cafrad high-level seminar for policy makers and policy implementers on results based management...

CAFRAD HIGH-LEVEL SEMINAR FOR POLICY MAKERS AND POLICY IMPLEMENTERS ON RESULTS BASED MANAGEMENT

TOWARDS A SHARED UNDERSTANDING OF RBM BY POLICY MAKERSAND POLICY IMPLEMENTERS

Presentation by Dr. Njunga-Michael MulikitaSenior Lecturer,

Dag Hammarskjöld Institute for Peace & ConflictStudies(DHIPS), Copperbelt University(CBU), Kitwe, Zambia

Tangier (Morocco)28 – 30 January 2013


Organization of the Presentation1. The Role of Policy Making and Policy Implementation in the

Governance Process2. Why are Results important in the Context of Good Governance?3. Politicians and Civil Servants: Collaboration or Rivalry ?4. What Roles can Politicians & Civil Servants Play to promote

Results Based Management in African Public Administrations ?5. Towards enhanced Cooperative Synergies between Politicians and

Civil Servants 6. Concluding Observations 7. References


1. The Role of Policy Making and Policy Implementation in the Governance Process

• Underlying the notion of a modern state is the principle that government is divided between those who make policy(politicians) and those who implement it(Civil Servants)

• Every modern state requires a vast bureaucracy of professional civil servants to carry out the tasks of government


• Policy makers or politicians have to rely on the civil service for the actual implementation of the policies they formulate

• The Civil Service is the implementation mechanism of the State charged with translating the socio-economic vision of the State into tangible social and economic development for citizens.


• By assuming this critical role of policy implementation, the Civil Service plays a strategic role in determining the degree of legitimacy and credibility the state enjoys among ordinary citizens


• An effective and efficient Civil Service equipped with necessary implementation capacities, is therefore an absolute sine qua non for a well performing or capable state

• A well performing state is one which meets the developmental aspirations of its people. A State that does not deliver roads, schools and hospitals loses the trust of citizens


• The capable state creates an enabling political and legal environment for economic growth and promotes the equitable distribution of the fruits of growth.

• But growth must also be coupled with policies that deliberately attack poverty and promote education, health, and social safety nets

• Therefore in practically all African countries, particularly those in Sub-Saharan Africa, ordinary people demand to see tangible results from politicians and Civil Servants so that citizens can enjoy the practical benefits of sustainable development.


• Civil servants as policy implementers must therefore offer best advice to Ministers on policies and brief and support them generally in the work of government.

• That gives civil servants the responsibility for seeking ways to improve the support they give ministers, so that elected governments can fulfill electoral promises.


• A capable public administration therefore ought to play a key strategic role in the creation of the capable state.

• If the public administration can not ensure that roads, schools and hospitals are not only well maintained but accessible to the majority of the population,the state eventually loses its legitimacy in the eyes of the ordinary citizens


• If the Judicial system is compromised by corrupt judges and magistrates and the police abets crime rather than fighting it, the state can easily slide into a scenario of failure with all its attendant consequences, which generate chaos and human misery.

• Hence as noted in the United Nations World Public Sector Report(2004), “Eradicating poverty and ensuring sustainable development should form the raison d’etre of Governance & Public Administration


2. Why are Results important in the Context of Good Governance?

• Governance; has been defined as “the manner in which the state acquires and exercises its authority to provide public goods and services.

• Evidence indicates that countries that are managed on the basis of good political governance tend to score better on socio-economic indicators than countries which experience bad governance


• Good governance • From the human development perspective, good governance is democratic governance.

Democratic governance means that:• - People’s human rights and fundamental freedoms are respected, allowing them to live in

dignity.• - People have a say in decisions that affect their lives.• - People can hold decision-makers accountable.• - Inclusive and fair rules, institutions and practices govern social interactions.• - Women are equal partners with men in private and public spheres of life and decision-making• - People are free from discrimination based on race, ethnicity, class, gender or any other

attribute.• - The needs of future generations are reflected in current policies.• - Economic and social policies are responsive to peoples’ needs and aspirations• - Economic and social policies aim at eradicating poverty and expanding the choices that all

people have in their lives.• • Source: Human Development Report 2002, p. 51


• Results Based Management is a performance based approach that aims to achieve greater efficiency, effectiveness, accountability and access to improved public services.

