Improvements in the administration of local services in African countries : issues and constraints

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ZOO

ECA/PHSD/PAM/91/11[1.2(ii)(b)]

United Nations

Economic Commission for Africa

Public Administration Human Resources and Social Development Division

Improvements in the Administration of Local Services in African Countries: Issues and Constraints

December 1991

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Contents

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I. INTRODUCTION 1

II. THE NATURE AND SIGNIFICANCE OF LOCAL SERVICE 1 (i) Significance of local services 1 (ii) A review of local services in

six African countries 4

III. LOCAL SERVICE ADMINISTRATION: ISSUES

AND CONSTRAINTS 18

(i) Shortage of skilled and trained personnel 18

(ii) Operational inefficiency 20

(iii) Inappropriate structures 21

(iv) Financial constraints 22

IV. ANALYSIS OF MEASURES TO IMPROVE THE EFFICIENCY AND EFFECTIVENESS OF LOCAL

SERVICE ADMINISTRATION 22

(i) Improving the leadership and

administrative skills of local employees 23 (ii) Decentralizing the local service system 25 (iii) Streamlining governmental regulations

and operational procedures 26

(iv) Strengthening Non-Government Sector

provision of Local services 27

. (v) Enhancing the Quality of Services 27 (vi) Increasing Accessibility of Local

Services 27

(vii) Introducing Cost-Effectiveness 28 (viii) Diversifying source of Finance 29 V. PROPOSALS OF CRITERIA AND INDICATORS FOR THE

MONITORING AND EVALUATION OF THE QUALITY OF LOCAL SERVICES AND PERFORMANCE OF INSTITUTIONS

RESPONSIBLE FOR THEIR ADMINISTRATION 30 (i) Educational Service Indicators 31

(ii) Health Indicators 32

(iii) Housing 33

VI. LESSONS TO BE LEARNT 33

VII. CONCLUSION 36

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List of Tables

Table 1: Basic Indicators Table 2: Health Profile Table 3: Education Profile

Table 4: Shortage and Utilization of skilled Personnel in selected African countries

Table 5: East Africa's Needs and outputs of Administrators and Clinical Workers

Table 6: Central Government Expenditure Distribution in selected African countries

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I. INTRODUCTION

1. The concentration of poverty in Africa is growing. More than half of the people in Africa live in absolute poverty. Many countries in Africa suffer the most human deprivation. Of all the developing regions, Africa has the lowest life expectancy figures, the highest infant mortality rates and the lowest literacy rates. According to the 1991 World Development Report, in 1989, Africa's life expectancy ranged from 42 years in Sierra Leone to 70 years in Mauritius. In the same year, Mali had the highest infant mortality rate of 167 per 1000 live birth. In 1985, Somalia reported the lowest literacy rate of 12 per cent.

2. Access to health care is worst in Africa. Progress in water and sanitation has generally been much slower than in health. Only very few people have access to safe water and sanitation. There are wide disparities between rural and urban access to various local services. Therefore, Africa is confronted by poor health, mal-nutrition and ignorance. Most cities in Africa suffer from severe shortage of housing, deteriorating physical infrastructure and unhealthy environmental conditions.

3. The very poor performance of local services in Africa has generated concern about the quality of administration and has also contributed in part to the deteriorating living conditions of the people of Africa. The basic requirement to achieve development in the local service sector is the existence of adequate administrative machinery together with adequate, competent and honest civil service. This report identifies major issues and constraints in the administration of local services and offers measures to improve the effectiveness of local service administration. Reference to the social indicators of six African countries: Ethiopia, Mali, Senegal, Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Somalia has been made to serve as a basis for comparison of performance. In addition, a detailed description of local services in Ethiopia and its administration is presented. Finally, criteria and indicators for the monitoring and evaluation of the quality of some local services and performance of institutions responsible for their administration and lessons from the Ethiopian experience are enumerated for further research.

II. THE NATURE AND SIGNIFICANCE OF LOCAL SERVICES i) Significance of Local Services

4. The scope and range of local services depend on the aspirations, goals, and resourcefulness of the people themselves as well as the resources and level of technology available to the society. It could be argued that people have different aspirations in life and natural resources are not equally available in all parts of the world. Nonetheless, all human beings require basic

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ECA/PHSD/PAM/91/ll[1.2(ii)(b)]

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needs such as food, housing, clothing, health care and employment in order to survive. Therefore, people and their community may set certain goals which, if attained, would bring about decent living conditions for all. Some of the objectives of improving local level services may thus include the following:

(a) improvement of the general wellbeing and living conditions of the people without any exceptions;

(b) ensuring access to economic opportunities and reasonable income for every person in society without any form of discrimination;

(c) enabling every person to acquire knowledge and skills that would stimulate initiative;

(d) good health for all; healthy environmental conditions and habits;

(e) enabling environment for healthy interpersonal relationships, personal and community development;

(f) access and availability of Basic Human Needs (BHNs) for all;

and,

(g) popular participation in decision-making, development planning, implementation, and management.

5. Each society/community has natural resources which indicate the contours of its production frontier. However, with improved know-how and know-why or science and technology, a society's production frontier could be shifted forward and upward. Put differently, it is possible for a society to enjoy greater and better prosperity through the ' resourcefulness of the people, technology improvements and the efficient management of the scarce resources required for the provision of essential local services.

