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Date : 02/06/2005
Source: Department of Public Service and Administration
Title: Fraser-Moleketi: Association of SA Schools and Depts of Public Admin and Management


    Input by the Minister for Public Service and Administration, Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi, at the event of the ASSADPAM Dinner at the University of the North West (Potchefstroom Campus)

The focus that the Association of South African Schools and Departments of Public Administration and Management (ASSADPAM) has chosen for its annual conference this year is an important one - Research for Knowledge Creation in Public Management. It fills a big void - a void that impoverishes our specific area of interest - Public Administration. However, given the centrality of this discipline in the overall wellbeing and prosperity of countries and their people, the effect of the gap that our limited capacity in this area leave is much more far-reaching.

Broadening the focus

True to my nature I would, however, like to push the interpretation of the theme somewhat wider than what the terminology in the theme caters for. And I would like to do this in two respects. In the first instance I would hope that ASSADPAM is interested in knowledge creation for an area that surpasses "public management" by far. I would like to think that public management is only a sub-area of interest in the broader field of public administration and that most of the activities by the members of ASSADPAM actually deal with such a broader discipline. However, in the final instance and in its more contemporary understanding, public administration engages with issues and actors well beyond the scope of the bureaucracy, government and the state.

It also engages with the relationship between government and its citizens, and specifically the interface between State, Market and Civil Society. And as such I trust that your organisation is more interested in generating knowledge through research across the scope of the entire governance concept. There is no discipline other than Public Administration, maybe with the exception of Political Studies with which Public Administration in any event shares a very close affinity that can fill the scope opened up by the introduction of the concept "governance".

In the second instance I would like to borrow from the logic offered by the often quoted definition of Laswell on policy sciences. Laswell argues that the policy sciences are about the production and application of knowledge of as well as in policy. Otherwise elaborated, it is about knowledge and understanding in the content area. But in addition, in the context of policy, both policymakers, and in a democracy, citizens, need to have knowledge of the policy process.

Borrowing from this logic, I would like to suggest that your consideration today and tomorrow should not only be on detail content areas of public governance (i.e. the knowledge in public governance), such as for example, public sector reform, or public sector innovation, or public finance management, or ethics in the public sector, or performance management.

Of equal importance is that you should turn your attention to the processes of public governance (i.e. the knowledge of public governance), the relationships and interface activities between different sectors and actors, the mechanisms in use to operationalise and give meaning to these relationships. Finding answers to questions such as: * "How does decisions get made and influenced?"; * "Who benefits from certain decisions?"; * "What is the role of government in a developmental state?"; * "What do citizens want from government in 2005, 2010, and 2015?"

We have a problem though

Given the importance of information in modern organisation (be that private or public it is an indictment when we note in a single week the utterances of two intellectual giants in the field of governance of our time pointing to our shortcomings in this regard. One of these is on domestic soil, the other from abroad.

President Mbeki, during the Budget Vote of the Presidency last week came out straight on our lack of capacity in South African society generally, and government specifically when it comes to research and policy analytical capability. He said, and I quote:

"Our capacity to gather and process information, to enhance our understanding of our reality, has been insufficient to give our executive committees the full scope of knowledge that these committees need."

This is not the first time that the President speaks on these issues. An increased use and reliance on information and analysis to support decision-making processes have marked his term of office.

Where data was lacking, the systematic recording and analysis thereof has been significantly developed under his leadership. Note for example the creation of an integrated Monitoring and Evaluation system for the whole of government.

Where structures for systematic policy evaluation has been lacking, he has started to put these in place, note for example the Policy Co-ordination and Analysis Services in the Presidency. However, improvement of performance in this area is slow. Cabinet is often disappointed by the support given in terms of analysis - both quantitative and qualitative and in some instances we are at the receiving end of the bad press and incorrect messages that emanates from data and analysis that could not stand up to the test of public scrutiny. On this point the President concluded:

“By now, eleven years after our liberation, we also know enough to know how information, whether false or real, and however authentic it may appear, and widely propagated through the media, is used by contending political forces to determine the national agenda”.

