a keynote address: improving the performance of government · a keynote address: improving the...

A Keynote Address: IMPROVING THE PERFORMANCE OF

GOVERNMENT Delivered at the General Assembly of the Association of

African Public Service Commissions Abuja – Nigeria

19th – 20th July, 2011

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http://www.kbs.edu.ng

SALUTATIONS

Your Excellency, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, Commander-in-Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Other Excellencies here present, Our Chief Host the Chairman Federal Civil Service Commission, Nigeria, Amb. Ahmed Algazali, Assembly of the Association of African Public Service Commissions, Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen. I want to welcome you to this 3-day Assembly of APPSCOMS titled “PERFORMANCE CONTRACT AS AN INDISPENSABLE TOOL FOR ACHIEVING EXCELLENCE IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR IN AFRICA”.

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Sequence Introduction Africa is Blessed Emergence of Formal Governments (Short History) Where is Africa in the Global Landscape Africa & World Trade Sizing the Performance Challenge Performance Contracts Impediments to Performance Management Conclusion & Recommendations

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Introduction My job this morning is to deliver the keynote address that

will flag off this conference. I have been accordingly

directed to speak on a very topical issue: Improving Government Performance. In speaking about Improving Government Performance, a sort of context would help so re-directed the topic to concentrate the African Continent.

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2.1 Africa’s Blessings We are indeed very fortunate

to belong to the most blessed soil in the entire universe. Our Creator has been kind,and favoured Africa in many respects. Geomorphologically, Africa does not frequently experience disasters like volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and tsunamis.

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This land is tucked beneath with an unimaginable array of valuable resources, Gold, Diamonds, Copper, Columbite, Coal, Sulphates, Iron Ore, Aluminum, Limestone, Oil & Gas. These riches can hardly be exhausted.

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2.2 The Emergence of Governments

Formal goal oriented administration of the affairs in African countries emerged with the advent of colonialism over 100 years ago following the Berlin conference for the partitioning of the Continent.

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Under colonialism, institutions were established to manage the affairs of the citizens. Existing kingdoms were re-arranged (amalgamated) into colonies (now countries) and properly organized with a formidable government machinery that served the interest of both the citizens and the colonial authorities.

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Lord Lugard on Africans

"In character and temperament, the typical African of this race-type is a happy, thriftless, excitable person. Lacking in self-control, discipline, and foresight. Naturally courageous, and naturally courteous and polite, full of personal vanity, with little sense of veracity, fond of music and loving weapons as an oriental loves jewellery. His thoughts are concentrated on the events and feelings of the moment, and he suffers little from the apprehension for the future, or grief for the past. His mind is far nearer to the animal world than that of the European or Asiatic, and exhibits something of the animals' placidity and want of desire to rise beyond the State he has reached”

http://i-museafrica.blogspot.com/2010/02/western-perceptions-of-africans-lord_07.html |Slide 9 |

http://i-museafrica.blogspot.com/2010/02/western-perceptions-of-africans-lord_07.html

http://i-museafrica.blogspot.com/2010/02/western-perceptions-of-africans-lord_07.html

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By the late 1950/early 60s however, most African countries were back on the path of self or ‘in-dependent’ governance, based on political structures and institutions designed and entrenched by the outgoing colonialists. These institutions and governance structures have endured till today with slight modifications in a few countries. This August gathering in “July” is an attestation of that endurance Civil Service Commissions were a creation of that system.

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http://www.kbs.edu.ng |Slide 11 |

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Citizens look on to governments “to perform”. To ensure that all State Functions which Citizens receive as services and more are provided.

Citizens pay taxes, and concede authority over their source of livelihood like access to land and resources beneath it to government (Public Trust).

In turn governments make budgets and allocates resources to all sectors. Governments design policies and develop strategies aimed at ensuring that Citizens are happy.

