ECA/PHSD/PAM/91/ll[l-2(ii)(b)]
Page 34
- scaling down military expenditures to the barest minimum.
85. The limited financial and human resources in most African countries make it particularly important to strengthen non government organization in the provision of local services such as education, health and housing. The private and informal sector can do much to develop urban services particularly housing. Community based organizations also contribute much to the provision of services. Self help community organizations should be encouraged and supported to provide primary schools, health centres, houses, etc. African countries have to create, a proper environment for private sector development including new legislation and regulations supportive of private sector growth.
86. More vigorous efforts are required to reduce population growth in Africa because it creates great pressure on the provision of local services. There is need to strengthen programmes of family planning and female literacy. In most African countries, the urban population is growing at a high rate, as various attempts to discourage urban migration have for the most part failed.
Therefore, policy makers and planners have to deal with improving the urban environment, especially for the vast majority of the urban poor. To reverse urban environmental deterioration, African governments have to improve municipal waste collection coverage and efficiency and adopt environmentally sound municipal waste treatment and disposal practices. There is need for better urban management.
87. The major factor contributing to Africa's local services crisis is the failure to invest sufficiently in human resource development.. The first step in preparing a human resource development plan is to draw up an extensive inventory of existing human resources and skills of people's health, education, nutrition and their employment and underemployment. The inventory should also describe the prevailing disparities between males and females and the distribution of local services between urban and'rural areas. Human potential will be wasted unless it is developed and used. Economic development should create a suitable environment for the use of human talents. Thus human resource development is a crucial step toward improved administrative structures in Africa.
88. Africa's system of social statistics needs considerable strengthening to improve the coverage, reliability and collection of data by gender, income group and geographical area. Many countries need to organize local services surveys.
VII. CONCLUSION
89. Good health, adequate nutrition and educational attainment are not only inputs that can enhance productivity in self-employment
t 9
ECA/PHSD/PAM/91/ll[1.2(ii)(b)]
Page 35
but are themselves important for the standard of living of the urban and the rural people. Achieving higher welfare levels, through the provision of better sanitation , education, drainage, health care, improved housing conditions and the like is important both in itself and because of the positive effects on productivity.
90. Local administrators are responsible for basic services which could be administered based on the knowledge of the needs, conditions and peculiarities of the area concerned. But the shortage of trained professionals to plan, build, manage and maintain the local service system creates problems. Effective administration usually requires more than the efficient working of official bureaucracies; it depends on such factors as the availability of middle-level manpower, the complementary activities of local government and voluntary agencies, the receptivity of intended beneficiaries to local services, and the sensitivity of public officials to the demands of the population.
91. Administration is a vital ingredient in the improvement of local services. Locally recruited staff cannot be effective without adequate training, supervision, supplies and other facilities. There are obvious administrative difficulties in local services because of the number and geographical spread of the activities, schools, health centres etc. Consequently, improving
• administration at the periphery is far more complex and difficult than administrative reform at the centre. Many of the poor are hard to reach through conventional public programmes. Most administrative weaknesses arise because the administration is not properly geared to identifying the people to be served, increasing their access to the service, adapting services until they are appropriate, delivering them efficiently and observing the public's
response.
92. The continuous expansion of local service activities has produced its own set of constraints in terms of manpower, finance and facilities. Some city surveys indicate that the quality of services are below standard and thus need improvement. With government local services in short supply attention should be given to increasing the provision of private facilities, both by profit-making enterprises and community-based organizations. Programmes designed to improve social conditions have encountered funding constraints, resulting in shortage in shortcomings in infrastructure, trained personnel, quantitative and qualitative deficiencies in services. The potential for raising the cost-effectiveness of local services expenditures should be considered.
ECA/PHSD/PAM/91/ll[1.2(ii)(b) Page 38
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. R.E. Stren,:
2. United Nations:
3. UNDP:
4. Vengroff, R. And Johnson, A.:
5. World Bank:
6. World Bank:
7. World Bank:
8. World Bank:
9. UNDP:
10. T. Negash:
"Accountability in Africa" in World Bank (ed) Strengthening Local Governments in Sub-Saharan Africa (Washington D.C., Economic Development Institute Policy Seminar Report, No. 21, 1989).
Enhancing Capabilities for Administrative Reform in Developing Countries. New York, 1967.
Government Monitoring and Evaluation Systems in Africaf New York, 1987a.
"Decentralization and Implementation of Rural development in Senegal: The Role of Rural Councils" in Public Administration and Development.
Ethiopia: Recent Economic Development and Future Prospectsf Country Economic Memorandum. Washington. 1984c.
Towards Accelerated Development in sub-Saharan Africa: And Agenda for Action, Washington, 1981 a.
Towards Sustained Development in sub-Sahara Africa: A Joint PT-ogr-aimne for Action. Washington. 1984.
World Development Report, 1991 Human Development Report. 1990.
The Crisis of Ethiopian Education, TTPPf>AT.A University. Sweden. 1990.