xiiiAcknowledgements
This book is a result of contributions from many people and I cannot mention all of
them here because that will not be practical and the list is long. From the bottom of my
heart, I am highly indebted to all of those whose support, encouragement and whose
ideas have made this book a reality. However, much as I do appreciate and acknowledge
all, some of them have to be mentioned. I highly appreciate my colleagues in academia
from the School of Public Administration and Management of Mzumbe University who
shared with me the initial ideas of the book which gave the current scope. Throughout
my teaching in human resource management and supervision of students’ dissertations,
I have been sharing notes with my students and I have, in the process, learned a lot.
Thank you very much. Managers and administrators from various organisations I visited
and colleagues from the Association of African Public Administration and Management
(AAPAM) and African Training and Research Centre in Administration for Develop-
ment (CAFRAD) have made invaluable contributions to this book particularly on the
case studies from various countries and for which I thank them all.
The book contains a special chapter on talents and competency based human re-
source management which is out of the inspiration and lessons from Certified Talent
and Competency Professional Programme which was initiated and supported by the
government of Tanzania under joint facilitation of ARTDO International and Institute of
Training and Development (ITD) in 2006. In this regard, I am highly indebted to Dr.
Rumesh Kumar and Dr. Mario del Castilo for their contributions particularly on the dif-
ferences between traditional and competency based human resource management.
Needless to say that the lessons I learned from the experiences of colleagues in that pro-
gramme are invaluable and have prompted me to have a chapter in this book so that we
can continue to share these noble ideas for better people management in the country and
elsewhere. To all of you, thank you very much.
My colleagues in the NPT project Professor Ko de Ridder and Dr. Albertjan Tolle-
naar have been instrumental and inspiring through reading the manuscript and providing
very useful comments that significantly shaped the book. Also, the book would not have
been published without technical, professional and academic contribution form Dr. Ben
Emans from Hanze University in Groningen. I want to take this opportunity to express
my heartfelt appreciation for many useful comments which shaped the book in terms of
contents and scope. Special thanks should equally go to Mr. Christian Garrad from the
University of Groningen for the meticulous job in editing the manuscript. The Royal
Netherlands Government through the Netherlands Programme for the Institutional
Strengthening of Post Secondary Education and Training Capacity (NPT) project under
the management of the Netherlands Organisation for International Cooperation (Nuf-
fic) provided funds for the research and publication of the book. Without this support,
the book would have been a distant dream. I extend my sincere appreciation to Nuffic
for accepting and supporting the idea of developing a book that captures African experi-
ences.
The NPT project staff members have always been boosting my morale whenever I
was weakened by the boredom of continuous writing. These are Mr. Wiebe Zijlstra, Ms.