World expert leads conversation on government performance
A world expert took part in the conversation and shared expertise on the public sector.
To mark 25 years since its establishment, the Centre for Development and Enterprise (CDE) in Parktown held its 14th webinar since 2020.
The discussion – now entrenched as regular CDE Conversations – focused on ‘delivery: from talk to action’.
In the conversation on March 2, CDE’s executive director Ann Bernstein was joined by Sir Michael Barber, one of the world’s experts on how to manage public sector reform. Barber’s focus was on how to make things happen in government, how to turn words and promises into results.
Barber rejected a common assumption that the private sector is good and the public sector bad. “Evidence from around the world shows that there are great public sector organisations, great private sector organisations, and bad ones in both,” he said.
He argued that delivery happens when you replace ‘government by spasm’ with ‘government by routine’. Instead of reacting to the latest crisis, making loads of announcements, and pretending bad things are not happening, you need to set priorities, collect data, build routines to review progress, and solve problems as they arise.
“For the past two years, I have been working with Dr Sania Nishtar, whom the Pakistani Prime Minister, Imran Khan, has appointed to head up Pakistan’s poverty reduction and alleviation programme, Ehsaas. She has taken my idea of the importance of moving from the politics of patronage to the politics of performance very seriously. She has effectively taken patronage out of the system. She has eliminated large chunks of corruption that had grown around government cash transfers,” he explained.
Bernstein asked, “How does she deal with the pushback one would imagine is inevitable when many officials are implicated in corruption? This seems to overwhelm so many leaders across the world. What makes her so successful?”
To which Sir Barber responded that if the top leadership has got one’s back, one can take on a lot of challenges.
Details: For the full discussion, view it on YouTube
Related articles:
