4th Forum of Commonwealth Heads of African Public Services

The Commonwealth Heads of African Public Services held its fourth Forum in Gauteng South Africa to

- Take stock of the outcomes of the previous forums and agree on concrete steps for taking forward common themes emerging from the forums;
- Reflect on the state of public service delivery in Africa, paying particular attention to how decentralisation and partnerships with non-state actors has impacted on service delivery;
- Review the context of performance management as an instrument for service delivery in Africa;
- Discuss and identify strategies for integrated public service delivery in the context of Africa and implications for ICT; and
- Identify strategies for dealing with challenges in implementing reforms to support improved public service delivery.

The Forum
1. noted that there were many positive signs in African economies and societies and that there is a need to build sustainable economies based on strong public services;
2. expressed its appreciation for the support of the Commonwealth Secretariat in performance management, information and communication technology, decentralisation and partnership, and the management of diversity;
3. agreed that public service reforms in African countries must be informed by the context in those countries;
4. affirmed the importance of building capacity within regional economic communities in order to promote the objectives of NEPAD, the role of the state in addressing poverty and inequality in society and the importance of the capacity of the public service in realising the developmental objectives of the state;
5. reflected on its role and function and noted that it was convened primarily for the sharing of experiences and good practices. It was agreed that a modest programme of action would be developed. There was a need for the monitoring of the implementation of the programme of action, and that the Commonwealth Secretariat agreed to assist in this regard.
6. noted that focusing on competencies and competency-based assessment enhances the performance of senior public servants and that the processes by which public service leaders are selected are of the utmost importance;
7. affirmed the importance of a performance management system is to improve the performance of the public service for the achievement of national development priorities.
8. agreed that African public services must step up efforts to expand access to integrated public services through innovative service delivery techniques including one-stop shops and information and communication technologies;
9. affirmed that public servants must deliver services in an unbiased and impartial manner;
10. supported the institutionalisation of citizens’ charters, access to information on services, and the use of indigenous languages in administrative communication;
11. agreed that as part of the drive towards improved service delivery the training of public servants and their working conditions must be addressed;
12. agreed on the benefits of the use of information and communication technologies in service provision, and noted the initiative of Commonwealth Connects;
13. believed that freedom of information legislation would promote transparency and accountability in public services but that public servants should be empowered regarding their role in information provision;
14. affirmed the importance of creating a culture of integrity in the public service through the promotion of ethics and values and agreed on the need to fight corruption in the public service;
15. reaffirmed the action areas adopted in the previous three forums:
(a) the review and strengthening of legal and institutional frameworks; the identification of laws, regulations and practices currently hindering effective performance in the public services; and putting in place machinery for promulgation of the necessary legal instruments to support public sector transformation;
(b) preparing public service for effective partnership management and collaboiration; identifying and training key players on partnership strategies and basics; and facilitation of processes for nurturing the indigenous private sector;
(c) in the area of human resource development, to focus public service training on competency-based skills development; to engage training and development institutes to support and align training to build the critical skills required in transformation; and to provide directory of training and development institutes in Africa;
(d) the defining of performance requirements for each country and the performance management system required; the review of legislative instruments and ensuring alignment to the performance management requirements; to call upon Forum peers, the Commonwealth and others for support in the implementation of PMS; and the institutionalisation of PMS training in Africa and provision of dedicated support to countries in need;
(e) to define accountability and transparency standards for the public service, to document these and make them available to the public service and
stakeholders; to review and strengthen legislation, administrative procedures and processes pertaining to accountability; to engage accountability watchdogs and ensure adherence to accountability guidelines; and to engage political leadership on the critical requirements and their political role in driving accountability; and
(f) regarding political leadership, to engage the political leadership to display ownership, firm and consistent political will on the public service transformation agenda; to provide support, training and regular briefing on the performance of the public services and their role in driving the change process; and manage and facilitate political-administrative interfaces between Ministers and Permanent Secretaries or Directors-General. Three areas were selected for focused attention: leadership selection and development, performance management and decentralisation. It was agreed that comparative best practices of public administration in Africa would be documented.
The Forum expressed its appreciation to the host country South Africa and the Commonwealth Secretariat for organising the Forum, and thanked Mozambique for agreeing to host next year’s Forum.