Impact of Education and Training on
Public Service Delivery – Reflections
on SAMDI’s Mandate, Performance
and Strategic Directions
Presentation to the Portfolio Committee on
Public Service & Administration
Cape Town
4 June 2003
Statutory and Policy
Framework
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Constitution
Public Service Act, 1994 (Act ? Of 1994)
White Paper on the Transformation of the Public
Service (November 1995)
Batho Pele: White Paper on Transforming Public
Service Delivery (September 1997)
White Paper on Public Service Training and
Education (July 1997)
New Public Service Regulations (1999)
White Paper on Human Resource Management in
the Public Service (year?)
New century, new challenges
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More complex public problems
 Nature of politics, governance and intersection with public
policy is more complex
 New discourse and significant impulses that impact on the
nature of the state – realisation that transposing, imposing or
importing no longer tenable
 Role of private sector is being re-defined
 New technologies re-define work processes and options
available
 New labour market challenges
 Contradictory pressures on the nation state
 Public sector reform, budget reform, managing for results,
accountability and monitoring and evaluation are reaching
universal prevalence – convergence across countries
Public Sector Transformation
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Transformation of the Public Service relates to the
function and purpose of the Public Service –
effective & efficient service delivery (within
government’s mandate)
 Also relates to nature and profile of the public
service – race, gender, values, norms and
orientation
 Transformation of the Public Service inextricably
linked to social and economic transformation
 Building the new developmental state is a
progressive process – we need to respond
appropriately
Public Service and social and
economic transformation
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Most strategic and receptive site for state
intervention
Mobility between public and private labour
markets
“Bureaucratic petty-bourgeoisie” – historic
possibilities
Feed skills into societal institutions
Articulation with the economy – including the
“commanding heights of the economy”
Summary of operational
objectives
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Focused on service delivery outcomes
 Assigns managerial responsibility for
results and for resources applied in
achieving outputs
 Accountability for actions
 Conducts business professionally,
transparently and ethically
Report on the state of the
Public Service (November
2001)
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Assessed the values proposed on the constitution
 Some progress, but serious challenges remain
 Key challenges and opportunities –
– combating corruption and mal-administration,
improving service delivery and developing human
resources
– Improved monitoring and evaluation
Priority areas within the Public
Service
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Priority areas: government business
processes, hard skills in policy analysis
(data intensive), maturing institutions,
policies, move to performance budgeting,
indicators, priority to improve probity.
How? HRD?
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HRD? – beyond a limited conception of education
and training
Usefulness of “Human Capital” as a concept?
Clear generic skills training – improve efficacy
Responsive to the context – post-industrialisation,
huge public sector reform (not “catching up with
the past”), global parallels, focus on performance,
results and service delivery
Articulation with business process reform, systems
redevelopment, new practice
What HRD should entail?
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Effective and transformed HRM
 Training generic skills: procurement, basic
business process, people skills, service delivery
ethos
 High level analytical skills: policy analysis, data
analysis beyond narrow quantitative applications,
problem-solving, strategic planning, monitoring
and evaluation
 Link between “doing” and “learning” – moving
beyond rhetoric, articulating with system design,
development and implementation
Assessment of challenges and
SAMDI’s programmes
Service Delivery challenges –
current programmes
Service Delivery SAMDI
challenge
response
Outcome
/impact
Poor service
Develop and
delivery – social present training
grants
on social grants
service delivery
-1,000 persons
trained
-Standardised and
improved services
- Recruit
volunteers and
assigned SAMDI
to train them
also
continue
Service delivery
G.J.Crookes hospital
Training on service
delivery for operational
managers
N.E Mkhize handed in
action plans June 2001 –
improved SD confirmed
Management and
leadership capacity
needed
PSLDP programme
strategy into action and
service delivery
-Dept Agriculture DDG
and team developed
policy as part of training
-Department growth and
improvement
dramatically in 12
months
Implementation of
outcomes based training
TDQ developed
programmes
557 SDF trained to
implement workplace
skills plans,
In progress – programmes that
impact on service delivery
Need to
mainstreaming
gender
Needs analysis
completed – Both
men and women to
do gender training
Special
programmes on
advancement of
women to be
developed
Impact on critical
mass
E-learning training Training on PFMA
system developed
to be launched via
e-learning
Attract and retain
talented managers
Development of
IMDP – Flanders
support.