Various reasons exist for this shortage of capacity. However, at the end of the day, and in this forum specifically, we have to look at ourselves and ask whether our universities have performed optimally in creating pools of analysts, adequately and appropriately skilled and experienced to carry out the work that society demands from them. It does not matter whether they choose to join government in whatever capacity, or whether they join one of the other sectors in the public governance triangle.

Do our graduates (and even our academics in the subject area) possess the following qualities as a minimum package:
* the technical mastery of a set of analytical tools appropriate for different tasks and circumstances;
* political astuteness to know how to "speak truth to power", while not sacrificing either on the core message, nor on the credibility of the relationship with decision-makers;
* an understanding of prevailing reality and a commitment to solve some of the enduring issues;
* an interdisciplinary, broad perspective and an ability to draw on extensive theoretical insights; * communications skills that can cope with experts and laypersons with equal efficacy;
* Sophisticated ICT capability that can identify the best information in an efficient manner, drawing on the vast quantities of information sitting at the finger tips of anybody who sits at a computer terminal and process their finds effectively and at a rapid rate to feed the information requirements of decision-makers.

If I just think of the difficulty that we have to recruit the right researchers and analysts in my ministry, I have to think that the answer has to be in the negative. The President, in his 2005/6 Budget Vote made reference of the fact that given our limited capacity to collect, process and analyse information relating to the evolution of our society, as well as the impact of national and international policies and development on our society the state will pay particular attention to the challenges to build the necessary institutions and systems to enable us to perform our tasks. I trust that the Universities from which you come will assist the President in this endeavour where required.

The second input on the topic that I wish to refer to comes from Jeffrey Sachs, previously from the World Bank, and more recently special economic adviser to the United Nations. The Sunday Independent of last Sunday makes mention that Sachs, in his new book "The End of Poverty" argues for development economics to be more like modern medicine, and specifically with regard to more accurate diagnosis of problems, better evaluation of cures and stronger ethics. Although Sachs writes about a related discipline, in my opinion his comments and desires hold true for Public Governance and Administration as well.

For too long Public Administration as a discipline have accepted a general weakness in the theoretical development of the field. For too long we have concentrated on the policy-formulation side, rather than paying attention to the evaluations aspect and what we can and should do with all the feedback that we receive from our implementation efforts. For too long we have shied away from what we called the softer issues, e.g. ethics, values and norms in lieu of a more economics driven foci, notably our pre-occupation with efficiency considerations.

Not for a single moment should my lament for stronger theory and more evaluation information be interpreted as a yearning for a return to scientific rationalism and the ivory tower, disconnected expertise that became associated with that. I think we will do ourselves and the subject area an injustice if we do not recognise that thinking and sophistication in the discipline has surpassed that debate a long time ago. There is broad recognition and increasing levels of respect and legitimacy given to forms of instrumental rationality, interpretive hermeneutics, critical discursive and dialogical approaches so that we can move on and advance in important respects.

What I find particularly exciting about these approaches is that they tend to be more akin to our African way of doing things. That we discuss our problems with a view of finding solutions and improving on decisions and that we recognise the insight that those who live the realities we create through our interventions can bring to the process of understanding and improving on our solutions. In this regard note for example the exceptional opportunities that a process such as the Izimbizo has to offer.

Of course processes such as these redefines the role of the analyst, researcher and knowledge worker and you will have to stay on top of the new challenges that this will pose for you.

Having said this and speaking from the perspective of Cabinet, we will continue to look towards the Universities for much of its traditional output as well. These are the outputs that form part of the conversation and the informed debate that contains the multitude of arguments that we as decision-makers should pay attention to. I think in our discipline we can do much from both our sides - government and academia - to improve significantly on the quality of the debate, conversation and arguments on matters currently under discussion, and those which we can foresee that will come on the agenda.