• Public sector organizations in Africa and elsewhere are coming under greater pressure to deliver results


• Indeed the pressure for results based public sector organizations is more acute in Africa than other regions if one examines the key development indicators which suggest that millions of Africans are in danger of slipping into deeper poverty.

• Indeed most Sub-Saharan African countries will not meet MDG targets by 2015


• The challenge of eradicating, alleviating, or at least reducing this kind of poverty, belongs to the State leadership, whose efforts to address the development crisis must be complemented by effective governance & public administration whose performance must be anchored on the delivery of results


• Politicians all over Africa now realize that the most effective strategy for re-election is the delivery of tangible results to the electorate.

• All over the continent, Heads of state, Ministers, Members of Parliament, elected officials in Local Governments are assessed on what results they delivered during their time in office


• Zambia in 2011 experienced a change in government because the silent majority did not experience the tangible results of economic growth

• Voters, particularly youth want to experience policies whose results can translate into employment opportunities and better living standards


• Besides political leaders and the African populations, donors are also becoming more demanding on good governance frameworks, and public administration performance against benchmarked results as the price for continued development investment support


• Opportunities offered by RBM for Modernization of Governance and Public Administration in Africa

• Clear Definition of Objectives of Government Programmes and Services

• RBM is results based , measurement, evaluation and accountability tool for achieving more efficient and effective resource mobilization by the public sector. RBM is a mechanism for forcing politicians, civil servants, and voting citizens to be clearer about objectives of government programme and services


• Putting Customers First and Clarifying Mandate of Organizations is key aspect of RBM

• Governmental bureaucracies sometimes lose sight of their purpose. They sometimes even forget they exist to serve the public. RBM ensures that the client focus remains the key guiding force of operations


• Re-examination of mandates allows the agency to establish priorities and relationships among its clientele. Instituting Results based management system begins with the asking of some hard critical questions. Key questions asked are shown below

• Why does public administration exist?• What would be lost if it did not exist• Who does it serve?• What is it supposed to deliver to them?


• The purpose of government is to produce desired outcomes. While outputs are important to plan for and monitor, they cannot by definition be used as the sole yardstick for judging the administrative effectiveness.

• Governance & Public administration’s performance must be judged based on why it was established. It must be evaluated for the outcomes or impacts (client-benefit and satisfaction) it achieves.


• 3. Politicians and Civil Servants: Collaboration or Rivalry?

• All political leaders want control over the administration in order to assure the results they promised voters are being delivered

• Political control is an important issue because it is the means by which a permanent civil service is held accountable to needs of a public it should serve


• This is what makes issue of bureaucratic obedience to elected political officials particularly important in practically all African countries where citizens are increasingly demanding that governments be more accountable

• Ideally Civil Servants should carry out the will of their political masters’ sine ira et studio without anger or passion. However this ideal is difficult to achieve; it is impossible to separate all policy making from implementation


• In the Commonwealth system, the Minister will exercise political control over the bureaucracy through a Private Secretary

• The Permanent Secretary who runs the Ministry should be a career civil servant who stays on as Ministers come and go

• In the French speaking countries, Ministers have a small group of appointees to advise them on policy & politics


• Known as the Minister’s Cabinet, these officials assist the Minister in developing new ideas and ensuring that Civil Servants are delivering concrete results

• Some English speaking countries like Zambia are now experimenting with the use of such small bodies of political advisors for Secretary to the Cabinet and Ministers


• Since African countries underwent waves of democratizations in the 1990s, the relationship between politicians and civil servants has been marred by suspicion

• When parties that were in opposition have taken over government, they have summarily dismissed Civil Servants they consider to have been too close to previous regime


• Senior Civil Servants who served previous regime are treated with hostility and suspected of frustrating the goals of the new government

• Summary purging of experienced civil servants as happened in Zambia after September 2011 elections, has left the civil service in disarray as there is very low institutional memory


• Without institutional memory, the Patriotic Front Government will find it very difficult to achieve key results such as employment opportunities for the youth, increased incomes for rural population


• 4. What Roles can Politicians & Civil Servants Play to promote Results Based Management in African Governance &Public

Administrations ?• Both Ministers and Senior Civil Servants

should be appointed on Performance Based Contracts so they can be jointly held accountable for quality of service delivery


