Prof Anne Mc Lennan on behalf of PALAMA

1. The Regional Capacity Building Project for Public Service Training Institutions in Post-Conflict Countries Prof Anne Mc Lennan Building capacity through South-South partnerships in Africa Prof Anne Mc Lennan on behalf of PALAMA Graduate School of Public and Development Management, Wits University

2. Background • Accelerate development through innovative policy combining economic development with humanitarian rights • Principled inclusive partnerships • Capacitate institutions to strengthen performance • RCB project innovation is to use SS peer learning to improve capacity of public services to deliver • Common experience – region, post conflict, struggle, colonial, limited resources, poor delivery • Enabling local PSTIs to build capacity and identify indigenous solutions Prof Anne Mc Lennan

3. Modelling empowered SS capacity development EQUALITY EMPOWERMENT Control WILL Over delivery and the distribution of resources Participation SKILLS In decision-making, planning, management, administration and evaluation Commitment, culture, ethos CHANGED PRACTICES AND INSTITUTIONS IMPROVED PERFORMANCE Knowledge, skills, competence Access To services, opportunities and projects A supportive institutional environment SPACE Strengthen development effectiveness by exploring and learning from processes that increase levels of access, participation and control over decision-making and the distribution of resources for development. Prof Anne Mc Lennan

4. RBC Project Partners RIAM ENA CBU Prof Anne Mc Lennan

5. The RCB Project • Five year capacity building project funded by CIDA (CAD 10.5 million or ZAR 70 million) • Improve public service capability through institutional capacity development and training • Outcomes: • Strengthened institutional capacity of PALAMA, and increased capacity within PALAMA to engage in regional capacity building programmes. • Improved curriculum development and training capacity within partner MDIs. • Improved management and leadership capabilities across government departments in Rwanda, Burundi and Southern Sudan. Prof Anne Mc Lennan

6. The RCB Project • Approach - sustainable development, comprehensive learning cycle, “learning by doing” , participatory, indigenization • Relevance to context by taking country strategies, policies and legislative frameworks in account, as well as the utilization and development of local expertise • Implementation delayed over the past year due to restructuring Prof Anne Mc Lennan

7. Beginnings and buy-in • Bilaterals - political buy-in • Scoping - floods, cows and needs identification • Inception – defining outcomes, mandates, signing and dancing Prof Anne Mc Lennan

8. Meetings and mantras • Project Steering Committees • Meetings in meetings: • Capacity building • Country stakeholder • Cultural visits • Bilateral • Working hard, playing and building teams Prof Anne Mc Lennan

9. Baselines and building • Baseline and training needs analysis • Case workshop • Curriculum framework • Lead trainer development programme • Monitoring and evaluation programme • Mentorship and gender • Regional office Prof Anne Mc Lennan

10. Ownership and mutual responsibility • Equal participants in the planning and development • In-country political and government support • Regional network and will sustained through the regional office • Ownership and mutual accountability built in • Impact of changing structures and leadership • Procurement and control • Extent of equality and control in relation to implementing agency Common history keeps us together, coming from the conflict countries, commonalities keep us together. We all feel that we all have something to learn and to serve people as good public servants. Prof Anne Mc Lennan

11. Role of champions • Role of institutional and project champions is critical to sustainability • PALAMA project leader played critical role • Operational leadership more important to sustainability than political leadership • Capacity development through the principle of ‘learning by doing’ • Continuity and institutional memory • Trust and reciprocity People said ‘next time we won’t worry about translation, you have to speak in English’. This “capacity building” helped us a lot. Prof Anne Mc Lennan

12. Trilateral cooperation • Project is evidence of how effective SS collaboration can be supported by committed and flexible NS cooperation • CIDA/PALAMA relationship enables innovation and learning • SS cooperation based on mutual support • Project origin in the SS partnership • Strong fit into country priorities – post project resourcing The donor was very flexible and allowed for the alignment of the Project to be implemented under the South African legal framework. There is still a view that PALAMA holds the purse as implementing agency and that the operational budgets should be divided equally between MDIs. Prof Anne Mc Lennan

13. Lessons • Understand the country and institutional context • Build partnerships with stakeholders • Use available resources strategically • Keep it simple • Take time to consult • Lead, plan, review and act Prof Anne Mc Lennan

14. Policy implications • South-South cooperation does build capacity but only if based on equal participation and empowered control – leadership critical • Capacity development leads to development only when it is institutionalised – that is, changes power relations and creates new norms and practices – to produce new behaviours • Development effectiveness is about making things work to the benefits Prof Anne Mc Lennan