| United Nations | A/50/525-E/1995/122 |
General Assembly
Economic and Social Council
Distr. GENERAL
11 October 1995
ORIGINAL:
ENGLISH
GENERAL ASSEMBLY ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
Fiftieth session Resumed substantive session
Agenda item 12 of 1995
REPORT OF THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL Agenda item 6 (q)
COUNCIL ECONOMIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL
QUESTIONS: PUBLIC
ADMINISTRATION AND
DEVELOPMENT
Report of the Group of Experts on Public Administration
and Finance on its twelfth meeting
(New York, 31 July-11 August 1995)
Note by the Secretary-General
The Secretary-General has the honour to transmit to the General Assembly
and the Economic and Social Council the report of the twelfth meeting of
the Group of Experts on Public Administration and Finance which, in
pursuance of General Assembly resolution 49/136 of 19 December 1994, will
be considered by the Assembly at its resumed fiftieth session and by the
Council at its resumed substantive session of 1995.
95-30660 (E) 011295/...
*9530660*
Annex
REPORT OF THE GROUP OF EXPERTS ON PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
AND FINANCE ON ITS TWELFTH MEETING
(New York, 31 July-11 August 1995)
CONTENTS
Paragraphs Page
I. INTRODUCTION ......................................... 1 -17 4
II. ROLE OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION IN DEVELOPMENT ......... 18 -847
A. Role of public administration in sustained
economic growth .................................. 28 - 3510
B. Role of public administration in promoting social
development ...................................... 36 - 4512
C. Role of public administration in facilitating
infrastructure development and in protecting the
environment ...................................... 46 - 5813
D. Role of public administration in promoting
partnerships ..................................... 59 - 7115
E. Role of public administration in managing
development programmes ........................... 72 - 7518
F. Role of public administration in establishing and
maintaining the legal and regulatory framework ... 76 - 8419
III. CAPACITY-BUILDING IN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION ........... 85 - 14421
A. Enhancing policy development capacity,
strengthening organizational structures and
improving civil service systems .................. 98 - 11124
B. Strengthening financial management in the public
sector ........................................... 112 - 12026
C. Developing human resources in the public sector .. 121 -13128
D. Improving efficiency and performance in the public
sector ........................................... 132 - 13830
CONTENTS (continued)
Paragraphs Page
E. Developing administrative capacities for
post-conflict restoration and rehabilitation of
government machinery ............................. 139 - 14431
IV. CONCLUSION ........................................... 145 -14633
V. RECOMMENDATIONS ...................................... 147 -16334
A. National Governments ............................. 150 -15835
B. The United Nations ............................... 159 -16336
Appendices
I. Consolidated recommendations arranged by topic ...................38
II. Agenda ...........................................................55
III. List of participants .............................................56
I. INTRODUCTION
1. Pursuant to General Assembly resolution 49/136, the United Nations
Department for Development Support and Management Services (DDSMS), on
behalf of the Secretary-General, convened the twelfth meeting of the Group
of Experts on Public Administration and Finance, held under the United
Nations programme in public administration and finance (hereinafter
referred to as the Programme) at United Nations Headquarters from 31 July
to 11 August 1995. This meeting was the preparatory meeting for the
examination by the General Assembly of the question of public
administration and development, to take place at its resumed fiftieth
session. The Group of Experts had the following terms of reference, which
were derived from the resolution:
(a) To contribute, through the Economic and Social Council, to the
resumed session based on the experience gained in assisting developing
countries and countries with economies in transition in capacity-building
in public administration for development;
(b) To review the United Nations activities in public administration and
finance;
(c) To make appropriate recommendations for action at both the national
and international levels, especially for strengthening the role of the
United Nations in this field.
2. The report of the Group of Experts will be submitted to the Economic
and Social Council (ECOSOC) at its resumed session in late 1995 and it will
be an input to the preparation of the Secretary-General's consolidated
report. The report of the Secretary-General on public administration will
be discussed by the General Assembly at its resumed fiftieth session in
April 1996.
3. The preparations and coordination for the resumed session are being
undertaken by DDSMS and began in January 1995 with a departmental working
group which formulated a draft plan. A technical committee set up to guide
the process comprised institutions with significant programmes in public
sector administration and management. This committee was composed of
representatives of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the
World Bank, the International Labour Organization (ILO), the Economic
Commission for Africa (ECA), the International Institute of Administrative
Sciences and the Harvard School of Government, with DDSMS chairing the
committee. This committee first met on 10 March 1995, technically analysed
the resolution and derived four main themes for consideration at the
resumed session: (a) strengthening capacity in public administration; (b)
the role of public administration in promoting social development; (c)
development of infrastructure facilities and protecting the environment;
and (d) management of development programmes.
4. The technical committee further developed specific topics within the
main themes. The specific topics are: sustained economic growth;
promoting social development; facilitating infrastructure development and
protecting the environment; promoting partnerships; managing development
programmes and establishing and maintaining a legal framework for
development; enhancing policy development capacity; organizational
strengthening; improved civil service systems; strengthening financial
management for development; developing human resources for the public
sector; improving efficiency and performance in the public sector; and
developing administrative capacities for post-conflict restoration,
including crisis management and rehabilitation of government machinery. A
wide variety of public administration activities apply to the peace-to-
development and disaster-to-development continua, for which institutional
strengthening and capacity-building are important aspects of peace-
building.
5. Consultative meetings have been held periodically, including of
representatives of Member States, United Nations agencies,
intergovernmental organizations, non-governmental organizations, research
institutes and the private sector.
6. Prior to the commencement of the twelfth meeting of the Group of
Experts, the Department convened an informal inter-agency working group on
28 July 1995. The main objectives of this working group were to review the
activities of the agencies under their respective public administration and
finance programmes and to consider common issues that the working group as
a whole could recommend to the Group of Experts for priority consideration.
The General Assembly, in the above-mentioned resolution, also requested the
agencies to contribute, through the Economic and Social Council, to the
work of its resumed session.
7. The inter-agency meeting was attended by representatives of the
Department for Development Support and Management Services of the
Secretariat (DDSMS), the Department for Economic and Social Information and
Policy Analysis (DESIPA), the Department for Policy Coordination and
Sustainable Development (DPCSD), the Economic and Social Commission for
Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), the International Labour Organization (ILO),
the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the World Bank.
Written statements were submitted by the representatives of DESIPA, ESCAP,
ILO, UNDP and the World Bank.
8. The inter-agency working group noted the importance of public
administration to development and recommended that closer collaboration on
specific programmes and projects be developed among the agencies to achieve
maximum benefit for developing countries. The group also recommended that
DDSMS contribute to coordination of inter-agency programmes in public
administration and finance, specifically to serve as a clearing-house for
experiences in public administration reform and innovation, and to
facilitate sharing experiences among Governments, as well as among
agencies. The group recommended joint programme formulation missions,
consultation in the early stages of programme formulation and follow-up
collaboration in the implementation and evaluation phases.
9. Also, the inter-agency working group noted that in many human resources
development programmes, training was given insufficient emphasis. The
group suggested that greater attention needed to be paid to the
organizational context of the trainees and the encouragement to utilize the
new skills and knowledge obtained through training programmes. The group
also noted the need for effective coordination of central frameworks for
financial, legal, personnel, planning and information management with
performance improvement programmes in operational ministries and provinces.
The group also recommended emphasis on "management of change" programmes
and establishing and strengthening appropriate national institutions to
lead these processes of change in public administration and finance.
10. The twelfth meeting of the Group of Experts was opened by the
UnderSecretary-General of the Department for Development Support and
Management Services. He noted that public administration and finance were
the backbone of development efforts, and in particular the foundation for
operationalizing at the field level the concepts and plans articulated at
the major global conferences. He noted that sound institutions and
governance systems in accordance with specific conditions of individual
countries were prerequisites for human development and sustainable
development.
11. The keynote speaker, Mr. Guy Braibant, Section President of the
Conseil d'Etat of France and former President of the International
Institute of Administrative Sciences, stated that the role of public
administration was often underestimated. He noted that the scope and focus
of State machinery might be changing, but cautioned that without the
effective and efficient functioning of the State's operations, its
development programmes could not be successful. He stated that while the
State machinery should be modest, it should be strong in those activities
on which it chooses to focus. He further noted that improvement of public
administration was less a problem of finances than a problem of will.
12. Thirty-seven experts were invited from different regions of the world
to attend the twelfth meeting of the Group of Experts. The experts
participated in their individual capacity and not as representatives of
their Governments or organizations. In addition, the meeting was attended
by representatives of the regional commissions and other United Nations
bodies, specialized agencies, interregional and regional institutions, and
non-governmental organizations. A list of participants is given in
appendix III to this report.
13. The Group of Experts elected Ms. Juliette Bonkoungou (Burkina Faso)
as Chairperson; Mr. Luis Garcia Cardenas (Mexico), Ms. Maria Gintowt-
Jankowicz (Poland) and Mr. Clive J. Parry (United Kingdom) as Vice-
Chairpersons and Ms. Corazon Alma De Leon (Philippines) as Rapporteur.
14. The Group of Experts deliberated its agenda through plenary and
working group sessions. Ten working groups were constituted, one for each
topic, combining the first two subjects into one topic. The subjects were:
(a) policy development capacity and administrative restructuring, civil
service reform and management training; (b) financial management; (c) human
resources development; (d) public-private interaction; (e) public sector
efficiency; (f) social development; (g) infrastructure and the environment;
(h) legal and regulatory framework; (i) post-conflict rehabilitation and
reconstruction of government machinery; and (j) management of development
programmes. The agenda adopted by the Group of Experts is given in
appendix II to the present report.
15. The working groups were led by the following moderators: Mr. Luis
Garcia Cardenas, Ms. Corazon Alma De Leon, Ms. Marie Helene Dumestre, Mr.
Salman Faruqui, Mr. Gerard Marcou, Ms. Namane Magau, Mr. Jose Oscar
Monteiro, Mr. Graham Scott and Mr. Selwyn Smith.
16. The Group of Experts had before it the following documents:
Strengthening government capacity for policy development
(ST/SG/AC.6/1995/L.2), Administrative restructuring, civil service reform
and management training (ST/SG/AC.6/1995/L.2/Add.l), Financial management
for improved public management and development (ST/SG/AC.6/1995/L.3),
Strengthening government capacity in legal and regulatory framework
(ST/SG/AC.6/1995/L.4), Improving efficiency of the public sector: a case
study of Malaysia (ST/SG/AC.6/1995/L.5), Improving efficiency of the public
sector (ST/SG/AC.6/1995/L.5/Add.1), Public-private interaction
(ST/SG/AC.6/1995/L.6), Human resources development: a case study of South
Africa (ST/SG/AC.6/1995/L.7), Human resources development
(ST/SG/AC.6/1995/L.7/Add.1), Modernization of the State for social
development (ST/SG/AC.6/1995/L.8), Role of public administration in
developing infrastructure and protecting the environment
(ST/SG/AC.6/1995/L.9), Complex systems in crisis: the development process
under conditions of urgent stress (ST/SG/AC.6/1995/L.10), Restoration and
restructuring government administrative machinery in post-conflict peace-
building (ST/SG/AC.6/1995/L.10/Add.1) and Role of public administration in
the management of development programmes (ST/SG/AC.6/1995/L.ll).
17. The deliberations and recommendations of the Group of Experts are
recorded in the reports of the working groups which have been incorporated
into a final report. All experts heard all plenary presentations and
participated in plenary discussions. Each expert participated in two
working groups, one on the role of public administration and one on
capacity-building. Each expert contributed to an informal discussion, in
an area of his or her expertise, both for a substantive topic and for a
capacity-building topic. Each working group met for six hours and prepared
a report. The reports of the working groups were presented individually as
they were completed and then compiled in a final report, which is divided
into the two main themes: role of public administration in development and
capacity-building. The report of the Group of Experts contains a total of
103 recommendations for national Governments and 96 for the United Nations
and the international community. Recommendations were therefore made at
different levels to include the numerous socio-political and economic
stages in which countries are aligned. In view of the length and dimension
of styles reflected in the analysis of various topics, the Group of Experts
requested the Secretariat to edit the report and consolidate the
recommendations for consideration by ECOSOC. The present report provides a
condensed version which maintains the conceptual integrity with the
stylistic uniformity and intellectual thrust of the recommendations made by
the Group of Experts.
II. ROLE OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION IN DEVELOPMENT
18. Since the late 1980s, global development strategies and initiatives
have been influenced less by perceived bipolarization of the international
arena and more by three emerging factors: a demand for increased
participation in governance; increased economic interdependence within a
global market economy; and increased emphasis on issues of social justice.
Other fundamental changes influencing development dynamics include the
rapid pace of change brought about by technological advances and the
emergence of non-governmental organizations and cross-national economic
ventures. Within this context, there is awareness of significant successes
and failures in development efforts, an understanding that effective
development requires attention to sustainability, and realization that
there are no quick and painless strategies for development. Given the
magnitude and scale of change required in some developing economies and
economies in transition, it is recognized that long-term, comprehensive,
complex, and multi-system change processes are required for sustainable
development.
19. Under the changed global context which is impacting all countries, the
traditional configuration of the relationship between Government and
society is no longer relevant. The current structure and processes of
governance are questioned at two levels: (a) the role of the State and (b)
the role of public administration in development. First, within the
context of increased private sector and non-governmental organizational
activity, many Governments are attempting to redirect the role of the State
to that of regulation and creation of an enabling environment. Second, the
tasks of public administration, which historically had been complex and
difficult, are increasingly so. Greater complexity and interdependence
create the impression that many development problems facing public
administrations are unsolvable. For example, with significant vertical and
horizontal integration among countries the assumptions underlying solutions
to country-based unemployment have changed so substantially that old
paradigms for solving unemployment can no longer be utilized by public
administration to remedy unemployment at the country level.
20. The primary challenge requiring a redefinition of the role of the
State arises from the market-based economy. The State, under conditions of
comprehensive market-based economy, redirects its role away from production
functions and towards policy and regulatory functions. This shift
generally results in a State machinery which is less heavy and less
bureaucratic. The policy and regulatory functions put strong demands on
information gathering and analysis activities. The State machinery is
required to develop its thinking and control capacity, that is, a
collective "brain" for society, thereby taking responsibility for analysis,
planning and evaluation, with continuous feedback mechanisms.
21. At the same time, there are some fundamental functions like peace and
social justice, environment and good governance, which cannot be
privatized. These serve as a reminder that society does expect the State to
be responsible for certain functions through its own State machinery, that
is, the public administration. Given the importance of peace, social
justice, environment and good governance, public administration can be
expected to thrive. It is equally certain that when markets fail, as they
often do, even in those countries with a strong market orientation, or when
markets create an unhealthy business climate, the public administration
will have to maintain its role of policy-making, regulation and mediation.
22. Moreover, as long as there will be a need for defining the future of
the country through the development process, balancing existing societal
values and commitment with emerging values and new challenges, and
responding to national consensus-building and global changes, there will be
a significant role for the State and public administration.
23. The more likely scenario in reshaping and redefining the State and
public administration will be one in which the State will more
comprehensively involve its citizens in governance through greater
responsiveness to citizen needs and demands and greater transparency and
accountability. The public administration system will re-engineer its
management system for improved efficiency. The public administration
system will maintain its core responsibility in the application of the rule
of law, and programmatic development responsibilities in poverty
alleviation, infrastructure development and social development, as well as
contemporary responsibilities in environmental protection and facilitating
private sector development.
24. If public administration is to continue to provide leadership in the
process of achieving sustainable development, it must earn the trust and
confidence of the public in its ability to respond to the needs and demands
of the people. In order to earn this trust and confidence, Governments
need to improve service delivery, establish an open, enabling framework for
socio-economic activities, and provide an impartial and fair framework for
social and economic interactions.
25. Critical factors for restoring public confidence are leadership,
commitment to change and flexibility. Leadership will define and
communicate a vision for the future, as well as strategies through which to
reach openly stated and welldefined goals. Long-term thinking, both at the
national and international levels, needs to be linked to the immediate
needs of the people. Commitment to change is defined by the ability of the
public sector to respond to changing circumstances by facilitating economic
growth, extracting resources for current services and new demands and, at
the same time, maintaining current services without increasing the cost of
these government activities. These challenges for the public
administration system require administrators not only to keep pace with
change, but respond to and anticipate change. A responsive public
administrative system needs to be modular and flexible.
26. The knowledge and skills needed for administration and management in
this changing global context are different. When information and resource
exchanges transcend national boundaries and initiate interactions between
individuals in different nations, administrators are required to be open,
flexible and able to deal with complexity. No longer are societies,
Governments, economies and public administrations isolated and impacted
only by national needs. With the conditions of global interaction changing
at a rapid pace, public administration systems need to be both responsive
and pro-active. Public administration systems in development must, indeed,
be managers of change.
27. The role of public administration can therefore be viewed as
sustaining economic growth, promoting social development, facilitating
infrastructure development and protecting the environment, promoting
partnerships, managing development programmes and maintaining a legal and
regulatory framework.
A. Role of public administration in sustained economic growth
28. Public administration has a pervasive influence on sustainable
economic development. The concept of sustainability is increasingly
informing interventions by national Governments and their development
partners. The concept has physical aspects and human aspects. At the
physical end, the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development
and Agenda 21 have brought concerns for natural resource depletion and
degradation into public administration. At the human end, the United
Nations Secretary-General's agenda for development has stressed that
economic growth is not pursued for its own sake, but rather for poverty
alleviation and the progressive empowerment of people to make the choices
that shape their lives. It is evident that in the new market-oriented
paradigm of development, Governments have a greater responsibility to
protect the poor and disadvantaged and to seek ways of bringing them into
the mainstream through adequate access to productive assets and by
strengthening social safety nets.
29. Public administration's continued role in sustainable economic
development will be defined through its role in policy planning and
management, resource mobilization and public expenditure programmes.
Policy is strongly influenced by administrative capacity and the set of
institutional mechanisms and processes within which policy is formulated.
As the role of public administration shifts to one of facilitating,
promoting and regulating rather than providing, there is a need for new
attitudes, new techniques and higher competencies. Getting policy right in
an increasingly globalized and complex world requires the very best
equipped people and efficient systems. A comprehensive review of
government may consequently become necessary in several instances.
30. Sound macroeconomic policies underpin sustainable economic growth.
There is broad international agreement today on a number of policy issues.
Sustainable economic growth depends, inter alia, on a clear and stable
framework of government policy, particularly trade policy, competition
policy and control of monopolies, labour policy, environmental policy,
foreign investment policy, fiscal policy including investment incentives,
monetary and foreign exchange policies. Governments are shifting from
being interventionist and Statemonopoly oriented, and are favouring the
location of wealth-creating activities in the private sector, except where
there are transparent and demonstrable reasons for public-sector
involvement. Consequent on deregulation and structural adjustment, micro-
level reform is taking place in several countries.
31. In the area of resource mobilization, there is evidence that while
global flows of foreign direct investment tripled in the 1980s, they were
very selectively oriented. Commercial flows to developing countries are
very contingent on investor perceptions of domestic political, social and
economic stability and investment-friendly policies and conditions, in
which public administration has a critical role. An important part of this
perception is the liberalization of the domestic economy and its opening to
greater international competition. This does not necessarily mean the
removal of all restrictions or the complete elimination of protection: it
does mean a major shift away from isolation and towards active involvement
in global trade and investment opportunities. The experience of successful
countries suggests the possibility of exploiting foreign direct investment
and trade linkages. This can be done through a combination of investment-
promoting, productivity-enhancing and networking policies that enable
domestic firms to upgrade their production through product and process
innovation and to penetrate new markets.
32. Public finance shapes the course of development. Public spending,
taxes, user charges and borrowing affect the behaviour of producers and
consumers, and impact the balance of payments, foreign debt and the rates
of inflation, interest and exchange. The problem for many countries is how
to achieve macroeconomic stability without retarding long-term development.
More attention needs to be given to the impact of adjustment at the macro
budgetary level on those government sectoral policies which are crucial to
sustained economic growth and poverty alleviation. Careless fiscal
austerity, such as across-theboard cuts in budget allocations, can lead to
recession and disproportionate burdens on the poor. Governments are
placing greater reliance on user charges as a source of revenue. In some
countries, proceeds of sale of public assets are giving a short-term boost
to revenue. Tax systems are being restructured to be more neutral in their
allocative effects, and simplified to reduce the costs of compliance and
enforcement and to improve yields. In many countries, the focus is on the
reform of the banking system and the development of a capital market to
mobilize funds, especially domestic savings, for productive investment.
Bank supervision is being tightened up. Central banks are being made more
independent in order to insulate the currency from popular pressures. In
all these areas the role of public administration will increase in
importance.
33. In public expenditure programmes, public administration will be
involved in rationalizing and streamlining the medium-term development
planning process (including aid planning and coordination), and integrating
this with the annual budgeting process. Public administration will have to
utilize budgets not only as instruments of accountability but also as
instruments of management. An appropriate balance must be found between
development expenditures and recurrent expenditures. The public sector in
many countries has underutilized and undermaintained capital assets. These
needs will also have to be addressed.
34. Other areas of concern for public administration will include
remedying the scarcity of well-developed project proposals which are
acceptable to financiers. The main issues of project selection in practice
are: how to design the project development process so that bad projects
(and projects that could be undertaken by the private sector) can be
identified at an early stage and weeded out without the negative political
and bureaucratic fallout that accompanies outright rejection; how to apply
consistent criteria of project appraisal across a number of agencies,
especially in the context of administrative decentralization; and how to
ensure the sustainability of projects in terms of capacity to meet future
recurrent costs. In countries where a large part of the development budget
(or even all of it) is financed by external donors, there is a real problem
of exerting national control over the selection of projects and reconciling
the national development planning process with the procedures of multiple
donors.
35. At the implementation stage, both capital and recurrent expenditure
programmes diverge significantly from plans and budgets, thus nullifying
many of the planned synergies and linkages. Many countries are
experimenting with the potential of modern information technology.
However, project management still tends to be identified with financial
monitoring; the usual indicator of achievement is the rate of spending.
There is relatively little effort to identify the sources of project delay
and to break bottlenecks in implementation. The cost of delay is not
brought to account so no one is held accountable. On the financial side,
accounting data are commonly late and unreliable; they are prepared on a
cash basis which does not match with physical progress or outputs.
B. Role of public administration in promoting social development
36. The social situation in many parts of the world has reached a critical
level at which whole societies are at risk of becoming socially unstable.
The costs in terms of human suffering in broad sectors of the world's
population are of such magnitude that the search for social solutions must
be at the centre of public attention over the next three or more decades.
The World Summit for Social Development has given renewed impetus to the
social development theme and has called upon societies to establish a
framework for social development which builds upon a culture of cooperation
and partnership.
37. Public expenditure cut-backs in recent years have had a detrimental
effect on the development of social services in several parts of the world.
There is a causal relationship between the weakening of the State and
public administration and the decline of both social service delivery and
social policy-making in several countries. The need for building capacity
for social policy development is particularly acute.
38. Trends observed in both developing and developed countries reveal
accelerating poverty: growing numbers of families live below the poverty
line and there are increasing instances of extreme poverty in which
families are unable to satisfy their most basic necessities. Large numbers
of trained and skilled workers are also losing their economic base,
regressing down the socio-economic scale. Moreover, poverty is
particularly focused on children, women and youth.
39. There is a growing acknowledgment that the role of the State in
promoting social development is crucial because it is only the State that
can conceive and formulate social policies on a broad scale and ensure
their effective coordination. Public administration should be capable of
addressing the root causes of poverty and inequity, and improving the
social situation of societies which have reached a critical level, by
narrowing the gaps and promoting social equality. This key role falls to
the public administration sector, in part, because it serves as coordinator
for the provision of basic social services that the market will not
provide. Also, there is a shift in development priorities towards greater
investment in people.
40. Thus, Governments have to provide leadership for a collective process
of massive and sustained long-term investment in the social sectors. This
question is linked to government decision-making and priority-setting with
respect to public expenditure. In Latin America, for example, countries
have in fact been decapitalizing their educational and health systems, thus
widening the gap between social groups. On the other hand, the example of
some South-East Asian countries demonstrates what is possible when
investment in the social sectors is supported. In many countries, even if
additional resources for social development could be assured, it is still
questionable whether the present government machinery would be capable of
delivering the desired level of social programmes. Capacity-building is
needed not only for policy formulation but also for implementation.
41. Public administration must also generate higher quality in its
policies. At present, social policies often aim solely at resolving the
"casualties" of economic policies. Public administrators need to develop a
coherent social development policy, which implies better articulation
between economic and social policies and instruments. Designing such
policies is a complex and technically difficult activity, but is extremely
necessary.
42. Concurrent with this leadership role, there is a strong need for the
State to modernize itself and increase its efficiency to deliver social
programmes and services as well as to redefine the manner in which the
State coordinates its functions with civil society.
43. Modernizing the State in the social field is of strategic importance
for the future of developing and developed countries. Much will depend
upon the State's ability to generate a new perception of how to deal with
social development policy and its willingness and capacity to achieve
efficient management at both macro and micro levels.
44. Social programmes require a high degree of cooperation and
collaboration among large numbers of agencies and organizations and call
for active participation of the community, grass-roots organizations and
NGOs. They must promote transparency and accountability. This has its
political and technical complexities and requires innovation on the part of
the State and a break from the traditional relations between public
administration and the community.
45. In sum, public administration must be capable of much more audacious
and innovative thinking and action in the light of the magnitude of the
social issues and problems that it faces. Whether or not societies are
willing and able to improve significantly the levels of their social
management will determine to a large degree the extent to which these
societies will survive. The question is how best to modernize public
administration to carry out effectively its role as promoter of social
development, mobilizer of social investment and innovator in the field of
social management.
C. Role of public administration in facilitating infrastructure
development and in protecting the environment
46. As the twenty-first century approaches, public administration faces a
number of goals as providers of infrastructural services. Among these are
improved efficiency, increased reliability, cost-effective management,
integration of environmental concerns in infrastructural development and
maintenance, reducing the growing dichotomy between urban and rural
infrastructural services, and sustained economic growth.
47. Historically, the combination of a society's primary need for
services and its technological potential has been the fundamental catalyst
for the formation and execution of large-scale physical works projects.
Investment in transportation, energy, telecommunication, water and
sanitation continues to be a basic measurement of societal development and
the public sector's efficacy.
48. Five critical issues that confront public administration in the area
of infrastructure are coordination, economic development, maintenance,
finance and environment protection.
49. With regard to coordination, public administrators seek a correct
balance between competitive and monopolistic provision. Competition,
though apparently expensive in terms of duplication of capacity, may reduce
overall costs and also provide more back-up facilities for essential
services.
50. Public administration will continue its important role in economic
development and growth through infrastructure development in such areas as
transport, water and electricity, which are intermediate inputs to
production. Any reduction in the costs of these inputs raises the
profitability of production, thus permitting higher levels of output,
income and employment.
51. The linkages between infrastructure capital and economic growth have
generally produced a significant, positive effect on economic output and
growth. But it is difficult to capture all possible externalities and
spillover effects of investment. Infrastructure promotes growth most
effectively in situations where a substantial level of activity already
exists. It makes significant contributions to growth through the reduction
in costs for services. But in many developing countries there is dramatic
evidence of the negative impact of inadequate infrastructure services on
economic growth and social welfare. It is the responsibility of public
administrators to ensure access to services, particularly at the regional
and local levels. Without such a commitment, in many cases, the economic
and social development of large segments of the public would be prejudiced.
52. A severe barrier to sustainable development in nearly all developing
countries has been the consistent failure of infrastructure providers to
support facilities through adequate maintenance programmes. The
consequences of inadequate maintenance severely limit efficiency in all
sectors of infrastructure. Over time, poor maintenance results directly in
reduced service quality and increased costs for users.
53. Unavailable resources, unskilled staff, inadequate project planning
and lack of coordination are the obvious factors for poor maintenance
programmes. But perhaps the most significant reason has been a systematic
bias in favour of new construction at the expense of maintenance and even
efficient operations. The current nature of donor financing reinforces this
bias.
54. Inadequate maintenance remains a serious challenge. Allowing roads to
deteriorate, irrigation canals to leak, water pumps to break down and
sanitation systems to overflow results in lost capacity, declining output
and/or a substantial increase in additional investment needed to sustain
existing levels of service. An indifference to maintenance is associated
directly with poor infrastructure policies which in turn absorb scarce
fiscal resources and compromise macroeconomic stability. Poor policies
lead to low-quality unreliable services, thus alienating users.
55. Three strategies will characterize the maintenance of infrastructure.
These are: (a) the wider application of commercial principles to generate
more recurrent income; (b) the broader use of competition in order to
reduce the cost of construction contracts and maintenance programmes; and
(c) the increased involvement of local communities and users where
commercial and competitive behaviour is constrained.
56. The three critical financial issues facing public administrators are:
(a) the financing of new projects and the effective management of the
resource allocation process; (b) the financing of maintenance and the issue
of prioritization according to the scope of projects and the urban-rural
mix; and (c) how to ensure environmental sensitivity in all aspects of
infrastructure financing, and the potential additional cost that may be
incurred.
