Experts to assess ways of improving service delivery in Africa

ECA Press Release

Addis Ababa, 5 October – The Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) is to host a meeting to examine the management of public expenditure in Africa in a bid to make service delivery more efficient.

The meeting, which will take place in the Zambian capital Lusaka from 9-11 October, will bring together policymakers, researchers and experts to discuss the main constraints to effective service delivery.

Sound public expenditure management is essential for service delivery. Many governments are falling short of ensuring adequate health, education, water and sanitation at various levels. Therefore institutions for the allocation and management of government expenditure need to be developed or strengthened.

Despite some progress in Africa, centralized government structures, inefficient institutional arrangements, corruption, fraud and lack of transparency in the civil service are still major causes for concern.

One way of addressing these concerns is public-private partnerships. These have the potential of combining public sector concern for equity with the competencies and strengths of the private sector. Decentralisation is another important method of ensuring better service delivery, although local capacity has to be boosted for this to be effective.

It is against this background and as part of its efforts to help African countries achieve the Millennium Development Goals, that ECA is organizing the meeting on “Public Expenditure and Service Delivery in Africa: Managing public expenditure to improve service quality and access”.

By bringing together experts and policymakers, the meeting will help develop a better understanding of how governments at the local, national, and regional levels can improve public expenditure management to make service delivery more effective.