Learner’s Submission: Alignment of Human Resource Capacity Development with the Development Vision of Ghana; The Role of Top Leaders

“Development of ‘human resources’ in both public and private sector organizations has become critical in an increasingly knowledge-based globalizing economy (Analoui, 2007). In particular, human resource capacity building for public service delivery has been recognized by developed, transition, and developing economies under the notion of the ‘new public management’ reform.

The development of every country depends on the capacity of her human resource. Globalization, innovation, new economic settings, information technology, peace, deregulation, demographic changes in the population; Institutions today face a variety of challenges. In order to stay ahead of the pack, firms must adjust their business strategies to reflect and address these challenges inherent within our newfound global environment. It is vital that managers and consultants are able to analyze the shifting frame conditions and, implement the corporate strategy accordingly. I believe that in all the challenges, education will lead the change towards a more sustainable future. To meet all these challenges we need to generate knowledge and understanding including scientific knowledge through research and tacit knowledge resident with the local people. This is because, as the saying goes ”he that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils and extinction, for time is the greatest innovator”. Without a shadow of doubt, a country’s human capital constitutes its most formidable asset and resource in the strive towards sustainable development in all its facets. Countries such as Singapore have excelled both economically and socially as a result of heavy and sustained investment in their human resources, despite a limited natural resource endowment.

In light of this, top leadership has to move from the attitude of business as usual to a more strategic planning, innovation and strategy in order to cause or create paradigm shift of the human resource capacity development of the country. In order to achieve this goal the following policies should be implemented;

• Government leaders together with stakeholders should promote innovation and entrepreneurship, and build human capacity and knowledge through comprehensive and high-quality education, training, and skills development programs. They should promote quality education as a goal, including basic education and distance learning as a means of sharing ideas and experiences in facing common challenges and exploiting opportunities presented by the rapid development.
• They should also place importance on a learning society that affirms the role of education, prepares its peoples to embrace the change, and is characterized by lifelong learning. Information technology should be a core competency for teachers and students.
• Moreover they must ensure that human resource capacity development  interventions are based on systematic needs assessment and avoid over optimism about her level of commitment to projects. Their commitment must be based on critical assessment of the political economy and peoples’ commitment to change. Top leaders must also ensure adequacy of funding and proper planning and management of programmes
• Also they must address issues of sustainability of project and project goals should align with national priorities/objectives. Project design should also show clarity, feasibility and impact.
• They must emphasize the significance and use of ICTs as a component of human resource capacity building across Ghana’s economy, and in the distribution of knowledge by establishing education as the fundamental issue in policy development in Member Economies.

In a nutshell if the above listed roles are been considered by top leadership, it will aid in promoting Ghana, ownership and leadership of national development agenda, including the achievement of Aid Effectiveness and sustainable development. It will also help to stimulate Ghana to be more self-reliant and self-sustaining accelerate economic growth and equitable development in order to reduce poverty and inequality progressively across Ghana and strengthen mutually beneficial learning, application and actions such that the country’s know-how, good practices and innovations will also shape global development thinking and actions positively in the 21st Century. ” – Peter Kwabena Essien – Tarkwa-Western Region, Ghana

Learner’s Submission: Human Resource Capacity Development in Pakistan

“Role of Top leadership in Human Resource Capacity Development (HRCD).

The role of leadership of any country in its development is very important. In the perspective of HRCD the role of leadership becomes more important and critical with the development vision of the country. Therefore, in general, the top leadership of any country needs to consider following suggestions in order to align the HRCD with the development vision:

• Realistic National HRCD Policy & Legal framework should be designed for creating harmony with the growth and transformation plan of the country.

• Top leadership should establish a link between the political leadership system of the country and capacity development approach of the country.

• A favorable positive and motivated environment should be created; that can encourage the human resource of the country to move in to action.

• The top leadership should have to initiate change, show the change direction and should run the change.