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3.0 Where are we on the global landscape? 3.1 Basic GDP Perspective The World Bank development indicators database as at

2010 reports that global (GDP) now stands at about US$63Tr. The first four economies in the world are

United States of America USD 14 trillion China USD 5 trillion Japan USD 4 trillion Germany USD 3 trillion

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WORLD BANK GDP STATISTICS 2010

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In that data base, only three African countries appear in the top 50 list.

South Africa…….28th ……………..$363bn Egypt…………… 40th ……………..$218bn Nigeria………….. 45th ……………..$193bn

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The GDP of the entire African continent stands at USD $1.4tr; this basically means that we contribute just about 2% of global output.

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Africa is blessed with a population of close to 1bn people with 53 States to deliver on the expectations of these people.

China & India both have a population of 1.3 and 1.4 bn respectively and each has 1 State to deliver on citizens expectations.

The largest state responsibility in Africa plans with only 160m people in mind.

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It should be more challenging to create policies that efficiently allocate resources to deliver state functions, like public health, job creation, education, law and order to keep 1.3 – 1.2 billion people happy as in the case of China and India. In relative terms, do our 53 governments really have much to do? Or are we busy doing the wrong things?

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Inspite of all her natural endownments

Africa is a Continent better known today as the poorest on earth. The world image of Africa is that of incessant conflicts, diseases, hunger and poverty. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), an eight point agenda of the United Nations captures the essence of Government Performance in Africa today. The MDGs are a set of performance targets for governments to follow, with a timeline for its achievement by 2015.

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The African Economic Outlook (AEO) 2010 report, stressed that: “With five years left to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) end date and with the rate of progress on most of the goals sluggish, it is unlikely that they will be attained”. |Slide 19 |

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3.2 Africa and World Trade

Africa’s relative performance in the global market has reached drastically low levels in the last thirty years. Although total levels of merchandise trade have increased for all African countries, sub-Saharan Africa’s share of world trade has been in decline since the 1980s.

In comparison, the performance of the Asian region is laudable. Shares of world trade have doubled over the same period reaching 27.8 percent in 2006, making Africa’s increased marginalisation in the world economy even more apparent.

The World Bank estimates that Africa’s decline in trade represents a loss equivalent to $70 billion annually – five times the $13 Billion received in aid.

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4. The Performance Challenge 4.1 Strength vs Scope

The World Bank’s 1997 Development Report provides a list of State functions. The list is not exhaustive but provides useful benchmarks for State scope i.e. the different functions taken on by governments. They include:- Defense, Law and Order Property rights Macro-Economic Management Public Health Protect the Poor Education Environment Regulate Monopoly Insurance & Financial Regulation Social Insurance Good investment climate

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Francis Fukuyama, a Senior Fellow at the Centre of

Democracy, Development and Rule of Law at Stanford and an authority in Public Policy proposed a State capacity quadrant which creates a matrix between the strength and scope of a Government for a clear understanding of a states’ performance baseline.

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|Slide 23 |

A hypothetical example of State’s scope versus capacity.

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THE CAPACITY SCOPE QUADRANT

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Strength

Scope

III-Low Capacity

Limited Scope

I-High Capcity

Limited Scope

II- High Capacity

Good Scope Coverage

IV-Low Capacity

High Scope Coverage

It should then assess its position and subsequent basis for performance improvement based on the scope and strength quadrant suggestion below.

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Should Africa aim to be in quadrant I, II, III or IV? It could be argued that an optimal standpoint is quadrant I which combines

limited scope of Government function with strong institutional capacity. Another perspective would be to choose quadrant II rather than quadrant I.

The worst position to be in is quadrant IV where an ineffective State takes on the ambitious range of activities that lead to a poor performance.

About two and half decades ago, the state especially in Africa was

deregulated. The free market mechanism was favoured as a more efficient and effective allocator of resources.

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Strength

Scope

III-Low Capacity

Limited Scope

I-High Capcity

Limited Scope

II- High Capacity

Good Scope Coverage

IV-Low Capacity

High Scope Coverage

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States were forced to downsize in favour of privatization, out-sourcing and other forms of alternative service delivery. The result was quadrant III lean states that could not up scale performance due to lack of capacity.

