Boosting skills to drive public service reform in South Africa and Ghana
On a recent Global Government Forum webinar, experts discussed ways to boost skills among public and civil servants. This included how to strengthen values of impartiality, integrity, honesty and objectivity across the workforce.
Modernisation of public services depends on both technological innovation and people with the right skills to deliver services that citizens demand in the 21st century and to drive the reform of public services themselves.
This challenge is more acute in younger democracies in countries that lack training traditions across institutions. The task ahead is to learn what best practices look like, then take practical steps to integrate them into divisions, from public service delivery and procurement to digital development, project management and finance.
No future without reform
During a recent Global Government Forum webinar, Lawrence Matemba, acting head of policy research and services for the Presidency of the Republic of South Africa, reflected on the critical factors that have shaped South Africa’s approach to implementing public service reform since 1994, when South Africa’s democratic government replaced the apartheid administration.
He underscored the fact that developing countries “do not enjoy the luxury of carefully sequencing their public service reforms” and are often forced to undertake critical political and economic reforms “without sufficient capacity or information”.
Matemba went on to say that the choice facing many developing countries is whether to endorse a minimal state or a bigger, stronger state. The history of apartheid in South Africa has done much to undermine citizens’ trust in legal and administrative decisions, making it harder for the country to pursue traditionally grounded institutions.
Equally challenging is the choice between developing public services that are flexible, versus those that are stable. The dilemma is that stability requires capacity, without which flexibility can be very risky. Ultimately, Matemba said, countries like South Africa must come to terms with the fact that public services and institutional reform must work hand in hand.
“A country cannot enjoy benefits of freedom and democracy without simultaneously reforming its public service,” he said. “It must address the problems of capacity and information management simultaneously and ensure that the political system is responsive to the needs of society.”
Read more: History has been made, paving the way for major public service reform in South Africa
Public servant and proud
Nyiko Mabunda, acting deputy director-general of human resource management and development at the Department of Public Service Administration in South Africa, said that the implementation of skills development across the South African government was vital to “deliver on whatever decisions would have been taken by the government of the day”. Further, it ensures those skills can be geared towards delivering in the interests of South African citizens. Mabunda said the phrase ‘Batho Pele’, meaning ‘people first’, is used in the South African government as a reminder that “if we are able to put people first, we’ll be able to deliver on exactly what we need to”. That requires professionalising the public service.
“Professionalisation…is about providing a clear vision of how we define the skills we need [and] how we then go about cultivating those skills so that we are able to have the next generation of public servants to drive what needs to be delivered on.,” he said.
Mabunda added that if the government succeeds in creating a learning environment for the public service and the public servants, it “become[s] more desirable” for public servants.
“You don’t have to hide the fact that you’re a public servant, and that has to be guided by a career system that is based on meritocracy and an ethical disposition for the public servant,” he said.
A culture of continuous improvement
The conversation then turned to Ghana, where Caroline Y Owusu Agyekum works as head of HR, human resource unit at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC).
Like South Africa, Ghana is looking to enhance skills among its officials across all government agencies. The challenges it faces are mainly to do with “inefficiencies in service deliveries”, which Agyekum said stem from several factors.
She highlighted the capacities of those who “actually perform these tasks”, as well as “the manual processes, bottlenecks, bureaucracies and corruptions that hinder progress on access to the services that the citizenry expects from them”.
“Fostering a culture of continuous improvement and of shared values, where transparency and objectivity come into play – this is the culture that we need to work within the area [so] that we are proud that they are part of the public sector,” she said.
The government is also looking at training and developing the “capacities and competencies” of the public sector, Agyekum said. For example, the Ghana Institute for Public Administration has been set up with the mandate to create “specifically designed programmes and courses to enhance public servants and to ensure that they understand the leadership that they need to provide, the governance that they need to provide”.
When it comes to recruitment, Agyekum said the Ghanaian government is looking at “merit-based recruitment and promotion so that the right people are put in the right place”. This also aims to make sure that “those who are already in the system are encouraged to update themselves or upgrade themselves to enable the best practices within the sector”.
The role of digital transformation
Dr Nandipha Madiba, non-executive director of the board and chairperson of the human capital, remuneration and social and ethics committee at the South African Bureau of Standards (SABS), said that digital transformation is driving a paradigm shift in talent management within the public sector. That shift involves the emergence of new “skill sets, evolving job roles, data driven talent management practices, agile work models, enhanced employee experiences, and significant cultural and organisational changes”.
By embracing these changes, the public service can “effectively manage its workforce and meet the demands of a rapidly evolving digital landscape from the perspective of today’s engagement”.
Madiba added that: “Leadership skill is required, [but] the other part that is important is people having adaptability. If you have adaptability, you will embrace change, and if you embrace change, you will communicate what needs to be communicated.”
From technocracy to citizen-focused government
A cultural shift capable of producing citizen-first public services would need to involve “strict codes of ethics [and] leadership” at its core, Agyekum said.
She went on to say that “monitoring and accountability mechanisms” as well as reviews and feedback procedures would be key to tracking progress over time.
Cultural change is never easy however, as Matemba reminded the audience. For a real shift to take root, he said, institutions need to shake public servants out of old habits, incentives and expectations.
“In government, we have had this culture that says you won’t be fired, you won’t be disciplined, and you won’t be held accountable,” he said. “If [public servants] behave in a manner that gives hope to the public, where they are held accountable and so forth, then we can then change the culture. That being said, it will take time.
Replay the webinar: Boosting skills across the public service to drive reform
About Jack Aldane
Jack is a British journalist, cartoonist and podcaster. He graduated from Heythrop College London in 2009 with a BA in philosophy, before living and working in China for three years as a freelance reporter. After training in financial journalism at City University from 2013 to 2014, Jack worked at Bloomberg and Thomson Reuters before moving into editing magazines on global trade and development finance. Shortly after editing opinion writing for UnHerd, he joined the independent think tank ResPublica, where he led a media campaign to change the health and safety requirements around asbestos in UK public buildings. As host and producer of The Booking Club podcast – a conversation series featuring prominent authors and commentators at their favourite restaurants – Jack continues to engage today’s most distinguished thinkers on the biggest problems pertaining to ideology and power in the 21st century. He joined Global Government Forum as its Senior Staff Writer and Community Co-ordinator in 2021.
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