In essence, local services could include the following:

a) Employment services formal and informal (self- employment)employment.

b) Education services family, society and formal education.

c) Health services personal and community health.

d) Housing services public and private ; urban & rural.

e) Community welfare services family counselling, child welfare, the handicapped, registration of marriages, births and deaths and recreation facilities.

f) Good government decentralization, especially through devolution; creation of the climate and the enabling political and socio-economic environment for individual and community initiatives that are conducive to the development of the individual and the whole society.

6. A functional classification would for the sake of convenience, assign the following sectoral perspective to local services.

a) Economic services sector comprising agriculture, forestry and fisheries services; mining and quarrying;; industry

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Page 3 (manufacturing & other processing); trade/commerce; financial;

tourism and other personal services.

b) Infrastructure services sector comprising town, rural and regional planning and development; water supply; electricity;

transport, posts and telecommunications services. These are supportive of all other services sectors.

c) Social services sector comprising education and human resources development,; health care and social welfare;

housing and related services; sport, culture and recreation;

community development and broadcasting services. The motives are essentially social in nature but the results have economic and developmental implications.

d) Protection and Administrative Services sector comprising maintenance of law and order; national defence; national socio-economic policy formulation; administration (civil service); and national employment services. In analyzing the institutional framework for the provision of local services, it is important to focus attention on factors that can contribute to the efficiency and effectiveness of the services instead of on the name of the institution or the elegance of the structure and titles of the personnel.

7. Local services which are being considered in this report comprise social welfare and economic services. They are interrelated and influence the tempo of socio-economic development.

However, the main thrust of this study will be on local social welfare services such as education, health, housing, water supply and sanitation services. An adequate provision of these services is essential both for raising the standards of living of the people and for building the human capital necessary for rapid socio- economic development. The qualities of a nation's people have an important influence on its prosperity and growth. The ..state benefits from a literate and healthy work force, both through potentially greater output and also through the effect on other state programmes of social management, such as family planning programmes. Investment in the provision of family planning services have shown higher impact if the women using the service are better educated. The rate and extent of the human capital stock attained through the expansion of education at all levels will ultimately determine whether scientific and technical knowledge can be used for the benefit of the country. Educated, well-trained people can provide the leadership required in the economic and social sector of a country.

8. Local services are important to the poor in two major ways.

First, they can contribute to the labour market prospects of low

income wage earners and enhance the productivity of those who

cultivate their own holdings or are otherwise self-employed.

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Evidence suggests that good health, high nutrition and educational attainment often command a premium from employers in rural and urban labour markets. Moreover, temporary or permanent withdrawal from the work force because of illness, pregnancy and its after effects, and nutrition-related weakness can have particularly devastating effects on the household income of the poor. Good health, adequate nutrition and educational achievement are not merely inputs that can raise earnings and contribute to economic growth. They are important aspects of the standard of living of the poor.

9. Housing projects also are largely undertaken to promote social welfare. An examination of housing programmes, however, brings out the fact that provision of housing for the urban poor has rather different characteristics from the other services. In all other cases, the concern is with extending services which already exist.

Housing is concerned with providing a commodity.

10. Human activities result in a wide variety of wastes of which the greater part are those from extraction and manufacturing industry and from agriculture. At the domestic level human wastes are mainly of three kinds - excreta, waste water and solid waste.

Sanitary services are required for the removal and disposal of excreta, waste water and solid waste. Water supply services are concerned with the provision of safe drinking water to the people.

Health care, of course, is strongly linked to sanitation, water supply and shelter; nevertheless, it has its own contribution to make because it deals with persons individually.

(ii) A Review of Local Services in six African Countries

11. In most African countries the government, the private sector and the community are involved in the provision of local services.

Education and health services are provided by central ministries in coordination with the regional offices and the various levels of local government. Sanitary and housing services are usually provided for by city councils or municipalities.

12. Six African countries are selected for review purposes: Mali, Somali and Ethiopia from the low-income economies and Senegal, Botswana and Zimbabwe from middle-income economies in 1989. Among the six countries Ethiopia had the lowest GNP per capita, US$120 and Botswana had the highest per capita, US$1,050 in 1989. An analysis of local service based on the available data (Tables 1-3) shows the following results.

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Table1:BasicIndicatorsoftheStatusofLocalServicesinsomeAfricancountries COUNTRIES Botswana Zimbabwe Senegal Mali Somalia Ethiopia

GNPPER CAPITA DOLLARS 1989 1,600 650 650 270 170 120

RURAL POPULATI ON 1988 78 74 62 81 65

POPULATGROWTHOFPOP. IONMIDRURALPOPULATIONWITHACCESSURBANPOPULATIONWITHACCESSTO TOSERVICES(%)SERVICES(%) 1989 1.2 9.5 7.2 8.2 6.1 49.5

1980-89 3.4 3.5 3.0 2.5 3.0 3.0

1985-87 89-2000HEALTHWATERSANITARYHEALTH 2.6854628100 623215100 38 103 1522550

2.7 3.2 3.0 3.1 3.4

1985-87 WATER 84 79 46 58 69

SANITARY 93 87 90 44 96 Sources:AdaptedfromHumanDevelopmentReport1990,UNDP

O CO o H H H CO (D0*

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ECA/PHSD/PAM/91/ll[1.2(ii)(b)] Page6 InfantMortality RatePer1000 LiveBirth 1965 112 103 160 207 165 165

