Government must be more effective in its actions. It must improve the quality of its services. Since 1994 we have successfully expanded access to services. The quality of services has however often been below standard. Massive increases in expenditure on services have not always brought the results we wanted or our people expected.

While building on work already done, we need to focus more on outcomes as we use our time, money and management. In education the measure is, can our grade 3 children read and write. In health, we must measure whether people are living longer, healthier lives. This requires a shift of focus from inputs – budgets, personnel and equipment - to managing for outcomes.

The President, Cabinet and the rest of Government will agree on 25 to 30 Outcomes, based firmly on the Medium Term Strategic Framework. These will relate to the five priority areas of Education, Health, Jobs, Rural Development and Safety. They will also relate to cross cutting issues like human settlements, public sector capacity, and environmental sustainability; as well as to other areas of Government work. Ideally, we should be able to focus on one catalytic priority, namely Education.

Managing for outcomes requires attention to the Full Delivery Chain. The chain starts with the OUTCOME we want to achieve and then defines the OUTPUT measures that must be used to check if we are on track to deliver. The chain then describes the key ACTIVITIES that need to be successfully carried out to achieve the outputs and closes by listing the crucial INPUTS.

The delivery requirements will be set out in a performance letter from the President to a Minister, group of Ministers or Sector including the MECs. Report-back meetings with the President every six months will evaluate progress and provide guidance on how to overcome obstacles to delivery. Reports will comment on all four aspects of the Delivery Chain – Outcomes; Outputs; Activities and Inputs.

Once performance letters are finalised, each department or group of departments will meet with all institutions and agencies that impact on implementation and delivery. They will meet in a DELIVERY FORUM to negotiate a DELIVERY AGREEMENT that describes roles and responsibilities against timelines and budgets.

We need to understand and accept why we have too often not met our objectives in delivering quality services. The reasons vary in different areas. Amongst them are: lack of political will, inadequate leadership, management weaknesses, inappropriate institutional design and misaligned decision rights. The absence of a strong performance culture with effective rewards and sanctions has also played a part.

It is recommended that a Delivery Unit be created in the Presidency, to intervene in a few carefully selected areas to help improve delivery and create a model for how it can be done and hopefully replicated elsewhere.