AEGIS ECAS 2007 - View abstract

Panel	16. New ways of managing public administrations in Africa ?
Paper ID	807
Author(s)	Awortwi, Nicholas ; Helmsing, Bert
Paper	View paper (PDF)
Abstract	Two major policy changes are taking place in the organisation of basic services and the management of public organisations in Africa. The first is adoption of decentralisation policy and the second is the application of the new public management (NPM) approach. The success of the combined policy hinges on the role of central governments in enabling the efforts of local governments (LGs) and non-state actors. While decentralisation has compelled central governments to transfers some responsibilities, finances and political autonomy to local governments, the application of the NPM approaches has aimed at internally reorganising LGs to deliver services with an eye on efficiency, effectiveness, cost reduction, and generally improvement in quality of services delivery. The enabling approach requires CG & LGs to run less but manage better and differently through institutionalisation of three new responsibilities; facilitating efforts of other actors to perform responsibilities that have been transferred as a result of decentralisation; setting clear regulatory policies to govern multiple actors; and monitoring and assessing the performance of multiple actors. Using examples from a number of African countries, the paper shows that these policy changes have influenced or changed the way basic services such as water, sanitation, solid waste services, primary education, and health care are being provided. It also shows that the degree to which these new responsibilities have been exercised leaves a lot to be desired. The paper then focuses on Ghana and provides the results of a study on multiple institutional arrangements of public-private partnerships (PPPs); public-community partnerships (PCPs) and LGs internally managed delivery of services. It compares the results of the multiple institutional arrangements in terms of quality of service delivery as assessed by service users, financial cost to the public budget and users; effectiveness and efficiency, and service coverage. Using the results of the study, the paper argues that while decentralisation and NPM provide opportunities for LGs to implement multiple institutional arrangements, the critical enabling role of central governments have not been understood in so many contexts, hence results of the paradigm shift have been very disappointing. The paper suggests a step-by-step enabling policies and approaches that aim at plugging the gap between what LGs need to become smarter and effective in their new dispensations and what is prevailing in many African countries.

Running less but managing better. Provision of basic services in an era of decentralisation, new public management and enablement