Governance and Public Administration
Established in August 2006, the main goal of the Governance and Public Administration Division (GPAD) is to improve governance and development management to enhance national capacity and capability in ECA's member States. It also focuses on support for the Africa Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) process.
The Division is structured into four sections.
APRM Support Unit
Mission: To contribute towards the institutionalisation and mainstreaming of ECA' s support to the APRM process. APRM is a voluntary self-assessment mechanism used to assess the performances of member States in terms of their compliance with a number of agreed codes, standards, and commitments that underpin the NEPAD's good governance and sustainable development framework.
Priority Areas:
1. Conducting country support missions to assess the institutional structures put in place by governments to undertake the APRM processes;
2. Conducting country review missions to review the countries APRM self-assessment, which requires extensive consultations and interactions with stakeholders and develops a country review report and a National Plan of Action;
3. Providing technical advisory services to APRM countries for fast tracking the APRM implementation process in collaboration with the Joint UNDP-AU-ECA-AfDB APRM Implementation Support Team (JAIST) and the APRM Secretariat. In addition, joint initiatives are undertaken with different partners in various governance-related areas.
4. Conducting APRM training workshops, in order to build the capacity of stakeholders and to share experience aimed at enhancing the APRM agenda;
5. Conducting analytical studies on key APRM issues to identify and disseminate good and replicable practices, as well as avoidable bad practices from the process; and
6. Managing information from the African Governance Report (AGR) project to be utilized in the APRM process.
Civil Society Section
Mission : To strengthen civil society participation in improving good government practices for establishing an enabling environment and solid foundation for peace and sustainable development in Africa.
Priority Areas
1. Strengthening institutional relations through information management, which includes virtual and physical communication; creation of interdivisional task group on civil society; and accreditation procedures;
2. Providing assistance to CSOs and strengthening their capacity to play a greater advocacy role and to support the ECA work program by bringing their input at the policy level through the activities of the Committee on Human Development and Civil Society;
3. Working on the revival of the African Centre for Civil Society (ACCS) to ensure the empowerment of African Civil Society Organizations and to promote and strengthen greater participation in sustainable development and the governance agenda;
4. Delivering advisory services and APRM upon request from CSOs, governments and various stakeholders to strengthen good governance practices; and
5. Organizing subregional meetings to set up an umbrella civil society organization to promote good governance in the respective African regions and countries.
Private Sector and Enterprise Development Section
Mission : To foster a sustainable and stable business environment for the creation of a viable private sector and enterprises in African member States .
Priority Areas
1. Creating a business-friendly environment by reducing administrative barriers and systematic corruption, establishing sound institutional, legal and regulatory frameworks, and promoting good corporate governance;
2. Promoting investment and business opportunities by strengthening business-supporting mechanisms and using ICTs to link fragmented markets and informal sector businesses;
3. Supporting micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises by facilitating information and financing schemes that involve linking these enterprises to investment and credit facilities;
4. Strengthening public-private sector partnerships; and
5. Facilitating entrepreneurship development, especially of women and minorities.
Public Administration Section
Mission : To assist African countries improve their public administration systems and improve public service delivery in line with the increasingly changing and complex problems of managing a democratic and pluralistic society.
Priority Areas
1. Promoting accountability and citizen-oriented public administration, encouraging the participation of local communities in the decision-making process and promoting the role of traditional governance structures;
2. Promoting decentralization and strengthening of local governance to improve delivery of public and merit goods and services;
3. Articulating widely-accepted ethical codes through education and training in public service ethics ;
4. Enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of internal organizational structures in the public service, including the use of ICT, and strengthening human resource management for effective public sector performance ;
5. Strengthening public accountability institutions within and outside the public service ;
6. Enhancing inter-ministerial dialogue and coordination of national policies and strategies among the various ministries, agencies and institutions involved directly or indirectly in policy formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation; and
7. Encouraging the replication of best practices adequately adapted to reflect local conditions, including findings from the AGR, APRM and MRDE processes.
Operation Modalities
In order to accomplish these activities the division operates on the basis of the following modalities:
1. Providing technical assistance to member States;
2. Conducting studies on major issues and problems in governance and development administration;
3. Providing technical advisory services to member States and partner institutions such as the APRM and AU/NEPAD Secretariats to strengthen policy analysis, institutions and managerial capacities; and
4. Using ECA' s convening power to organize seminars and workshops to disseminate replicable best practices, highlight avoidable bad practices and build capacity aimed at improving outcomes in governance and development management
The African Governance Report (AGR)
AGR is a biannual flagship publication, which assesses and monitors progress towards good governance in African Countries. In its first edition in 2005, 27 African countries were surveyed using instruments developed by ECA to assess the perception on governance by households and experts at the country level. AGR II 2007 covers a total of 40 countries: an update on the first 27 and 12 new ones.
Partnerships
GPAD works in close collaboration with other Divisions of ECA, Subregional Offices (including IDEP) and other UN Departments, including UNDP, UNDESA and UNPAN. In addition, the Division works closely with the Africa Union (AU), the Regional Economic Communities (RECs), other sub regional organizations, the AU/NEPAD Secretariat, AfDB, OECD, International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, IDEA, CODESRIA and Civil Society Organizations. Its main funding partners are GTZ, the Netherlands and Denmark.
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