Kafui Tsekpo is a Next Generation Social Science Doctoral Dissertation (Next Gen) Completion Fellow (2022), and currently a Research Associate at the African Leadership Centre (ALC). His research explores the dynamics between society and the state, focusing on how social and political actors’ interactions within the polity influence leadership, security, and development. Over the past decade, he has been involved in various research activities centered around issues of inclusivity, peacebuilding, nation-building, and transformative development in Africa. He has consulted and provided research support for several organizations in Africa and internationally. Kafui has held teaching positions at the Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana. He was a Visiting Scholar at the Dag Hammarskjöld Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies (DHIPS) at the Copperbelt University, Zambia. Kafui is also a Fellow of the South African Research Chair in Social Policy at UNISA, Pretoria. He is a member of the Conflict Research Network-West Africa (CORN), the Ghana Inclusive Development Research Network, the Development Studies Association-UK, the South African Sociological Association (SASA), the International Public Policy Association, and the Ghana Studies Association.
Next Gen: Briefly describe the central argument of your doctoral dissertation. What is its main contribution to knowledge in your field?
Dr. Kafui Tsekpo: In this thesis – The role of social policy and leadership in post-conflict peacebuilding: the case study of Rwanda and Liberia – I examine the future of durable peace in Africa using Liberia and Rwanda as case studies. Through the conceptual framework of Transformative Social Policy and Leadership (TSP-L), I examine how leadership emerges and shapes inclusive social policy by addressing the root causes of violent conflicts. As a comparative qualitative case study, I combine critical discourse analysis and the logic of difference to systematically understand how leadership in both countries frames social policy instruments to build an inclusive society as part of their respective efforts at post-conflict reconstruction. I also explore how non-coercive leadership in both countries frames social policy instruments to build durable inter-group relations. My TSP-L approach offers a nuanced framework to examine the challenges of post-conflict peacebuilding processes and how leaders emerge in their quest to transform the triggers of conflict, which are historically rooted in complex relational practices.
From a policy perspective, both countries adopt a variation of a “pro-poor” approach to addressing the nested issues of post-conflict nation-building. My examination of the self-reported experiences of a cross-section of citizens, in both countries, suggests the adoption and implementation of social policy instruments – such as Imidugudu, the mutual health insurance scheme (Mutuelle de Santé) in Rwanda, and the Social Cash Transfer and Free Compulsory Educationprograms in Liberia – rarely translates into durable nation-building and development ethos that transforms the root causes of violent conflict. I made three key findings:
- Firstly, despite the efforts by leadership in both countries to build peace, historical and contemporary factors that originally occasioned the violent conflict persist. Hence, the numerous social assistance interventions aimed at nation-building in both countries lack the necessary impetus.
- Secondly, the design and deployment of social assistance policy interventions for post-conflict reconstruction in Liberia and Rwanda portray a pro-poor approach to nested issues of post-conflict nation-building. However, in the case of Liberia, this simplification of the development condition is informed by the unidimensional diagnosis of post-conflict reconstruction that frames the crisis of identity, marginalization, (in)security, and development as technocratic and managerial issues fixable by state-centric institutions.
- Finally, the study concludes that there is a dearth of difference in the (in)ability of the leadership in both countries to translate these social assistance policy interventions into durable nation-building and development ethos that transforms the root causes of violent conflict.
My key finding is that there is a need for a people-centered transformative approach to how leadership in both countries designs and translates policy interventions to transform relational practices that breed inclusivity and enduring peace.
How did the Next Gen fellowship program impact your doctoral journey?
The timely completion of my doctoral thesis was greatly supported by the SSRC’s Next Gen fellowship award. It provided me with the needed financial resources that ensured I had peace of mind to write out significant chapters of my thesis after fieldwork. In addition, the Next Gen workshops organized by the SSRC enabled me to make meaning out of my field data in ways that I had previously not thought about.
Now that you have completed your PhD, what are your plans for the future?
Now that I have successfully completed my studies, I would like to work in a leading academic policy-oriented institution in the areas of Leadership, Peace, and Development as a scholar-practitioner whose primary focus is Africa. This will enable me to further study the intersection of leadership and public policy in (post-conflict) development contexts through high-quality research and policy advocacy. I think this would provide me access to a network of policy actors, granting me the opportunity to contribute to the practice of peace formation(s) and inclusive development through policy design and practice informed by my own research. I also plan on generating knowledge through teaching and training in ways that contribute to the transformation of the practice of leadership and development intervention as it relates to inclusive and progressive state-society relations for collective prosperity.
What advice do you have for upcoming doctoral students?
My suggestion to PhD students, at any stage of their program, is to endeavor to persevere. No matter the circumstances – they should make it routine to write at least a paragraph of their thesis each day, even if the paragraph they write may not look good or they end up coming back to revise it. The idea is not to get it right immediately but to keep engaging the ideas that inform your thesis daily. In addition, both current and prospective recipients of the Next Gen or APN fellowship award should be diligent with the award and ensure they maximize the huge opportunities that it presents since it marks a significant pathway for advancing their respective careers.
Selected Publications
Tsekpo, Kafui and Obodai Torto (2023). The future of peace in Africa: complexities of local conflict(s) and liberal peace interventions. Leadership and Developing Societies, 8(1), 41-59.
Tsekpo, Kafui and Emmanuel Graham (2023). Third Era of Jerry Rawlings as a Democratic President (1993–2001): Ideology and Leadership Style. In The Political Impact of African Military Leaders: Soldiers as Intellectuals, Nationalists, Pan-Africanists, and Statesmen (pp. 105-120). Cham: Springer International Publishing.
Tsekpo, Kafui (2023). Public Opinion and the Policy Making Process in Ghana’s Fourth Republic. In Public Policy in Ghana: Conceptual and Practical Insights (pp. 261-282). Cham: Springer International Publishing.
Tsekpo, Kafui and Michael Kpessa-Whyte (2022). Global Public Policy Paradigms and the Socio-Economic Transformation Trajectories of Africa. In The Palgrave Handbook of Africa and the Changing Global Order (pp. 515-540). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
Tsekpo, Kafui (2021). National Security policy making in the context of the War on Terror: a look at the Ghana-US military corporation agreement. Legon Journal for International Affairs and Diplomacy, 11(2), 1-21.
Tsekpo, Kafui and Michael Kpessa-Whyte (2021). Reflections on the political economy of public policy analysis in Africa. In Routledge Handbook of Public Policy in Africa (pp. 107-116). Routledge.
Tsekpo, Kafui and Michael Kpessa-Whyte (2020). Lived experiences of the elderly in Ghana: Analysis of ageing policies and options for reform. Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology, 35, 341-352.
Tsekpo, Kafui and Alexander Afram (2016). Missing numbers in Ghana’s election 2016: low turnout or a bloated register?’. Pambazuka News.
Tsekpo, Kafui (2015). The New Frontier of Governance in Africa. https://psj.lse.ac.uk/articles/28. The Public Sphere Journal, 71-83.
