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30TH
AAPAM ROUNDTABLE
CONFERENCE,
ACCRA,
GHANA SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER
2008.
1.0. INTRODUCTION
1.1. At the 29th Roundtable Conference of the African Association for Public Administration and Management(AAPAM) held in Mbabane, Swaziland in September, 2007, it was agreed that the 30th Roundtable Conference, would focus on the theme: Enhancing the Performance of the Public Service in a Developmental State. The choice of this theme was a reflection of the concern about the stark truth which holds that, by most development indicators, the African continent lags behind all other regions of the world. Given the current trends, Sub- Sahara Africa (SSA) could, with the exception of a handful of states ,be in danger of missing out on meeting many of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by the year 2015.
1.2. As it is well known, at some stage in the 1960s, some African states were at par with some of the countries that have achieved rapid rates of development in the last four decades, among these being the first generation of East Asian Newly Industrialized Countries (NICs) of South Korea, and Taiwan, and also South East Asian NICs of Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia. However, even within Africa itself, some of the poorest countries in the 1950s and 1960s such as Botswana, Mauritius and Cape Verde, have in development terms, gone ahead of their African compatriots which were in more favourable conditions then, such as Ghana, Nigeria and Uganda. Some countries that did well at one time (Cote d’Ivoire, Zimbabwe) are now under stress. The question to be asked is not just why SSA has lagged behind of their East (and now , South) Asian compatriots, but also why some African countries have sprung up from behind and are now forging ahead of the others.
1.3. The answers that are often given are many. They include political instability and bad governance, wrong- headed economic ideas and institutions, or put differently, pursuit of economic policies that undermine growth and competitiveness, poor state capacity and capability to perform its core functions of providing individual security, maintaining the rule of law, provision of socio-economic services, supporting economic production and generally creating a favourble environment conducive to development. Other reasons cited include too much deference to policy solutions from without resulting in too little effort being put into innovation.
1.4. While acknowledging that all of the above factors have, in different ways, contributed to a slow pace of development in Africa, AAPAM, as an Association of public administration practitioners, managers and academics, is more interested in addressing issues related to the weak institutional frameworks. Specifically, this Roundtable Conference shall focus on the Condition of the Public Service and what needs to be done to enhance its performance to make it a more effective tool for the development of the state.
2. THE PRESENT CONDITION OF THE AFRICAN PUBLIC SERVICE
2.1. Twenty years ago, as Africa experienced a major economic crisis arising from a world-wide economic recession, there was some thinking that the Public Services in Africa were too strong and overbearing, resulting in the suffocation of other societal players, like the private sector and civil society. Calls were made to contain and check the scope of the state, including the public service .Efforts were directed at containing them that included reducing their size and costs.
2.2. Today, it is realized that the diagnosis was mistaken; on the contrary, African states as well as their public services were weak. As is the case in all parts of the world, a strong state has to provide security, build infrastructure, staff public schools, control traffic and punish wrong doers. It is a common fact that most African countries are characterized by their inability to undertake such mundane functions effectively .That is not a good indicator of a strong state/public service but rather of a week one. The weaknesses are reflected in the size and composition of the public service in relation to the tasks at hand; their capabilities, capacities and competences; the manner in which they are managed and supervised; levels of motivation as well as their levels of performance .In addition, the level of their autonomy in relation to the political class has been declining. Unless these conditions are improved, African public services will be ill prepared to effectively contribute to the realization of a developmental state.
2.3. In recognition of the imperatives for strengthening the public service, most African states have , in the last one and a half decades, embarked on reforming their public services to respond to the problems mentioned above, as well as to other developments in their environment. The reform efforts were partly informed by ideas from the New Public Management Paradigm. There have been variations in the levels of success among Africa’s countries. On the whole, however, there is a notable progressive improvement in the condition of the African public services. The 30th AAPAM Roundtable Conference will review the progress made by African countries in enhancing the performance of the public services over the last decade or so and identify the challenges that are ahead of the public service reform agenda.
3. ROUNDTABLE OBJECTIVES
In recognition of the very critical role which the public service has to play in implementing development policies, the 30th Roundtable will explore the difficulties, possibilities and modalities for enhancing the role of the public service in a developmental state. To achieve this overall objective, the participants will:
(a) Explore the historical development of the African public services over time and identify major issues that have affected their performances;
(b) Examine measures which have been taken by African countries to address the institutional weaknesses of the public services over time, identifying achievements and difficulties encountered as well as lessons learnt
(c) Examine the applicability of the measures taken by the Newly Industrialized Countries like Singapore, Hong Cong, Malaysia and Indonesia to strengthen their public services that made them to spearhead development.
