{"id":11961,"date":"2022-03-23T09:37:16","date_gmt":"2022-03-23T09:37:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/africa-national-governments-are-losing-their-grip"},"modified":"2022-03-24T05:54:50","modified_gmt":"2022-03-24T05:54:50","slug":"africa-national-governments-are-losing-their-grip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/africa-national-governments-are-losing-their-grip","title":{"rendered":"Africa: National governments are losing their grip"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. <\/strong><\/span>Ignore that man behind the curtain! So went the Wizard of Oz’s desperate command when his pretence had finally been exposed. It\u2019s come to be a metaphor for the inflated self-regard of politicians around the world.<\/p>\n

Like the Wizard, there comes a time when they pull levers and nothing happens. For many governments, that time is now. The levers no longer work and the centre isn\u2019t holding.<\/p>\n

It has taken the twin threats of a public health emergency and devastating economic inequities to make this picture plain to all. Some have retreated into nationalism; others into epochal pessimism.<\/p>\n

The latest report from the US National Intelligence Council, \u2018Global Trends 2040\u2019, describes the pandemic as \u2018the most significant, singular global disruption since World War II\u2019 in terms of its medical, political and security implications.<\/p>\n

As people sense that governments are losing their grip, they are mobilising in new ways. That portends, according to the US report, \u2018more political volatility, erosion of democracy and expanding roles for alternative providers of governance\u2019.<\/p>\n

It all adds up to an era of heightened competition between systems of governance and a \u2018growing mismatch between what publics need and expect and what governments can and will deliver\u2019.<\/p>\n

Although these warnings are in the public domain, national leaders and international bureaucrats haven\u2019t got the message. Public health is an area where starting with the grassroots works so much better than top-down policies.<\/p>\n

Africa\u2019s experience in dealing with epidemics, especially Ebola, river blindness and Guinea worm, shows the key importance of local initiative. That works for prevention and sounding alarms, as well as organising treatment.<\/p>\n

Vital intelligence about health crises often comes from farmers in remote areas. It depends on trust. National and international resources are needed to manufacture vaccines and protective equipment, but they require well-informed and credible local groups to distribute them.<\/p>\n

Such life lessons from the pandemic offer a counter to forecasts of ineluctable descent into authoritarianism or government breakdown. Parallels for education, economic and development policy are obvious.<\/p>\n

Our new digital networks are joining up grassroots organisations across the globe, sharing expertise and building solidarity. Sending resources to local initiatives, especially those run by women, creates more wealth, more jobs and spreads knowledge.<\/p>\n

Widely shared warnings of global food shortages should concentrate thinking and funds on the local. None of this is to diminish the importance of getting international accords on corporate taxation, the global distribution of vaccines, or the transfer of allocations of the IMF\u2019s reserve currency to developing economies.<\/p>\n