57. Environmental impacts have rapidly become a central concern in the
development of infrastructure policies and agenda in all nations. It has
been evident for some time that externalities of infrastructure development
have taken their toll on the environment. Negative environmental impacts
have often resulted from a failure to take into account interdependencies
among infrastructure sectors, and the fact that public agencies themselves
can be polluters.
58. In many countries, unfortunately, there is an absence of environmental
sensitivity at the various tiers of government, particularly at the local
level. If regional and local planning are to be effective, it is the
responsibility of public administrators to address these issues thoroughly.
Another challenge for public administrators is to change traditional
thinking at regional and municipal levels regarding the environment. This
could be done by integrating environmental protection requirements into
general administrative procedures.
D. Role of public administration in promoting partnerships
59. The public administration role in private sector development is
threefold: stabilization, promotion and regulation. First and most
fundamental is stability in all its aspects -political, social, economic.
Without stability, there is no confidence in the future and no long-term
economic activity.
60. In public-private interactions there has been a shift of thinking on
the role of Government and on forms and modalities of interaction with the
non-State sector. The production of an increasing range and proportion of
goods and services is being taken on by private profit and non-profit
organizations and individuals, while Governments are increasingly involving
customers and beneficiaries in the design, implementation and evaluation of
government programmes. Governments want to mobilize the information,
energy and resources of private firms, non-governmental organizations and
private individuals to meet social needs. In promoting public-private
partnerships, such as public joint ventures and build-operate-transfer
projects, public administrators will be responsible for protecting the
public interest.
61. The limitations and constraints on public-private interaction are
attitudinal/cultural, organizational, market related and administrative.
In some countries, the public sector and the private sector think of each
other as essentially different, not just in managerial style but in
underlying goals and values. Where antipathy is extreme, there will be
little productive interaction. What is needed, in the first place, is an
awareness of common development goals, and a willingness to listen and
understand on both sides. Process consultancies can help to catalogue new
productive relationships.
62. For each service, the Government needs to consider whether it is a
public or private responsibility, whether it needs public or private
financing and whether public or private production is more appropriate.
However, Governments often lack the capacity to structure their
relationships with private sector partners and to ensure that the public
interest is served. Public administrators will require a new sense of
direction and new skills.
63. Business promotion raises complex issues of strategy and policy.
However, most countries are promoting their small and medium-sized
enterprise sector, which has been found to play an important role in
promoting economic development. Private enterprises should have the same
access to credit from State banks and from donors as public enterprises.
In some countries, new forms of partnership between branch banks, mobile
banks, informal savings and investment schemes, grass-roots organizations
and other sources of credit, such as village moneylenders, are increasing
the range of access to credit. Public administrators exercise a leadership
role in putting together these arrangements.
64. Privatization is the most striking economic phenomenon of the last
decade. Governments are putting many of their micro-management
responsibilities into private hands. There is a strong trend, now
observable in practically every country, to trust the market more. Many
clear successes have been scored. However, there have also been many
mistakes and lack of transparency in the design and implementation of
privatization programmes; in some countries, privatization has become a
dirty word. Governments need to pay more attention to the achievement of
efficiency gains through competition and the transparent structuring of
each privatization so that all parties gain -customers, investors,
employees and the Government. Governments should resist pressures to
privatize which will compromise the realization of efficiency gains.
65. Few countries so far have undertaken independent and in-depth
evaluation of the results of their privatization programmes, even after
several years of implementation. Without evaluation against the original
objectives, there is a risk that privatization is evaluated
inappropriately. It is important to include all the criteria of success in
an evaluation, not only the financial criteria. Governments should ensure
independent evaluation of the impact of their programmes.
66. Every country has a number of State-owned enterprises which cannot be
privatized in the immediate future. Many of these are large and
inefficient, but cannot be discontinued because the social and political
consequences would be unacceptable. Governments are trying, with varying
success, to improve the performance of such enterprises, particularly their
efficiency and financial performance, by restructuring, by hardening their
budgets, by corporatization and self-financing regimes, and by separating
ownership functions from management. Separation is sought by using holding
companies to manage portfolios of similar enterprises and/or by contracts
which make management fully accountable by pre-defining their goals in
objective terms, discontinuing procedural constraints and interference in
their authority to achieve the goals, and by rewarding or penalizing
managers according to their measured performance. Social goals are
separated from commercial goals and explicitly financed by the Government.
Contracts made with outside managers (management contracts) or the
incumbent management team (performance contracts) will place heavy demands
on public administrative skills in the future.
67. In some countries, there are major potential benefits from the
conversion of defence industries and budgets to civilian purposes. The
process of conversion requires political will and a pragmatic market-
oriented approach at the enterprise level. The key resource and advantage
of military enterprises is usually their advanced technology. The
government role here will be to use its leverage as the customer to
pressure military industry to plan conversion so as to mobilize these
resources for development. Joint ventures with civilian partners are used
to introduce new technology, product ideas, managerial skills and access to
foreign markets. Enterprises may be privatized before or after physical
conversion. Alternatively, particular operations may be spun off and
purchased by the managers and employees.
68. Regulation starts with a market-friendly legal environment. This
requires not only laws and regulations on property, bankruptcy and
insolvency, formation and management of companies, partnerships and joint
ventures, securities, banking, insurance, taxation, accounting practices,
etc. but also the courts and administrative personnel to support, implement
and enforce them (see sect. F below).
69. Many developing countries still have a high level of administrative
regulation of business. Several Governments have examined the rationale
for their administrative controls and simplified and streamlined them,
often creating a one-stop agency to reduce the cost and delay, particularly
to foreign investors. Administrative deregulation has the further
advantage that it attracts more enterprises into the formal sector.
70. Regulation of business activity by Governments serves to correct for
market weaknesses and to protect vulnerable groups where they are unable to
look after themselves. The respective groups are customers/consumers,
investors/creditors, users of the physical environment and employees.
71. Consumers have been a vocal pressure group against privatization,
since they fear price increases from the ending of consumer subsidies and
from unrestrained monopoly sectors. They also fear lowering of quality
standards by firms having only bottom-line criteria, and loss of access to
services which cost more in remote areas. These fears relate to monopoly
industries where the consumer has no choice of supplier. In developing
countries, even after deregulating industries formerly reserved to State
enterprises, monopoly is widespread -domestic markets are small and
economic plant sizes are relatively high. In practice, many developing
country products and services are de facto natural monopolies long after
they have been demonopolized in more advanced countries. Consumer
protection and other forms of regulation will be a continuous and major
role of Government in the development process.
E. Role of public administration in
managing development programmes
72. The role of public administration in the management of development
programmes has many facets. Some of the issues in which public
administrators will continue to be involved include:
(a) The need for the absorptive capacity of implementing agencies to be
taken into consideration during the planning and programming of development
activities;
(b) The importance of transparency and exchanges of information in the
course of development programmes;
(c) The need to utilize fully and build on existing national capacities,
e.g. governmental systems and institutions, national human resources, non-
governmental organizations and the private sector;
(d) The importance of South-South collaboration and interaction in
formulating country-relevant development programmes;
(e) The potential for the development partnership concept to be expanded
by including institutions from all levels of society in the development
planning process;
(f) The need for the State to provide an enabling environment that
encourages the highest level of civil society participation in the
formulation and evaluation of development programmes;
(g) The need for a genuine level of government "ownership" over
externally financed development programmes;
(h) Realizing that technical assistance should not direct the outcome of
development programmes, but support them; Government needs to exercise
leadership in ensuring that wider economic and social goals will be
realized by externally funded development programmes;
(i) Societal, cultural and economic constraints must be recognized by
both host Governments and donors alike if external assistance programmes
are to be formulated in a way that results in successful delivery of the
intended outcomes; and
(j) All government development programmes need to be structured in such
a way that the greatest multiplier effect possible is generated during
implementation, thereby maximizing the benefits to society.
73. In many countries, government proprietorship of the development
programme, including externally assisted components, needs reinforcement.
The ability to ensure that the national development plan is being
implemented in a harmonized way by all players, governmental and non-
governmental alike, requires effective management of the implementation
process.
74. The exercise of effective management requires that Government take the
lead in articulating a clear role for all parties participating in the
development process. Included in this articulation can be
(a) The role and scope for any technical cooperation activities, and the
outcomes anticipated with respect to skill transfers and sustainability;
(b) The role and responsibilities of non-governmental organizations and
private sector entities;
(c) The responsibilities of Government as concerns monitoring by non-
governmental organizations and private sector entities;
(d) A definition of the process by which expert negotiation and
evaluation of any bids to be solicited will be conducted, in the interest
of enhancing the transparency of the implementation process; and
(e) Government policy on the multiplier effects sought from development
programmes.
75. Critical to the management of development programmes is the role of
public administration in the utilization and building of domestic human
resource capacities. Existing national human resource capacities are
frequently overlooked when formulating, implementing, monitoring and
evaluating development programmes. Further, opportunities to
comprehensively reinforce national skill bases through training need to be
pursued far more vigorously by national Governments and donors alike.
Particular reference is made to the need for enhancement of national
technical skills in the complex fields of banking, international finance,
capital formation and comprehensive cost/benefit analyses.
F. Role of public administration in establishing and
maintaining the legal and regulatory framework
76. The legal framework of public administration is a central aspect of
public administration and development; however, it is too often absent from
discussions of modern public administration.
77. In many countries the legal framework of public administration cannot
play its role for a number of reasons. In some cases it is not adequately
sensitive to critical elements of the culture, e.g. in those countries
which have legal structures of foreign origin from colonial times, or
because critical laws regarding public administration have become
antiquated. Law is a major component and result of the cultural heritage
of any nation. Compliance with law requires that legal rules be rooted in
social values and traditions. Thus the law of public administration must
be sensitive to this cultural foundation.
78. The so-called implementation deficit is a widely recognized problem.
It is due to: the lack of resources for implementation; the imperfection
of legal drafting; the lack of an appropriate administrative organization;
and the instability of laws. It can also result from lack of consistency
between some structural reforms (e.g. decentralization) and requirements of
the law that central Government can no longer control. Lastly, a deficit
of implementation can result from a lack of will to comply with law when in
some cases, as a result of social fragmentation, informal linkages and
norms overrule the legal rules established by law. These difficulties are
harmful to the morale and performance of civil servants.
79. There is the ironic problem that while we see underapplication of the
law, we also see systems paralysed by what appears to be an excess of legal
constraints which are perceived to stand in the way of innovation,
effectiveness and efficiency. They are also seen to characterize
Government as excessively large, complex, and impersonal. At the societal
level these tendencies seem to inhibit efforts at enhanced participation
and democratization.
80. Public administration in the twenty-first century should be charged
with the establishment of an appropriate and effective legal framework
which is a prerequisite to creating an enabling environment and which is
conducive to promoting sustainable development. It is also essential to
the competency of the civil service to support the development effort.
81. The interrelationship between law and public administration has been
overlooked and neglected in the current study and practice of public
administration. This has been particularly detrimental to developing
countries and countries with economies in transition, as their inherited
legal frameworks may not reflect the culture of the country sufficiently
and are not as flexible or responsive as needed to meet the rapid changes
of our times.
82. Law is one of the central foundations upon which society is organized
(i.e. constitutionally). It provides instruments which are essential to
empower, regulate and control public administration. A primary distinction
between public administration and other endeavours is that officers of
Government are created by and act within the authority of law. Thus, the
legal framework offers the basis for public administration. It also
ensures rights, security and stability. It is both the means by which
Governments regulate and provide services to citizens and the means by
which those citizens may protect their rights. It is also a vehicle with
which to address problems of corruption or abuse of power. It regulates
the ongoing operation of public administration in terms of regularity,
opportunities for participation, fairness, and the essential aspects of
management in the public sector. It provides means for controlling the
public sector in the sense of providing mechanisms of accountability and
responsibility.
83. In terms of the challenge of development, law is essential for the
guarantee of property rights (private and public), the stability of which
is necessary to economic development. Appropriate regulatory frameworks
are vital to stimulating participation in economic development.
Appropriate legal frameworks are necessary for enhancing the development of
civil society, encouraging the participation of local communities and
indigenous people, and guiding the effective implementation of governmental
goals through public administration.
84. In providing for all of these tasks, the legal framework of public
administration provides a foundation for virtually all aspects of the task
of governance.
III. CAPACITY-BUILDING IN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
85. In the 1990s, public administration systems are faced with many
challenges. Dramatic changes in the global political environment, dynamic
changes in communication technology, critical common global problems, and
heightened emphasis on social justice and poverty alleviation are all
trends that reinforce the need to have public administration systems
capable of responding to multiple concurrent challenges.
86. These challenges animate both centralizing and decentralizing
tendencies. Common global economic issues require synchronization of
macroeconomic and social policies, thereby reinforcing centralizing
tendencies for public administration systems. Addressing poverty
alleviation and social justice requires deconcentrating authority and
decision-making to the point of service delivery and further encourages
decentralizing trends for the public administration system.
87. Knowledge and skills needed to operate in and manage each of the
levels in the overall system are different. Complexities and the rate of
change are different at each level as well as performance and
organizational success measures. Also, administrators who work at the
conjunction of different levels and systems of administration are
confronted by even greater complexity and are required to possess ever more
complex sets of knowledge and skills in order to function at a higher level
of productivity and performance. For example, global movements of
financial resources have become almost instantaneous as a result of
technological advances. Public administrative systems are required not
only to be able to understand such new practices, but also to be able to
set and monitor policies and regulations within this new and complex
context, if national financial systems are to be integrated into the global
system while continuing to maintain domestic control.
88. While responding to these new challenges, national public
administrative systems continue to be responsible for social and economic
programmes. One aspect of response to these challenges may be a re-
examination of core functions, which may be streamlined, thereby deleting
some existing functions and assuming newer core responsibilities. Also,
national public administrative systems have become increasing responsible
for developing national plans, policies and programmes and for coordinating
external aid flowing into the system. These functions demand that public
administrative systems acquire advanced capacities and capabilities.
89. Building capacity in the public administrative system involves
preparing it to better perform its functions at all levels. At the grass-
roots level, the administration is required to perceive changes in existing
needs and activities. At the intermediate level, for example the provincial
level, the administration is required to respond to changes at the grass
roots while anticipating changes at the national and international levels.
At the highest level, the administration is required to respond to all
levels and complexities of changes in governance, and to be pro-active in
anticipating long-term developments and in designing future-oriented
strategies.
90. The single most important factor in public administration systems is
people. Competent and motivated people constitute the most significant
difference between successful and unsuccessful organizations. The most
important organizational capacity is that of recruiting, motivating and
retaining highly qualified staff. Public administration systems need to
attract a fair share of the total quality workforce available in the entire
workforce. At the same time, the public administration needs to strengthen
the capacity of those who are already employed in the system. A two-
pronged strategy of optimal utilization of existing capacity and systematic
build-up of those areas in which shortages exist will promote human
resource capacity-building in the public service.