1989 39 46 82 167 128 133

Table2 Health 1960 46 45 37 35 36 36

Profile LifeExpectancy atBirth (Years) 1987 59 59 47 45 46 42

1989 67 64 47 48 48 48

Countries Botswana Zimbabwe Senegal Mali Somalia Ethiopia Source:HumanDevelopmentReport,1990,UNDP 1989and2000yearfiguresaretakenfromWorldDevelopmentReport,1991,

Populationwith Accessto HealthServices /o,^ (<) (1985-87) 89 71 40 15 27 46

Populationwith Accessto Sanitation i"A (1985-87) 42 - - 19 18 _

Pcpulationwit Accesst SafeWate CaA (1985-87 54 - 53 17 34 16

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ECA/PHSD/PAM/91/11[1.2(ii)(b)] Page7 Table3 EducationProfile DropoutRateCombinedFemaleasaPercentageofMales (%ofgradePrimaryandAdult ofEnrolmentSecondaryPrimarySecondaryLiteracyLiteracy EnrolmentRateRateLiter (%)acynotComplet-Enrolment CountriesingPrimaryRatio School) 1985-871985-871986-881986-88 1985Rate 1985 Botswana Zimbabwe Senegal Mali Somalia Ethiopia Source:HumanD

11 26 17 61 67 59 evel

82 93 38 15 14 28

105 97 69 59 - 61

106 86 53 44 - 67

95 83 51 48 33 _

71 74 28 17 12 66

95 83 51 48 33

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Botswana

13. Botswana showed the best performance in local services among the six countries selected. Life expectancy in Botswana rose from 46 years in 1960 to 67 years in 1989. The adult literacy rate increased from 41 per cent in 1970 to 71 per cent in 1985. Infant mortality rate was reduced by more than 60 per cent i.e. from 112 per 1000 live in 1965 to 39 per 1000 live in 1989. During the period 1985-1987, 89 per cent of the population had access to health services, 42 per cent to sanitation and 54 per cent to safe water. Even though Botswana's population doubled from 1960 to 1989, it showed improvement in local services. But, it had a population of only one million in 1989. According to the 1990 Human Development Report, from 1985 to 1987, 0.7 million people in Botswana were without adequate access to sanitation, 0.6 million people without safe water and only 0.1 million without access to health services. In 1988, the rural population in Botswana was 78 per cent. From 1935 to 1987 less than one-third of the rural population had access to sanitation, and almost half had access to safe drinking water compared to the urban population. The disparity between rural and urban access to local services was high. But the disparity between male and female literacy rate in 1985 was very low (Table 3).

14. An important factor in Botswana's achievement in the local service sector is the high growth in GDP per capita since independence. The high growth was based on minerals specially the growth of diamond production. Botswana's achievement in local services has been helped by the prosperity of the diamond industry and meso policies for the provision of basic health and education facilities across the board.

Zimbabwe

15. Zimbabwe also showed good performance in the local service sector. Its life expectancy at birth was 64 years in 1989. Its adult literacy rate was 74 per cent in 1985, and its infant mortality rate was 46 per 1000 live birth in 1989. From 1985 to 1987, 71 per cent of the population had access to health services.

The data showing accessibility to sanitation and safe water is not available. 74 per cent of the population is rural. From 1985 to 1987 62 per cent of the rural population had access to health, 32 per cent to water and 15 per cent to sanitation. More than 80 per cent of the urban population had access to health, safe water and sanitation. Zimbabwe's good performance in local services was attributable to social sector expenditure for education and health services which was 23.4 per cent and 7.6 per cent respectively, in 1989. In Zimbabwe, significant measures in the health sector such as free service for those earning less then Z$150 a month,

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Page 9 programme of immunization against childhood infectious diseases and diarrhoea control programme were expanded and launched after independence. In addition, there has been restructuring of education to increase the share of primary education in total public spending.

Senegal

16. Senegal showed the least satisfactory performance in the provision of local services as compared with Botswana and Zimbabwe.

Its life expectancy in 1989 was 47 years. Its adult literacy rate was only 28 per cent in 1985. Senegal had a rural population percentage of 62 in 1988 which is the lowest among the six countries selected.

17. Mali is one of the three countries selected from the lower income economies. All the three have the same life expectancy of 48 years at birth in 1989. Among the three, Mali had the highest infant mortality rate in 1989, 167 per 1000 live birth, and from 1985 to 1987, Mali had only 15 per cent access to health services.

The adult literacy rate in 1985 was only 17 per cent.

Somalia

18. Somalia's adult literacy rate in 1985 was strikingly low at 12 per cent with large gender disparities - female literacy was 6 per cent, male 18 per cent. Somalia is still far from universal primary education. The major policies of the Government in the education field were democratisation of access to basic education by assigning top priority to the realisation of universal, compulsory and free primary education; and gradual expansion of post-primary education and training to ensure that the manpower needs of the developing society will be increasingly satisfied.

However, despite impressive achievements since the October 1969 Revolution, a number of imbalances, constraints and problems have emerged. These include the imbalances with regard to schooling opportunities for boys and girls and regional distribution of facilities.

