6th CONFERENCE OF AFRICAN MINISTERS FOR PUBLIC/CIVIL SERVICE

Report of the 1st Extended Bureau Meeting of the 6Th Conference of African Ministers for Public/Civil Service 22 - 23 May, 2009 NAIROBI, KENYA

Abbreviations
AAPAM African Association for Public Administration And Management AAPSIA AMDIN All Africa Public Service Innovations Awards African Management Development Institute Network AU AUC APSD APSC CAMPS ECOWAS LTS NEPAD RECs African Union African Union Commission African Public Service Day African Public Service Charter Conference of Africa Ministers of Public Service Economic Community of West African States Long Term Strategy New Partnerships for Africas Development Regional Economic Communities

1. Introduction The 1st Extended Bureau Meeting of the 6th Conference of African Ministers for Public/Civil Service took place in Nairobi, Kenya from 22nd to 23rd May, 2009 at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre. The meeting was attended by delegates from Egypt, Burundi, Nigeria, Mozambique, Tanzania, Kenya, South Africa and the African Union. Key partner organizations such as NEPAD, AMDIN and AAPAM attended the meeting. 2. Opening Remarks by the Chairperson The meeting was chaired by the Minister of State for Public Service of Kenya. Hon. Dalmas Otieno EGH. MP, in his capacity as Chairperson of the 6th Conference of African Ministers for Public/Civil Service. He opened the meeting by extending warm greetings to the delegates and invited them to sample Kenyas touristic attractions. The Chair started by tracing the genesis of the Ministers Programme back to 1994, and subsequent meetings in Rabat and Windhoek up to the Stellenbosch and Addis Ababa Declarations. These Declarations placed the responsibility of driving the continental public service agenda to the African Union and Member States and defined priority areas to inform on implementation of the Programme. He then reminded the meeting that the objective of the 6th Conference is three-fold; to develop the capacity of African States; the adoption of the African Charter of Values and Principles; and finalization of long3

term strategy. He thereafter called the attention of the members to the importance of the meeting in addressing the manner in which the Bureau will operate over the next two years and beyond. The Chairperson proceeded to submit the Provisional agenda for the Bureau Meeting for adoption. The agenda for the meeting was approved unanimously as follows: a) Remarks from the Chair b) Adoption of the Agenda c) Remarks by AU Commissioner d) Ceremonial handing over by South Africa e) Report of the Chair to the 1st meeting of the Bureau f) Report on resource mobilization initiatives g) Bureau representative from Central and West Africa Region h) Africa Public Service Day (APSD) 2009 i) Submission of reports to the Bureau j) Establishment of a Secretariat Programme of Ministers at AUC for the

k) Proposed lead Champions and Co-Champions.

3.

Introductory Remarks by Her Excellency Mrs. Julia Dolly Joiner, African Union Commission (AUC) Commissioner for Political Affairs

In her introductory remarks, Her Excellency Mrs. Julia Dolly Joiner, Commissioner for Political Affairs of African union commission reiterated the AUCs commitment to put public service and state capability development at the heart of national, regional and continental initiatives. She underscored the sense of collective ownership and responsibility that characterizes the efforts Members States and partners are undertaking in this endeavor. In addition, she reminded the Bureau of the necessary link between state capability and delivery of Millennium Development Goals, underlining that state capability is fundamental if African States are to establish ownership for collective initiatives in all sectors and terrains of engagement. She urged Member States to engage as service champions, while balancing national and regional priorities, through exchange, learning and ongoing engagements within specific thematic areas, which would provide a basis for effective peer support to enhance capacity of Member States. The Commissioner emphasized the need for establishing sustainable capacity for the Ministers Programme within the African Union Commission, to take forward the initiatives of the Ministers, and urged Member States to urgently take action on the matter. She underscored the need of
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establishing a clear perspective and to identify the indicators of success for the 6th Conference of Ministers. 4. Introductory Remarks by the Honourable Deputy Minister for Public Service and Administration of South Africa.

In his introductory remarks, the Honourable Deputy Minister, Mr. Roy Padayachie, reiterated the commitment of South Africa to continue supporting the Programme. He thanked the Chairperson for inviting South Africa to champion the Capacity Development thematic area. He further observed that lack of capacity in institutions impede states from effectively delivering on their public service and administrative responsibilities. He pointed out that planning, budgeting, strategic programme and human resource management as well as monitoring and evaluation are relevant skills essential in the governance process. He then reminded the meeting of the outstanding challenges ahead; these include mobilization of resources for sustainable programme development and strengthening of social partnerships and the Programme of Ministers. 5. Introductory Remarks by the Honourable Minister of State, Presidents Office, Public Service Management, Tanzania

