Accelerated and Shared Growth-South
The Public Service Response: Progress Report
5 September 2007
CONTENTS OF THE REPORT
1. Introduction 3
2. Update on the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative
for
2.1
Macroeconomic Issues 4
2.2
Infrastructure Investments 4
2.3
Education and Skills Development 5
2.4
Second Economy Initiatives 6
2.5
Governance and State Capacity Issues 6
3. Public Service Focus: 6
3.1 Education and Skills 6
3.2 HR Connect 8
3.3
Human Resource Development Strategy 9
3.4
Capacity Assessments 10
3.5
Single Public Service 11
4. Conclusion 13
o0o
This is a progress report on the
implementation of the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for
·
Macroeconomic
Issues
·
Infrastructure
Investments
·
Education
and Skills development
·
Second
Economy Initiatives
·
Governance
and State Capacity Issues
The report also focuses on various
programmes that are currently implemented by the public service to improve the
capacity of the state to deliver on its mandate. These interventions include
the following:-
·
Education
and Skills
·
Single
Public Service
·
HR
Connect
·
Human
Resource Development Strategy
·
Capacity
Assessments
The
main objectives of ASGI-SA are to achieve the following:-
i) Grow the economy by 6%
per year by 2010
ii) Reduce unemployment by
half by 2014
iii) Reduce poverty by half
by 2014
In order to achieve its objectives, the ASGI-SA
programme will need to
address the following key constraints in
the economy and these constraints to
the economy are as follows:-
In
an attempt to address to some of the blockages that prohibits economic growth
in
2.1
Macroeconomic Issues
§
The gross domestic product (GDP) grew
by 4,9 percent in 2006 and it forecast to grow at an average of about 5.1%
percent a year over the medium term.
§
A main budget surplus of 0.3 percent
in 2006/07 and 0.6 percent in 2007/08
§
The gap between budget allocations
and actual expenditure is narrowing
§
The percentage of capital projects
behind schedule fell from 14,5% to 4% in 2006
2.2 Infrastructure
Investment
§
Fixed investment reached 18,7% of
the GDP in the third quarter of 2006
§
Overall public sector infrastructure
expenditure increased by 15,8% per between 2003/04 and 2006/07.
§
In the current Medium Term Expenditure
Framework (MTEF), R 409.7 billion has been set aside for infrastructure
projects and 37% of the total budget will be spent by State Owned Enterprises
(SOE’s).
§
The SOE’s will spend this budget on
power generation, transmission and distribution, port, rail and pipelines.
§
Construction has started on Phase
One of the Gautrain and about 58 800 direct jobs will be created
§
The 2006 Budget allocated R 3
billion for stadium construction and R2.4 billion transport infrastructure.
§
A further R9.5 billion was announced
in the MTEF, half for building five new stadiums and upgrade five existing
ones.
§
About R15 billion is earmarked for
EPWP for the next five years and pilot programmes created 47 530 jobs in
2005/06
2.3 Education and
Skills Development
§
The School Quality Improvement and
Development Strategy was developed by the department of Education to improve the
quality of teaching in poorest primary schools.
§
The department of Education
identified 6000 schools which will receive indigenous language material to
improve literacy.
§
The programme also targets teacher
training and development in Maths, Science and Technology skills.
§
The intention of the department of
Education is also to increase the number of learners passing Maths and Science
in higher grades from previously disadvantaged groups.
§
The following professions has been
identified Joint Initiative on Priority Skills Acquisition (JIPSA) as requiring
urgent attention for growing the economy:-
§
High level planning and engineering
skills
§
Town and regional planners
§
Engineers and technologists
§
Artisans
§
Mathematics, Science and Information
and Communication Technologies (ICT’s) in schools
§
Planning and management skills for
the public education and healthcare systems.
§
Cross-cutting skills in project
management, ICT’s finance and ABET.
§
The JIPSA has set a target of 1000
additional engineers per year over the next four years.
§
Increase the number of architects by
30% to 35% and the number of surveyors by 65% in a long term.
