Now at last, we thought, with Results Based Management, with Rapid Results Initiative, with programmes for culture and leadership transformation, and for institutional strengthening, we would revolutionise the delivery of public service and create a truly enabling environment for our citizens.
We were treated to television ads and booklets explaining how 'Results For Kenyans' were to be achieved; there were wonderful open days when ministries and parastatals jostled happily to market themselves; change champions from within the secretariat featured on talk shows and engaged with Kenyans high and low, in Nairobi and far beyond.
This great venture was to synergise with the public sector performance contracting that was already making a significant impact on service delivery, not least among parastatals.
Now, surely, a vibrant new performance culture would break out among our civil servants, brought about by applying global best public service practices. But it was not to be.
Most of 2007 was consumed by campaigning for elections, and the first half of 2008 by fighting over the aftermath of those elections.
When normal government business finally resumed, PSRDS was merged with the Performance Contracting unit, and the new office was dubbed 'Public Sector Reform and Performance Contracting'.
The merger of the two bodies made a lot of sense, but I was sad to see the positive word 'development' disappear.
(I would have suggested simply calling the function 'Public Service Development', with the need for reform and performance contracting implied.)
Stretching goalsWhat has happened since? The performance contracting continues at full blast, albeit with surprising and controversial 'top' and 'bottom' performers.
It's said there's too much leeway for ministries and parastatals to propose targets that are unduly relaxed (while other ambitious ones put forward more stretching goals --at the risk of a reduced ranking), and too few of the targets are focused on making an external impact.
Recognising, however, that work still needs to be done to make the exercise more credible and useful, consultants are about to be engaged to evaluate how the scheme is working.
Then, the politicisation of the public service has made performance and performance assessment much more challenging.
Senior officers are sometimes hired and fired as much to maintain 'balance' as to drive results; and progress is slowed by the constant push-and-shove between the coalition partners.
Also, leaders of ministries and other agencies still lack the crucial power to manage their talent (attracting, developing and retaining --or releasing - it) in ways that private sector leaders can and do.
But again, maybe the new 'High Flyer Scheme', with its integration into the appraisal system and its linkage to succession planning, should make a difference in promoting competence and retiring consistent non-performers.
The excellent Rapid Results Initiative has lost much of its initial momentum, although occasional new initiatives persist.
(A recent one saw the building of energy-saving jikos, while another, close to Nakuru --with great support from the Provincial Administration --tackled the rehabilitation of an environmentally degraded hillside. And I see the City Council of Nairobi is about to launch its RRI.)
Happily too, eight ministries were eventually selected to have their institutional capacity assessed, as a prelude to seeing their competence and performance strengthened.
When the initial PSRDS was taking off, we were looking to see a coming together of a number of strategic elements that would make government work better.
The reforms office would link up with e-Government, to accelerate the advent of on-line service delivery.
The Kenya Institute of Administration would blossom into a fully-fledged National School of Government. The reformers would draw on the National Integrated Monitoring and Evaluation System (NIMES) to assess and reinforce the impact of government.
And not least the chances of Vision 2030 being realised would be dramatically increased.
Well, Vision 2030 itself continues only to be considered a valuable call to greatness by a small minority (definitely excluding most politicians).
Kenyans of all shades, in all sectors-- not to mention the media and most of our development partners--are so focused on the political fun and games surrounding politics in general (as in '2012') and Agenda 4 reforms in particular, that the kind of reforms I'm referring to here are sadly overlooked.
Vision 2030 is viewed by many as but an empty and at best distant dream... as a result of which it looks destined to become so. Fortunately, those in the Ministry of Planning who are charged with driving our long-term vision are undeterred by the skeptics.
They've worked diligently to come up with 64 Vision 2030 indicators, they're patiently monitoring the performance of the selected 'Millennium Development Goal Districts', and they soldier on in other quiet, but valuable ways.
Good for them. Good too for the National Economic and Social Council, where Vision 2030 was first mooted and where it is still supported.
And good for others who continue to plead that without such a vision around which to galvanise our efforts, without serious public service re-engineering, we'll continue grossly under-performing relative to our potential.
Rwanda's exampleA few weeks ago, I wrote about what Kenya needs to learn from Rwanda, in the context of avoiding further ethnic violence.
Now I praise Rwanda - not for the first time - for the seriousness with which they go about their national planning, under the visionary leadership of their president.
(I do so at the risk of reawakening the wrath of the Kenyan who wrote to me after my last piece on Rwanda, blasting me for having the temerity to suggest that Kenya had anything whatsoever to learn from our westerly almost-neighbour.)
Why are our leaders -- in all sectors --not showing us how to align our energy around agreed long-term goals for the country?
Why are they not pushing ever so hard for a lean and efficient public service that would enable the private sector to be infinitely more competitive?
Unless we get serious about all this, unless we stop imagining that new constitutions and land reforms and all the other (vital!) Agenda 4 issues will be sufficient to re-launch us on a high growth path, unless we refocus on what started with such a bang some years ago, we can forget that lovely Vision 2030.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Mike Eldon
Quelle/Source: AllAfrica, 25.06.2009
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