Windhoek:  Government faces the challenge of an effective and efficient method of doing things, and the starting point could be the inclusion of civil servants in the formulation of policy that they are required to implement.

For a start, the Government needs to emphasise service, performance, effectiveness and outcome oriented thinking, said Trade and Industry Minister Dr Hage Geingob who is a strong advocate of performance based appointments for a fixed period.  He delivered a public lecture on ‘Structures of Government and Challenge of Public Policy Implementation' as part of a lecture series marking Namibia' s 20th independence anniversary.

Part of the challenge to the implementation of policies, said Geingob, is that civil servants are told to carry out policy but are not party to the articulation of that very policy.  "This is not the most efficient way to operate," said Geingob, pointing at Botswana as an example where civil servants are included in the policy-making mechanism.  "The process, I am informed, has worked well. Perhaps we should re-examine our system," said Geingob.

Civil servants also need additional training, as currently initiated through the Public Service Charter, to improve the effectiveness of the service. The aim is to have effective outcomes.  "We can do any work efficiently but it might not be effective. Output does not ensure the desired outcome," explained the Trade and Industry Minister.

In between, there is need for a new mindset especially in the ever-evolving world of the information age.  "In today's knowledge society, the primary distinction between successes and failure is how good you are at securing, harnessing and using knowledge. We largely have a fixed mindset," said Geingob, referring to ministries' permanent secretaries whose position is always presumed as guaranteed.

He said this is on the contrary because such mindset has to change. "We need to emphasise service, performance, effectiveness and outcome-oriented thinking. I have been advocating the need of performance based appointments for a fixed period," he said.

The overall challenge to the country, however, is to have all sectors of society pulling in one direction, especially the business sector and the politicians, irrespective of their background and race.  Unlike many other developing countries where the business world and political world have people with the same background, here white Namibians dominate the business sector while black Namibians are in politics.

"Business people's perception is often at variance with the fact. We have tried to hold hands but every so often, we come across bigotry," said Geingob. Nevertheless, these are all challenges that the country has to tackle as it moves forward.

"All sectors of society working together is [an] aspect that is vital for national development," he said.

Looking back, however, Geingob said the biggest challenge was to transform the civil service, which before independence was controlled by whites and was bloated because it comprised eleven Bantustan governments.   The current civil service came out of those governments and as though that was not enough of a challenge, the civil service had to accommodate new employees who had devoted their life to the liberation of the country.

Then the ex-combatants staged a strike to which Government responded by including them in the civil service. This added another 1 000 civil servants to an already bloated civil service.