The world is becoming like a global village and the government policies & institutes are becoming more precise, economic and HR Planning and HR Capacity Development is becoming more vital need for developing countries like Pakistan. It is Human resource capacity that brings pace in countries motion. All over the world, technology been regarded as the most critical resource in currently passed period, But leaders and experts have now changed the trends and are now of the opinion increasingly recognize human resource capacity development as potential the most crucial factor in the effective deployment of the country.

It is quit imperative that the political top leadership’s vision is critical and important for the HR capacity development of Pakistan. Leadership is the central point that relates the implementation of HRCD of the country with its planning of growth& development.

This Note describes the points that should be deliberately adopted by top leadership of the country in aligning HRCD with the development vision of the Pakistan.

• National HRCD policy and strategy should be established and implemented to the divisional level.
• There should be harmony in HRCD policy and its implication at all levels (Local, Divisional & National).
• At the same time, all HRCD efforts should be result oriented and geared towards the National development vision.
• National system for monitoring and evaluation of HRCD should be established.

The problem of settlement of highly qualified nationals, experts and skilled labor in other countries has affected Pakistan severely and this is an indication of losing the research and innovative capacity needed to participate in the development of the country. Pakistan at this moment in time is in dire need of massive capacity building projects and there is also in a dire need to plan again to bring back its brains (citizens). It is present in the next Five year plan (2014-19) to achieve the rapid Growth. Hopefully, there is no doubt, they could enable Pakistan to accomplish its growth and transformation goals by providing the supporting infrastructure for human resource capacity building for the country.” – Huhammad Akbar Malik – Punjab, Pakistan

Learner’s Submission: HRCD in Uganda

“Uganda’s current core development vision is “transform Uganda from a 3^rd world to a middle income country”. Indeed, this vision is further explained in the National Development Plan (2010-2016).

The five-year Development Plan elaborates that Uganda desires to invest more in social infrastructure development, management and extraction of natural resources, and developing the capacity of civil servants, political leaders and the population to be able to align their personal duty and vision to the National Development Direction.

Lifting the world status of a country like Uganda requires sustainable commitment and consistent, comprehensive actions embedded in the constitutional and legal, political, and public service professional practices. The task to transform a country calls for an inevitable commitment and desire (political will) on the part of top political leadership to focus on strengthening institutions of government (which already exist) such as the civil service, and introduce new ones which might be necessary for vision achievement.

Human Resources Development and Capacity Building should be made top priority to ensure sustainable, able governance beyond a single regime (those in power now).

“When Human Resource Managers understand the development agenda and direction of the country, they are better placed to source relevant, competent personnel into Civil Service.”

In terms of sustainability, the Political Regimes change, but the Civil Service remains throughout successive regimes. Therefore, for sustainable governance and development of a country, leaders should focus on developing planning and management capacity of the civil servants.

Human Resources Capacity Development should not only focus on the Civil Servants, but also political leaders, of all active political parties, at all levels. This is because; political leaders are top policy makers, charged with legislation and monitoring government programs to ensure desired progress.

An ignorant Parliament for example is as good as a dead giant when it comes to strategic legislation and policy. Politicians cannot effectively legislate, and later alone supervise government programs unless they are aware of what government priorities are and are given the necessary skill and knowledge to objectively assess progress.

Institutions of Strategic learning and training, should not only be created, but also owned and effectively directed by government. These institutions should be for the sake of designing and delivering special, strategic, capacity building trainings for the public service and political leadership of the country. They should be designed to respond to and answer questions of capacity needs and knowledge development and coaching of new recruits in civil service.

Institutions already in place, such as Uganda Management Institute, National Civil College need to be re-aligned to respond to training needs of the current times. Issues like E-Governance, Corruption, Oil and Gas, Globalisation and Strategic Communication should priority-training areas by these institutions.

Sustainable specialised trainings for particular public servants and political leaders are needed. These should be aimed at addressing current and foreseen challenges that might hinder the development progress of the country. They could include regular anti-corruption trainings for officials working in corruption prone government ministries and departments such as defense and military, police and security, employment and pension and customs and tax services.

Public Service Human Resource Development and Capacity Building could greatly, in part be achieved through collaborations with other existing educational and training institutions, which might be able to organize and conduct specialised trainings for government workers and political leaders according to knowledge and capacity needs of the time.