91. A variety of management tools and technologies can accelerate the
capacitybuilding process in public administration. Many of these tools can
be easily integrated into a wide range of administrative systems, for
example, office automation technologies, budgetary and financial management
record-keeping, and personnel management information systems. Other
management tools such as performance appraisal, strategic planning,
professional development and training have to be adapted to the context in
which these systems will operate. Still others, like transparency,
accountability, devolution and decentralization, or participatory decision-
making have to be negotiated to the satisfaction of all stakeholders
involved in the process of capacity-building.
92. While each public administration system identifies its specific
capacitybuilding needs, there are some recognizable trends in capacity-
building. The first key area is building capacity of public administration
systems in knowledge generation and creativity in defining the future
strategies, which are core responsibilities of public administration for
governance. Some of the subcomponents are: thinking strategically for the
future; designing new ways of creating and appraising leaders; examining
the process of policy-making and especially the relationship between
different levels of policy makers; and establishing an interactive network
of political leaders, top officials and other leaders outside the public
administration system.
93. Second, there is a need to develop skills in dealing with multi-system
and system-wide complexities and rapid change, which require universal
perspectives, while at the same time developing specialization, which
requires focused knowledge and skills. Within the context of managing
complexity and change, there are fundamental issues of core competencies
for different levels of public administration and governance, and the
nature of the changing demands for performance within public institutions.
At one level of complexity and change is the issue of rehabilitation and
restoration of public administration systems afflicted and beset by
conflict. Management during times of conflict or peace may not require the
same types of skills and knowledge, personnel or tools. Public
administration systems facing conflict will need a capacity to establish
programmes of restoration and rehabilitation within special constraints.
At another level of complexity, the public administration system may need
to respond to a natural disaster and therefore must be prepared to manage
the multiple systems that can malfunction during disaster situations. In
both conflict and disaster circumstances, there are many different systems
that affect each other: transport, energy, economy, natural resources and
communications, as well as the possible damage to the social fabric of
communities. Public administration systems need to be able to animate
cooperation and coordination among its various subsystems and with relevant
systems in society.
94. The third area of capacity-building involves the massive volume of
information required for effective public administration and the
development of means of properly utilizing the processed information to
undertake swift and dependable decisions which affect many lives.
Understanding of modern communications technology for research and
information gathering, as well as decision-making, will be a basic
requirement for personnel in public administration systems.
95. Designing new public organizations and restructuring existing public
organizations in order to improve and monitor service delivery is the
fourth area of capacity-building. Service delivery is especially important
in the 1990s, as the demand for effective and efficient service delivery
increases while the resources available to deliver the services are
severely reduced or at best maintained at the same level.
96. The fifth area of capacity-building is that of transparency and
accountability. It is essential that public administration systems be
capable of monitoring the use of resources in conformity with established
standards and procedures and in terms of results achieved with those
resources. Because external financial resources are involved in the
overall management of financial resources, this capacity has an
international dimension. While accurate financial accountability is a key
to appropriate use of resources, it is equally important to ensure
transparency of accounting of resources as they relate to programme output
and performance. Financial management systems which meet international
standards need to be put in place, and personnel need to be properly
trained to supervise and manage these systems.
97. When administrators have high-quality training, work within a
structure which motivates and rewards them, utilize modern management tools
and enjoy reasonable conditions of work, they can be expected to contribute
to organizational productivity and performance. Public administration
systems can achieve their objectives if capacity-building leads to
improving the total quality of public administrative systems, within a
framework of clear policy goals and dynamic leadership.
A. Enhancing policy development capacity, strengthening
organizational structures and improving civil service
systems
98. Over the past decades, the State has been increasingly challenged in
the performance of its major functions. It has had to face fundamental
changes in the social, economic and international fields. The issues have
become further aggravated because of political and financial crises. In
some situations there are problems of security and maintenance of the
rights of citizens. In some cases, the problem of the legitimacy of the
State has given rise to the collapse of the State itself. Developed
countries are not necessarily immune from this risk, while some developing
countries and some countries in economic transition are in fact more
exposed to it.
99. All State and government institutions have to respond to the
challenges. The parliament and the Government must bear the political
responsibility for the implementation of fundamental reforms. In this
sense, the role of public administration is of paramount importance. In
many cases the failure of the State is also the failure of public
administration. In extreme cases, restoring the State's authority cannot
be achieved without building or rebuilding a reliable public
administration. More generally, development programmes carried out by
international organizations or by other States have failed or did not fully
meet their objectives because public administration could not cope with the
implementation tasks generated by the programmes. Similar problems have
arisen, to some extent, in countries in transition. It is axiomatic that a
sound public administration is a precondition for political stability and
development. More importantly, building a sound public administration
requires political stability. Good governance implies political
responsibility and responsiveness to the people, norms and standards in
transparent and accountable public administration.
100. Therefore, strengthening government capacity, reorganizing government
structures, civil service reform and training are now being given higher
priority in most countries and international organizations.
101. In most countries, strengthening government capacity in continuously
changing conditions has to be focused on two basic issues: reviewing the
functions performed by the State and public entities and improving the
decisionmaking capacity.
102. In the context of limited resources, it is the responsibility of
Government to be able to review the scope of public responsibilities and
decide whether new tasks require to be taken over by the public sector or
provided for within the wider society. This review is extremely difficult
and requires long-term strategic policy-thinking and policy-making
capacity.
103. The policy-making capacity itself has to be improved. In most cases
it is weakened by the overload of routine affairs or lack of expertise to
take strategic decisions. Policy-making capacity requires: (a) highly
qualified expertise in the higher civil service and links with independent
research institutions which can provide relevant information; (b) the
involvement of these resources in the policy process at the relevant stages
to enhance decision-making; (c) the establishment of reliable and readily
available statistical information; (d) long-term considerations in policy-
making informed by policy research and forecasting and calling for
creativity; (e) the capacity to prepare policy choices and to enforce them
when adopted.
104. The renewed interest in administrative restructuring results from a
number of factors, interlinked in a variety of combinations. Prominent
among them are: changes in the world economy and the process of
globalization and competitiveness; rising demand for economic
liberalization; delivery of social services; the search for the most
effective modalities and processes for promoting productivity and
modernization including the call for the use of good management practices
to cut cost, waste and overlapping programmes and structures.
105. Despite the importance given in the past to administrative
restructuring, those measures have largely failed because of ambiguity in
objectives, lack of political support, resistance from within the
bureaucracy, absence of clarity in focus and content, blind copying of
foreign administrative models and sometimes poor judgement in timing.
106. It is essential first to mobilize political and bureaucratic support
for restructuring through a shared vision and to make a realistic
assessment of what is practicable in terms of time, resources and personnel
components. This course of action should not be construed to mean
formulation of an approach based on the lowest common denominator, but the
consultative process should aim at bringing about fundamental and
meaningful changes.
107. The prevailing issues in civil service reform and public personnel
management are large and complex and should be closely examined so that the
implications may be identified. While the civil service is a major
instrument for managing public affairs, most Governments find themselves
supporting a comparatively low-paid, oversized and over-extended
bureaucracy. In some cases, the excessive role of the civil service and
its weak performance culture are related. The system has not adequately
addressed the issues of performance standards, procedures of selection,
promotion and discipline. The goal of a good civil service reform
programme should be to examine the issues of professionalism and
confidence-building with citizens, as well as high-level competence,
motivation, attitude and creativity in the service.
108. Structural adjustment programmes have emphasized civil service reform
from the perspectives of cost containment, downsizing, issues of
performance and effective management of human resources. These issues are
difficult to put on a sustainable track unless they are viewed with a long-
term perspective. The problem of downsizing has failed to work uniformly
because of poor recruitment practices, lack of control mechanisms and the
prevalence of temporary posts. However, promotion of social services for
sustainable human development could require selective increases and
redeployment in the civil service rather than downsizing.
109. It is essential to review the longer-term policy issues of civil
service management, such as the merit-based career service, impact of
political patronage on promotions, the continuance of large number of
cadres, and the fragmentation of personnel organizations which lead to
uncoordinated management of human resources.
110. Despite necessary efforts made to bring about effective training in
the public service, the need still exists to upgrade training as an
investment in human resources in the civil service. Three constraining
factors have continued to hamper effectiveness of training organization and
planning: (a) lack of a national training policy; (b) lack of well-planned
and structured training programmes based on clear and well-identified
assessed training needs; and (c) lack of competent training institutions
and facilities.
111. Overall, training policy must be designed so as to respond to the
actual needs of managing national development, which is constantly
changing. It is also essential to develop a consistent framework for the
retraining of administrators at different levels with the changing
realities and requirements of public administration. This needs to be
reflected in civil service reform and public personnel management policy.
B. Strengthening financial management in the public sector
112. Financial management is a set of techniques and processes for
planning, programming, budgeting, budget execution and accounting,
financial reporting and auditing and evaluation. The objectives of
financial management are to ensure that government financial resources are
used lawfully, efficiently and effectively, and with accountability and
transparency by executive government to the legislature and the people.
113. In many countries, financial management capabilities have been eroded
by the pursuit of financial populism, ineffective and distorted budgetary
mechanisms and the breakdown of existing financial management institutions.
114. A central concern for all countries is how to harmonize methods of
strategic management and control of aggregate financial variables with
processes for changing expenditure priorities and enabling effective and
innovative management of service delivery institutions.
115. Improvements in financial management have been and are being made
over the years in many countries. The continued persistence of fiscal
deficits and the difficulties in moderating the growth in expenditures have
compelled Governments to take a more strategic view when incorporating
institutional reforms and improved methods of financial management.
Substantial progress has been made by industrial countries, including
Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, the United States of
America and others. These countries have undertaken several long-term
financial management reforms in the restructuring of the public sector,
application of market discipline, and introduction of cost accounting
methods. Systemic improvements were made in terms of increased
effectiveness in public administration by providing budgetary ceilings
within which executives are expected to accomplish output-based performance
targets, thus enhancing transparency and accountability.
116. In their endeavours to restore financial equilibrium and promote
sustainable economic growth, public administration in developing countries
and transitional economies which are coping with unsustainable fiscal
deficits, unabating debt servicing burdens, and a decline in official
development assistance may have to rely on resource mobilization strategies
aimed at:
(a) Overhauling the entire tax system so as to adapt tax policy and tax
laws to the evolving economic and financial situation, minimize equity
distortion, ensure that taxes are consistent with the privatization of
State enterprises, trade liberalization, increased financial intermediation
and other reform initiatives;
(b) Selecting taxes that are administratively practical and can be
implemented fully.
117. In the process of reform and with a view to creating an enabling
environment for sustainable economic growth, developing countries and
transitional economies are focusing on improving the allocation of
resources, increasing the productivity of their economic system and
strengthening the resource mobilization and budgetary positions to release
essential resources for private sector development. To these ends
Governments are enacting reforms and practices to:
(a) Create a comprehensive set of policies to address large financial
imbalances and inherent structural weakness;
(b) Reform the public enterprise, finance, banking and fiscal sectors
with a view to liberalizing trade and exchange rate regimes, decontrolling
prices and reforming investment incentives that would make their domestic
markets more competitive;
(c) Adapt policies to address adverse exogenous developments;
(d) Promote proper reform sequencing and sustained and continuous
adjustment;
(e) Implement an outward-oriented market-based strategy that would
promote financial stability; and
(f) Tailor these reforms to their specific circumstances and secure
public acceptability.
118. Whereas developing countries by and large have implemented financial
management reforms in budgetary techniques and processes to streamline
public expenditures, or are in the process of doing so, the circumstances
in transitional, least developed and adversely affected countries are very
different.
119. Transitional economies are in the process of adjusting to
decentralization and price-based mechanisms. Their needs for financial
management improvement relate to: (a) delinking public enterprises from
the government budget; (b) setting up monitoring, evaluation and reporting
units to enable central Government (as the owner/policy maker of public
enterprises) to manage fiscal policy; and (c) creating new institutions to
adopt uniform accounting and auditing procedures applicable to a market
economy. At the level of central Government, the establishment of
macroeconomic analysis and monitoring units will be required to properly
link financial management with general economic policy and planning.
Further, sound fiscal management will require strengthening of the spending
control capacities of line ministries by installing budgeting and
accounting units. Finally, support for fiscal policy implementation will
require the clear delineation of fiscal responsibilities of each tier of
government.
120. Either in the process of improving the overall financial management
system, or in restoring financial equilibrium, or undertaking financial
reform, public administration will continue to play an important role in
defining the future. The direction of changes in the financial management
system will depend on the specific circumstances of each country.
C. Developing human resources in the public sector
121. There is growing evidence of the importance of human resources
management and the need for improved capacity-building in public
administration, especially in an environment of declining resources and
increasing needs and demands for government services. Integration into the
world economy, increased competitiveness, a need to deal with complexities
and uncertainties, and a focus on sustainable economic growth and
development underscore the critical role of the human factor in steering
the world towards a new era of good governance and sound economic and
social development.
122. The development of human resources in government is a strategic tool
which political leaders and top officials must use in order to equip their
countries to take charge of continuous change.
123. Leaders who recognize that human resources are a strategic asset are
more successful in dealing with change and uncertainty resulting from
globalization, technological innovations and the management of crises.
124. Capacity-building in the public administration system as it relates
to development of human resources will be defined by a number of key
issues. The development of strategic human resource policies is the first
key to capacitybuilding. This policy should be framed by an attempt to
maintain high standards of professionalism and impartiality as well as a
commitment by top management to development of human resources which must
be openly stated, genuine and visible.
125. Investing in people, highlighting the attraction, retention and
development of quality people, focuses on executive development and on
ongoing, innovative professional development.
126. A third element of capacity-building is establishing flexible human
resources systems and practices concentrating on defining core
competencies, ensuring professional development and training programmes to
meet specialized and changing needs, on the skill mix required for keeping
pace with global changes, and on improving recruitment and deployment
processes to allow greater mobility within the public sector and with the
private/non-governmental sectors.
127. A performance management system which allows for improving conditions
of service, e.g. market-competitive wages and career progression, as well
as an environment in which leaders improve internal communication in order
to enhance staff motivation, will also build capacity.
128. For human resources development to take place there is a need to
improve the process of decision-making to make it more consensual and
horizontal, and to upgrade decision-making skills.
129. Effective human resources systems and practices should:
(a) Be merit- and performance-based, accountable, flexible, responsive
and transparent;
(b) Empower, challenge and motivate individual civil servants to
contribute to the work of the public sector;
(c) Be benchmarked against best practices.