The Honourable Minister of State, Madam Hawa A. Ghasia, briefed the Bureau on the preparations towards the celebrations of Africa Public Service Day (APSD) taking place in Dar es Salaam, from 15th to 19th of June 2009, under
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the theme: Fostering Partnerships and Collaborations for Sustainable Development and Improved Service Delivery in Africa. She informed the meeting that there will be two events that will characterize these celebrations. Firstly, the exhibitions of services that are provided by the Public Service Institutions and secondly, the Conference of Ministers of Public Service. She then urged countries to confirm their participation, and informed the Bureau that Tanzania will meet the costs of accommodation and ground transportation for participating Ministers. Ministers are requested to arrive in Dar es Salaam by June 16th. The Honorable Minister of State went on to submit the themes for key papers to be presented at the APSD, for endorsement by the Bureau, namely; (a) Repositioning Institutions for the Challenges Sustainable Development: Role of State Institutions, (b) State and Non State Actors, Partnership Collaboration: The Implications for Capacity Building, of and

(c) Forging Partnerships for Sustainable Development and Good Governance: The Role of Development Partners, and (d) Repositioning Institutions for Challenges of Sustainable Development and Good Governance: The Role of NonState Actors. She also urged Member States to present papers on their experiences on Public Administration to show-case good practices.
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The Bureau endorsed the proposed dates, theme and subthemes and urged the Secretariat to write letters to all Member States emphasizing the importance of attending the meeting and highlighting that the Ministers meeting will take place back to back with the celebrations. AMDIN and AUC offered to publicize the event on their web-sites, in addition to the AUC sending out Note Verbale to Member States to attend. All countries have been urged to use any means possible to publicise the event, including the internet and the local media. The Bureau recommended that the Secretariat and Rapporteur support Tanzania National Organizing Committee for the event. To this effect the Secretariat and the Rapporteur are expected to attend the Organizing Committee meetings in Dar es Salaam on 4 and 12 June, 2009. 6. Chairpersons Report to Bureau and Deliberation on Key Issues The Chairperson started by thanking Member States for electing Kenya to Chair the 6th Conference of African Ministers Programme, and recognized their commitment and that of the other stakeholders to move the agenda of the Conference of African Ministers forward. He recognized in particular, the role played by South Africa in the previous two terms and applauded the smooth transition from South Africa to Kenya. He informed the Bureau that the Government of Kenya has set up an ad-hoc
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Secretariat located at the KICC, and that an amount of Ten million Kenya shillings (Ksh10,000,000), equivalent to USD 125,000, has been made available by the Government of Kenya to fund the Secretariat. In his address the Chair summarised both the challenges facing the organization on the one hand, and the status of on-going activities on the other. With regard to the challenges, he outlined lack of clear definition and demarcation of functions and responsibilities of various actors in leadership and management of the Programme, the need to further clarify the concept of service championships and the modality of their identification, creation of permanent structures for spearheading implementation of activities, and resource mobilisation to finance implementation of Programme activities. Regarding Programme status report, he outlined progress made towards celebrations of the Africa Public Service Day (APSD), the African Public Service Charter (APSC), the LongTerm Strategy (LTS), All Africa Public Sector Innovations Awards (AAPSIA), Bureau Representation from Central and West Africa, and resource mobilisation. The Bureau made key deliberations on issues emerging from the Chairpersons report;

(i) Bureau Representation from Central and West Africa With regard to lack of representation of both Central and West Africa, the Bureau recommended that, a collective consultative approach be used to allow Member States participate in the process of nominating their

representatives. Countries from both regions should be urged to attend the celebration of APSD in Dar es Salaam and a Ministerial meeting be held with each group of countries to address and resolve the issue. Nigeria was requested to use the ECOWAS Secretariat to further mobilise Member Countries to attend the Tanzania celebrations. (ii) Capacity at African Union Commission

To address the issue of lack of a dedicated Secretariat for the Ministers Programme, the Bureau recommended that Member States should second staff to AUC. To this end, the AUC will circulate a position paper outlining the modalities of secondment of personnel to guide Member States in identification of suitable candidates. Such position papers may include the conditions of employment, terms of reference and institutional arrangements together with responsibilities, on the part of AUC or the seconding country.
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(iii)

Roles

and of

Responsibilities Conference of

for

Leadership Ministers

and of

Management

African

Public/Civil Service. The objective of this paper was to offset one of the challenges identified namely, lack of clear definition and demarcation of functions and responsibilities of various actors in leadership and management of the Programme. The Bureau identified the AUC, and approved roles for and the the

Conference,

Ministerial

Bureau,

Chairpersons office, the Rapporteur, Champions and Stakeholders. (iv) Paper on the Concept of Service Championship The concept of champions is borne out of the necessity to ensure a wider participation and ownership of the