Finally, it is important that government adopts and encourages innovation and flexible reform in public service such as non-monetary incentives and performance rewards as an alternative to rigid rules and procedures. This will encourage new ideas from new staff to flourish and deliver increased desired results. Public Private Partnership should continue to be an integral part of government human resource recruitment and capacity development. When hired to recruit employees, private firms do their best to get the best performers. Head hunting is a great tool for getting the best brains to serve in government, although motivation and incentive must be well put in place to retain best workers. On job trainings and refresher courses help keep staff on track.

“A farmer who wants more milk from the cow not only gives the cow more to eat, but also ensures a mutual friendship and relationship that makes the cow think that the tea that comes from the milk is also its own to drink.” ” – Ivan Atuyambe – Passau, Germany

Learner’s Submission: HRM in India

“We are set to usher in a century of tremendous development in Political, Economic, Social and Cultural space. Like societies of West, India has been experiencing repeated conflicts between incumbent interests and emergent interests. The Universal Vision shared by all Indians is that of United Country which would resolve differences among communities/castes/Classes, Undertake Integration on the vision of Single coherent Nation, Pursue Excellence in Science and technology, Achieve maximum rate of growth in Economy and Concretize the Political conventions and Institutions into an irreversible process and means that is easily accessible to all Indian Citizens. The above vision of citizens of India is encouraged by the values and sacrifices of Leaders of our Freedom Struggle. It is upheld by aspirations of each individual citizen, Groups and Civil Society. We have met many politicians, who continue to adhere to some of the principles and continue to seek guidance through the utterances of the 20th Century leaders of Indian Freedom Struggle.

The responsibility to run the Nation and moderate and guide the ‘Change’ has been vested in the hands of Indian Administration by the Present Indian Constitution. Through Policies, Programme and Plans, Administration secures the security of the geography of India, mediates consensus generation, resolving Conflicts, ensures participation of stakeholders, Safeguards rights promotes duties of Individual citizens/Groups of Citizens. The above actions are done through legitimacy and sanctity of faith and prestige engrained in the Long History of Indian Freedom Struggle and inherited into Present Indian Constitution of 1950. Indian Administration has a clear laid out path and process to adhere while carrying out their roles and responsibility in positions of ‘Authority’.

A robust and dynamic ‘Human Resource Management (HRM)’ is required in Public Service. HRM in India that is formulated, Updated through co-ordination and co-operation of series of Institutions and statutory Bodies. HRM Policy, at present, is more reactionary than far sighted. The Recruited go through a static and traditional instruction-based training process, which none of the recruits take seriously. Such an irresponsible process has eaten into confidence of the new recruits. The vile among the recruits have started promoting sectional interests and would choose to uphold medieval identities of caste/religion and gender rather than mould resilient National Vision. The Vision of ‘Unity in Diversity’ is sacrificed upon alter of skepticism and ideology.

The Indian Administrator has to be more than just a reeve. The Indian administrator is faced with the personal task of subjugating his sectarian inclinations and feelings, gather foothold on things much before leaders of the various communities. She is expected to act with prudence, wit and predictability. She has to remain an enigma while implementing the programme and plans. Top leadership have to unlearn the old ways of discretion and discreet. Top leadership should learn newer engagement processes and methods. They should re-learn how to engage the Public, A public that is more educated and alert, in a way participation of all sections and groups are involved up to the last individual. The structure of Institutions and departments has to be changed through a comprehensive overhaul. Decision-making processes should be recast to be worked through decentralized structures ensuring participation of stakeholders and continuous monitoring and evaluation should be made possible at all levels of Government, Public Service Channels and processes. Governments at all levels should take control of groups and forces that are working against the national development vision and annihilate them. Sanitation of polity is required for the development strategy to be re-focused on the most pertinent development visions and wasteful expenditure be forcefully curtailed. There is no need to provide large pay packets for politicians, Politicians, at least in Indian context, is based on personal dedication to narrower caste/classes/community/religious causes. That being case, to give these leaders large pay packets will only deprive of bargaining leverage for public in general, who do not belong to the community/caste/religion/classes the politician does belong. A wide participation of the poorest of poor and opportunity to represent their causes through democratic institutions’ should be provided at no cost but with absolute confidence. Democracy is about participation and participation is only first step…And in Interest of Majority in our Country, Democracy is the only course left…” – Anil Dev Gopalakrishna – Karnataka, India

Learner’s Submission: General Overview of HRCD

“Human resource capacity development has been critical issue for every Country since the beginning of scientific and modern form of government administration post industrialization.