For effective capacity-building:
(a) Leaders should accord the same priority to human resources as they
accord to the other leadership tools at their disposal;
(b) Human resources strategies should be focused and, ideally, should be
based on partnership and collaborative arrangements both within the public
sector and with society at large;
(c) Both political leaders and top officials should ensure that human
resources strategies are an integral part of nation-building and their
"business plan".
130. Effective leadership for building capacity in human resources
requires that leaders invest in people in order to generate innovative
solutions and to provide responsive and quality services.
131. Effective investment in people is contingent upon top leaders
themselves being learners. Research shows that when leaders are learners
themselves, a number of positive developments take place including: (a)
their organizations will work better; (b) they will gain an overall
positive return on investment in training throughout their organizations;
(c) they will create effective networks; (d) they will improve the position
of the public service in a competitive global environment; (e) they will be
better able to lead, manage and accommodate the kind of public
participation required for promoting national development.
D. Improving efficiency and performance in the public sector
132. With increasing pressure from the global economy and rising
expectations from the population, Governments are faced with the challenge
of providing more and better services to the people at a time when
resources appear to be shrinking. Efforts to improve performance in the
public sector rest on the following premises:
(a) The performance of the public sector has an important impact on the
well-being of the people;
(b) Performance is a function of three important and interrelated
conditions, which involve both central policy institutions and the
operational ministries, agencies and provincial administrations:
(i) Clarity of purpose;
(ii) Authority and responsibility;
(iii) Coordination;
(c) Organizational performance depends on effectiveness (doing the right
task) and efficiency (doing it at least cost), thereby leading to
achievement of results, and continuous improvement of performance and
results;
(d) Information technology is a key to improving performance;
(e) Monitoring of organizational performance requires evaluation and
measurement - both quantitative and qualitative - of performance, using
performance indicators, whose measured values provide feedback to
administrators;
(f) Strong organizational task performance requires the "right" people
with the "right" degree of authority and responsibility, the "right"
systems and procedures (differentiated for each organization in accordance
with organizational needs and capacities), attention to providing adequate
types and levels of resources and regular accountability, with personal
consequences for high and low performance, as well as for non-compliance.
133. Performance in the public sector is multi-faceted and multi-
dimensional. A performance measurement and monitoring system will provide
the Government with feedback on how government policy and public service
systems work. It will contribute to improving government policy.
134. Instilling effectiveness and efficiency in the public sector must
become a sine qua non in the establishment of government strategic policy-
making and service delivery. Objectives, goals, use of the private sector,
the voluntary sector and the community, addressing the relationship between
centralization and decentralization, and the better utilization of
information are vital components that must be addressed in the development
of any national policy for improving performance. The key issues that
impact on performance are the clarification of objectives, result-
orientation, linking of results and costs, the time dimension, and the
instillation of values that promote performance.
135. Central decision-making, budgeting and personnel systems and
processes which are performance-oriented are the first precondition for
effective performance at the organizational level. The second precondition
is that there are effective coordinating mechanisms in place to address the
linkages between sectors both at the level of strategic policy-making and
at the point of service delivery. Within this framework provided by the
centre, the central elements of performance orientation at the organization
level are: clarity of purposes; authority to do the job; and
accountability for the effective and efficient use of the authority in the
achievement of results.
136. An effective and efficient public sector must be composed of three
essentials: qualified personnel and incentives; workable systems,
structures and procedures of public administration and services; and
appropriate modern technologies and tools, in particular, information
technology (IT). Government policies for achieving development objectives
of the country can play a critical role in stimulating and guiding the
establishment of a public sector performance measurement and monitoring
system.
137. In the last decade, public administration and civil service reform
have experienced an important conceptual evolution. The core of this
evolution is to foster a more efficient and responsive public sector,
including a greater citizen orientation through the use of IT so as to
encourage more effective control of public resources while achieving
results. In industrial countries, economic and social evolution has led to
a changed relationship between the civil service and the general public.
The increased emphasis on "service management" in the public sector, such
as "no-stop service" and "one-stop service", has also led to more extensive
use of tools for measuring effectiveness and efficiency. Today, the
concept has produced a trend towards reorganization of the public sector
more along the lines of a private business which provides important
services in an efficient and cost-effective manner.
138. Adequate performance information is critical for performance
measurement and management accountability. An information management
strategy needs to be developed. The key is to prioritize organizations'
information needs and carefully analyse the costs of reporting and
organizing information. It should also be noted that there are many causes
of misreporting or falsifying data. To avoid misreporting, a genuine
working relationship between managers and implementers should be
established. This requires personal visiting, training, several forms or
channels of reporting, and stimulating the will to conform with management
policy.
E. Developing administrative capacities for post-conflict
restoration and rehabilitation of government machinery
139. National rehabilitation in countries in a state of conflict or post-
conflict peace requires, among other things, the re-establishment of sound
government. Current approaches and efforts tend to concentrate on
peacebuilding, relief, demilitarization, and the holding of elections.
Such approaches and efforts stop short of ensuring that the conditions for
selfsustaining administrative machinery are created at minimal cost.
Moreover, the current range of external support efforts lacks sufficient
coordination. This latter problem is exacerbated by the typically weak
absorptive capacity of national public administrations in countries
recovering from trauma.
140. These countries find themselves in situations which necessitate
contextually relevant solutions. Some countries have basic working
administrative structures; others face a total collapse of administrative
structures and depletion of human resources. Another situation may occur
in countries which are dealing with a grave natural disaster; for example,
national institutions may be intact but local administrative machinery may
be severely damaged.
141. What is required is an assessment of the specifics of each situation:
the roots of the problems; the short-term and long-term means to address
these problems and prevent their recurrence; and foresight as to eventual
restructuring and development. Early assessment of needs will facilitate
strategic planning and a quick response so as to contribute to
sustainability in the long run. Such an assessment will also ensure that
all actions form part of a continuum which will lead to effective
government.
142. Although the experience of international support in this field is
limited, some common trends drawn from positive experiences can be
identified:
(a) Continuation of the process of political stabilization through
consensus and confidence-building. This means that everyone, including the
former contending parties, should meet with each other and discuss.
Optimally, the country needs processes of communication and opportunities
for interaction which will lead ultimately to consensus;
(b) Inclusion in the emerging political, economic, and social systems of
all existing or emerging political and social forces and movements through
processes of dialogue, forums and processes of consultation;
(c) Urgent and immediate attention to prerequisites for investments and
restoration of production systems, for example, property rights, financial
services and harmonious labour-management relations;
(d) Internal stability through the development of a political culture
based upon the rule of law, respect for human rights, and protection of
individuals against the internal lawlessness and banditry that often
accompany the end of conflicts;
(e) A stable regional environment supported by international guarantees.
143. Before a national Government begins an administrative rebuilding
process it is essential that its priorities be well defined. Cases of
countries in the process of recovering from trauma have yielded effective
strategies for both initiating immediate restoration mechanisms and for
sustaining the transitional long-term period. Two important
characteristics of any immediate strategy are comprehensiveness and
flexibility. It should conclusively define policy issues and draft
national public policies, and provide for the restructuring and operation
of key administrative components. The priority of a transitional/ long-
term strategy is to rebuild public organizations and revitalize the economy
while being adaptable to changing conditions. Any practical long-term
strategy must take into account that complex networks influence the
relationship among different tiers of government. However, its primary
goal of social and economic rehabilitation should not be compromised.
144. The lessons above, drawn from experiences of extreme crisis -
resulting from man-made or from natural causes - may also be relevant to
apparently stable situations. As many countries undergo processes of non-
violent radical change, they require a high-quality crisis-management
capacity for handling trauma and quick reaction as part of a new set of
public administration capabilities before such societies collapse or break
up.
IV. CONCLUSION
145. What are the main ingredients which will define the role of future
public administration? Where will critical capacity-building have to take
place in public administration systems? What will be the role of the
United Nations? These were the three central questions that served as guide
to the recommendations of the Group of Experts. While country-specific
systems will differ, there are three central ideas which guide public
administration in developed, developing and transition economies. These
are:
(a) Rapidly changing domestic and international conditions and demands
for services will require innovative policies at the strategic level and
improved service delivery systems at the operational level. Innovativeness
defined by creativity and flexibility to respond to rapid change will be a
main "core requirement" for development administration and governance;
(b) Public administration will continue to fulfil critical functions in
development, moving from supporting measures for economic growth to
protecting the environment, to determining the relationship between the
public and private sector, to reducing poverty and illiteracy and other
social development activities, thereby achieving the goals of sustainable
development. Therefore, exceptional capacities to govern for development
are essential for public administration;
(c) To fulfil critical future-shaping functions, public administration
must bring about dynamic people-oriented systems through strategic
restructuring and outstanding professionalism by attracting top-quality
people into administration. Public administration as the centre of
administrative and management excellence will require radical thinking and
corresponding changes in service conditions, career patterns, and in the
ethos of public service.
146. The imperatives of development require bold and imaginative
initiatives to strengthen the capacity of public administration in
developing countries and economies in transition if development is to be
realized. The allocation of adequate staff resources and financial back-up
is essential to undertake and encourage innovations at the organizational
and governmental levels in different fields of administration. A missing
component in new areas of sustainable development, including social
services, requires renewed emphasis on strengthening administrative
capacity at different levels. Sound administrative capacity is a sine qua
non for all sectoral programmes. The recommendations made in the report
will provide the basis for action in different components of public
management at national and international levels. Specifically, it is
essential to strengthen and renew the role of the United Nations, including
the central role of the Programme so that it can assist Member States in
improving various parts of their administrative systems on a continuing
basis. It is hoped that the resumed session of the General Assembly will
be able to pass a powerful resolution to enable the United Nations,
including the Programme, to work with interested countries in initiating
and implementing public administration reforms, to monitor developments in
public administration, reform and change, and serve as a repository of
expertise and knowledge on a global basis and help coordinate the
components of public administration within the United Nations system.
V. RECOMMENDATIONS
147. The report approved by the Group of Experts contained a total of 103
recommendations for national Governments and 96 for the United Nations. In
adopting the report, the Group of Experts requested the Secretariat to
consolidate the recommendations, highlighting the critical ones, and to
prepare a plan of action in submitting these recommendations for
consideration by ECOSOC and the General Assembly. In following this
request, the Secretariat has identified below the main thrust and content
of these recommendations, and consolidated and rearranged all the
recommendations topically within two broad groups - national Governments
and the United Nations. The complete set of consolidated recommendations
is contained in the annex to this report. The plan of action is presented
in the consolidated report of the Secretary-General.
148. In making the recommendations, the Group of Experts was keenly
interested in maintaining the momentum achieved by the Group. In that
context the Group of Experts recommended that national and regional
examination of the role and capacity of public administration be undertaken
prior to the beginning of the resumed session of the General Assembly in
the spring of 1996. The report of the Group of Experts and the Secretary-
General's consolidated report on public administration and development can
be used as working documents for the national and regional meetings. These
meetings should be used to develop country experiences, needs and
innovations in development administration.
149. To institutionalize the follow-up to the resumed session and to
ensure that public administration and finance issues are appropriately
incorporated in the debate of the United Nations legislative bodies, the
Group recommended that the body, which is a subsidiary body of the Economic
and Social Council but serving only in an ad hoc advisory capacity, be
converted into the United Nations Committee on Public Administration and
Finance, reporting to ECOSOC, with members of the Committee being experts
on public administration and finance nominated by their Governments and
elected by ECOSOC. This representative intergovernmental body will provide
a more stable platform for follow-up and implementation of the
recommendations of the resumed session on public administration and
development.
A. National Governments
150. In making the recommendations at the national level the Group of
Experts realizes that countries differ in their pattern, stage and level of
development and public administrative systems, and that recommendations may
therefore not be equally applicable. The recommendations apply differently
to (a) those countries which are at the forefront of administrative
transformation; (b) those countries where the administrative system, for a
variety of reasons including system breakdown (natural and/or man-made) and
system transition, is in the process of being started from scratch and
which require basic public administrative processes and structural guidance
and directions; (c) those middle-range countries which have made some
advances but still require assistance for development of their public
administrative systems. The entire set of recommendations, which addresses
all three categories of countries, is included in the annex to this report.
The recommendations listed below are condensed to provide the overall
essence, tenor and direction of thinking of the experts.
151. As public administration will operate in an increasingly complex and
rapidly changing external environment, there is a need for excellent
development capacity and analytical skills. Establishing policy units at
the highest levels of governance and disseminating such capacities and
skills through the public administration system is an essential priority
for all Governments. Public administration must not only draw upon its
best talent to give its policy capacities a quantum push; it must
concurrently include private think tanks, citizen groups and organizations
and non-governmental organizations in its effort to strengthen its policy
development role.
152. The Group recommended that optimal managerial capacity that allows
for managerial flexibility be encouraged by structuring government units so
that they are responsible and accountable for outcomes/delivery of
services. Transparency of management style and greater access to citizen
participation in public administration decision-making will enhance the
Government's role as a protector of public interest.
153. It was recommended that swift and rapid effort be made to bring about
maximum utilization of information technology. This is imperative to a
forwardlooking public administration system. Access and integration into
the world communication system can jump-start efforts towards excellence in
the public administration system and may help to propel the current
development stagnation into a new era of growth and sustainable
development.
154. It was recommended that the most intensive effort would have to be
made in a forward-looking public administration system to orient government
activities towards citizens, providing quality services based on acceptance
and placement of citizens' needs first and institutionalizing citizen
feedback on delivery of all services.
155. It was recommended that top leaders in both the political and
administrative cadres must become learners before they can expect human
resources development efforts to pay any dividend in the form of good
governance and sustained development. Therefore, beginning with the top,
core human resources need to become "learners" and permeate the entire
public administration system.
156. It was recommended that the highest performance standards, both
organizational and individual, must guide public administration if it is to
make a smooth transition from its previous dominating role in the economy
and society to a redefined role of catalyst for private sector development.
157. It was recommended that public administration enhance its role both
in social development and maintenance of large, medium, and small-scale
infrastructure. The Government should assume responsibility for
establishing environmental standards and integrating those standards into
the infrastructural and social development process. Balancing between
purely economic needs and larger social needs will be a critical area for
public administration. Its traditional regulatory role must be
restructured and redefined in the context of the current function of
economic growth and sustainability.
158. It was recommended that the public administration system maintain
strong linkages to the international economy and society. In this
capacity, Governments must strengthen their absorptive capacities in all
forms and types of resource transfer (technical assistance, financial and
technological). Greater assimilative and adaptive ability within the public
administrative system has to be generated so as to maximize the benefits of
the development process.
B. The United Nations
159. As nations continue to address the administrative challenges which
were identified in the report, a strong and significant presence by the
United Nations in all areas of public administration is needed. While the
experts had some familiarity with the activities carried out by various
bodies and agencies of the United Nations system and identified some
specific role for the system in the area of public administration and
finance, they directed most of their recommendations at the Programme.