§
The JIPSA has also set a target to
train 50 000 artisans over the next four years.
2.4
Second Economy Initiatives
§
Infrastructure maintenance and
construction have created around 70 000 full-time jobs
§
ECD and Home-based care systems
should create 72 000 permanent jobs and 205 000 part-time jobs by the end of
2007.
§
Working for Water has created 27 000
short term jobs
§
UYF has JOBS database which
currently places 500 people a year and would expand to 2000 in the future.
2.5 Governance and State Capacity
Issues
§
Marked
acceleration of service delivery by deploying scarce skills
§
Signing
performance agreements and filling of critical posts
§
Improved
financial viability
§
New
ward committees and engagements through Presidential Imbizo Programme.
3. PUBLIC SERVICE
FOCUS
3.1 Education
and skills
§
Growth envisaged through AsgiSA
depends in part on resolving the shortage of suitably skilled labour
§
Thus a number of medium & long
term interventions identified:
§
Build a strong foundation in public
schooling
§
Focus on areas of greater priority
in tertiary education & training
§
Initiate & improve work-based
training programmes & scarce skills initiatives
§
Jipsa to coordinate & strengthen
activities
Proposed measures aimed at closing skills gaps in the Public Service
§
Four
measures for implementation:
§
Supporting
the flow of talent into the PS
§
Building
a developmental ethos in the PS
§
Coordination
& strategic focusing of resources
§
Improving
systems & processes
3.1.1 Supporting the flow of talent
§
(Re)
orientation and induction programmes for newly recruited public servants to
introduce them to developmental state’s ethos.
§
Intensification
of Internships to reduce graduate unemployment & to introduce graduates to
the public sector ethos.
§
Intensification
of 18.1 and 18.2 learnerships to provide career-pathing and employment
opportunities for the unemployed and under qualified.
§
Development
of linkages with the private sector for revolving door, secondments & other
mechanisms to enable flows of personnel between private & public sectors to
gain experience
§
Build
on current international exchange programmes & capacity building
international programmes
3.1.2 Building developmental ethos
§
Norms
& Standards for an integrated public service so that mobility between the
spheres is facilitated
§
Evolution
of a learning culture that supports on the job training & knowledge sharing
within communities of practice
§
Development
of a cadre of line managers who embody skills development principles in their
management style & approach and which forms part of their KPA.
§
Provision
of focused, short term training for selected employees or occupations to assist
them in working within a developmental state
§
Strategic
frameworks & policies to help the different layers of management in all
spheres of Gov. to work towards a common goal
3.1.3 Coordination and strategic focuses of resources
§
Targeted
partnerships with private sector service providers as a temporary measure to
fill immediate skills gaps
§
Designated
mechanism/body to facilitate relationship between private sector suppliers
& public sector users of training services
§
Establish
structure for HEI & government to work more closely towards meeting public
sector training needs
§
Establish
a training facility providing bridging skills for professionals without public
service experience to provide them with easier entry in to the PS.
3.1.4 Improving systems and processes
§
Bring
HRM & HRD functions into closer cooperation so that recruitment, promotion
& career development activities are linked to skills development planning.
§
Public
sector-wide database located in a central department for the purpose of storing
& analysing training information as well as for modeling & forecasting
§
Improved
monitoring by prescribing standards for recording training expenditure.
§
Prescribed
standards for the capture of information on training so that its impact can be
monitored over time
§
Departments
to give particular attention to quality assuring the entire skills development
process
§
Skills
planning is informed by overarching planning systems oriented to the developmental
state.
3.2 HR Connect
Requirements
to manage Human Capital Development:
How is HR connect different
§
First time Government departments
have worked together on a cross-government skills agenda;
§
Significant move towards a
Government demand-led approach;
§
Strong framework for delivery in
which the Government and its agencies work together ;
§
Determination underpinned by
political and legal mandates to deliver on a demanding change agenda.
§
Job profile for 20 departments related to the
Organising Framework of Occupations (OFO) developed.
