Gerson Kamatuka
Late last year November, I had a privilege and honour with my fellow Public Service Commissioner Cde. Salmaan Jacobs to attend a conference on the above topic in Mombasa, Kenya, organised by African Association for Public Administration and Management (AAPAM).
As I was attending this conference, I promised myself that I will share my experience with other citizens of my continent, especially those who are having their hearts for effective governance and the professionalisation of the African Public Service.
Indeed, Africa has come a long way trying to set up various institutions in their countries in addressing the issue of service delivery to their citizen.
It is obvious that since independence, Namibia is not excluded in this march, trying to have a place in the Sun in delivering service.
After independence, our government was facing a big task in democratisation of government institutions and also creating new institutions with limited resources on their disposal – let alone the skills and manpower needed for effective service delivery.
Now, moving forward beyond the 21st century, where to Africa on the issue of leadership and public service for national development, especially the case of Namibia?
During our deliberations at this conference, as Africans, we agreed that Africa indeed has made many strides in improving public service performance – even during this time of the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic around the globe.
In fact, during the outbreak of Covid-19, here in Africa and in particular Namibia, the worst was expected due to shortage of health facilities and skills required to managed such a pandemic.
However, one must point out that Africa surprised the world and have managed the pandemic like all other continents.
Looking at the various topics covered at this conference, such as transformational leadership, strengthening public sector institutions, 4IR digital technologies, E-services for modernising service delivery, promoting accountability in public sector institutions and the fight against corruption in pursuit of sustainable development, inclusivity and diversity: leaving no one behind, we agreed that somehow, the African continent is on the march, and some progress can be seen in some African public services.
The following were revealed by the conference:
- There is a need for transformational leadership in every country on the African continent in terms of values and principles of the 2030 agenda.
Public sector institutions are key to sustainable development in Africa hence the need to provide legislative/policy framework to spell out roles for promoting sustainable development and achieve the sustainability.
The conference acknowledged that a key issue for African policymakers is to position their economies to benefit from the 4IR while also managing the challenges it presents.
Conference recognised that meeting the obligation under Agenda 2030 and 2063 is another route to inclusivity.
Therefore, moving forward as Africans, it is only a question of prudent utilisation of the minimum resources on our disposal, and inclusive equal and fair distribution thereof amongst our citizens.
The strengthening of our institutions will require urgent attention to have processes and systems in place that will answer to our call for professional service delivery and smart governance.
It is worth mentioning that as we were discussing all these issues facing public services around the world, and especially the African continent, one could not ignore to also zoom on the Namibian context.
The Namibian public service has transformed exceptionally well – and it seems going forward, the professionalisation of its operation should continue without hesitation.
We are privileged to have the political will from the current leadership to keep the flagship, as they, themselves, went through the rank and file of government structures and understand the risk thereof – technocrats of their own.
For example, our current President, His Excellency Hage Geingob, is a scholar of public management par excellence, and have been the founder and first administrator/head of the business of government after independence – and he became a role model for many of us from the school of public management.
Therefore, the call is on us, as civil servants/technocrats, in this year of reimaging to come to the dining table without delay and support current policies initiatives in the spirit of Harambee and professionalism.
The citizen of any country are best served by those who acquired prober skills training, raising required qualifications and implement best practices.
Let us continue improving on our recruitment processes in the public service to make sure we identify best candidates on merits to get the opportunity to serve the people and nation at large.
We must highlight innovations in governance, reward excellence in the public service, motivate public servants to further promote innovation and enhance the image of the public service.
A professional public service can only be served by those who have the required skills and qualifications, and there are no second thoughts about it.
Let us put all our efforts together and march in the right direction as we are preparing ourselves for the celebration of the upcoming Africa Public Service Day on 23 June 2022 with pride.
The time is now to leave nothing behind in our search for the professionalisation of the African Public Service.
The time is now to make sure we serve our people without any prejudice with the little resources on our disposal to be innovative in the 4IR area.
The time is now that as civil servants we portray the characteristics of a good citizen in a developmental state.
Yes, indeed, there is no doubt the African Public Service will survive all the challenges and will rise to the occasion to serve our people to the best of our abilities for national development.