Health Services in Ethiopia

19. Ethiopia's health policies and strategies are clearly defined and appropriate to the country's needs. Priority is on the development of rural health services, the prevention and control of the most common causes of morbidity and mortality and the promotion

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of self-reliance and community involvement in health care activities. The effective coverage of health services was 46 per cent of the population in 1985 to 1987. The urban and territory care bias of health facilities continues, reflecting the pattern of health infrastructure inherited from the 1974 revolution. From 1985 to 1987, access to safe water for rural population was only 9 per cent but 69 per cent for urban population as shown on Table 1.

Life expectancy was 48 years in 1989. Infant mortality rate was reduced from 165 per 1000 live in 1965 to 133 per 1000 live in

1989.

20. Before the 1974 revolution, the distribution of health services favoured three privileged cities which absorbed most of the country's health manpower, and 47 per cent of the health budget. Total coverage was no more than 1-20 per cent of the population. Since the revolution, the government had supported primary health care as a strategy for health for all by the year 2000. Policy gave priority to the development of rural health services, to the prevention and control of the most common causes of morbidity and mortality and to the promotion of self-reliance and community involvement in health care activities. Dissatisfied with the slow rate of implementation of annual health plans up to 1980/81, the government decided in that year to develop a comprehensive Ten-Year Health Sector perspective plan for the period 1983/4 to 1984/5. This plan, completed in early 1984, had been adopted by the government, and had set out a detailed strategy for health services development.

21. The main goals of the plan were to:

expand health services to where the majority of the masses live and work;

ensure the provision of comprehensive health services to special population groups such as mothers and children, students, the under-privileged, etc;

foster full and active community involvement in all health activities;

22. The plan's ambitious targets were by 1993/4, to increase the coverage of services from 45 per cent to 80 per cent, to reduce infant mortality to 95/1000; to reduce child mortality to 105/1000;

and to increase life expectancy to 55 years. Contributions on Ethiopia's health policies and strategies include short coming in organization, delivery of services, manpower planning and health financing. In 1989 only 3.6 per cent of the total government expenditure was allocated for health. There was need for strengthening health services at a faster rate. But, shortage of fund affected staffing, supervision and supplies. Thus strengthening the service was difficult. Despite the priority

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given to rural health service development, the coverage of modern health services remained low and the urban-rural disparity is high.

23. Poor health services can erode economic development. For example, the malaria epidemic of 1958 not only caused massive loss of life but also stopped the completion of the harvest in many areas, thus creating severe food shortages. The main health problems are those of infectious, and parasitic, respiratory, diarrhoeal diseases, all worsened by malnutrition. They resulted from poverty, unsanitary conditions, lack of food and safe water, and ecology that promotes endemic tropical diseases and from the remoteness of large parts of the country from any source of modern health care. The 1991 World Development Report indicates that daily calorie supply per capita was 1,658 in 1988. In nutrition, the long-term issue is the extent to which agricultural development, food distribution and pricing can overcome the present fundamental origins of malnutrition. In the short-term, the main issue is whether nutrition, education and improvement of nutrition practices in the home can improve nutrition in the family.

Sanitation and Housing

24. Housing policies have acted as a severe constraint on housing production and have had the effect of placing the primary responsibility for housing provision with the government. Whereas houses could be built by government organizations, cooperatives or private individuals, the government programmes were small relative to needs. The time required to obtain the legal clearances for forming cooperatives and obtaining a plot of land slowed the construction of private houses.

25. The housing shortage has contributed to increased crowding of people in small residential areas. In Addis Ababa, the physical environmental conditions of the bulk of Kebele-owned (Urban Dwellers Association) housing often consists of land subject to flooding without proper access drainage, sanitation and with inadequate distribution of water supply. The urban poor are particularly affected. Most people in Addis Ababa live in areas which have serious deficiencies in infrastructure and which have little or no access to municipal services. The neighbourhood areas or Kebeles where the majority of these people live are characterized by high population densities with roads generally unpaved; insufficient and undesigned drainage systems; few individual water connections or public water fountains; and in many areas, non-existent refuse collection and disposal arrangements.

The most critical deficiency, however, is the lack of toilet facilities with only few having access to shared latrine and the remainder using open spaces and watercourses. Environmental conditions are extremely poor and health risks are high in these

areas.

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26. On the approximately 290 tons of refuse generated in Addis Ababa every day, only about 50 per cent is collected with the remainder generally disposed of on open spaces, in drainage channels or in watercourses. Refuse that is collected by the city's aging fleet of vehicles is dumped some 10 kilometres to the south-west of the city which is operated as an uncontrolled, unsanitary dump. Refuse is not covered, the site is not fenced or drained, dead animals are buried in the refuse and many scavengers operate at the site.

Education

27. Ethiopia's satisfactory performance in the education sector is mainly attributable to the creation of an appropriate administrative machinery which emphasized decentralization. To show the progress it has made, its state in 1965 and what it grew up to be is described below. Other African countries which have problem in the area of education could draw lessons from the Ethiopian experience. At the time of the 1974 Revolution the Ethiopian people inherited an education system which was structurally undemocratic and unadapted to the needs of the country. Since 1974, there has been dramatic change in the education sector. Before the revolution, Ethiopia had a literacy rate of 7 per cent. But, in 1985, adult literacy rate rose to 66 per cent as shown on Table 3. This is more than two times the literacy rate of Senegal which was in the middle income economies.

