD director said, would highlight the practical problems that have inhibited democratic reforms.

“It seeks to bring attention to reportage and analyses of conflict and peace-building, innovative programmes and activities that drive good governance, capacity building and public policy research in democracy, and security and development in the region.

“In this way, Democracy and Development reinforces CDD’s commitment to framing the discourse and encouraging engagement on socio-political and economic issues that continue to impinge on democracy and development in West Africa,” Ms Hassan said.

Democracy and Development is edited by US-based sociologist Ebenezer Obadare, with support from a star-studded editorial board, including Wale Adebanwi of the University of Oxford, United Kingdom; gender expert and UN advisor, Bisi Adeleye-Fayemi; Nana Asantewa Afadzinu, Executive Director, WASCI, Ghana; Nic Cheeseman of the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom; and Carl Levan of the School of International Service, American University, Washington, D.C., United States of America.

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Others are Boubacar N’diaye of Wooster College, United States of America; Matthew Page of Chatham House; Dzodzi Tsikata of the University of Ghana; and Zainab Usman, Public Sector Specialist at the World Bank.

While it is now available on a dedicated website (http://democracyanddevelopmentjournal.org/), the journal calls for contributions for its December 2020 edition on the theme of “Viral States: Pandemics, Politics, and Policy in West Africa”.

The deadline for submission of articles is October 15.

Entrants are advised to send all enquiries about the journal to the editor at editor@cddwestafrica.org.