Kanifing: The active role of the civil service is necessary to bolster efforts aimed at delivering governance promises.

This was said yesterday by Dr. Njogu Bah, The Gambia's secretary general and head of the Civil Service at the opening of a three-day forum with the theme "Performance and Results-based Management in the African Public Sector Institutions and State Agencies - Implementation Strategies, Challenges and Practical Solutions". The forum, currently underway at the Paradise Suites Hotel, Kololi, is organised by the African Training and Research Centre in Administration for Development (CAFRAD), the Islamic Research and Training Institute (IRTI), the Personnel Management Office (PMO) and the Management Institute (MDI).

According to Dr. Bah, The Gambia government recognizes the role of the civil service in national development, and it has thus provided for institutional frameworks like the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) which has as part of its intervention the creation of an enabling environment to promote growth and poverty reduction as well as enhancing governance systems.

While he expressed the President's enthusiasm in achieving the country's development goals, the secretary general noted that the attainment of these depend to a large extent on the performance of public service sectors. The reform of the civil service to match with these objectives, he said, is therefore compelling. "The Gambia Civil Service must therefore undergo reforms that will transform it into an organization that enables the government to deliver," he said.

According to the nation's No. 1 civil servant, a modern public service culture requires values of fair play, efficiency and accountability, and without this mindset the commitment to professional standards and resource management, social interventions, reforms and development cannot be effectively executed for efficient service delivery.

He said the vision of the civil service is to be "a professional and dynamic, efficient and effective, proactive and productive civil service that is flexible and adaptive to change and innovation, capable not only of formulating sound policies but also of translating these policies into tangible results."

Public services and institutions at all levels of governance are therefore set up to fulfill certain missions and achieve certain results that correspond to the needs of the population, in relation to their development agendas, he said, adding that the management of public institutions must focus on the need to meet targeted results.

Speaking further, Dr. Bah noted that accelerating economic and social development, including poverty reduction, are major priorities for all governments and these would only remain as mirages if there are no public service and state agencies to translate visions into result. "All public services and state institutions are, for that reason, called upon to conform to the current development requirements, in particular, rigour and thrift in the management of state resources, accountability and the obligation to achieve results and the adaptation of work and results to the needs and requirements of the population."

According to him, the time is right for African countries to summon the needed determination and political will and option for the rapid modernization and reform of their development strategies and to embrace new techniques for the management of their public institutions and state agencies.

He said the commitment to the capacity building forum will remain a key factor in the priority projects for civil service reform, and personnel, training and all oversight institutions must work out a framework for efficient bureaucracy and management and to target sound training programmes and sensitization to the culture of performance and results-based management.

He then expressed the readiness of The Gambia government to continue to partners with CAFRAD and IRTI, hoping also that through concerted efforts, The Gambia will stand out as a major player and an example to be emulated in the evolution and development of the African Civil Service.

The head of service also encouraged all participants and resource persons to explore regional knowledge and raise their awareness of the opportunities and challenges of PRBM strategies, to examine the practical methods needed to implement such strategies in the African public services, identify the capacity-building needs of African governments and create a network for capacity-building and sharing of experience on best practices.

Also speaking, Professor Muhammadou Kah, vice chancellor of the University of The Gambia (UTG) described the topic as timely given the fact that there is now the need for efficient institutions, restructuring of public administration and smarter governments. He said the University is undergoing transformation of institutional processes to provide requisite human resources needed by the civil service so as to ensure efficiency and productivity and improved governance. "We need to engage in the design of smarter organizations, re-architecture of institutional arrangements for performance and results based management."

Prof. Kah further noted that knowledge is a key ingredient to ensure people perform optimally. He then expressed the UTG's willingness to collaborate with IRTI and CAFRAD to address the competency gulf in the institutions by offering undergraduate and graduate degree programmes in Public Administration and Policy Development. "We therefore need re-alignment of institutions and should ask whether current institution arrangements will lead to productivity and efficiency."

Speaking on behalf of the minister of of Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology, Dr. Pap Sey, permanent secretary noted that the forum is of particular significance to his ministry, given the fact that they are in the process of developing unconsolidated institutional strategic policy that will help only the higher education research, science and technology.

Other speakers at the occasion included, Dr. Mojeed Alabi of the African Training and Research Centre in Administration for Development (CAFRAD) and Dr. Faysal Slama, the Islamic Research and Training Institute (IRTI). Participants are drawn from 15 African countries.