28. The total percentage of enrolment in primary education rose from 11 in 1965 to 36 in 1988. The total percentage enrolment in secondary education rose from 2 in 1965 to 15 in 1988. The Post- Revolution State accepted the challenge of expanding the education sector on the assumption that education held the key to the country's development. In contrast to the Imperial Regime, the Post-Revolution State appears to be fully aware that national development would be possible only with the expansion of education.

This view, first laid down in the National Democratic Revolution (1976), was further elaborated in the five volume policy document known as the General Directives of Ethiopian Education produced by the Ministry of Education in 1980.

29. An era that the Post-Revolution State has to be proud of is the literacy campaign. Established in 1979, the National Literacy Campaign Coordinating Committee managed to spread literacy among ten million people by 1983. The result of these literacy campaigns was that the rate of illiteracy was reduced from about 93 per cent in 1975 to 37 per cent in 1983. Ethiopia has been internationally known for its successful campaign against illiteracy, although more intractable problems, such as the impact of literacy on national development, have yet to be seriously looked into. UNESCO awarded Ethiopia the 1980 International Reading Association Literacy Award.

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Page 13 The major factors contributing to the satisfactory performance of the education sector are:

the clear statements of government policy on education.

Since the revolution stress has been on the need for the school to serve the community in which it is located and on rapid democratization of the system so that all communities are served by education facilities. The government declared that education is not only a right but also a duty, and that education is an integral part of the total development process for the improvement of the condition of life of the mass of the population.

the creation of grass-root organizations for town and countryside which have permitted the mobilization of human effort in the task of eradicating illiteracy and of building a democratic system of education.

the proclamations which have placed all privately owned schools under the ownership of urban dwellers associations, and which have required the formation of a management committee in each school, representative of the local mass organizations.

The strong move which has been made to decentralize the management, planning and administration of education.

Regional Education Officers now have full authority for the administration of approved programmes, and at the sub-regional level, the District Education Officer is directly responsible for implementation of all the policy guidelines and development programmes. This level is now being strengthened in many ways through training of personnel and provision of facilities.

The most general impact of all these changes has been a greater involvement of the people, through their various organizations, in the development of education.

30. Since 1974, considerable development has taken place in the structure of educational administration, the major features of which include the creation of:

a National Curriculum Development Centre staffed with over 70 trained nationals;

the Department of Educational Mass Media Services;

the Educational Materials Production and Distribution Agency (an autonomous department under the Ministry of Education), responsible for the printing and publication of all educational materials and for the production and

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distribution of all other educational supplies;

the Office of Planning Services as a Staff function for planning and research attached to the office of the Minister;

a Project Management Office at top level to supervise and coordinate the implementation of investment projects in education;

a Division for School Construction and Maintenance Services which has a particular responsibility for the coordination and organization of projects which are carried out with community assistance.

the Commission for Higher Education which is responsible for the coordination and development of all third level education;

a National Literacy Campaign Coordinating Committee responsible for the particular task of carrying out the campaign to eradicate illiteracy and the programmes for post-literacy.

31. At the same time, there has been a need since 1974 to move away from the highly centralized administration which operated under the previous regime. .The need to undertake this derives from:

the very large size of the country;

the need for education to participate in the work of the Regional and Provincial Development Committees;

the need to develop educational programmes relevant to the various localities and to cooperate with local communities in the expansion of education.

32. Since 1974, therefore, considerable attention and resources have been devoted to decentralization of authority to lower organs of administration and to strengthening of these offices to reflect the functions which have to be carried out. One particular aspect of this process has been the creation of a network of 106 District Pedagogical Centres to serve as focal points for the implementation of the new curriculum. In carrying out this function the District Pedagogical centres bring together officials from the local administration, representatives of local community associations, parents, teachers and students.

33. Finally, it must be stressed that the whole process of change in the infrastructure for educational administration has had to be

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related to and, indeed, depended upon, the fundamental changes in national organization which have been implemented since 1974. In particular, the creation of a nation-wide system of peasants

associations and urban dwellers associations have provided an organizational base for relations with the communities which the

education system serves.

34. Up to February 1974, the major concerns had been the quality

of the services which were offered to a restricted elite and the

subordination of those services to the interests of a limited

ruling class. The revolution articulated a new range of needs

related to the interests of the mass of the population and established a new total environment for educational action which gave, for the first time, meaning and purpose to the objectives of

democratization and relevance.

Qualitative Achievements

35. The process of redirection and renewal of the education system in pursuit of objectives generated by national needs, has involved a large number of tasks and activities of which only a summary can be given here. The most significant are as follows:

the production of a completely revised curriculum for all levels from kindergarten level to grade 12 of the secondary school system.

in support of the programme for curriculum reform, District Pedagogical Centres have been established and equipped and personnel trained to ensure relevance of the curriculum to local conditions.

a range of other materials is produced nationally for the education system under the management of Educational Materials Production and Distribution Agency (EMPDA).

the new curriculum incorporates the basic principle of linking theory with practice, and learning by doing. As an important part of the curriculum at all level, a Labour Education Programme has been developed under which practical activities take place in the school programme linking the school to community and providing students with opportunities for productive work. Specific actions within this programme include:

(i) the schools timber project in which students are involved in the creation of community timber plantations.

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(ii) the Water Education Project which is focused on practical measures for improving rural community water supply.