In general scenario the policies, vision and aims of development of any government is implemented through its human resources deployed in various department of the Government offices. And mostly other stakeholders of the society who may plat important role are mostly neglected. Hence development takes place but at lower speed because of non participation all stakeholders in full capacity owing to no clear commitment towards HR capacity development in all level.

In order to understand the issue the Government must take this as most prioritized area of their function. There must be political will, unity and consensus to carefully examine the gap and formulate polices to meet the need of capacity development.

The level of literacy, education and higher education together with supporting infrastructure also suggest the inclination of government towards use of capacity development of human resource towards bigger development goals. So the emphasis on education would result in less pressure on capacity development of HR and its role in nation’s development.

The leadership of the human resource ministry must be of sound capacity, ministerial leadership plays important role in disseminating the polices to human resource of the government. The role of ministerial head as role model is very much need of the time.

It requires to completely revamp, rewrite and transform the human resource polices of the government to ensure fair deal for all section of society and which best suit the current scenario of the country with factors like- population, educational level, unemployment, economy, industrialization fiscal deficit etc.

Role of private entrepreneur can’t be neglected and should be properly utilized to see the marked deference in HR capacity Development.

In conclusion the capacity development of Human resource with reference to developmental goal is complex issue which may be working b y joining all stake holders of society together.” – Vinod Singh – Kolkata, India

Learner’s Submission: Development Visions of Nepal

“Nepal, being a developing country, is also experiencing the impact of the changes of the 21st century. However, as all the organizations, sectors and its operations are still done as per traditional and conventional means, the globalization and modernization is not yet imprinted in almost all sectors. Public sectors of the country is also not untouched by such problems.

Three Year Plan (2010/11 – 2012/13)
Three Year Plan (2010/11 – 2012/13) in its Social Development Policies defines its objective as:

To lay down a foundation for the overall development of the country by increasing accessibility of the local people to available resources and opportunities by providing people’s basic services and facilities in an effective manner and utilizing resources, skills and technologies under the direct involvement of the local bodies and the local people. (Three Year Plan (2010/11 – 2012/13)) – Social Development Policies

One of the objective of the Three Year Plan is to contribute in the socioeconomic development of the country by human resource development and proper management of population. The Plan visualizes to make administrative mechanism efficient, effective and disciplined by clearly defining the roles and responsibilities.

LOCAL SELF-GOVERNANCE ACT 1999
The Local Self-Governance Act 1999 is promulgated to empower local institutions, making them directly accountable to public, promote decentralization and making administration efficient. The Local Development Training Academy is involved in organizing knowledge and skills oriented training courses and workshops for public servants as well as political representatives. They are trained on administrative procedures, resource mobilization, local self-governance and leadership development, etc. As per the Act, local government bodies are encouraged to involve non-governmental organization in planning and implementation of those activities.

NEED OF CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT IN PUBLIC SECTOR
Capacity development is not about building something from the zero level but it is about improving the existing capacity. In the process of recruitment in the public sector in Nepal there is a strong scent of favouritism. Public Service Commission announces several vacancies and employees are selected on the basis of written exam and interview. But the irony is that the top level management is appointed as per political ideology and in turn, junior level employees are also selected on political pressure. Performance appraisal and evaluations of the employees are based upon the judgments and recommendations from the top level.

