1. By Juster Nkoroi Head of CAMPS Secretariat
INTRODUCTION TO CONFERENCE OF AFRICAN MINISTERS OF PUBLIC/CIVIL SERVICE
By Juster Nkoroi
Head of CAMPS Secretariat 1

2. SCOPE OF PRESENTATION
Background of Conference of Ministers for Public/Civil Service
Vision and Objectives of CAMPS
Administration of CAMPS
Resource Mobilization
Conceptual framework for Programme Implementatio
Development of Management Guides
Long Term Strategy Implementation Framework
The African Charter on Values and Principles of Public Service and Administration
Recommendations 2

3. BACKGROUND
The Conference of African Ministers of Public/Civil Service was started in 1994 to support public administration in Africa through initiation of reforms, codes and standards. Since then several conferences have been held in different regions across the continent.
The Conference is held biennially during which ministers elect a bureau comprising representatives from the five regions of the African continent. The Bureau provides overall guidance and strategic leadership for the Minister’s Program

4. BACKGROUND…..CONT’D The current Bureau is as follows; 1. Chair - Kenya
2. 1st Vice Chair - Algeria
3. 2nd Vice Chair - Ghana
4. 3rd Vice Chair - (a country to be elected from Central Africa region )
5. Rapporteur - Mozambique.

5. The Vision and Objectives of CAMPS
The Vision of CAMPS is “to build capable developmental States in Africa over a long-term period of 10years”.
The theme is “Capacity Development for the future Capability of African Public Service”. The theme is consonant to and reflects the future planning around capacity development for African Union (AU) member States.
The main focus of the ministers conference is development of capacity of African States to deliver efficient services to their citizenry

6. Objectives of CAMPS The key objective of the Programme is to;
Assess and establish linkages between governance and public administration capabilities and the broader developmental agenda within the continent; and
To share knowledge and learning within the framework of exchange and capacity development on focused priority areas within the continental Program.

7. Administration of CAMPS
Due to capacity constraints at the African Union Commission, administration of CAMPS is left to the Chairperson of the Conference. The Chairperson is required to establish a secretariat to oversee implementation of planned activities and provide administration services to the Bureau and the Conference.
Since the Secretariat is established at the national level in the office of the chairperson, it does not therefore rotate with the incoming chair and requires to be established afresh every time the position of the chair changes.
In addition CAMPS has not had a constitutive act and rules of procedure to guide the conduct of business. AUC will be presenting the proposed constitutive act and rules of procedure in this meeting.

8. Administration of CAMPS
This apparent lack of a defined system is the first challenge the the 6th Bureau had to address by developing the following two documents to guide administration of CAMPS
Roles and responsibilities for leadership and management of CAMPS which identified players in CAMPS and assigned to each player roles and responsibilities
Concept of service champions. Service championship is a delivery mechanism through which a cluster of countries commit themselves to work collectively on a given thematic area with the aim of spearheading implementation of program activities, including show-casing best practices, driving their approaches to benchmark levels, thus providing leadership to the continent.

9. Role of service champions
The role of a service champion is to provide leadership of a thematic area by facilitating and coordinating its implementation within the continent.
Service champions are therefore expected to;
Develop plan of action for implementing respective thematic areas
Devise strategies and mechanisms for implementation
Mobilize resources
Develop a programme for exchange and information sharing

10. Role of service champions…
Documentation of programme activities across the continent
Identify and partner in a collaborative manner with co-champions in the implementation of respective thematic area; and
Other necessary incidental activities to support the Ministers Programme
In addition, service champions are expected to prepare and submit progress re[ports to the Chairperson, periodic reports to the Bureau and final reports to the Conference of Ministers

11. Role of service champions…
In carrying out these responsibilities, the service champions are expected to;
Lead in the implementation of the programme in the respective area; and
Seek information and support from the chairperson and the ministerial Bureau to facilitate their work.
The idea of working with service champions has infused the much needed momentum into the programme implementation and broadened participation by member States
The service champions have since risen to Fifteen (15) from the initial five (5) with eleven (11) being very active in the programme