The favoured market structure also failed. Most of the free market arrangements that lead to privatisation further accelerated poverty and underdevelopment drifting back to quadrant IV.

These are the essential dynamics that have led to the revival of the legitimacy of the state emphasising the optimisation of strength and scope (quadrant II).

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4.2 Improving Government Performance

A lot has been done over the last three decades and we have understood a few things. Macro-ecoonomic prescriptions including AID have not really worked.

It is time for African States to really look inwards. An “inside out” approach characterized by genuine African alternatives. The best practices and copied models from “outside-in” have done their best and its time to bring our signature processes in to development.

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This is what Business Mogul Richard Branson refers to as “breaking the rules”

Development under this scenario will evolve our capacity and

reduce the tendency for copying those with capacity who also naturally have their own interests. This is why President Kagame argued that “one reason for Africa’s ‘lost decades’ is that we lack ownership and capacity.”

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This requires that we commit ourselves to research and understanding what works in the context of our blessings, traditional belief systems, and history in the light of the legacies we want to leave behind. A completely new body of knowledge based on African theories. We can call it Africonomics.

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4.3 Introducing Performance Contracts to Improve Performance

Performance contracts are powerful instruments that guide the operationalization of policies. It develops in concrete terms the meaning of the social contract that exists between a government and its citizens.

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Performance Contracting Citizen’s Engagement Platform

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Performance Contracting

Citizen’s Engagement Platform Mobile Edition

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www.nigeriancitizensconnect.com

http://www.nigeriancitizenconnect.com/

http://www.nigeriancitizenconnect.com/

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Performance contracts (PC) – connects the policy makers to the citizens thereby creating trust and commitment to the achievement of goals.

Move clip for 3 minutes. Introducing

….www.citizenconnect.com PC will constantly remind policy

makers that they are responsible for the conditions in which the people in that video clip find themselves. If those type of outcomes do not disappear then we know the PC has been breached.

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PC is Outcome Based

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Performance Contracts

Depending on how it is designed and managed, it includes the voice of the citizens as a critical component in the assessment of government thereby highlighting the citizen as “owner” instead of being a mere observer.

Performance contracts can move the continent from quadrant (IV) to quadrant (II). As long as measures that address state scope and capacity are in the contract.

The feedback mechanism embeded in perfomance contracts results in periodic public announcements and ranking of the performance of ministries, with citizens playing a major role in the assessment process.

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PCs will bring government closer to the citizens. Officials will reduce the blame game, shifting the burden and take responsibilities for their failure.

It will restore in public servants the state of mind that takes responsibility: For

Those road accidents. Those people dying in hospitals before

their time. That race to seek medical attention

abroad or school abroad. The state of unemployement and make sacrifices to save resources

to buy the MRI machine that is so needed to save lives in a village.

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4.4 Policy Resistance

Poverty Unemployment Poor Health Care The laudable

intention of a PC could lead to Policy Resistance. Which could restore the balance and keep us in a state of dynamic equlibrium.

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Once a policy is poorly designed, not properly implemented and it fails, the implications can be grave sometimes unimaginable. Consequently, our policies may create unanticipated side effects. Our attempts to stabilize the system may distabilize it. Our decisions may provoke reactions by others seeking to restore the balance we upset. This is what Forrester (1971) defines as the “Counter Intuitive Behavior of social systems”.

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Policy Resistance War on drugs after which drugs are still as prevalent as ever; Decades of “job creation” have not managed to keep

unemployment permanently low; War against corruption which creates more corruption; Efforts towards the MDGs by 2015, which is yet to be met; Series of Government reforms which lead to more problems; Road building programmes designed to reduce traffic congestion

have increased traffic delays and congestion; Decades of receiving AID have not delivered the continent from the

shackles of poverty. “Policy Resistance also happens in Nature it is not restricted to

social system alone” Antibiotics have stimulated the evolution of drug- resistant

pathogens; Pesticides and herbicides have stimulated the evolution of resistant pests and weeds;

Antilock brake devices, airbags and other safety measures which lead people to drive carelessly putting them and other road users in unnecessary danger; etc.