Programme by Member States, and foster best practices in African Public Service. Service championships is a delivery mechanism through which a cluster of countries commit themselves to work collaboratively on a given thematic area with a view to champion initiatives aimed at showcasing best practices, levels, thus driving their approaches to to the
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benchmark

providing

leadership

continent. Coordination will be achieved by rotating the role of lead service champion among the member countries in the region. Each service champion country may be assisted by one or two co-service champions. (v) Identification of Service Champions Service championship is a delivery mechanism through which a cluster of countries commit themselves to work collectively on a given thematic area with a view of championing initiatives aimed at show-casing best

practices, driving their approaches to benchmark levels, thus providing leadership to the continent. The Bureau adopted the concept of service championship and roles and responsibilities of service champions. The Secretariat was directed to circulate a paper outlining the distribution of thematic areas, which were adopted during the meeting, achieved across by the continent. of Coordination the lead will be

means

rotating

service

championship role to different countries. Each champion country may be assisted by one or two service cochampions. This paper will form part of the agenda for the

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Ministerial meeting to take place in Dar es Salaam where Member States will finalise their choice of thematic areas. (vi) Resource Mobilisation The Bureau agreed that each country should mobilise funds to implement its initiatives under the thematic areas. In addition, the AUC in collaboration with the Chairperson will endeavour to mobilise funds to support implementation of the Chairpersons Programme. It was recommended that the Secretariat prepares indicative budgets for the

operations of the AUC Secretariat, the Chairpersons Secretariat and the Chairpersons Programme

Implementation Plan. This issue should also be in the agenda for the forthcoming Ministerial meeting in Tanzania. (vii) Status of the African Charter on Values and Principles of Public Service and Administration. The Commissioner of AUC informed the Bureau that the meeting of the legal experts is scheduled to take place during the second half of the year. Progress on this will be reported during the Ministerial meeting in Dar es Salaam.

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(vi

Chairpersons Programme Implementation Plan.

The Bureau approved the Chairpersons work plan. The work plans objective is to transform public service in Africa by providing a forum for exchange of best practices,

mentoring, coaching, sharing comparative advantages on reform in the continent. The strategy consists in working

closely with champions, AUC, RECs and other stakeholders to mobilise resources for Programme implementation. The Bureau approved a plan comprising of thematic areas, clustered as follows: Service Delivery and Development, Human Resource Management, Information and Communication Technology in Public Service, Organizational and Institutional Development, Budget, Finance and Resource Mobilisation, Monitoring and Evaluation, Anti-corruption and Post Conflict Reconstruction and Development. 7. Discussions and Endorsement of Papers

The Bureau discussed and endorsed the following papers: (a) Roles and Responsibilities for Leadership and Management of the Conference of African Ministries of Public/Civil Service; (b) Paper on the Concept of Service Championship; (c) Chairpersons Programme Implementation Plan.
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The Bureau endorsed the following agenda items for the Ministers meeting to be held in Dar es Salaam. (a) Paper on capacity requirements to support the Ministers Programme at the AUC, indicating the modalities for secondment. (b) Bureau representation from Central and West Africa. (c) Identification of champions and co-champions for each thematic area. (d) Resource mobilization. 8. CLOSING REMARKS The Honourable Deputy Minister for Public Service and Administration of South Africa passed a vote of thanks on behalf of the members present. In making his closing remarks, the Deputy Minister expressed appreciation to the Chairperson, the Secretariat, and the Government of Kenya for having successfully hosted the Bureau meeting. He further expressed his appreciation for the cordial atmosphere in which the meeting took place and thanked the AUC for its continued support to the Ministers Program. The Honorable Minister of Public Service of Burundi in supporting the vote of thanks passed by South Africa appreciated the efficient and effective manner in which the meeting was conducted. She said, It facilitated productive deliberations.

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The Honorable Minister of State, Presidents Office, Public Service Management of Republic of Tanzania, thanked the Chairperson and the Government of Kenya for the hospitality extended to her and her delegation. She welcomed all delegates to the forthcoming African Public Service Day (APSD), taking place in Dar es Salaam. She reiterated her invitation to the Chairperson and expressed her wish to receive him in Dar es Salaam on 15th June before the opening day on 16th June, 2009. Her Excellency, the Commissioner for Political Affairs described the meeting as having been very constructive. She concluded that the framework established by this meeting, forms the foundation for the work of the Bureau of the 6th Conference of African Ministers of Public Service. Furthermore, the Commissioner expressed appreciation for the work Tanzania has undertaken towards preparation for the celebration of APSD, and encouraged Member States to attend the celebrations. The Commissioner expressed gratitude to the Chairperson for good leadership and commended the Secretariat for a job well done. To close, the Commissioner extended appreciation to all delegates attending the meeting as well as to other partners such as AMDIN, NEPAD and AAPAM. In his closing remarks, the Chairperson acknowledged the support by the AUC, Bureau Members and delegates. He thanked Member States who offered to champion thematic areas. He challenged other Member States to engage in
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promoting Good Governance in their respective countries to ensure effective service delivery, and contribute in this way to make Africa competitive globally. Lastly the Chair thanked the secretariat and officials for their contribution to the success of the meeting.

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