12. Conceptual framework for Programme Implementation
The African Ministers adopted the African Charter on Values and Principles of Public Service and Administration as the key document to guide public service and administration. The Charter was adopted by the AU Summit in January It will be opened for signature here in Nairobi on Saturday. It is expected that your ministers have been given powers to sign the Charter
The Long Term Strategy on African Governance and Public Administration Programme was developed by the 5th Bureau to operationalise the Charter. It was noted by the 6th Conference of Ministers in Sandton, South Africa in 2008 as the basis of the future work of Ministers

13. Conceptual framework…cont
The Long Term Strategy identifies six pillars which are key levers of a system that when transformed will go a long way to achieve the theme of the Ministers Programme.
These are:
Service delivery and development;
Human resources;
Information and technology in public service;
Organisational and institutional development.;
Budget, finance and resource mobilization; and
Monitoring and evaluation.

14. Conceptual framework …cont
Based on these six pillars, the 6th Bureau identified ten thematic areas as the basis of activities for the 6th CAMPS.These are;
African Public Service Day
African Public Service Charter
All Africa Public Service Innovations Awards
Human Resource Planning and Policy Architecture

15. Conceptual Framework…cont
5. Leadership and Management Development
6. ICT as an enabler for service delivery
7. African Public Service Capacity Development Programme
8. Post Conflict Reconstruction and Development
9. Performance Management and Measurement Including Monitoring and Evaluation
10. Public Sector Anti-Corruption .

16. Long Term Strategy Implementation Framework
As pointed out earlier, the 6th Conference of African Ministers of noted the LTS as the basis of the future work of the Ministers Programme. The Strategy paper recommended that further work be undertaken in terms of:
Defining implementation strategies and work plans for each of the six pillars proposed in the strategy, namely: Service delivery and development; Human resources; ICTs and the public service; Organization and institutional development of CAMPS; Budget, Finance and Resources Mobilization; as well as Monitoring and Evaluatiom 16 16

17. LTS…..cont’d
Recommending institutional framework required for implementation of the strategy taking into account its relationship, linkages, synergies and value-addition to the broader AU system as well as relating it to existing as well as ongoing regional processes; and
Developing implementation framework for the consolidated strategy including identifying indicators and timelines.
The Implementation Framework for LTS was finalised as recommended above and is one of the documents to be discussed in this meeting. 17 17

18. Management Guides
Management guides have been developed to support implementation of human resources pillar in line with the Implementation framework as follows
Human Resource Planning and Policy Architecture;
Leadership and Management Development; and
Performance Management and Measurement Including Monitoring and Evaluation.
The guides are meant to;
Provide practitioners at national levels with a standard code that is an international benchmark to leverage their respective systems and practices
Provide an easy to use and regionally applicable tool that can be domesticated by member States

19. Process of developing the documents
Development of the guides began with two regional workshops (Swakopmund, Namibia and Abuja, Nigeria) where participants from member States and stakeholders shared experiences and built consensus on the content of the guides.
Consultants were subsequently recruited to support the champions develop the guides
Consultants were also recruited to develop the Implementation Framework for LTS

20. Process…
A reference group comprising of experts from the continent, CAMPS Secretariat, the service champions and UNDP was established to;
Serve as a sounding board to review drafts of the consultants’ reports,
Make recommendations in terms of geographical/regional representation, tradition and integrity of the data captured in the report
Advice on the extent of appropriateness/applicability/relevance of the guides to the thematic areas
The experts from this reference group and service champions considered these documents and approved them for submission to this meeting of experts from member States for final discussion and validation for presentation to the Bureau for approval and to the Conference of Ministers for adoption.

21. Expected deliverables from this meeting
Discuss and validate the following documents for presentation to the Bureau on Thursday for approval and submission to the Conference for adoption:
The Implementation framework for LTS
Management guides
Statute and rules of procedure for CAMPS
Resolutions and Declaration of the 7th CAMPS

22. THANK YOU
FOR YOUR ATTENTION 22