Abstract
At the heart of political economy is how politics affects the economy and vice versa. Society wants the supply of public services like healthcare, education, security, and infrastructure to be flexible, innovative, and efficient. However, the barriers created by bureaucracies often stifle innovation. The argument for harnessing the policy-market nexus to increase aggregate economic welfare remains compelling. While conventional arguments on the ability of the private sector to intrinsically generate efficiency gains remain valid, governments' traditional role of providing an enabling environment to foster private risk taking for capital accumulation is no less important. This chapter offers insights into the political economy of the public policy dynamics of the African economy and society, with emphasis on public-private collaborations for policy innovation. To break new ground and solve some of the most pressing challenges of our era, innovating the public policy cycle is key. Nowhere is the policy innovation imperative more compelling than in Africa.