Late last years my officials insisted on a media analysis of the Public Service portfolio and that the one striking finding of this analysis was the absence of discussion on issues related to the portfolio from so-called independent analysts, think tanks and commentators. Annually we go to great trouble to prepare an extensive Budget Vote hand-out publication, detailing much of the work of the Portfolio. This is in addition to the meeting the statutory requirements for producing annual reports, and so forth. However, these are largely met with an overwhelming silence from our academic community. Many of the organised interests in the subject field seem to be in some form of organisational malaise.

We will collectively have to take initiative to re-invigorate the conversation and discussion in our area if we want to make the best decisions in the area of public governance and come forth with the most effective interventions that will give effect to the ideals we have for this society. In this respect I want to put two things on the table:

(a) The research agenda has clearly been outlined by the President in the 2005/06 Budget vote for the Presidency. I would like to draw your attention to the following issues that I would like you to start focussing on so that we can have the necessary discussions and be ready to feed the structures of government with the necessary information and sound argumentation:

* The role of the state in the process of reconstruction and development – in South Africa as well as Africa
* Public sector capacity – the status of it and what to do to improve on it. This discussion pertain to all levels and sectors within government, but also those involved in alternative service delivery initiatives, e.g. civil society/ community partners
* The macro-organisation/structuring of the state, including the issue of Public Entities, decentralisation and so forth
* Integration and coordination across the service delivery and governance landscape. This will include research on the unified public service
* Accountability frameworks that are in tune with more recent governance configurations and issues related to ethical government.
* Democratisation initiatives in the field of public administration – how to strengthen the connection between government and the people.
* Policy analysis, policy implementation and evaluation (particularly impact of existing policies and formative evaluations to improve on implementation)
* The impact of the global environment on what is possible in the domestic environment, for example the constraints that international agreements are posing on domestic policy making
(b) The second initiative, and the final aspect that I will raise tonight. This year we have re-formatted our approach to the celebration of Africa Public Service Day. We intend to use it for exactly stimulating debate and putting public administration back in the domain of public conversation and debate, and I would like to bring you and your institutions into this process in a big way.

Let me give you some background on this. Africa Public Service Day was established with the aim to reconfirm and in some instances establish the necessary stature of public service in the eyes of the general population. This recognition is necessary for the validation of the important role the state has to play in development of the continent and improving the living conditions of its people. In 2002 the United Nations have decided to coordinate their Public Service Day with that of Africa Public Service Day, confirming the importance of what the day stands for on the African continent and it was agreed to celebrate the day across the world on 23 June each year.

For the past four years South Africa has had programmes celebrating the day, and by now the day is well institutionalised on governments’ events calendar. As I have indicated we have decided to amend the format of the programme of events for this year. It will take the form of high-level panel discussions with interventions from audiences drawn from the political, practitioner and academic communities, as well as other opinion makers, community leadership and students. We will also have some input from colleagues in neighbouring African countries.

Five different sites spread across the country will be linked up via satellite to allow for live interaction and exchange. The sites will be at Parliament in Cape Town, in Gauteng, Stellenbosch, and Durban, where the institutions of higher learning is making available their facilities, as well as at two Multi-Purpose Community Centres in the Eastern Cape and Free State.

The theme of the discussion this year will be “The Role of the State in the Reconstruction of Africa”.

During the past week officials from the Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA) were very active in working on the logistics, starting to identify facilitators, members of the respective panels and so forth. Other invitations are prepared as we gather here. Obviously all the Universities and specifically your departments and schools will receive invitations. I am fully aware of the fact that this is exam time and academics and students have other pressing matters on their minds. I would, however, really like to encourage you to participate in the event in the range of roles that is available. Ample opportunity will be given for discussion and input from the floor. I would also encourage you to prepare some of your students for this occasion. Let us catch their interest in our subject matter at an early stage. Let us show them some of the different dimensions of studying Public Administration.

I trust that we will put our interactions and contributions, as well as our research outputs on a new level of efficacy after this event and am looking forward to engaging with you on an ongoing basis in the years to come.

Issued by: Department of Public Service and Administration
2 Jun 2005
   

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