The Regional Capacity The Regional Capacity Building Project for Public

Building Project for Public Service Training Institutions Service Training Institutions in Post-Conflict Countries

in Post-Conflict CountriesProf Anne Mc Lennan on behalf of PALAMAGraduate School of Public and Development

Management, Wits University

Building capacity

through South-

South partnerships

in Africa

Prof Anne Mc

Lennan

23-04-22

Background

0 Accelerate development through innovative policy combining economic development with humanitarian rights

0 Principled inclusive partnerships0 Capacitate institutions to strengthen performance0 RCB project innovation is to use SS peer learning to

improve capacity of public services to deliver0 Common experience – region, post conflict, struggle,

colonial, limited resources, poor delivery0 Enabling local PSTIs to build capacity and identify

indigenous solutions

Prof Anne Mc Lennan23-04-22

Modelling empowered SS capacity development

AccessTo services,

opportunities and projects

Participation

In decision-making, planning, management,

administration and evaluation

ControlOver delivery and the

distribution of resources

EQUALITY EMPOWERMENT

Strengthen development effectiveness by exploring and learning from processes that increase levels of access, participation and control over decision-making

and the distribution of resources for development.

A supportive institutional environmentKnow

ledg

e, s

kills

, com

pete

nce Com

mitm

ent, culture, ethos

CHANGED

PRACTICES AND

INSTITUTIONS

IMPROVED

PERFORMANCE

WILL

SPACE

SKILLS

Prof Anne Mc Lennan23-04-22

RBC Project PartnersRIAM

ENA

CBU

Prof Anne Mc Lennan23-04-22

The RCB Project0 Five year capacity building project funded by CIDA (CAD

10.5 million or ZAR 70 million)0 Improve public service capability through institutional

capacity development and training0 Outcomes:

0 Strengthened institutional capacity of PALAMA, and increased capacity within PALAMA to engage in regional capacity building programmes.

0 Improved curriculum development and training capacity within partner MDIs.

0 Improved management and leadership capabilities across government departments in Rwanda, Burundi and Southern Sudan.

Prof Anne Mc Lennan23-04-22

The RCB Project

0 Approach - sustainable development, comprehensive learning cycle, “learning by doing” , participatory, indigenization

0 Relevance to context by taking country strategies, policies and legislative frameworks in account, as well as the utilization and development of local expertise

0 Implementation delayed over the past year due to restructuring

Prof Anne Mc Lennan23-04-22

Beginnings and buy-in0 Bilaterals - political buy-in0 Scoping - floods, cows and

needs identification0 Inception – defining outcomes,

mandates, signing and dancing

Prof Anne Mc Lennan23-04-22

Meetings and mantras

0 Project Steering Committees

0 Meetings in meetings:0 Capacity building0 Country stakeholder 0 Cultural visits0 Bilateral

0 Working hard, playing and building teams

Prof Anne Mc Lennan23-04-22

Baselines and building0 Baseline and training needs

analysis 0 Case workshop0 Curriculum framework0 Lead trainer development

programme0 Monitoring and evaluation

programme0 Mentorship and gender0 Regional office

Prof Anne Mc Lennan23-04-22

Ownership and mutual responsibility

0 Equal participants in the planning and development0 In-country political and government support 0 Regional network and will sustained through the

regional office0 Ownership and mutual accountability built in0 Impact of changing structures and leadership0 Procurement and control 0 Extent of equality and control in relation to

implementing agency

Common history keeps us together, coming from the

conflict countries, commonalities keep us

together. We all feel that we all have something to learn and to serve people as good

public servants.Prof Anne Mc Lennan23-04-22

Role of champions

0 Role of institutional and project champions is critical to sustainability

0 PALAMA project leader played critical role0 Operational leadership more important to

sustainability than political leadership0 Capacity development through the principle of

‘learning by doing’ 0 Continuity and institutional memory0 Trust and reciprocity

People said ‘next time we won’t worry about

translation, you have to speak in English’. This

“capacity building” helped us a lot.

Prof Anne Mc Lennan23-04-22

Trilateral cooperation

0 Project is evidence of how effective SS collaboration can be supported by committed and flexible NS cooperation

0 CIDA/PALAMA relationship enables innovation and learning

0 SS cooperation based on mutual support0 Project origin in the SS partnership0 Strong fit into country priorities – post project

resourcing

The donor was very flexible and allowed for the alignment of the Project to be implemented under the

South African legal framework.

There is still a view that PALAMA holds the purse as implementing agency and that the operational

budgets should be divided equally between MDIs.Prof Anne Mc Lennan23-04-22

Lessons

0Understand the country and institutional context

0Build partnerships with stakeholders 0Use available resources strategically0Keep it simple0Take time to consult0Lead, plan, review and act

Prof Anne Mc Lennan23-04-22

Policy implications

0 South-South cooperation does build capacity but only if based on equal participation and empowered control – leadership critical

0 Capacity development leads to development only when it is institutionalised – that is, changes power relations and creates new norms and practices – to produce new behaviours

0 Development effectiveness is about making things work to the benefits

Prof Anne Mc Lennan23-04-22