For any system to perform effectively capacity development in public sector is really vital. It is one of the significant factor that could assist in formulating plans and policies, making decisions and execute those plans into action. It could help in the evolution of the new work processes and can bring about a significant organizational change compatible with the environmental dynamics at the international level and as per latest upgrades. A capable and competent public servant assist in organizational strength; and his technical and managerial skills as well as positive attitude can guide an organization towards the desired position. All of the training and education make him prepared for the service; and training to improve his capacity enables him for a better job performance along with increasing his professional skills. Current Human Resource Planning focus on a systematic training need analysis at the individual, job and organizational level. But training The main objective of the Human Resource Capacity Development in the public sector is to maximize productivity also with enhancing public service delivery. It helps to improve service to the public and provide faster service by using latest technologies. It also increases the morale of the employees. Despite the fact that many capacity development training has been done in the past, evaluation and assessment of such efforts are still missing. They many have been supply-driven and not properly governed by the local governments that can link such programs with public sector plus going as per policies and development plans. Because of which it has not been able to improve the capacity of the local public service authority to enhance service delivery to the entire population and has hampered a sustainable capacity development of human resources.

CONCLUSION
In a nutshell, even though the leadership and development visions of Nepal promotes the capacity development of the human resources in the public sector; envisioning an efficient state of equilibrium, the impact of politics and the current bureaucracy in the public sector is a serious concern for a proper human resource management and capacity development.” – Sandesh Poudel – Chitwan District, Nepal

Learner’s Submission: As an HR Manager, How are your Country’s Top Leadership and Development Vision Linked to Human Resource Capacity Development in the Public Sector?

“Last year in Italy, a lot of efforts were made to face the financial crisis. Similarly to what happened in most European countries, among the measures undertaken there have also been serious budget cuts. Probably due to the time constraints, there had not been enough time for preparing a new strategic plan. This urgency in finding enough financial resources seems now to be close to an end and I believe that we can quickly return to a less austere regime.  In the meantime, a programme to reduce costs in the public sector has been prepared and actions to increase efficiency are going to be undertaken soon.

In particular in the department for which I work, the situation is even more difficult. The policy of continuously changing the top management that has been adopted doesn’t facilitate either the strategic planning or the setting up of development visions. Moreover, the dispersion of the functions in multiple offices as well as a poor coordination makes it difficult to identify the competencies and consequently the responsibilities. In such a confusing and bureaucratic environment, nobody feels comfortable in taking any initiative. We all know that when a system doesn’t evolve, it doesn’t remain the same, but gets more obsolete and worse every day. If we can’t be proactive, we should at least be reactive.

The above mentioned situation is the same in the area of Human Resource Capacity Development. It can be said that in this sector it is even worse because, in my opinion, there are neither enough professional and cultural skills nor the motivation to consent to an improvement in the short and medium-term. The basis of the system of personnel training currently in place dates back to 1981. It still is a good one, but it might be necessary to continuously adapt its implementation to the evolution of contents and methods. In a globalized world, one of the main challenges is to broaden our own perspectives as much as possible. If the result is still a “provincialism” within the Public Sector, it can be deduced that something is missing in the system. It is therefore fundamental to identify this gap and – with a conspicuous dose of humbleness – to start an earnest project in order to find and implement the best solutions. To draw up such plan, the Directorate for Training and Development should receive – from the top management or from the Directorate of Human Resources – a new global vision and a comprehensive strategic plan with the indication of the objectives to be achieved in the short, medium and long-term. I think that the organisation should look at the best practices of other countries and especially at the solutions that they have found for similar issues. We could take from academia some good suggestions and even sign agreements to enhance cross-fertilization.

To conclude, I think that the basis and the starting point should be the development of a new, modern, ambitious, and holistic vision. Then a concrete and consistent strategic plan should be set up that also includes Human Resource Capacity Development.” – Giuseppe Bellisario – The Hague, Netherlands

Learner’s Submission: Aligning HR Capacity Development with the Country’s Development

“Human Resources by definition refers to people, policies and practices within the organization used to ensure effective and efficient use of the people and their knowledge, skills and attributes to ensure the achievement of the organizations/countries objectives. While Human resource capacity development; refers to the whole system of providing/or ensuring development, training, and learning within an organization [s], it must be for both, that is to say; individuals and in the context of business strategy. Human being is the first resource and always the meaningful development begins from the human being as the result of thoughts.

Development always is in the form of change and it always begins from the mind and it is called the radical change because it involves the whole entire of human being. Development is the result of planning and it must have a starting point and ending point.  In this case the social relationship or economic levels can only be reached when it is facilitated by effective leadership. Leadership, anywhere it must be an ability of a person to convert people’s intention/or desires into concrete reality, and guiding them to achieve the right purpose. Or ability to establish necessary relationship, mobilizing energies and talents of staffs and manage resource for optimal results.  Leadership helps people to use their mind to reach their right purpose, because it is the leadership which assists to draw the map where all arrive their, since no one wills what is bad. Anything which can lead people out, automatically people go into it When understand where to go, people are automatically cooperating. Leaders read the map, that is; the development vision and convey to the people.  And therefore the following needs to be done to align the human resources development with the countries development:

1. The needs of top leadership to align human resource capacity development, with the country development strategy, this requires the countries situation analysis (SWOT Analysis) by looking at the countries strength, weaknesses and opportunities and threats, looking at what is sensitive and requires the development of the necessary skills in every area of countries development.
2. There is also need for the country to develop Human resources capacity policies across all sectors of  development this will enhance the implementation of these/human resources capacity development.
3. Establishment of Result based monitoring and evaluation of the human resource                                             capacity development the results of which can be used for policy development and decision making process on what is best for the country the development.
4. Provision of adequate resources and well developed facilities and to the right place and for the right purpose will ensure establishment of an accurate human resource capacity  development practices which are geared towards achievement of the countries development goals. ” – Michael Vincent Mhagama – Tanga, Tanzania

Learner’s Submission: The Civil Service Reform as HR Capacity Development Mechanism In Ethiopia

“Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP) (2010/11-2014/15) that Ethiopiais currently pursuing puts great emphasis on CapacityBuildingand Deepening Governance as key to the achievement of the plan. It mentions the country’s economic growth and social development to have been hampered because of weak organizational capacity. To alleviate the problems encountered by weak human capital, institutions, and organizations it has been recommended in this document that implementation of the Civil Service Reform Program and Good Governance packages to be strengthened.

Accordingly great emphasis has been given to strengthening the Civil Service Reform which began in 1994 and launched in 1996.

When viewed from HRCD approach CSRP inEthiopiais Holistic in its nature, and encompasses various dimensions of capacity development as opposed to the traditional approach which focuses only on individuals. One can say that its comprehensiveness in addressing various development and service delivery problems has impacted the already weakened public service delivery in a positive way.

Each element that indicates Holistic Approach nature of CSRP could be described as shown below.

Training- as it is known training is the means through which capabilities of employees as well of the managers is enhanced. Training also plays vital role in bringing about behavioral and attitudinal change, help to achieve superior performance and finally impact efficient, effective and quality service/product delivery to the customers. CSRP in the Ethiopian context, after its inception in 1996 has achieved significant outcome in conducting consecutive training programs, to  the public sector employees.  Various seminars and in house training programs had been conducted to create awareness among political leadership, public managers and civil servants at different levels of government tiers, namely the Federal, Regional and Local.  Some of the main areas where skills and knowledge development focused are SPM, HRM, Public Financial Management, and the like.

Institutional Systems- Particularly after the introduction of Business Process Re-Engineering to the public sector in 2003, studies show that public service delivery inEthiopia has improved in terms of quality  quantity and customer service. This could be ascribed to the fact that organizational re-inventing and process re-engineering took place in more than 82% of public sector organizations. In addition many of them have improved outdated legislations and their working manuals. Tasks of organizational restructuring and improving systems and procedures are also some of the efforts undertaken.

Logistics/Technology- Following the organizational re-structuring and process/systems improvement it had been realized by may public managers that the reform objectives could not be achieved without making use of information technology and build capacity in this area. As a result ICT departments have been established in many organizations. People were trained with the know how of using basic computer applications. Connections based on WAN and LAN had been expanded between many organization found at different levels of government,  the Federal, Regional and Local offices.

