Windhoek
Presidential Affairs Minister Frans Kapofi has clarified the difference between Harambee and other Cabinet-adopted government programmes.
Kapofi explained that the basic principle of the Harambee Prosperity Plan (HPP) is urgency in implementation and setting of strict deadlines.
He was, however, quick to reiterate that HPP is, as often pointed out, a complementary programme and not a contradiction to, or replacement of, the existing government programmes such as Vision 2030 and NDP4.
HPP is now officially a Cabinet-adopted government programme and Kapofi, speaking in Gobabis last Friday, said all and sundry in the public service are bound to its working plan.
“With a view to expedite the implementation and accelerating socio-economic development, His Excellency, Dr Hage Geingob, President of the Republic of Namibia, has initiated the Harambee Prosperity Plan, which was eventually adopted by Cabinet as a government programme,” he said in his address at the permanent secretaries and accounting officers’ workshop held at the town.
“In order to fully implement this plan, the public service should shift into higher gear in order to be more efficient and effective in their work.
“This must necessarily be underpinned by greater emphasis and practice of professionalism and high levels of accountability across the civil service for the delivery of desired outputs and results.
“Thus, it is your duty to inculcate a sense of urgency in all your staff members. We do not have time to waste.”
The central tenet of HPP is the accelerated implementation of targeted interventions that complement other medium- and long-term national development programmes.
It would look like some of the initial targets of Harambee, whose deadline was set for end of June, have been missed. However, Kapofi relentlessly called for speedy implementation of existing targeted programmes.
“This will be achieved by working together, pulling in the same direction, and through discipline and commitment on the part of all the senior civil servants in our public service,” he said.
“It is your responsibility, as accounting officers and senior managers in the civil service, to support your principals and manage your institutions effectively so that the HPP targets and other national development priorities can be met.”
Change management
Speaking at the same occasion, Secretary to Cabinet George Simataa said Harambee’s successful implementation needs a paradigm shift in the way senior civil servants think and do things.
“It is this group’s responsibility to describe the shape and pattern of change and transformation needed to arrive at a new order without creating chaos,” he said.
“The difficult part of the paradigm shift is breaking away from the old paradigm (that does not work as well as it used to) and surviving in the ‘chaos of change’,” Simataa added.