Africa: Heads of Public Services Commit to Wide-Ranging Reforms to Improve Delivery of Public Services

[Hennie]

Over fifty delegates from 17 Commonwealth countries in Africa attended
three-day forum

Heads of Public Service in Commonwealth African countries have
resolved to play a leading role in creating and institutionalising
strategic approaches to manage and measure performance in their public
services.

They have also agreed to advise Heads of State and political
leadership on policy matters and win their support and involvement in
enhancing performance management as a means to continually improve
public service delivery to the citizens of Commonwealth Africa.

These were among the commitments made at a recent forum which took
place in Mahé, Seychelles from 13 to 15 July, held under the theme
'Managing and measuring performance in the public service in
Commonwealth Africa'.

"Countries that have adopted performance management systems are said,
by and large, to have experienced remarkable transformation resulting
in positive economic growth, with accompanying improvement in the
performance of public sector organisations," said Joseph Belmont, Vice
President of the Republic of Seychelles. In his Keynote Address Mr
Belmont added: "To improve performance and achieve national
development objectives, we need to build a culture of continuous
improvement and personal development among all public sector employees
including the leaders and managers. Leadership is critical in this
endeavour."

This meeting, organised by the Commonwealth Secretariat, has taken
place annually since 2004 to allow Heads of Public Service to share
ideas and experiences on critical public sector development issues.

Mohammed Afif, Secretary to the Cabinet in Seychelles acknowledged the
timeliness of the meeting in his Welcome Address "Nine months ago, in
the wake of the worldwide economic recession, Seychelles embarked on a
series of wide ranging macroeconomic reforms including public sector
restructuring with a 12 per cent reduction in its workforce with the
redeployment of workers in most cases, to the private sector. We are,
therefore, keen to share our experiences, and to learn from our
learned colleagues from Commonwealth Africa."

Among the other affirmations made in their communiqué were to align
planning, budgeting, monitoring and evaluation systems and processes,
integrate key strategic objectives with operational measures; ensure
broader public participation through parliament, civil society and
community consultation; and ensure effective strategies for attracting
and retaining talent in the public service.

Jacqueline Wilson, Director of Governance and Institutional
Development at the Commonwealth Secretariat thanked the delegates for
their openness and frank discussion on the issues and their
reaffirmation of the crucial importance of the annual forum as a means
to dialogue and learn from their diverse experiences.

The importance of integrating public sector reforms in light of the
current economic crisis was also acknowledged as a critical issue in
public service delivery. This topic was unanimously chosen as the
focus for the next Forum scheduled to take place in Cameroon in July
2010. Philip Ngole, Secretary General, Ministry of Public Service and
Administrative Reform, Cameroon said: "Public sectors of countries
that host the Forum benefit from sharing the expertise of delegates,
and for that reason I am very happy that Cameroon will be hosting the
next Forum to be held under the theme Managing and Integrating Public
Sector Reforms in an era of Global Economic Crisis".

Over fifty delegates from 17 Commonwealth countries in Africa attended
this three-day forum meeting on managing and measuring performance in
the public service