§
Held
12 workshops totaling almost 300 person training days (PTD) to:
§
generate
the occupational, job and competence profiles of jobs in the various Departments;
§
assist
Departments in documenting and mapping posts to employees and cleaning up their organogram; and
§
build
capacity in terms of the processes
required to manage Human Capital Development.
§
Data quality issues still persist
Web
enablement of the system
completed
3.3 HRD Strategy
§
Targeted
capacity building initiatives – skills development
§
Strong
organisational support initiatives
§
Accountability
through governance structures
§
Aligned
to economic growth and development initiatives at all spheres of government
§
Monitoring
& Evaluation
§
Annual
performance reporting
§
Policies
– utilisation of the 1% personnel budget; ABET for the PS; Learning Frameworks;
RPL in the PS;
§
Presentation
to Cabinet in September 2007.
§
Launch
of HRDS in November 2007
§
Pilot
in a provincial department & dpsa
§
Roll
out in 27 departments proposed in November – January 2008.
§
Simultaneous
roll out in all departments in January – March 2008.
§
All
departments to have an annual HRD implementation plan for 2008/2009 FY.
3.4 Capacity assessments
G&A
Cluster conducted assessments of the capacity of government to implement
ASGI-SA initiatives
§
Freight handling in the
Durban-Gauteng Corridor
§
Public transport
§
Micro-lending (MAFISA and SAMAF)
§
Licencing processes at DME
§
Vulindlela analyses
§
Key governance challenges and
lessons lifted from each study for discussion at Cabinet Makgotla
3.5 Single Public Service
AsgiSA and Second Economy
initiatives require a re-engineered public service:
§
Innovation
and new way of thinking to ensure seamless service delivery (including the use
of ICT)
§
A
multi-skilled, flexible, adaptable and versatile public service which is
capable of implementing its policies
§
Strong
leadership, skills development, public administration and management reform and
integrated planning
§
An
understanding across all spheres of government that there is a critical need to
better integrate and share responsibility for service delivery functions based
on cooperative relationships as enshrined in Ch 3 of the RSA Constitution
§
A
review of regulatory and administrative systems to ensure better alignment
across all three spheres
§
Mobilising
public servants to become a revolutionary engine for social change and service
delivery (Batho Pele)
§
As
part of implementing the Single Public Service, work is currently proceeding
through various initiatives including:
§
Institutional
integration will be facilitated by Single Public Service legislation
§
Legislation
has been drafted and approved by Cabinet for consultation purposes
§
Massive
communication and stakeholder engagement process underway.
§
Access
and e-Gov Strategic Frameworks to ensure co-ordinated and planned approach to
the interface between government and the citizens in the delivery of services
§
Human
resource practices, remuneration and conditions of service in all three spheres
of government are being investigated
§
Investigations
will be crafted into common human resource management norms and standards for
the Single Public Service
§
Scenarios
for the implementation of the Single Public Service are being costed
§
Scenario
selected will be factored in legislation before tabling in Parliament next year
§
Anti-corruption
frameworks for the Single Public Service developed
3.5.1 Government-Wide Access Strategy
§
Key
features of the Access Strategy include:
§
The
Access Strategy includes various initiatives that are aimed at bringing
government closer to citizens:
3.5.2 E-Government
§
The
e-Government Strategy advocates front-end and back-end integration:
The main purpose of this report was
to provide a general progress report on the implementation of the Accelerated
and Shared Growth Initiative of South Africa (ASGI-SA) and Public Service
Response. The report highlights a number
of challenges that can prohibit government’s objective of growing the economy
by 6 percent by 2010. These challenges were identified and they include a
relative volatile of the currency, skills shortages of critical skills and poor
logistics infrastructure. Numerous
strategic interventions have also been identified to address these challenges
which include the specific projects of the Joint
Initiative on Priority Skills Acquisition (JIPSA), increased public spending on
infrastructure and skills development. The report also focuses on the Public
Service Response and Interventions such as HR Connect, HRD Strategy, Single
Public Service and Government Wide Access Strategy. The objective of these
interventions is to ensure that government plays a role in accelerating
economic growth.