(d) Provide an opportunity to participants to learn from each other and from countries case studies the merits and demerits of various innovative approaches to enhancing public service performance.
(e) Provide opportunities to participants to discuss current and potential contributions of Research and Training Institutions in enhancing the role of public services in developmental states
4.0. EXPECTED RESULTS/OUTPUTS
It is expected that the 30th Roundtable will achieve its objectives and will succeed in providing the following outputs:
(a) Identification of the modalities, difficulties and possibilities for enhancing the role of Public Services in developmental states
(b) Identification of best practices with respect to enhancing the role of Public Services in developmental states
(c) Appreciation of the gains recorded from the implementation of Public Service Reform programmes in Africa with respect to enhancing the role of Public Service in change management and social transformation.
(d) Appreciation of the experiences from the Newly Industrialized States with respect to their successes and challenges in enhancing the role of Public Services.
(e) Come up with an agenda for enhancing the role of Public Service in developmental states including the role of AAPAM in that endeavor.
5.0 ROUNDTABLE SUB-THEMES
In pursuit of the objectives and expected results, the following Roundtable Sub-Themes will be dealt with in plenary and in syndicate groups.
i. The Historical development perspective of the Public Service in Africa.
This section will be devoted to an overview of the development of the public service in Africa, addressing the various legacies that have affected its character overtime, the internal changes that have taken place, the dimensions of problems it has experienced and its current status. Because Africa is not homogeneous, the authors and discussions will want to address variations among countries.
ii. Addressing the Role, Scope and Size of the Public Service in Africa: Are the Methodologies and Approaches Appropriate?
As mentioned in the Introduction there is a tendency to generalize that African states are undertaking too many roles, their scope of functions is too large and that as a consequence, the size of their public service is also too big. On the same hand, other analysts contend that given the nature of Africa’s political economy, such assertions are simplistic and indeed the reverse may be true. The papers and discussions on this topic are expected to examine the validity of these contentions by looking at comparative experiences across the continent. The discussions may also address recent emerging consensus among the antagonists on this issue and how the consensus is affecting the resolutions of the issues on the ground.
iii. Strengthening Human Resource Management: Challenges and Improvement Measures
Ordinarily, the concept of public service includes structures, institutions, processes and people. Of all these elements, the people are the life blood of the public service. Thus the performance of the public service depends significantly on how the public servants are managed i.e how they are recruited, deployed, trained and developed as well as rewarded. This area has tended to be neglected by most African governments except for a short spell after independence which mainly focused on addressing the issue of not having requisite numbers of personnel with right skills and competences. The issue was initially addressed through crash training programmes undertaken locally and abroad and the recruitment of foreign experts. The training element entailed setting up training institutions at tertiary levels. While these efforts ameliorated the problems, the expansion of the role and scope of public service demanded an increase in numbers, skill types and levels as well as competences which proved difficult to fulfill. The issues related to recruitment and motivation have, until recently, remained neglected by many countries. The authors and discussions will be expected to address the extent to which past and current measures in this area are effectively addressing the problems and what needs to be done in the future. Some of the papers could focus specifically on the role of Training and Research Institutions in this endeavor.
iv. Pay Incentives and Rewards.
While pay incentives and rewards is part of human resource management issues, it seems to be the most neglected issue despite the fact that it has the greatest impact on the performance of the public servants and, in turn, the public services. For that reason the Roundtable should address this issue intensively. Authors and discussions should address this issue by presenting information on the nature of the problem, approaches used by African countries to handle it, problems encountered and the way forward. Writers with practical experiences in handling pay reforms are encouraged to prepare presentations
v. Enhancing Public Service Accountability.
There is public outcry that the core values of the public services in most African countries, such as integrity, reliability, neutrality, honesty, trust, efficiency, confidentiality etc, are being eroded rapidly. The erosion of these values has led to embezzlement of public resources, wastages, nepotism, corruption, sexual harassment, compliance failure and poor quality of public services. Lately, some African governments have taken steps to enhance public service accountability through establishment of specialized oversight institutions and internal mechanisms for securing institutional and individual accountability. Authors and discussions will focus on assessing the extent to which African governments are taking steps in this direction and the success achieved.
vi. Public Services for Developmental States in Africa: Lessons from NICs
As mentioned earlier, the success of the Newly Industrialized Countries of South and South East Asia owes much to their having had strong and effective public services. The Roundtable Conference will benefit from case studies in this area. The authors and the discussions will examine the applicability of the measures taken by the Newly Industrialized Countries like Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Indonesia to strengthen their public services
vii. Country Case Studies
In addition to the thematic oriented papers, the Roundtable will benefit from country case studies. The authors will provide an overview of the state of the public service in the selected country and share with participants innovations adopted to enhance the performance of the public service.