Busy with
information
gathering
Statistics on outputs
Year
PT
PTD
2002
20 397
81 166
2001
10 335
58 481
2000
6 813
23 694
1999
4 062
18 564
1998
1 731
6 645
Recent impact studies
Insideout / strategy and tactics have done impact
studies on training provided for the public service
through SAMDI and JUPMET. Studies were the
folowing:
- Selected SAMDI programmes (PSLDP, PAS and
Service Delivery) from January to end May 2001(151 trainees and 30 supervisors interviewed)
- JUPMET training in 1998 and 1999.(392 trainees
and 103 supervisors interviewed)
Summary
The findings suggest that the three SAMDI
programmes have contributed towards the
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acquisition and implementation of new skills
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the increased levels of staff motivation, confidence
the overall improvement of the departments’ perceived
performance
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Monitoring of SAMDI’s training
programmes
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Track implementation of AWP
Monitor attendance compliance with Course Bookings
Capture and analyse course reaction data
Monitor & evaluate training on-site
Assess course material compliance to outcomes
Provide administrative support to PAT & PSC meetings
Develop M&E Framework
Access specialised skills for Impact Assessment
Apply M&E Results strategically
Manage Information Effectively
Report timely and accurately
SIGNIFICANT NEW AND
EMERGING CHALLENGES
FOR SAMDI
Challenges identified in the PSETA Sector
Skills Plan
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Retaining effective managers
Developing career paths for lower level workers
Coping with limited resources
Increasing organisational complexity
Restructuring the Public Service, redeploying and retaining
existing staff
Managing change and conflict
Managing ICT
Financial skills for managers
Creating new organisational structures
Improving service delivery
Employment equity
What are the strategic
challenges
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Public Sector reform
Budget reform
Accountability
Strategic Planning
Performance Management
Policy formulation
Policy implementation (includes project management)
Organisastional development (Procurement systems,
business processes)
Emergence of new
management development
institutes
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Cape Administrative Academy (operational); KZN Institute
(not launched yet); Free State Institute (launched); NorthWest Institute (not launched yet)
Mpumalanga in conceptual stage and other provinces to
likely to follow
National Departments – DTI; Health, Home Affairs; and
NIA
Also have service level partnerships established (eg.
Eastern Cape)
Implications for SAMDI?
Local Government Initiatives
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Cabinet Lekgotla of 2002 – extended mandate to
include local government
Benefits to having a national and uniform public
service
Discussions underway to take this further with
DPLG – proposal developed
Work closely with DPLG and SALGA
Have to develop innovative ways to meet
challenges and scope
Beyond Public Service
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Take a broad view on human capital
development – medium term perspective
and links with private sector labour markets
 NEPAD – central challenge relates to the
efficacy of delivery vehicles – public
services
NEPAD
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Two distinct dimensions to NEPAD that are relevant
First, the NEPAD programme raises many complex and
urgent challenges (trade policy, market access, monitoring,
good governance, peer review, managing external resources
and mobilising more domestic resources, management of
domestic macro-economic and fiscal policy, improving
effective social services delivery)
This requires the formulation and stewardship of local
policies that resonate with NEPAD, while collaborating in the
elaboration and stewardship of the NEPAD programme
We will have to rise to these challenges with some severe
shortcomings in our public sectors
Second, the focus and collective political investment in
NEPAD creates unprecedented opportunities for public sector
reform and MDIs
Challenges in the wider global
context
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Follow up on Millennium Summit, WSSD,
UN, Pan African Conference of African
Ministers of Public Service
 SAMDI needs to advance SA’s foreign
policy objectives and benefit from
collaboration with national, regional and
global institutes and expertise
OUR IMMEDIATE
RESPONSE
GOING FORWARD!
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First step to respond to requirement to have a
strategic plan
Clarify strategic re-positioning of SAMDI
Address pressing organisational shortcomings
Formulate medium term strategic plan consistent
with challenges
Establish and institutionalise commensurate
organisational structure, modalities and business
processes
Conclusion
Opportunities – context is becoming more
enabling – policy and law, better sense of role of
public service, maturing institutions
 HRD – has immense potential leveraging power
 We seek to build on SAMDI’s strengths to take
further our capacity to discharge our present
mandate
 We seek to make maximum use of the strong
political capital available to us
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