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4.5 Setting Performance Goals

One of the most powerful ways to influence the behavior of a system is through its purpose or goal. This is because the goal is the direction-setter of the system, the definer of discrepancies that require action, the indicator of compliance, failure, or success.

If the goal is defined badly, if it does not measure what it is supposed to measure, if it does not reflect the real welfare of the system, then the system cannot possibly produce a desirable result.

Donella Meadows

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For Example, if the desired state is national

security, Define it in monetary terms and see what

happens. The system will produce military spending. It may or may not produce national security.

If the desired system state is good education, measuring that goal by the amount of money spent per student will ensure money spent per student. Not Good Education.

The entire focus will shift to spending which becomes the new goal.

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One of the greatest thinkers of our time the late Donella Meadows suggested that.

Perherps the worst-take of this kind has been the adoption of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as the measure of national economic success.

“The GDP of any nation

does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials”

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If you define the goal of a

society as GDP, that society will do its best to produce a good GDP.

It will not produce welfare, equity, justice, or efficiency unless you define a goal and regularly measure and report the state of welfare equity, justice, or efficiency. |Slide 43 |

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Seeking wrong goals, satisfying the wrong indicators, is a performance characteristic to be weary of.

Africa is a victim of this observable fact. In seeking the wrong goals, we have produced the wrong results.

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4.6 Beating Performance Targets

A 30-40 year habit will not be broken very easily there will be evasive action to get around the

intent of performance measures. For instance, departments of governments, and

corporations often engage in pointless spending at the end of the fiscal year just to get rid of money—because if they don't spend their budget this year, they will be allocated less next year.

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5. Conclusion Your Excellencies, distinguished

Ladies and Gentlemen, the tasks of this conference are clearly cut out. I would like to close by making the following recommendations:

We should improve government performance in Africa through systematic building of regional capacity to plan, design and implement effective measurable performance targets for overall state functions.

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Performance contracts would make a huge difference in reminding public officials that they truly have a social contract with the citizens. Seeing them as owners will turnaround the perspectives and this would serve as a wake-up call.

Furthermore, performance challenge can best be addressed in terms of meeting the benchmark, for state function scope. This calls for a Peer Review mechanism among African Policy designers and sharing knowledge and experiences.

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Every African government must have a transformational vision for the next 10 years and clear policy instruments for achieving it. African governments should look inwards to draw from best practices from our indigenous economic and development theories grounded with research on our fundamental belief systems.

Define the boundaries of good investment climate for all African governments to satisfy. There are at least more than 250 agricultural goods for which one or more African countries have a comparative advantage, a third of which are goods that other African countries import. Africans must promote inter-African trades and insist on removal of external trade barriers in global trade policies.

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Promotion of export trades within Africa and investments in value added exports globally. African governments must redefine economic growth in terms of other relevant measures that can compete and even surpass the utility of GDP statistics as a measure of national performance.

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Allocating greater resources to skills/knowledge acquisition and facilitate a shift to knowledge economy. Research and Development Innovations should be incorporated into policy articulation process in administration.

Redefine MDGs into performance contracts which can be incorporated into existing ministries as part of their performance targets, as well as advocate to extend the MDGs by five years.

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Finally, I cannot end this address without appreciating the presence of his Excellency Mr. President, saluting the laudable initiatives of AAPSCOMS, and the organizers of this year’s “General Assembly” The Federal Civil Service Commission of Nigeria, under the indefatigable leadership of Amb. Ahmed Algazali.

To all of us seated here today, just these few words; Africa’s Performance is the Heart of the matter during this General Assembly and without doubt, it is a Matter of the Heart: The Condition we find ourselves in presently calls for great concern.

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What will be our Legacy? How will we be remembered? Ultimately,the dynamics of our entire discourse

this morning have a much deeper dimension. The answers lie in how we respond to those questions above.

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