• A number of African countries are now in the process of introducing performance based contracts for Ministers, to complement the performance based appraisal Senior Civil servants are subjected

• In 2012, The Nigerian government announced that appointed and elected officials would sign performance agreement contracts by August


• The initiative of President Goodluck Jonathan was to ensure that governance was ‘judged by quality of service delivery and not by financial inputs’

• The initiative would be monitored by the National Planning Commission to ensure both Ministers and Policy Implementers were delivering desirable outputs and outcomes


• In Zambia, following the change of government after the 2011 elections, the new government announced that it would introduce performance contracts for ministers which would be evaluated every three months as a way of improving service delivery in the public service


• Secretary to the Cabinet said the initiative would be taken as a way of improving performance among public service workers in line with the Patriotic Front (PF) manifesto.

• He said Ministers would also use performance contracts to gauge the performance of their Permanent Secretaries who will do likewise on their directors.


• The Head of the Civil Service said the Public Service Commission(PSC) would no longer be responsible for promoting staff as this would be the duty of Permanent Secretaries

• These innovations will have to be implemented with caution, because if they are introduced in a haphazard and uncoordinated way, they will negatively impact the Civil Service


• 5. Towards enhanced Cooperative Synergies between Politicians and Civil Servants

• If the service delivery results desired by Politicians are to be achieved by Civil Servants, the two must devise mechanisms that ensure harmonious working relationships in operations of Government .


• The following strategies are therefore suggested;

• Mechanisms should be established (e.g holding of joint seminars) through which policy makers and implementers can get together and share views about Results Based Management


• Independent High Level Advisory Board should be established to monitor the performance of Ministers and the Upper Civil Service in meeting service delivery targets

• Such mechanisms should report to the Head of State or the Vice President

• In the case of changes or activities initiated from outside (eg. by donors) efforts should be made to orient both Ministers and Civil Servants in order to establish ownership and support.


• Both Ministers and Civil Servants as well as other officials in policy making positions should be accessible to those members of the public that may have useful information and ideas to offer on service delivery outputs and outcomes.

• There is a need to establish induction courses for all newly appointed Ministers and Permanent Secretaries/Directors-General to orient them in RBM.


• 6. Concluding Observations • Attaining service delivery results in the most

cost-effective manner, means Results Based Management is here to stay

• Elected policy makers know that if they do not deliver results they promised their electorates, they will be voted out office when successor elections are held


• Ministers and the upper levels of the bureaucracy must build a shared vision of Results Based Management in order to attain results enunciated in development plans, long term vision documents and strategic plans

7. References • Agere, S, ‘ Political and administrative interface in

the management of Zimbabwean public Service’ , DPMN Bulletin, October 1997 http://www.dpmf.org/images/political-admin-sam.html

http://www.dpmf.org/images/political-admin-sam.html

http://www.dpmf.org/images/political-admin-sam.html


• Bello, M. ‘President Signs Performance Contracts with Ministers Today’, 22 Aug 2012; http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/president-signs-performance-contracts-with-ministers-today/122914/

http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/president-signs-performance-contracts-with-ministers-today/122914/




• ‘Government to introduce 3 months performance contracts for Ministers’, http://www.lusakatimes.com/2012/01/17/government-introduce-3-months-performance-contracts-ministers/

• Mulikita, NM, ‘Applying Results Based Management (RBM) Strategies in African Public Administration: Challenges and Opportunities, African Journal of Public Administration & Management’ ,2008, http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/AAPAM/UNPAN029882.pdf

http://www.lusakatimes.com/2012/01/17/government-introduce-3-months-performance-contracts-ministers/




http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/AAPAM/UNPAN029882.pdf

http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/AAPAM/UNPAN029882.pdf


• Mulikita NM ‘NEPAD’S AFRICAN PEER REVIEW MECHANISM(APRM), BUREAUCRATIC REFORM AND THE CHALLENGE OF WEALTH CREATION IN AFRICA’, Paper prepared for the African Association of Public Administration & Management (AAPAM), February 2005, http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/aapam/unpan025710.pdf

http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/aapam/unpan025710.pdf

http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/aapam/unpan025710.pdf

cafrad high-level seminar for policy makers and policy implementers on results based management...

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