However, it must be noted that several of those recommendations directed at
the Programme would also be applicable to other United Nations bodies and
specialized agencies. Specifically, the United Nations could serve as a
global depository for exchange of information and as a central research
clearing-house for public administration and development. By enhancing its
capacity in the provision of advisory services, the United Nations and the
Programme could assist interested countries in initiating and implementing
improvement programmes in public administration or rehabilitating and
strengthening basic public administrative systems in a post-conflict
situation. To successfully meet these challenges, the group of experts
strongly recommended that the Programme's scope be broadened and its
resources augmented.
160. The Programme should become the central depository and clearing-house
for worldwide excellence in public administration practices, using the
latest technology. The effectiveness of the Programme will continue as it
maintains and enhances its role in supporting and assisting the reshaping
of the civil service systems of Member States.
161. Strengthening the Programme's capacity in the provision of advisory
services (in the critical areas of human resources development, financial
management and information technology), support for the training and
professional development activities of Member States, and conducting
upstream research in administrative reform and innovative studies in
rehabilitation and reconstruction of post-conflict public administration
systems are components requiring immediate attention for improvement.
162. Special attention should be given to significantly increasing the
capacity of the Programme in public administration in order to maintain its
credibility as the lead institution involved in the management of change
and responsiveness to demands on public administration systems.
163. The role of the Programme in assisting Governments to identify and
anticipate uncertainty and change and improve their risk-taking, creativity
and entrepreneurial capacity should be enlarged.
APPENDIX I
Consolidated recommendations arranged by topic
The recommendations are divided between those addressed to national
Governments and those addressed to the United Nations and arranged in each
case under nine topics: (a) strengthening government capacity for policy
development, administrative restructuring, civil service reform, human
resources development and public administration training; (b) improving
performance in the public sector; (c) financial management; (d) public-
private interaction; (e) social development; (f) developing infrastructure
and protecting the environment; (g) government legal capacity; (h) post-
conflict rehabilitation and reconstruction of government machinery; (i)
management of development programmes.
I. RECOMMENDATIONS TO NATIONAL GOVERNMENTS
A. On strengthening government capacity for policy development,
administrative restructuring, civil service reform, human
resource development and public administration training
1. Capacity for the management of future-shaping policy should be
increased by setting up strong policy development advisory units, having
cooperative relationships with politicians and senior civil servants and
with policy research and development institutions (think tanks).
2. Restructuring of organizations, functions and management of the
administrative apparatus should be treated as an ongoing function. In
order to successfully maintain a restructuring programme, Governments
should strengthen the capacity of units responsible for this task and
locate them where they can initiate and monitor reform measures.
3. The use of information technology is essential at the national level to
develop and maintain personnel records for decision-making in selection,
promotion and placement.
4. Beyond laws and codes of ethics, Governments should make their
procedures transparent so as to combat and deter corruption.
5. Leaders must invest in people in order to provide responsive high-
quality services. Effective investment in people is contingent upon top
leaders themselves being learners.
6. Human resources strategies are an integral part of strategic plans.
They should be based on partnership and collaborative arrangements both
within the public sector and society at large.
7. To meet the emerging urgent responsibilities of training in economic
management, people-centred development and public policy analysis, adequate
resources need to be provided to upgrade the capacity of national training
institutions, to develop a core group of professional trainers and to
prepare training materials and case-studies through independent research,
consultancy and networking arrangements.
8. Consideration should be given to establishing training programmes
addressed to the most senior levels of the civil service (e.g. chief
secretaries or vice-ministers) in different sectors of Government (i.e.
Ministries of Law, the Interior, Public Service, etc.) at the national,
subregional or regional level to improve the capacity of Government to deal
with emerging issues of civil society for revitalization of civil services.
B. On improving performance in the public sector
1. Government activities should be oriented towards the citizens whom they
serve; for example, ease of access for citizens is more important than the
convenience of administrators; service quality should be improved by close
communication with citizens to understand their needs and preferences and
to obtain feedback on their perceptions of services.
2. Policies and operational frameworks can be improved through analysis of
feedback on past organizational performance and through innovation and
experimentation with operational systems and information technology, e.g.
in one-stop centres to speed application processing in relevant fields.
3. Governmental organizations - ministries, departments, provinces, local
administrations, etc. - should be encouraged to develop strategic plans and
indicators for performance improvement, to experiment and to monitor the
movement of the indicators. Mechanisms should be developed to encourage
these units to share their experiences.
4. High performance is encouraged by (a) establishing clear, complete and
non-contradictory goals and policies and indicators of achievement; (b)
minimizing the rules, standards and norms from the centre and allowing
maximum flexibility in operations; (c) measuring results strictly; and (d)
imposing sanctions for non-compliance or poor performance. Central
Governments should utilize performance contracts to specify those
activities on which organizations are required to cooperate with one
another.
5. Specialists should be trained in organizational performance evaluation
and the development and measurement of performance indicators, and all
administrators and employees should be trained in utilizing performance
indicators for performance improvement.
6. A central unit, perhaps with branches in ministries and provinces,
should be established as a "management change unit" or "organization change
unit" or "management services unit". This unit could usefully perform
consultancy and training functions, as well as monitor and facilitate
change processes in Government.
7. Needs assessment for computerization should focus on actual utilization
needs by organizations, give sufficient attention to training needs, and
include a review of demands on electricity and telecommunication
facilities. It is useful to develop a Government-wide information
technology (IT) strategy, which includes a full assessment of current
systems, hardware and software in use and being developed, as well as the
human resources/skills currently available in the various organizations of
Government.
8. Information systems such as payroll and personnel management or
organizational performance indicators and budget should be integrated, and
other information systems should be linked horizontally and vertically, in
order to achieve more transparent and relevant decision-making concerning
the operations of Government.
9. To accelerate the development of advanced policy capacity, special
attention must be given to core learning programmes and to collaborative
arrangements for decision- and policy-making (e.g. think tanks).
10. Human resources systems and practices should be:
(a) Merit and performance based, accountable, flexible, responsive and
transparent;
(b) Empower, challenge and motivate individual workers to contribute to
the work of the public sector;
(c) Benchmarked against best practices.
C. On financial management
1. Governments contemplating fiscal reform should take into account the
importance of concomitant tax administration reform since weak tax
administration will make it difficult to achieve the objectives of overall
fiscal reform.
2. Governments should consider endowing tax administration with
administrative and personnel autonomy over recruitment, training and salary
structure, with the aim of achieving maximum revenue collection.
3. In least developed countries, Governments should emphasize financial
management systems at the grass-roots level to facilitate delivery of
services and optimize expenditure control mechanisms for the disbursement
of development funds.
4. In adversely affected countries, financial management procedures should
be minimal. Core financial management systems need to be simplified to
facilitate delivery of humanitarian relief (e.g. requiring simple receipts
and expenditure statements from operational managers who are directly
accountable for disbursement). Where possible, flows of external aid
should be captured by these core systems. Once normalcy is achieved,
regular financial management practices can be reinstated.
D. On public-private interaction
1. For each service, the Government needs to consider whether it is a
public or private responsibility, whether it needs public or private
financing and whether public or private production is more appropriate.
Special attention should be given to the development of new services, e.g.
in recreation, health and environmental protection, and to the development
of reliable cost data.
2. Governments should seek independent evaluations and assessments of
their privatization policies and programmes from the sectoral and cross-
sectoral agencies of the United Nations. Ex ante evaluations should seek
to establish the appropriate place and timing of privatization in
structural adjustment programmes and the administrative capacity
requirements for successful implementation. Ex post facto evaluations of
individual privatization, or particular impacts of a privatization
programme, such as the impact on productivity, efficiency and
competitiveness, should be obtained in order to feed back the findings to
the management of the ongoing programme and ensure that the privatization
dividend is fully realized by the general public.
3. Governments need to pay greater attention to the possibilities of
performance improvement in parastatals which are not scheduled for sale or
liquidation and seek technical assistance as necessary from the
international community, including the enterprise management component of
the United Nations programme in public administration and finance.
4. Before a Government privatizes or gives pricing autonomy to an
enterprise which has monopoly power over its customers, it should set up an
independent regulatory apparatus to prescribe rules of the game which will
protect the consumers while maintaining legitimate investor returns. A
clear policy declaration that the terms of each privatization will be
transparently disclosed for public scrutiny immediately after completion
would result in major gains in many countries.
5. Regulatory policy should be stable: changes are damaging, not only
because of the additional learning costs but also because instability adds
to investment risk and deters new investment. There are many issues which
arise in the organization and processes of regulation: international
experience should be consulted through bilateral and multilateral donors
and the United Nations.
6. Governments should provide an enabling and encouraging environment for
small and medium-sized enterprise start-ups and expansion by special
programmes targeted at this sector. These may include technical assistance
in the choice of technology, modernization and quality control, business
incubators, industrial parks, export development zones and collaboration
with transnational enterprises in joint ventures, subcontracting
arrangements, licensing and franchising.
E. On social development
1. Public administrators should monitor the progress of social programmes,
assess their impact, balance local, national and international concerns,
and produce analytic reports containing long-term socio-economic planning
and projections regarding their social development sector. These reports
should examine what has already been accomplished, establish benchmarks and
enable the development of strategies and programmes of action.
2. Governments should ratify and apply international standards which have
already been approved concerning social development issues such as
Convention No. 117 concerning Social Policy (Basic Aims and Standards);
Convention No. 122 and Recommendations No. 122 and No. 169 concerning
Employment Policy; Convention No. 168 and Recommendation No. 176 concerning
Employment Promotion and Protection against Unemployment; Convention No. 87
concerning Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organize
of the International Labour Organization.
3. Local authorities, NGOs, grass-roots organizations and other members of
civil society must be involved in the movement for social development.
Community development programmes must be run with the help of non-State
actors who can deliver social programmes effectively.
4. Governments should provide more resources, prestige and power to social
agencies to enable them to attract the necessary talent. They should be
involved in top Cabinet decision-making and should ensure that funds
allocated for social development are not the first to be sacrificed.
5. Governments should also attempt to make their civil service salaries,
incentives and conditions of service more competitive with those of the
private sector in order to retain the highly qualified people needed for
the new and challenging tasks in social development. Accordingly, the
Government should be a model employer. Public sector employees should be
afforded sufficient job security. They should be equipped with job
competencies in order to be efficient and effective as managers of social
policy programmes.
F. On developing infrastructure and protecting the environment
1. An integrated approach should be adopted between all levels during the
planning stages. Execution and oversight should also be a collaborative
process between the various levels. If oversight committees are weak or
symbolic, they should be empowered to execute the job they were mandated to
do. Where they do not exist, they should be created either by legislative
act or administrative action.
2. In many countries the level and scope of infrastructure development
cannot depend too heavily on the private sector. Accordingly, public
administration must take the lead. It must guard against bad or risky
investments of the public's resources. It must ensure that the benefits
derived from the economic activity of infrastructure policies reach all
segments of the population. When considering infrastructure planning and
project evaluation, it is recommended that: first, investments should be
based on analysis of the nature of demand for specific services, not of
quantitative projections of physical "needs"; second, the planning of
supply should take account of all possible alternatives to generate the
flow of services demanded; third, choosing between potential investments
within infrastructure, or between infrastructure and other sectors, is best
done with the traditional tools of benefit-cost (rate of return) analysis;
fourth, utilization of a demand orientation in both the evaluation of
investments as well as in their operation and regulation requires
performance indicators which reflect quality of service and user
satisfaction.
3. What is first needed in any public administration is the establishment
of a good workable system. This should include good planning efforts,
comprehensive plans, support groups including both financial and problem
solving, periodic on-site visits to determine the need and level of
maintenance, and leaders who will demonstrate they are committed. Second,
a level of maintenance awareness should be established that would turn
maintenance projects and policies into productive and efficient programmes
for public administration and infrastructure.
4. In many countries specialized development banks are a conduit for funds
used in infrastructure projects, especially for municipal infrastructure
such as water supply and solid waste disposal. Such institutions can
complement a municipality's local taxes and central government transfers,
and can cover fluctuations in expenditure or prevent large shifts in
revenue requirements. There also exist alternative facilities that offer
financing for specific environmentally sensitive infrastructure projects.
Also, specialized infrastructure intermediaries could play a catalytic role
in capital market development.
5. Public administration should assume the responsibility of establishing
environmental standards for all infrastructure policies. Public
administration and infrastructure should not be exempted from rules and
regulations that are applied to private sector and other agencies. Efforts
should be made to integrate environmental considerations into all stages of
planning, construction and maintenance of public infrastructure projects,
and to incorporate current costs into future projections of construction,
operations and maintenance. Where there is an absence of an environmental
culture at the local level it is now the responsibility of the Government
to introduce such an awareness and to provide the mechanisms to solve
problems at the local level. Further, old infrastructure projects and
programmes shouldbe brought into line with current environmental standards.
G. On government legal capacity
1. An ongoing review of the legal framework of public administration
should be organized in order to update legal systems, to make them coherent
and to simplify legal procedures. This should be done with sensitivity for
the national culture of each country.
2. Codification of procedures should be pursued as a way to protect the
rights of legal subjects in their relations with public administration.
Codification of laws must be undertaken in order to facilitate access to
law enforcement by all citizens and support full application of legal
rights and observation of legal limits by public administration.
3. Dissemination of information regarding the entire range of alternative
dispute-resolution techniques (mediation, conciliation, and arbitration),
including training in their application, should be assisted as a way of
solving potential conflicts between public administrators and citizens
before they take steps in a judicial forum.
4. Consideration of spoken traditions should be encouraged in
relationships between citizens and the public administration where there
are significant issues of illiteracy or where there are cultural traditions
that emphasize the spoken word rather than formal written documents.
Indigenous social norms (customary law that may not be consonant with the
national legal framework) should also be considered in reform efforts.
5. Judicial supervision of public administration should be strengthened,
including liability in tort, criminal jurisdiction to address corruption,
injunctive remedies for maladministration and judicial review (or other
forms of legal review), particularly for alternative dispute-resolution
techniques. Judicial reform should consider possible new types of
supervision of administration. Additionally, the courts need to be
strengthened to meet these challenges. This includes attention to the
organization and operation of the judicial system, with sufficient
independence to protect the integrity of the judiciary.
6. Non-governmental organizations and the media should be supported in
their role of informing citizens and helping them to enforce their rights
before administrative bodies and in judicial procedures. This requires
both legal provisions to give them the standing to raise issues and the
financial means to make them capable of performing these functions.
