The South African Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA), in close partnership with the Secretariat of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), is managing an Africa wide project on public sector reform. In order to establish a comprehensive capacity development programme for NEPAD and ensure that it is appropriately focused and resourced, it has become necessary to collect, collate and analyse the full range of ‘Public Sector Reform’ initiatives across the continent. In particular such an analysis would focus on donor supported programmes in Public Sector Reform.
Whilst many reform initiatives focus on particular sectors (Health, Education, Social Development) or functional areas (Finance, Human Resources, Information Technology) within the public sector, many countries across the continent initiated wider public sector reform programmes. In addition, although most public sector reform programmes are defined by governments, many of them have been and continue to be supported by donors. These reform initiatives include, amongst others, legal reforms and changes (e.g. legislation, policies, regulatory frameworks); institutional structuring (e.g. rationalisation of organisational units, establishment of new institutions); system changes (e.g. financial management, human resource management, planning, information technology); and improved service delivery.
A comprehensive analysis of reform initiatives, and in particular the initiatives supported by donors, would provide a foundation for developing an understanding of the capacity development challenges within the continent. It is further expected that the collation of data on public sector reform and an analysis of existing and planned donor initiatives would provide a base for developing a comprehensive strategy on reform and capacity development within the NEPAD fold. It is expected that the data generated will also provide a base for establishing a knowledge bank on public sector reform and a mechanism for enhancing the prospects for co-ordinating reform interventions and for the sharing of capacity and lessons across the continent.
The objective of the activity is to collate, verify and synthesize data on public sector reform programmes and projects supported by donors, across Africa. By building on a comprehensive data source on donor supported initiatives and likely donor interventions over the next decade, the project will seek to create a knowledge base that could be used to identify gaps in public sector reform which require addressing, and areas of commonality that are worth exploring.
The activities required to meet the activity objective are as follows:
The service provider will develop a conceptual framework to guide the information sought, and the sources to be consulted during the data-gathering phase of the project. The framework should provide a base for adequately capturing and presenting the data. Of particular importance is the need to define capacity building, define and capture the different focus areas (sectors and /functional areas) within the ambits of public sector reform and at the same time, provide a base to capture the focus of specific donors, within the framework. The framework should accommodate the need for both quantitative data and qualitative data on the reform programmes/projects supported. It is expected that the framework will be tested through consultation with the South African based project steering committee. Based on the conceptual framework, the service provider will develop a template and a very basic database for gathering data, storing the data and updating the data in future. As appropriate, such a database should be established in a manner that allows for its eventual incorporation into an interactive knowledge and information-sharing web based system.
The service provider will conduct an analysis of available sources of data and reach agreement with relevant parties concerning use of the data. Sources to be considered include the World Bank, Organisation of African Unity (the African Union), OECD, Africa Institute, bilateral and multilateral donor agencies and others. Based on the areas identified, the service provider will gather all available data. Data gathering is likely to consist of desktop research, the collection of data from donors and interviews with key stakeholders. It is expected that the service provider will ensure access to donor support documents from all donors active in the area of public sector reform across the continent. As appropriate, the service provider should also be able to access regional and national government structures for obtaining the required information.
In order to ensure that the data gathered is stored in an easily accessible and reliable form, the service provider will design and implement the database, bearing in mind that it will be made available through the web-siteInternet in time. The database should be simple and easy to operate, and should be developed on software with which multiple partners are familiar. (e.g. MS Access)The service provider would thus need to propose a cost effective, user-friendly application. Consideration should be given to the institutional resources required to keep the information updated and the database maintained. The manner in which the data is placed and the various categories established for presenting the data should facilitate the utilization of the data for further research and for the generation of specific conclusions on public sector reform programmes and projects across the continent. As appropriate and in support of the reports to be generated, a set of core reports that can be automatically generated from the database should be established. This should not preclude the possibility of generating alternative reports from the available fields and/or establishing new fields within the database. In view of the data collected and collated, an analysis also needs to be conducted on the data and the standard database reports.
In view of the data collected, collated and analyzed and the overall project objectives, the service provider will generate appropriate reports on the project itself and the project output. In view of the overall project and the intention of sustaining the relevant database and generating reports on a continual basis, the service provider will prepare a detailed report on the methodology adopted, data-gathered and gaps identified within the data. It is expected that such a report would provide a firm foundation for the further development of the database, for the further utilization of the information and for sustaining the database. The report should also make recommendations on the resources required to manage the database and improve the data within it over a sustained period of time, bearing in mind that this responsibility may not always vest in the DPSA in South Africa. In addition, a comprehensive and analytical report that reflects the project outputs will need to be prepared. It is expected that the required analytical report should, at minimum provide the following: