Public Administration Reform Practice Note

Global Practice Meeting on Public Administration Reform

The Practice Note

• Provides a strategic framework for UNDP Country Office staff and Regional Programmes for PAR programming

• Provides UNDP’s development partners with clear sense of UNDP’s strategic focus

• Provides a ‘portal’ to more detailed programmatic guidance: toolkits including primers, case studies; other resources.

Process of developing the PN

• Mapping of UNDP activities, lessons from experience and evaluations

• Inputs by the Democratic Governance Group, PAR Advisers based in NY, Oslo and the SURFs.

• Comments from Network Discussion between October 8th and October 22nd, involving over 20 participants.

• Review by the Democratic Governance Programme Team – over 25 responses.

• Peer review by senior practitioners in partner agencies

PAR Practice Toolkit

• Practice Note• Primers on:

– PAR in francophone countries

– PAR in post-conflict– PAR in the HIV/AIDS

most affected countries

– Gender mainstreaming in PAR

• Case studies and regional studies

• Policy Positions

• ARNs, Consolidated replies, network discussions, consultant rosters, etc.

• Other Practice Notes and Toolkits In Governance– A-C– Decentralization– Access to Information

• Practice Notes in Other Practices– Poverty– HIV/AIDS

UNDP Practice Noteshttp://www.undp.org/policy/practicenot

es.htm• Anti Corruption• Electoral Systems• Access to

Information• Parliamentary

Development• Heavily Indebted

Poor Countries (HIPC)

• Poverty Reduction and Human Rights

• Gender Equality• The Role of

Economic Policies in Poverty Reduction

• UNDP’s Role in PRSPs

• Trade and Future Multilateral trade Negotiations

• Etc.

Substance and Scope of PARThe PN is built around capacity development at

the individual, institutional and societal levels for poverty reduction in four areas:

– Civil Service Reform

– Improving the policy making system

– Reforming the machinery of government

– Reforming the public expenditure management system

PN provides practical guidance for DG

practitioners• Entry points and sequencing • Winners and losers • Gaining support and fostering

leadership • Accounting for different administrative

traditions • Enshrining the Human Rights Approach • Measuring Progress

Main issues in PAR for UNDP

• Difficult to define a UNDP role compatible with its resources.

• Other players have increased their role in this field, e.g. World Bank, ADB, IADB, and DfID

• Surveys in Africa, Asia, and the Arab States have shown that focus on reform of central government declined while decentralization has become a core area for UNDP

UNDP’s comparative strength is evolving:

UNDP’s Niche

• UNDP’s twin pillars of a pro-poor and human rights-based approach to PAR are a focus on open government and decentralization

• UNDP practitioners, informed by this Practice Note and accompanying toolkit will be able to engage in a dialogue on all aspects of PAR, and be advocates for UNDP’s pro-poor and human rights-based approaches.

UNDP’s strategic approach

• Engaging in a dialogue for pro-poor, democratic and human rights based reform

• Promoting a participatory process in elaborating the reform policy and designing reform programmes, and ensuring that reforms have full ownership

• Ensuring that reform of the public administration begins with using and developing existing capacity

UNDP’s strategic approach• Promoting ‘open government’: accessible;

transparent; accountable; includes public participation in decision-making; and government-held information is accessible.

• Assisting government in creating the enabling legal and institutional environment for decentralization

• PA in post conflict countries.

UNDP’s strategic approachTo engage the government on PAR

issues means finding strategic opportunities for funding or dialogue.

UNDP programme staff should be prepared to engage in a dialogue on all aspects of PAR, because:– UNDP has a particular perspective,

and – because there will be cases in which it

is the best suited to lead in supporting a PAR programme.