Incentives- The incentive system has not been institutionalized in line with the implementation of BPR, since it is more related to performance measurement which is usually related to organizational performance management system. The recent application of Balanced Score Card system in the public sector organizations has stressed the need for introducing incentive system in the public organizations.

Behavior and Attitude-  The legacy of the past regime, such  as unaccountability of the bureaucracy to the citizens, self serving and rent seeking behaviors, and the like had been identified as major obstacles for the public sector organizations to deliver services effectively and efficiently. So to overcome those maladies of the system various trainings had been conducted to different functionaries and managers all over the country.

Once I have tried to analyze the objectives of  CSRP in Ethiopia and its contribution  towards HRCD in  I want to conclude my analysis by suggesting following actions to be taken by top leadership  so that to ensure the implementation of GTP and eventually  Eradication of the Poverty.

• GTP is large scale transformation program when it is compared to all development programs that the country has experienced so far, such as SAP, PASDEP and others. So it is advisable that the top leadership pursue HRCD strategies that is innovative, which is based on technological application, and makes intensive use of knowledge available.
• Addressing  Governance issue is also  crucial  for this development plan  since it brings together multiple actors from different sectors, such as public sector institutions, private sector and the civil society organizations  in making important decisions.” – Shibeshi Kassa – Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

References:

1.        Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP) document (2010/11-2014/15)  volume I nov.2010 Mofed.
2.        Project Management Consultancy for Civil Service Reform:Ethiopia

Learner’s Submission: HRCD in the Public Sector in Italy

As an HR manager, how are your country’s top leadership and development vision linked to Human Resource Capacity Development in the Public Sector?

“My country is Italy, a modern state where “public workers” are about 5.5 percent of the population and in which the focus on Human Resources has been increasing for some time.

I belong to the Ministry of Defense and serving in my organization, at my level, and I’m both a leader and a manager, constantly committed to apply the strategic guidelines and the directives coming from the Country’s top leadership.

Nowadays in the Italian Public Administration it’s easy to observe that a large interest in the Human Resource Capacity Development is definitely present and it is absolutely not difficult to find references to it among the HR sectors of the various PA branches.

The leaders of the Country, through the Public Administration Department, have conceived a new vision and developed new measures for PA, which will make the managers more accountable to the organization they manage, more responsible for the employees they lead and more answerable to the people they serve, focusing on HRCD. The aim is to grow up productivity, reduce administrative burden, and improve public services in order to provide the Country with an important contribution to the relaunch of the economy and its growth, offering also quality services to the citizens.

It is possible to point out the some key factors in the development vision:

• transparency;
• meritocracy;
• efficiency & effectiveness;
• costs reduction & wastes abolition.

The way we can link this development vision to the Human Resource Capacity Development is neither simple, nor easy; nevertheless it is necessary to specify that it has to include a deep maneuver which starts from the innovation of the school system: a new liaison between the educational structure (Universities in particular) and the Public Administration needs to be enforced, in order to facilitate access to PA for the best minds.

Some changes in the personnel selection procedures are already visible, however more effort are needed for the enhancement of career progression scheme and economic incentives assignment. This because the importance of motivation and enthusiasm at work has been fully understood, so it is essential to have both: a reward system which awards the deserving as well as managers who are able to establish positive, constructive relations with their employees, who form the «human capital», paying attention to them and trying to increase their productivity. Moreover severe disciplinary measures have to be applied to balance and harmonize the reward system.

A continuous assessment process is also required: this is often the only way to understand how to adjust the performance of a single worker, to help him (or her) to develop his/her own capabilities through training, but also allows the evaluation of an entire unit in the PA in relation to that single employee.

All these measures will induce the public workers to make major efforts; if we want to have the best workers (or just better workers) we must have good managers and leaders, so the first step is “to learn how to manage”. Training is a focal point and fortunately several training centers are already operational and work in accordance with the Human Resource Capacity Development standards. Investments in personnel training have to increase constantly, because knowledge and skills are indispensable to have an efficient Public Administration.

The path could not be so long. Time will answer our doubts.” – Fabio Marotta – Piedimonte Mantese, Italy