7. The potential impact of new laws on public administration should be
considered in the legislative development process. Care should therefore
be taken to formulate laws in terms of general rules, avoiding overly
detailed provisions that would deny public administrators the flexibility
to exercise their expert discretion in the light of their experience. Any
new statutes and regulations should include provisions concerning
evaluation of their outcomes and should periodically be reviewed for
improvement. The law-making process should be open to the citizens and
groups affected in order to enhance the larger sense of participation in
the development and operation of the rule of law and to increase both the
legitimacy and enforceability of legal norms.
H. On post-conflict rehabilitation and reconstruction
of government machinery
1. Rebuilding a public administrative system requires that the Governments
define priorities. These may include the restoration and reorganization of
key ministries and public organizations which provide basic services such
as finance, utilities, basic infrastructure, health, education, justice and
public safety.
2. Based on the experiences of the countries that are recovering from
trauma, immediate and transitional/long-term strategies may be developed.
The immediate strategy would include: the assessment of national
absorptive capacities, both human and capital; defining policy issues and
draft national policies; the restructure and operation of key ministries
for implementation of the defined policies; the restoration of management
systems and tools (e.g. personnel, audit, information); the restoration and
management of justice and public safety systems; the retention and
enlistment of professional human resources; and provision of crash training
and retraining programmes.
3. Transitional/long-term strategies should be committed to rebuilding
public organizations and revitalizing the economy, with built-in
adaptability to changing conditions. Such strategies would: lay the
foundations of comprehensive and integrated financial management systems,
including accounting, budgeting, taxation, customs and banking; establish
effective human resources development policies and personnel management and
training systems; address the relationships between different tiers of
government and define substantive competencies for each level; design
monitoring and accountability systems in public administration.
I. On management of development programmes
1. The interaction between political decision-making authorities and
public administration agencies responsible for formulating and implementing
development projects should be strengthened by encouraging thorough public
policy analysis. This is crucial to ensure that the development budget is
not overburdened with politically determined projects without appropriate
technical analysis.
2. The incidence of cost over-runs resulting from delayed implementation,
due to unrealistic project budgeting, procedural complexities in
procurement of materials and constraints in recruiting appropriate
personnel, is quite common. Governments should undertake systematic
examination of this phenomenon, using modern management tools, with a view
to effecting systematic improvements to minimize the problem. Governments
need to reinforce an understanding at all levels of the society that aid is
not budget support, and promote the use of aid as a stimulant for
development and economic growth in the civil society.
3. Governments are encouraged to develop cross-sectoral, multi-
disciplinary skills which support all phases of the development process.
This can overcome compartmentalization of administrative functions and
responsibilities which is identified as a major administrative constraint
facing effective management of development programmes.
4. Governments can support the use and development of rosters of national
experts by encouraging training programmes which make skills transfers
between technical assistance and national counterparts effective,
specifically promoting the use of these rosters by donors seeking support
for technical cooperation activities and making these rosters available to
their regional partners for evaluation of potential candidates.
5. National Governments must strengthen their capacity to absorb,
assimilate and adapt appropriate foreign technology through insistence on
having a voice in the selection of foreign experts, designating qualified
national counterparts, developing systems of internal dissemination and
building relationships with local research and development institutions.
Government negotiators need to be sensitized to any national constraints
that require consideration during development programme formulation and
bring them forward during discussions with donors. In this way any
potential waste of resources through inappropriate programme design can be
prevented at the negotiation stage.
6. Another dimension to the effective utilization of national human
resources is the need to monitor and evaluate development programmes at
open meetings which include all elements of the society. This multi-
participatory approach encourages all beneficiaries of the development
process to communicate their approval or misgivings concerning the design
of programmes, modalities of implementation and compatibility between
outcomes and expectations. Transparency, accountability and policy guidance
in the formulation of future development programmes can be substantially
improved as a result of this participatory process.
II. RECOMMENDATIONS ADDRESSED TO THE UNITED NATIONS
A. On strengthening government capacity for policy development,
administrative restructuring, civil service reform, human
resource development and public administration training
1. The United Nations programme in public administration and finance
(hereinafter referred to as the Programme) should organize exchanges of
experience, preparation of case-studies and training of policy
professionals. Comparative studies of experience on administrative
restructuring should be undertaken by the Programme. These studies should
be disseminated on a regular basis. Also, the Programme should support the
identification of outstanding training institutions in each region as
models for replication by other member nations.
2. The Programme should work together with the Crime Prevention and
Criminal Justice Branch to put forward for the consideration of Member
States the draft international code of conduct for public officials
considered by the Ninth United Nations Congress for the Prevention of Crime
and the Treatment of Offenders held at Cairo in May 1995, and have the
draft code of conduct brought before the resumed fiftieth session of the
General Assembly.
3. The Programme should continue to play a major role assisting in the
reorientation of the civil service in developing countries and countries
with economies in transition by providing advisory services and through
technical assistance projects in administrative restructuring in support of
economic liberalization, municipal reform and people-centred development.
4. The Programme should provide advisory services to build the capacity of
training institutions, conduct training-of-trainers programmes on a
regional/ subregional basis, and serve as a centre for dissemination of
information on training technologies. There should be a declaration of one
day each year as "Public Service Day" to recognize the importance of
service by national government administrations to the common citizen.
There should also be instituted by the Secretary-General an annual award or
awards for demonstrating excellence in the public service, innovation,
entrepreneurship and training for public administration. This award could
be given to a Government or individual selected by an appointed group on
the basis of established criteria.
5. The United Nations and the international community have a
responsibility to structure and promote cooperation. The United Nations
must be able to maintain and develop a capacity on which its credibility as
a lead organization in this area depends. Specifically, the United Nations
should: create and sustain a momentum for dynamic worldwide exchanges of
information and ideas in the field of public administration and governance;
sustain and support networks for applied research in those fields,
including policy studies and the dissemination of knowledge on the best
systems and practices worldwide; establish guidelines and promote norms
which serve to advance efficiency, effectiveness, integrity, responsiveness
and accountability in public administration; assist in the creation of
talent pools in developing countries and countries in transition from a
command economy to a market economy, in facilitating a mentoring service
for top officials, in conducting training needs assessments and, by acting
as a broker, to provide access to the best available technology systems and
practices and help with their application, as required; provide special
assistance to countries in post-conflict situations and collapsed States,
helping to restore the effectiveness of public administration and, to this
end, reversing the brain drain from which many of them have suffered;
facilitate and develop synergies throughout the public sector including the
promotion of adherence to the relevant international labour standards in
Conventions No. 142, No. 150 and No. 151 and Recommendations No. 150, No.
148 and No. 159 of the International Labour Organization on human resources
development, paid education leave and labour relations/public service
respectively.
6. A special fund for emergency assistance to rehabilitate/reconstruct
public administration in collapsed States should be created.
B. On improving performance in the public sector
1. The Programme should contribute to the development of "management
change" units.
2. The Programme should also continue to offer advisory services, based on
experience in a wide variety of countries, and especially with teams that
are interdisciplinary and multinational. This advice should involve the
management of change, performance management and measurement, information
technology, and strategic issues of governmental performance improvement.
3. The Programme should develop a roster of "turn-around" managers, who
are innovative, creative and able to be of service to other countries
through SouthSouth cooperation (technical cooperation among developing
countries (TCDC)).
4. The Programme should also develop an on-line e-mail and, eventually, a
real-time communications network among innovative management professionals,
including the development of framework protocols and cyberspace locationing
for this activity. Discussions should be held with other organizations of
the United Nations system which have already implemented this type of
networking activity among expert professionals who are involved in similar
issues in their countries. They can become a "virtual institute" for
sharing information, documents, experience and advice. The Programme can
facilitate this activity.
C. On financial management
1. The Programme can conduct regional preparatory surveys to identify
specific problems experienced in the shift to a strategic role for
financial management, submit a plan for improvement, and arrange regionally
based financial management training programmes aimed at middle-level
operations officials, professional accountants and the administrative cadre
of government.
2. In the area of institution-building for a strategic approach to
financial management, it is recommended that the United Nations support
technical assistance efforts to: establish the new national institutions
required; enhance coordination among existing national institutions; adapt
national institutions so that local conditions are fully reflected; develop
appropriate information technology resources; and establish the capacity
within existing government financial management systems to properly account
for external assistance.
3. The Programme should consult, or undertake with other providers, on the
preparation and distribution of country-oriented training literature; it
should initiate a comprehensive programme for its translation into
different languages.
4. It should be proposed to the General Assembly to convene more frequent
interregional meetings for regular and more comprehensive coverage of
technical topics particular to each group of countries, to integrate the
human resource development element of improved financial management, adopt
new approaches to training, facilitate consultation concerning regional
financial management training programmes, and harmonize financial
management technical cooperation initiatives involving donors,
international institutions and non-governmental organizations.
5. The United Nations, in cooperation with regional economic commissions
and donor Governments and organizations, including non-governmental
organizations, should expand its regular budget and technical assistance
programmes in support of improving revenue administration and reforms in
the fiscal, financial, banking and capital market sectors to promote
private sector development and mobilize capital for sustained economic
growth. Donor Governments and agencies may consider contributing through
substantive and financial support to promote tax administration reforms as
a prerequisite to overall fiscal reform and to enhance domestic financial
resource mobilization.
6. The United Nations should consider: organizing interregional seminars
on improving revenue administration with special emphasis on regional
groupings; establishing regional training institutions and programmes and
conducting training on tax policy and tax administration aimed at training
of trainers and operational government officials as well as general and
financial management specialists; preparing tax policy and tax
administration country-oriented training materials in the working languages
of the United Nations; promoting tax policy and tax administration training
on a multi-regional and TCDC basis; acquiring and providing developing
countries with skills in management information systems.
7. The United Nations should study, analyse and disseminate information
and perform a clearing-house function for improved accounting methods (e.g.
accrual accounting) in Government and emphasize information technology
training to enable off-the-shelf financial management software to be
evaluated, acquired and utilized as considered appropriate. The United
Nations should further undertake studies to develop guidelines and software
for core, minimal financial management systems which can be deployed as a
temporary measure to remove any constraints to quick disbursal of emergency
relief.
D. On public-private interaction
1. The Programme should stand ready to help Governments define the role
and scope of the public, mixed and private sectors and to suggest options
in the modalities of interaction in accordance with the practical realities
in each country, especially at the local and municipal levels, by means of
specific technical assistance, dissemination and exchange of country
experiences and research on the conditions for successful replication. The
United Nations can orchestrate Governments and international agencies in
addressing social needs through public-private interactions, and act as a
facilitator in the sensitization to needs and in stimulating the flow of
resources.
2. The United Nations, including the Programme, should continue and expand
its assistance to the Member States concerned with military conversion by,
inter alia, collecting and analysing data, managing an information
clearing-house, developing enterprise conversion models from case-studies
of successes and failures, and providing specific technical support, as
required.
3. The United Nations, in collaboration with other agencies including non-
governmental organizations, should provide assistance in strengthening the
institutional development of the private sector. The Programme might focus
on a single issue each year, such as export promotion, job creation and
inter-ministerial coordination. The United Nations also has a role in
disseminating the concept of decentralization to non-governmental
organizations and the private sector, by which the design and management of
government programmes are brought closer to the beneficiaries.
4. The international donor community should continue to provide technical
assistance in the preparation of State enterprises for privatization, in
the identification of bidders and the evaluation of bids, in negotiation
with large and powerful buyers, in coupon schemes and broad basing of
ownership and in the design and financing of social safety nets. Countries
should have options, for instance the choice between authoritarian and
participatory models of privatization.
E. On social development
1. The United Nations should focus attention on the need to develop
capacities in the social sector of Government as part of a comprehensive
attempt to rebuild and enhance national capacities in the formulation and
implementation of public policy at all levels. Having regard for the far-
reaching implications and complexities of those policies, the United
Nations system of organizations and the Bretton Woods institutions should
promote consistent and closely concerted approaches on social issues.
2. In supporting well-balanced programmes in administration of social
programmes, the United Nations must take account of historical, political
and cultural diversity of Member States. The United Nations should serve
as a clearing-house for information on social development administration
and should analyse current and future trends in order to develop a new
paradigm of human development. It should assist developing countries, at
their request, in developing long-term policy instruments for dealing with
social concerns and implementing the goals of the international
conferences. The United Nations should also contribute to national
capacity-building in planning and implementation of social development
programmes.
3. Future meetings of the United Nations and the Group of Experts on
Public Administration and Finance should follow up the recommendations of
the World Summit for Social Development, as well as other international
conferences (the World Conference on Human Rights, the United Nations
Conference on Environment and Development, the United Nations Conference on
Population and Development, the Fourth World Conference on Women, etc.), to
ensure full consideration of the public administration and finance
dimension.
4. The United Nations should deliberate creatively on a new paradigm of
development, taking account of the approaching social development crisis
due to the explosive growth of population over the next 20 to 50 years,
which reflects the growing need for solidarity and interdependence at the
subnational level and among Member States. It should give stronger impetus
to the far-reaching measures which must be adopted, especially by the
developed countries, and further assist in mobilizing funds to help
Governments implement their social development programmes.
5. The United Nations, as well as the international community, should
significantly increase their activities in providing effective support to
institution-building efforts in developing countries and countries in
transition. This can be done by pooling information, facilitating
exchanges of worldwide experience on best systems and practices, and
advisory missions as required. The United Nations should also disseminate
information on the goals and recommendations of international conferences
and assist Governments, at their request, in translating these
recommendations into programmes of action.
6. The United Nations should assist developing countries, at their
request, in capacity-building for socio-economic development. In
particular, it should promote the training of social policy planners and
other categories of civil servants dealing with social issues (e.g. in
departments of finance, trade, etc.). Furthermore, it should assist grass-
roots communities and train indigenous leaders who can organize for social
development.
7. The United Nations should assist Governments by focusing attention on
the policy/administrative implications of the recommendations advanced at
various international forums and indicate the needs for knowledge, skills
and values at the national level.
8. It is strongly recommended that the United Nations assist national
Governments to analyse and determine, quantitatively and qualitatively, the
need for high-level skills to implement the recommendations of the World
Summit for Social Development and other conferences on social issues and
social policies in general; assist those Governments to elaborate the
personnel policy framework needed to attract and retain those skills; and
assist those Governments in training and upgrading such personnel.
F. On developing the infrastructure and protecting the environment
1. Historically, the United Nations has been providing advisory services
in this area. The Programme has the capacity to continue this service and
to assist in the planning stages at all levels. This role should be
expanded. The increased assistance of the United Nations, particularly of
the Programme, in the areas of administrative capacity-building and
infrastructure management support is encouraged.
2. The United Nations and the Programme should play a role in:
establishing procedures for assessing environmental impacts of
infrastructure projects; technical support and capacity-building; advancing
environmental awareness; developing the skills of both managers and workers
and educating them in the new technologies in order for them to carry out
their regulatory mandates.
