South African and French public servants partner on Public Administration Reform course

On 7-11 February 2022, 29 South African public servants attended a tailor-made online course on ‘Public Administration Reform’ (PAR) facilitated by the French Institut National du Service Public (INSP) and the South African National School of Government (NSG).

This training interrogated how public action is to be conceived, implemented and managed in the perspective of the State modernization process. State modernization is driven by the constant pursuit of building capable states in the face of changing circumstances and increasingly complex societies. France and South Africa’s public services share similar goals and challenges to adapt how they administrate public affairs and deliver public services, to perform efficiently on the mandate to serve the public. It is therefore relevant to reflect and share practices in terms of change management in the realm of public action.

Building on these premises, the course gave participants the opportunity to reflect on how public administration has evolved over time, and explore some tools that help think public administration reform, focusing on 3 important aspects: the digital transformation, citizen participation, and behavioural approaches. It offered a space to confront experiences, lived realities and good practices.

Virtual group photo of attendees of the INSP-NSG Public Administration Reform course, 7-11 February 2022.

The training was opened by Their Excellencies Mr Tebogo Seokolo, Ambassador of South Africa to France, , and Mr Aurélien Lechevallier, French Ambassador to South Africa. It was well received by the participants, most of whom came from the provincial governments of Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, the North West and the Northern Cape.

Another course on ‘Human Resources Management in the Public Sector’ will be held on 7-11 March.

These courses testify to the active partnership between the French and South African governments on matters essential to our democracies and developmental goals. The two administrations have been sharing good practices and experiences since 2016. Other trainings held virtually in the last two years  have focused on topics such as ‘Innovation in the public sector’ and ‘Public affairs management in the digital and data era’.