6.0 THE CONDUCT OF THE ROUNDTABLE
6.1 .The 30th Roundtable shall be conducted in Seven (7) Plenary Sessions and through Discussion Groups. The sessions will be designed to provide adequate time for well researched papers to be presented consisting of overview papers and supporting papers which should include case studies of Best Practices and pragmatic solutions. Preference will be given to joint papers, especially those prepared by seasoned senior practitioners and academics working with young counterparts. The presentation of papers will be reinforced by small groups discussions working on parallel subjects to enable adequate participation by participants. This could, on the basis of the number of participants attending the Roundtable, lead to a situation where multiple numbers of small syndicate groups of 10 to 15 persons, work on the same sub-theme of the Conference. This measure will lead to the deepening of points and the confirmation/reaffirmation of the perspectives raised in different session papers
6.2. In order to achieve the foregoing objectives, writers will have to adhere to the time-table published for the preparation, approvals and finalization of papers. Special, notice has to be taken regarding the need to subject papers to peer review and that only those that clear that hurdle and have the necessary comments incorporated in the reviewed papers will be accepted for presentation. Note also should be taken that while the papers have to be practice-based, they will have to be sufficiently academic, with references where applicable. Non-researched opinions may be shared during the discussions at the Conference but not as formal presentations. Some overview and lead papers will be commissioned.
7.0 PARTICIPATION
The following categories of participants are expected.
(a) High-level representatives of the Executive and Legislative Branches of African Governments.
(b) Senior Civil Servants and Chief Executives or Senior Managers in Public and Private organisations.
(c) NGOs and Civil Society organisations interested in issues of development in Africa.
(d) Scholars in public policy, public administration, development and business management.
(e) Leaders of Women Organisations, Employers and Manufacturers Associations, Trade Union leaders and Farmers Associations.
(f) Leaders of Business, Commerce and Trade organizations
(g) Leaders in the Banking and Investment sectors
(h) Representatives of Donor Agencies funding development programmers in Africa.
(i) Representatives of the United Nations, African Union, NEPAD, COMESA, ECOWAS, SADEC, EAC and other Regional Groupings.
8.0 CALL FOR PAPERS AND GUIDELINES FOR SUBMISSION OF PAPERS
8.1 Persons wishing to write papers on the various sub-themes are hereby invited to immediately notify the AAPAM Secretariat by sending not more than 500-word abstracts (synopses) of the papers that they intend to present. In addition, the anticipated outline and whether it will involve researched case study should be indicated, as that will influence the selection process. On receipt of the abstract, the Secretariat shall notify the person if he/she can proceed with the writing of the paper.
8.2. Typing should be double-spaced and in Ms Word. References should be in the text and simply refer to the author(s) name(s), year of publication and the page(s) from which the material is cited. An alphabetical listing of the sources should follow at the end of the substantive paper. The length of each paper should not exceed 5,000 words. Writers should e-mail the paper to the AAPAM Secretariat. A summary of the paper not exceeding one page should be attached.
8.3 It should be noted that the acceptance of the abstract and the subsequent sending of the completed paper does not necessarily mean that the paper will have been accepted for presentation. All submitted papers shall be reviewed by a Team of Experts appointed by the AAPAM Executive Committee. It is this Team that shall select papers to be presented at the Conference, and whose authors shall be informed accordingly. The aim is to limit the number of papers to “substantive practical and scholarly papers” that address the issues. Also the numbers will be limited as plenary sessions may be less than at previous conferences. Finally, the desire is to produce one or two AAPAM publications out of the submissions.
9.0. INDICATIVE TIMETABLE
The deadline for the submission for the abstract is 30th April 2008. Earlier submissions will be appreciated. The abstract will have to be approved before papers can be prepared. Full drafts of papers should be submitted by 30th June 2008. The completed papers, after peer review and fully incorporating the comments made on them, shall be submitted by 30th August 2008. The papers selected for presentation shall be included in the conference programme to be printed by 15th September 2008.
10.0 WORKING LANGUAGES
The working languages shall be English and French.
11.0. MODE OF PRESENTATION
Papers will be presented orally within the allotted time (about 15 minutes). PowerPoint presentations will be required.
12.0. REGISTRATION
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