3. The United Nations should assist in the planning and financing of
infrastructure projects by providing the expertise and knowledge of new
methods of non-linear analysis that are currently emerging. The Programme
can assist in the development and execution of cost-effective
infrastructure development and maintenance programmes, particularly at the
local level.
4. An international trust fund, perhaps under the guidance of the United
Nations, could be established to assist in the conversion of existing
infrastructure programmes to meet new environmental standards.
G. On strengthening government legal capacity
1. The United Nations should develop and support research seminars and
services, at the request of interested countries, to improve the legal
framework of public administration, advise on codification, train public
officials and judges, disseminate experiences from other countries and
regions, and provide a group of expert advisers who can ensure a sharing of
expertise. A critical element of this effort is facilitation of research
on comparative legal issues. Existing international and regional-
intergovernmental organizations active in the field of public
administration should be supported by the United Nations in order to allow
them to participate in this activity.
2. The United Nations should highlight and disseminate written
formulations of general principles of public administration which are now
widely accepted and which should be presented in discussions of the legal
framework as references for Governments and citizens such as on legal
stability, equality before the law, due process of law, access to
participation opportunities, transparency and accountability.
3. The United Nations should offer assistance to countries attempting to
modernize the legal framework with respect to human resources management,
particularly as the laws relate to the civil service.
4. The United Nations should undertake to support research on the complex
issues of accountability and responsibility in developing and transitional
countries with particular concern for the manner in which the legal
framework of public administration can assist the overall effort to enhance
accountability. Capacity-building will be necessary for many countries that
wish to undertake this task, including education for non-governmental
organizations which assist citizens in their claims on public
administration.
5. The United Nations should encourage international groups and
intergovernmental groups such as regional development bodies to assist in
informing national public administration groups and civil servants of
significant international legal changes and the manner in which feedback
can be provided for possible future revisions in international accords.
The United Nations could undertake to assist countries in incorporating the
principles of international human rights accords into the legal framework
of public administration.
6. The United Nations should support studies of the ways in which
anticipated future trends in the context and challenges of public
administration will require changes in the legal framework, suggesting how
such forces of change can be met. For example, the tendencies towards
deregulation alongside new regulatory demands from the international
community, continued efforts at decentralization and de-layering of
Governments, and enhanced use of marketoriented regulatory tools all call
for adjustments in contemporary legal systems and capacity-building in
civil service systems. These reform efforts should proceed with primary
attention devoted to the stated goal of the United Nations to assist
developing and transitional nations in meeting the challenges of
inequalities, poverty and social cohesion in pursuit of the critical goal
of sustainable development. Attention to the law of the civil service is
essential to secure the competency, neutrality and professionalism of
public administration and therefore in governance.
H. On post-conflict rehabilitation and reconstruction
of government machinery
1. To maximize the effectiveness of international efforts, the United
Nations should strengthen its role as facilitator and coordinator.
Agencies should work together as a team, complementing each other's
efforts. The United Nations should ensure that it is operationally ready
to respond to requests for assistance by building a repository of
experience, by planning and by maintaining a roster of qualified
professionals and specialized organizations. There should be new and
innovative approaches which include the direct funding of reconstruction
projects to different levels of Government as well as civic organizations.
The United Nations should monitor and, where necessary, follow up on aid
commitments.
2. The Programme should play a pivotal role in assisting in all phases of
restoration and restructuring of public administration institutions. It
should strengthen the professional expertise and other capabilities to
assess needs, design action plans, mobilize resources and assist in
implementation. The United Nations and, in particular, the Programme
should develop the concepts and capabilities of preventive management of
potentially unstable situations.
3. The United Nations should create an interdisciplinary knowledge base
built on a computerized information and communications system that will
support inter-organizational and inter-jurisdictional planning and
operations in response and recovery. Alternative systems, based on
rearranging existing national resources, including self-organization,
should be considered.
4. Assistance by the United Nations should serve as a positive influence
that facilitates national consensus-building and the process of political,
economic and social integration.
I. On management of development programmes
1. The institutional machinery for evaluating consistency between project
outcomes and macro objectives such as growth, employment and income
distribution, both ex ante and ex post facto, should be strengthened. This
is an area in which technical assistance from the United Nations would be
of great use to Member States.
2. The United Nations can assist countries to strengthen their negotiating
capabilities with donors through training and better information exchanges
between government agencies.
3. The United Nations can assist by providing support and collaboration to
existing regional institutions to convene more regular regional and
interregional seminars at which effective exchanges of regional and South-
South information can be made. The United Nations can significantly
advance collaboration and interaction of a regional and South-South nature
by launching and supporting a databank programme located in appropriate
regional institutions. The secretariat capacities of these institutions
could be mobilized to compile, and subsequently update, databases which are
accessible through Internet inquiry facilities. The focus of these
databases can vary, depending on the information that regional member
countries elect to promulgate to national, regional and international
inquirers, e.g. a roster of national technical experts, national contracts
being tendered, pre-approved contractors for technical implementation,
development projects being implemented, etc. The United Nations can
support more extensive utilization and development of this resource by
assisting countries to create and promote exchanges of comprehensive
national rosters of experts and technical contractors.
4. Because there exists a critical need for an appropriate individual
mechanism to sustain the important role of public administration and
development at the international level, it is recommended that the Group of
Experts be changed into an intergovernmental body as a full-fledged
subsidiary of ECOSOC. This will provide direct linkages with Member States
and other institutions and greater visibility, leadership and continuity
for public administration and development that an intergovernmental body is
expected to provide at the global level.
5. Because the need for sustaining the role of public adminstration and
development is such an important one, regional and interregional seminars
should be held before the convening of the resumed session of the General
Assembly in the spring of 1996 to disseminate and discuss the report of the
Group of Experts and the consolidated report of the Secretary-General.
Such activities should be geared to clarify the issues of public
administration in development and mobilize support from Member States for
due recognition of the role and significance of public administration at
both the national and international levels.
APPENDIX II
Agenda
1. Opening of the session.
2. Remarks by the Director and Secretary of the Meeting.
3. Election of officers.
4. Adoption of the agenda and organization of work.
5. Substantive items for discussion:
(a) Government capacity for policy development;
(b) Administrative reform, civil service reform and management training;
(c) Financial management;
(d) Human resources development;
(e) Public-private interaction;
(f) Improving the performance of the public sector;
(g) Role of public administration in promoting social development;
(h) Role of public administration in developing infrastructure and
protecting the environment;
(i) Government capacity in the legal and regulatory framework;
(j) Post-conflict rehabilitation and reconstruction of government
machinery;
(k) Role of public administration in the management of development
programmes.
6. Reviewof the UnitedNations programmein publicadministration andfinance:
(a) Programme review and future orientation;
(b) Coordination with other United Nations bodies and the specialized
agencies.
7. Adoption of the report of the twelfth meeting of the Group of Experts.
APPENDIX III
List of participants
Experts
Mr. Sam AGERE
Director-General
Zimbabwe Institute of Public Administration and Management
Zimbabwe
Mr. Mohammed AHERDANE
Director
Ministry of Administrative Affairs
Prime Minister's Office
Morocco
Mr. Mohammed ALIAT
Director of Administrative Reforms
Morocco
Ms. Angela De BARROS LIMA
Ministry of Public Administration
Sao Tome and Principe
Ms. Juliette BONKOUNGOU
Minister
Ministry of Public Administration and Administrative Modernization
Burkina Faso
Mr. Guy BRAIBANT
Commission superieure de codification
France
Mr. Luis Garcia CARDENAS
Director General
Secretaria de Energia
Direccion General de Asuntos Internacionales
Mexico
Mr. George CARRIAZO MORENO
World Economy Research Centre
Cuba
Mr. Steven COHEN
Associate Dean
School of International and Public Affairs
Columbia University
Director
Graduate Program in Public Policy and Administration
United States of America
Ms. Louise COMFORT
Associate Professor of Public and International Affairs
Graduate School of Public and International Affairs
University of Pittsburgh
United States of America
Ms. Corazon Alma DE LEON
Chairman, Civil Service Commission
Philippines
Mr. Yehezkel DROR
Professor
Department of Political Science
The Hebrew University
Israel
Mr. William EIMICKE
Director, Program in Politics and Public Policy
Columbia University
United States of America
Mr. Alexei EMILIANOV
President
Academy for Public Administration
Russian Federation
Mr. Salman FARUQUI
Secretary to the Government of Pakistan
Ministry of Water and Power and Environment and Urban Affairs
Pakistan
Mr. H. FERNANDO ROJAS
Presidente
ILSA
Colombia
Mrs. Maria GINTOWT-JANKOWICZ
Director
National School of Public Administration
Poland
Dr. Muhammad Rais Abdul KARIM
Deputy Director General
Public Service Department
Malaysia
Dr. Klaus KONIG
Professor and Specialist of Administrative Sciences
Post-graduate School of Administrative Sciences
Germany
Ms. LIANG Dan
Deputy Director General
The China International Centre for Economic and Technical Exchange
China
Ms. Namane MAGAU
South Africa
Mr. M. L. MAJID
Secretary
Economic Relations Division and Ministry of Finance
Bangladesh
Mr. Messuoud MANSORI
Minister Delegate to the Prime Minister in charge of administrative affairs
Morocco
Prof. Gerard MARCOU
Centre national de recherches administratives, politiques et sociales
France
Mr. Toshiyuki MASUJIMA
Professor of Policy Studies, Chuo University
Former Administrative Vice Minister of the Management and Coordination
Agency
The Prime Minister's Office
Japan
Mr. Jose Oscar MONTEIRO
Associate Professor, Law School
University Eduardo Mondlane, Maputo
Senior Lecturer, The Graduate School of Public and Development Management
University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
Mozambique
Dr. Hamed MUBARAK
Director
Civil Service Reform Programme
Egypt
Mr. Jorge OBANDO
Director, Proyecto Reforma Judicial
Costa Rica
Mr. Clive J. PARRY
Cabinet Office
Office of Public Service & Science
United Kingdom
Mr. Carlos Alberto REIS QUEIROZ
Ministry of Finance
Brazil
Dr. Chung Hyun RO
President
Korean Institute of Public Administration
Republic of Korea
Mr. Graham SCOTT
New Zealand
Mr. Rajiv SHARMA
India
Mr. Selwyn SMITH
Head
Civil Service Commission
Office of the Prime Minister
Barbados
Mr. Manit SUM
Secretary of State (in charge of administrative reform)
Prime Minister's Office
Cambodia
Mr. Boon Huat TAN
Deputy Secretary (Policy)
Public Service Division
Prime Minister's Office
Singapore
Mr. V. V. VOLKOV
Deputy Chief of Administration of the President
Russian Federation
Mr. John WOOD
Office of the Vice-President for Policy
Canadian Institute for Development Administration
Canada
Representatives of United Nations bodies
Mr. Abdul Rahman ABDULLA
Management Development Programme
Sharjah Municipality
United Arab Emirates
Mr. Enrique AGUILAR
Representative to the United Nations
Director
UNIDO Office in New York
Mr. Hassan H. BAHLOULI
Senior Officer
UNIDO Office in New York
Mr. Horacio BONEO
Director
Electoral Assistance Division
Department of Peace-keeping Operations
Ms. Laura CAMPBELL
Senior Legal Officer
Regional Office for North America
United Nations Environment Programme
Mr. Shabbir CHEEMA
Urban Development Programme
Bureau for Policy and Programme Support
United Nations Development Programme
Mr. Vincent M. DEL BUONO
Interregional Adviser for Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice
Mr. Keith HILLYER
United Nations Development Programme
Mr. Azizul ISLAM
Director
Development Research and Policy Analysis Division
Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific
Ms. Maaike JANSEN
External Relations Officer
United Nations Environment Programme
Mr. Peter KOUDAL
Macroeconomic and Social Policy Analysis Division
Department for Economic and Social Information and Policy Analysis
Ms. Roswitha NEWELS
United Nations Office of Project Services
Mr. Sadig RASHEED
Director
Public Administration, Human Resources and Social Development Division
Economic Commission for Africa
Ms. Chikako TAKASE
Economic and Finance Branch
Division for Sustainable Development
Department for Policy Coordination and Sustainable Development
Mr. Manhbub UL HAQ
Special Adviser to the Administrator
United Nations Development Programme
Ms. Claudia VALENCIA
Consultant
UNESCO Liaison Office, New York
Representatives of specialized agencies
Mr. Hans GEISER
Director of Training Department
International Labour Organization Training Centre in Turin
Mr. Malcolm HOLMES
Poverty and Social Policy Department
International Bank for Reconstruction and Development
World Bank
Mr. N. PETROV
Chief
Vocational Training Systems Management Branch
International Labour Organization
Mr. Arigupudi PREMCHAND
International Monetary Fund
Representatives of interregional and regional institutions,
non-governmental and other organizations
Ms. Amelia L. ABAD
Eastern Regional Organization for Public Administration
Ms. Nancy ALEXANDER
Bread for the World
Mr. Daniel BURKE
Directeur general
Membre du Corps Professoral
Relations avec la Clientele/Communications et Marketing
Canadian Centre for Management Development
Ms. Joan CORKERY
Programme Director
European Centre for Development Policy Management
Mme Marie-Helene DUMESTRE
Institut international d'Administration publique
Mr. P. J. GOMES
Executive Director
Caribbean Centre for Development Administration
Mr. Saiyid Muhammed HANIF
Permanent Representative in New York
World Association for Small & Medium Enterprises
Mr. Bill IWATA
Director
Project Finance - Latin America
AT&T Network Systems
Mr. Jeong-Seok KANG
Korean Institute of Public Administration
Seoul, Republic of Korea
Mr. Ravi KAPIL
Deputy Head
Public Management Service
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
Mr. Mohan KAUL
Director
Management and Training Services Division
Commonwealth Secretariat
Mr. Bernard KLIKSBERG
Inter-American Institute for Social Development
Mme Marie-Christine MEININGER
Deputy Director for Research and Publications
Institut international d'Administration publique
Ms. Turkia OULD DADDAH
Director General
International Institute of Administrative Sciences
Mr. Richard E. SCOTT
Permanent Observer
International Organization for Migration
Dr. Franz THEDIECK
Head, Office for Public Administration
German Foundation for International Development
Ms. Ann Marie WALSH
Institute of Public Administration
Mr. Peter ZIMMERMAN
Harvard University
Secretariat of the Meeting
Mr. Guido BERTUCCI
Director
Division of Public Administration and Development Management
DDSMS
Mr. A. T. R. RAHMAN (Secretary)
Deputy Director
Division of Public Administration and Development Management
DDSMS
Ms. Carmen REID (Co-Secretary)
Senior Public Administration Officer
Division of Public Administration and Development Management
DDSMS
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