RBM was adopted in the process of public sector reform in OECD countries between 1980s and 1990s in response to budget deficits, lack of public confidence in government and demands for greater transparency and accountability[1]. Apart from international development and donor agencies, RBM has proved to be a useful tool for national states and local government, especially when in process of reforms and decentralization. The following have been highlighted as priorities in our campaigns:
The Executive
The Executive as the highest ruling authority in a nation and disposition to public management goes a long way in stamping the activities of the public service and the amount of approval it get to carry change through. Lessons from RBM application as well as reforms and other change measures in the public sector show evidence to suggest that senior level leadership is necessary for successful implementation[2]. According to an article from the office of the Auditor-General of Canada, without the support of senior management, there is no impetus for change. It is therefore critical that they fully support and actively participate in both the creation and implementation of results-based management. By actively participating in implementation, they are demonstrating their commitment to the reforms. “Clear, consistent and visible involvement by senior executives and managers is a necessary part of successful performance measurement and management systems.
3psmars will continue to advocate, taking into consideration the critical role of the executive in Africa countries and will take initiative on how to influence the leadership to be more involved in the results-approach.
Political Parties
Political parties, apart from being founded on ideologies, need a measure of results focus in order to plan and design priorities and programmes that are genuine and will help citizens attain expected levels of livelihood. In Africa and other developing countries, the lack of programmatic approach in the promises and activities of political parties has caused discrepancies in political discourse and actual impact when elections are over. 3psmars will pay particular focus on educating on this particular aspect of states institutions as a measure to complement other leadership functionalities in Africa.
It has been said that the adoption of RBM is essential, partly for the following reasons:
- The recourse to Causality/Problems Analysis
- The Use of causal logic: If then
- Structuring of Programmes/Projects around a Hierarchy of Desired Results
- The Monitoring of Progress towards Results
- The Reliance on Indicators to Measure Performance and Impact
- Produce & Fulfill a Logical Framework
Political parties especially need to recourse to casual problem analysis and structuring programmes/projects along hierarch of desired results, to supplement ideologies in making promises and delivering on them. Although, it is also known that political parties often surrounded themselves with policy analyst and other professionals, there is need to include the results- approach component for both the leaders and professionals, because it will add to delivery advantage and make a lot of difference on the electorate.
This is why part of our campaign will focus on this sector of national leadership in Africa.
The Parliament and Parliamentarians
Parliaments and Parliamentarians in any democratic government are core elements in the development progress of a country. The pure political nature of occupants of seats in parliaments and pressure from parties has the tendency of jeopardizing results on the one hand. On the other hand, the tendency of budget-based management rather than results-based budgeting represent a setback for the work of parliamentarians especially in Africa, where the RBM culture is still at debuting state.
For the Parliamentarian, therefore, a good understanding of RBM, especially budget-based management is essential in the quest to reduce the common stalemate between the parliamentarians and heads of ministries as far as budgeting is concerned.
The influence of budget based planning has affected policy procedures based on its focus on what is spent, how it is being spent rather than on results achieved through spending. Many situations that arise, especially during budget consideration, are done around the budget available and how to manage resources. Parliament tends to focus on resource management, increase and decrease in budget allocation and ceiling. It is also a known fact that in a budget-based planning environment, there are usually clauses such as whatever is not spent at the end of a year or biennium should be returned to the organization or states treasury. This sometimes may be too rigid a measure, such that, even if there are challenges on projects which make it impossible to terminate action at given times, the project will have to go through a whole new process of resource allocation approval. At the glance, such restriction is time-wasting and could discourage genuine and purposeful programme from seeing the light of day[3].
An understanding of the results process will simplify the work and relationship between the parliamentarians and Chief Executive Officers in the national and states institutions.
This is why art 3psmars will continue to take initiative to respond to the challenge at the national, states and local levels of governance in Africa.
State, Community/Local Institutions
The term decentralization connotes bringing the best of governance closer to the population. Decentralization forms a pillar in the UN reform while reforms in most national in Africa have been geared towards decentralization – where public resources are supposed to be managed close to the people and uniquely for the people.
As results for the people means working closer with the locals understand their needs, planning better to meet the needs and delivering appropriate services that will eradicate social, environmental and economic problems, rather than aggravating it, part of the missions of RBM is to eradicate the one-size-fits-all approach, where community institutions such as states governments, local governments, NGOs and the civil societies constitutes an important backbone for development management and regularly administering the development management cycle to reflect real needs and consulting with the people to solve problems and building facilities to eradicate poverty, sustain the environment and providing adequate social welfare that are measurable and having impacts.
A good understanding of the results-based culture by states, local governments and community institutions, will, apart from reforming the management structure, will give them and understanding of the top-to-bottom and bottom-to-the-top management process, as important stakeholders in the development process.
This necessity informs 3psmars action in local governments and community institutions.
[1] Asian Development Bank, Results-Based Management Basics. Retrieved on 3 March 2010 at www.adb.org/MfDR/documents/trng-materials/MI-RBM-Basics.pdf
[2] Implementing Results-Based Management: Lessons from the Literature
[3] See Aderemi Oladele, 2010, RBM-Enhanced Policy Procedures in UNESCO, International Journal of Arts and Sciences, Volume 3 (19) p185