36. It is planned to introduce two new elements shortly (improved cooking stove construction and improved farm level grain storage), into this programme. For the purpose of providing a continuous input of new technology which can meet current needs on a self- reliant basis, an Appropriate Technology Centre has been established under the Ministry of Education to serve both the formal and non-formal system.

over fifty titles for instructional and general reading purposes have been produced for the basic literacy programme and its follow-up phases. All of these have now been translated into 5, and some into 10 of the nationality languages now used in the campaign. In full development, 15 languages will be used and titles will be available in all languages.

the implementation of the Literacy Campaign has brought about a significant volume of activity directed at the use of the various nationality languages in the education system.

the educational mass media services have been greatly strengthened.

training courses have been developed.

- participation by the community in the implementation and further development of education has increased in many ways. Schools and other educational units are managed by committees which are representative of local community and mass organizations. Virtually all primary school construction is carried out by the local communities who also provide financial support to match that provided by the Government. The organization at the base for the national literacy campaign is provided by the urban dwellers associations and the peasant associations.

These associations also provided many of the instructors for the Community Skill Training Programme from among the skilled workers in the community, and they often provide similar support to the practical areas of the primary school programme. Communities are directly responsible for the organization of programmes in the Basic Education Centres. Community representatives participate in the work of District Pedagogical Centres.

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Crisis of Education

37. Between 1976 and 1982, junior and senior secondary school enrolment expanded well beyond the absorption capacity of the economy. As early as 1980, the Ministry of Education began to send warning signals to the government concerning the social problems created by the expansion of secondary education. At the same time the Ministry of Education devised a plan designed to avoid the growing pool of unemployable secondary school graduates. According to this plan, emphasis would be placed on providing eight years of universal polytechnical education and on a curriculum that would enhance integration into the needs of labour. This policy, partially accepted by the government, had the ambition of providing eight years of universal education to all children of primary school age by 1986.

38. The Post-Revolution State is certainly more inclined to meet the social, economic, political and educational challenges than its predecessor. The crisis of the education sector did not arise due to the lack of commitment from the government but due to a variety of misconceptions about education and its role in society. In 1983 the government passed a resolution calling for a review of the education - sector. In motivating the resolution the government noted: "the formal education sector expanded rapidly after the Revolution, but the fact that there are some weaknesses in the quality of education must now be recognized. The content and quality of education must fully prepare students to meet the objective demands of the nation and the ideological needs of our society. Steps should be taken without delay to implement the programme for expansion of technical and" vocational education in line with the manpower demands of the country."

39. Soon after the passing of the resolution, the Ministry of Education initiated a project known as The Evaluative Research on the General Education System of Ethiopia (ERGESE). The summary report of ERGESE begins by pointing out the bottlenecks that affect the quality of education. Classes throughout the country are cancelled without good reasons. The number of students has greatly expanded, thus creating a serious shortage of classrooms. There is a great shortage of school instruments, beginning with the components for laboratories and textbooks. The competence of teachers leaves a great deal to be desired, and this problem becomes even more serious in periods where the number of students has greatly increased. Students ambitions are judged to be very low. Both teachers and students concentrate on the exam rather than on the acquisition and retention of knowledge. The stages of the education ladder, that is primary, junior, secondary, and senior secondary are not satisfactorily integrated and coordinated.

And finally, the gap between theory and practice is too wide due to the problem of the lack of physical space in schools.

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40. One of the factors that led to the rapid expansion of education was the belief in the role of education in national development. But development is first and foremost dependent on the economic policies of the government, on the stability of political system and on the nature of property relations. For education to be an investment in human capital, it should first be appropriate and relevant. Secondly, it is necessary to have a conducive environment where most of those who complete their schooling have some opportunity to put what they have learnt in practice. The expansion of the education sector regardless of quality, relevance and the absorption capacity of the economy would only result in the creation of a pool of unemployment.

III. LOCAL SERVICE ADMINISTRATION : ISSUES AND CONSTRAINTS 41. The low performance of most African countries in the provision of local services is caused mainly by inefficient administrative machinery/ inappropriate government policy and financial constraints. The inefficient administrative machinery is the result of:

- shortage of qualified and trained personnel;

- lack of incentives;

- inefficient operational methods; and inappropriate administrative structures.

(i) Shortage of Skilled and Trained Personnel

42. Shortage of qualified and trained personnel both at the central and local level in African countries is one of the problems of local service institutions. This has resulted in an over use of staff such as teachers, physicians and nurses as shown in Table 4:

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Table 4: Shortage and Utilization of Skilled personnel in selected African countries

Countries

Botswana Zimbabwe Somalia Mali Senegal Ethiopia

Population per doctor

1984 6,900 6,700 16,080 25,390

-

60,000

Population per

nurse 1984

700 1,000 1,530 1,350 . 2,030 5,400

Pupil to Teacher Ratio 1985 - 1988

32 39 20 38 54 49

Source: Human Development Report 1991, UNDP p. 142.

43. The above table shows that Ethiopia and Mali used their physicians intensively. Senegal and Ethiopia had high pupil to teacher ratio, reflecting shortage of teachers. Teachers serve as agents of change. Basic problems which too often adversely affect their contribution are: inadequate training and poor remuneration, low social standing and the growing tendency among some teachers to share their interest between classroom teaching and outside money- making activities. Same is true of physicians who are often involved in part-time jobs.