Those are necessary conditions for progress, but they are far from sufficient. National governments have to ratchet down the hubris. Admitting the levers don\u2019t work is a good first step. Devolving far more resources and power to the regions and the grassroots is the next stage.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Lesotho<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. Ignore that man behind the curtain! So went the Wizard of Oz’s desperate command when his pretence had finally been exposed. It\u2019s come to be a metaphor for the inflated self-regard of politicians around the world. Like the Wizard, there comes a time when they pull levers and nothing happens. For many […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":11960,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6,8,16],"tags":[242,233,246,245],"class_list":["post-11961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-files","category-homepage-english","category-twitter","tag-africa","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-lesotho","tag-lesotho"],"yoast_head":"\nAfrica: National governments are losing their grip - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Ignore that man behind the curtain! So went the Wizard of Oz's desperate command when his pretence had finally been expo ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/africa-national-governments-are-losing-their-grip\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Africa: National governments are losing their grip\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ignore that man behind the curtain! So went the Wizard of Oz's desperate command when his pretence had finally been expo ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/africa-national-governments-are-losing-their-grip\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lesotho\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-03-23T09:37:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-03-24T05:54:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/03\/img-623c07909c5dc.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"419\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/africa-national-governments-are-losing-their-grip#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/africa-national-governments-are-losing-their-grip\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Africa: National governments are losing their grip\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-03-23T09:37:16+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-03-24T05:54:50+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/africa-national-governments-are-losing-their-grip\"},\"wordCount\":487,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/africa-national-governments-are-losing-their-grip#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/03\/img-623c07909c5dc.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa\",\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Lesotho\",\"Lesotho\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"files\",\"homepage-english\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/africa-national-governments-are-losing-their-grip#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/africa-national-governments-are-losing-their-grip\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/africa-national-governments-are-losing-their-grip\",\"name\":\"Africa: National governments are losing their grip - Lesotho\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/africa-national-governments-are-losing-their-grip#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/africa-national-governments-are-losing-their-grip#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/03\/img-623c07909c5dc.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-03-23T09:37:16+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-03-24T05:54:50+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"Ignore that man behind the curtain! So went the Wizard of Oz's desperate command when his pretence had finally been expo ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/africa-national-governments-are-losing-their-grip#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/africa-national-governments-are-losing-their-grip\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/africa-national-governments-are-losing-their-grip#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/03\/img-623c07909c5dc.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/03\/img-623c07909c5dc.jpg\",\"width\":628,\"height\":419,\"caption\":\"Africa: National governments are losing their grip\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/africa-national-governments-are-losing-their-grip#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Africa: National governments are losing their grip\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/\",\"name\":\"Lesotho\",\"description\":\"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"cfeditoren\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Africa: National governments are losing their grip - Lesotho","description":"Ignore that man behind the curtain! So went the Wizard of Oz's desperate command when his pretence had finally been expo ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/africa-national-governments-are-losing-their-grip","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Africa: National governments are losing their grip","og_description":"Ignore that man behind the curtain! So went the Wizard of Oz's desperate command when his pretence had finally been expo ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/africa-national-governments-are-losing-their-grip","og_site_name":"Lesotho","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa","article_published_time":"2022-03-23T09:37:16+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-03-24T05:54:50+00:00","og_image":[{"width":628,"height":419,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/03\/img-623c07909c5dc.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/africa-national-governments-are-losing-their-grip#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/africa-national-governments-are-losing-their-grip"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"Africa: National governments are losing their grip","datePublished":"2022-03-23T09:37:16+00:00","dateModified":"2022-03-24T05:54:50+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/africa-national-governments-are-losing-their-grip"},"wordCount":487,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/africa-national-governments-are-losing-their-grip#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/03\/img-623c07909c5dc.jpg","keywords":["Africa","Africa Press","Africa Press-Lesotho","Lesotho"],"articleSection":["all news","files","homepage-english","twitter"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/africa-national-governments-are-losing-their-grip#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/africa-national-governments-are-losing-their-grip","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/africa-national-governments-are-losing-their-grip","name":"Africa: National governments are losing their grip - Lesotho","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/africa-national-governments-are-losing-their-grip#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/africa-national-governments-are-losing-their-grip#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/03\/img-623c07909c5dc.jpg","datePublished":"2022-03-23T09:37:16+00:00","dateModified":"2022-03-24T05:54:50+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"Ignore that man behind the curtain! So went the Wizard of Oz's desperate command when his pretence had finally been expo ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/africa-national-governments-are-losing-their-grip#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/africa-national-governments-are-losing-their-grip"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/africa-national-governments-are-losing-their-grip#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/03\/img-623c07909c5dc.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/03\/img-623c07909c5dc.jpg","width":628,"height":419,"caption":"Africa: National governments are losing their grip"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/africa-national-governments-are-losing-their-grip#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Africa: National governments are losing their grip"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/","name":"Lesotho","description":"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"cfeditoren"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11961\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}