44. The inefficient and improper utilization of available trained manpower, often due to factors such as political and social constraints, inappropriate administrative structures and practices,

lack of proper manpower planning and the prevalence of wage policies are problems of major concern in Africa. Appointments are made on party patronage without regard to competence and performance. In some cases, graduates are not performing duties commensurable with their training. The inability to develop appropriate training programmes for the bulk of the labour force is also to be noted. Educational and training institutions produce more clerk workers than administrators, technicians, engineers and physicians. For example, in 1980, East Africa's needs and output of administrators and cadres and clerical workers was as in Table 5.

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Table 5: East Africa's needs and output of administrators and clerical workers.

Needs Output

Overage (Shortage)

Administrators and Cadres

34 7 27

Clerical Workers

84 377 (293)

Source: ECA, The Role of African Institutions of Higher Learning

in the implementation of the Lagos Plan of Action, Jan. 21-29,

1982.

45. The above table shows that there was shortage of 27

administrators and cadres whereas 293 clerical workers were in excess. The "brain drain" phenomenon is now endemic in Africa.

Millions of uneducated and educated Africans are living and working

abroad, outside their home countries. Africa cannot afford to lose to the developed countries, the services of doctors, and teachers.

Inflation has affected the efficiency and moral of employees.

There is no reward for better productivity and efficiency.

Therefore, employees lose their commitment to work and supervisors become unconcerned about the performance of their subordinates.

This has also led to undisciplined behaviour, and corruption. Some countries in Africa, such as Zambia and Ghana, have recognized the

effect* of wage erosion and have taken some measures to increase

wages.

(ii) Operational Inefficiency

46. In the local service administration system for example of Ethiopia, there is plentiful evidence of internal inefficiency.

One of the most obvious symptoms of inefficiency is demand rationing by queue. The long lines at some local facilities such as clinics, hospitals, etc. can mean not only clients time is wasted but also that there is inefficient rationing of services.

The better-off clients can avoid long lines for local services

either by going to the private sector or using bribes or connections to skip the queue. Most clients complain about the long waiting times of local service facilities, the unconcerned staff and the petty corruption.

47. In some local service organizations, decision-making is delayed by lack of delegation of authority and responsibility.

Minor decisions that could have been solved at the lower level of the administrative hierarchy would find their way to the centre.

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Page 21 Lack of delegation is further aggravated by the fact that subordinates are not trained and competent enough to take or handle

even minor decisions. Worse of all, every body wants to avoid activities that entail responsibility and criticism. Delegation is

made difficult in situations where lack of trust is common. The limited time officials devote to their offices due to several

meetings, official tours and ceremonies delays decision. In Ethiopia, the system of bureaucratic action bound up in laws, regulations and procedures with long administrative circuits are

major causes of inefficiency.

(iii) Inappropriate Structures

48. There are different organizations giving similar services such as Commission for Higher Education and Ministry of Education in Ethiopia. The dispersal of similar functions among different

organizations results in duplication of effort and unnecessary

cost. Dispersal of authority and responsibility among different

organizations also makes co-ordination difficult.

(iv) Financial Constraints

49. The local service sector has suffered from financial difficulties due to the limited budget allocated to it. Political

instability in countries like Ethiopia, Somalia, Chad, etc.

resulted in investing substantial sums on defence and much less on social services as shown bin Table 6.

Table 6: Central Government Expenditure: Percentage of Expenditure on Health and Education

Total

Countries

Mali Somalia Senegal Ethiopia Botswana Zimbabwe

Education 1972 1989

9.0

5.5

- -

14.4 10.6 10.0 20.1 23.4

Health

1972 1989 2.1 7.2

- -

5.7 3.6 6.0 5.5 7.6

Ratio of Military Expenditure to Health and Educa tion Expenditure

1986 15 71 40 165 19 49

Source: Human Development Report 1990, UNDP

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50. Negash in the book of "The Crisis of Ethiopian Education"

explained that the 1988 budget of 350 million Birr earmarked to educate a student population of 3,726,000 was inadequate by any standard of measurement. The budget might be sufficient to educate about one third of the student population. The growth in student population and inflation rate aggravated the situation. The financial problems prevented the expansion of physical plants of local service organizations resulting in over-crowded class rooms and hospitals, poorly equipped laboratories, inadequate library resources, office and other facilities, low salaries and shortage of drugs and medical equipment. Budgetary shortages prevented quality service, proper supervision and progress in research.In education, the expansion of the local service sector far beyond the financial resources resulted in the decline of the service, specially primary education. This is a serious matter because the quality of primary education plays a major role in determining the quality of all higher levels of education. Shortage of fund resulted in poor supervision due to inadequate mobility. Out-dated vehicles, shortage of fuel and inadequate per diem made the mobility of the supervisory staff difficult. Another reason for a decline in educational quality is the high percentage of teachers who were compelled by the state to join the teaching profession.

Whether those engaged in the teaching profession have sufficient interest in their jobs depends greatly on their working conditions which encompass teachers' salaries, class size, student motivation and opportunities for professional advancement through further education.

51. In most African countries, there has not been enough concern over the waste of public funds resulting from the mismanagement of supply contracts, inefficient management of stores, careless handling of expensive materials. The importance of materials management will be recognized when due account is taken on the size of national resources devoted to the purchase and import of machinery, equipment, raw materials, and other stock needed for the provision of essential services. The administration of these materials constitutes major management task. Equally deserving attention is maintenance management in local service institutions.

This refers in particular to departmental vehicles on which foreign exchange has been spent.

IV. ANALYSIS OF MEASURES TO IMPROVE THE EFFICIENCY AND

EFFECTIVENESS OF LOCAL SERVICE ADMINISTRATION

52. Improvement of local services to meet their development oriented goals will require measures to increase efficiency and diversification of financial resources. While appropriate policy changes are necessary to improve local services, they alone will not suffice. They must be coupled with strengthening management.

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The most important measures involve improving the performance and skills of employees, decentralizing, streamlining government

regulations and operational procedures, strengthening non government provision of local services, enhancing quality and

increasing accessibility of services, developing management information system and introducing cost-effectiveness.

i) Improving the Leadership and Administrative Skills of Local Employees

53. Measures should be taken to improve the performance and skills of local sector employees through better job classification which facilitates recruitment, training and evaluation, and changes in civil service regulations. Success in formulating and administering appropriate policies, as well as the efficient operation of a large number of local services will depend crucially on the availability of adequate number of professional, technical

and managerial personnel. Except in special cases, general

education needs to be followed by job related training to provide qualification for useful and gainful employment. The provision of

qualified staff and the upgrading of poorly qualified staff are matters which require attention and which are to be addressed.

54. African governments should also actively seek to stem the drain of skilled persons which has occurred through emigration over the past decade. This pool of absent talent is a valuable potential source of qualified manpower. The principle of merit system must be used if the competence and commitment of the civil service is needed. The general principles of merit system are simple. Firstly, there must be equity. This means equal pay for

equal work and equal treatment and opportunity for all public

employees. Personnel administration must avoid needless expenditures. In Ethiopia, the assignment of university graduates and graduates from vocational school is made without carefully

identifying needs. It seems that employment is offered to' solve

unemployment problems. As a result some of the government offices complain that there is no work to do. The country cannot afford such a wastage of resources. Therefore, the means to use the available personnel effectively and efficiently towards a coordinated effort for development must be established.

55. Incentive for cost-effective performance need to be enhanced not only in primary education and health care, but throughout the local services sectors. Currently, the complex system of intergovernmental transfers and spending by different agencies under assorted headings discourages cost control. The data base, including service statistics and cost information will have to be improved if efficiency issues are to be tackled. Moreover, greater economic inputs into health and education planning will be needed.

An important objective of wage policy should be to support a

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desirable and rational incentive system. This means that wage policy should be used to encourage workers to take up positions where their contribution to economic growth will be greatest. It should be used as a vehicle for achieving efficient allocation of labour, for directing workers to location and jobs where they are urgently needed.

56. In view of the difficulty of attracting highly qualified individuals to the local service sector, priority should be given

to developing and advancing potential employees within the sector.

Management development in the central ministry, commission or municipality should be done in parallel with development at lower levels. The machinery of personnel administration must facilitate the means of raising the skills of the civil servants. It must give chances for lower and middle level employees to raise their educational standards either through in-service training or other designated courses. However, the kind of training needed, those who need the training and the facilities for training can to a certain extent be figured out only when some sort of manpower planning exists. Therefore, accurate and up-to-date survey of existing and required manpower is necessary.

57. African governments have to address to the issue of strengthening professional training for local staff to upgrade their competence.. Training can solve a variety of man-power problems by increasing productivity, improving morale, developing new skills, knowledge, understanding and attitudes. One must be very cautious since all gaps of productivity problems are not solved by training. Poor productivity or work not being up to standards can be caused by such factors as equipment design, rules and regulations, personality conflicts and other uncontrollable factors.

58. Training usually becomes a functional part of the organization by improving productivity. Trainees must be given the opportunity to put to work their newly acquired skill, knowledge and attributes. Training should be seen as one of several inputs. The others include incentives, definition of career paths and system for performance assessment. An employee should enter service with a clear idea of opportunities for advancement, and of the kind of performance that will be necessary to move ahead. Local service administrative institutions in future should be provided with the type of staff to enable them to move forward as rapidly as possible towards the provision of more intensive and higher standard services.

59. The government should consider a number of options such as developing and advancing talented persons within the local service sector. These include the provision of resources to make staff effective, incentive to hold them in the system, definition of career paths and an appropriate system for performance appraisal.

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While careful elaboration of local service development programme is essential, the country's capacity for implementation will ultimately determine their impacts.

(ii) Decentralizing the Local Service System

60. Public policy can no longer be carried out efficiently unless

there is some sort of delegation of authority from higher officials

to lower ones. Such action is justified on several grounds. If

every minor issue needs the senior officials' attention, they will be over burdened with petty matters and most of their time may be

consumed in doing routine functions. Secondly, some tasks may

require the assistance of technical or specialists knowledge which may not be available to the top officials. Finally, the civil servants, in order to get the support and respect of the public, must at least be able to make decisions on the problems that arise

at their level. Thus, it is essential that authority be delegated at every level of the hierarchy in the administrative structure.

A degree of decentralization in administration which will permit the effective decision making at local and regional level is

essential to the application of general policies to local situations.

61. Decentralizations of the local service functions should be paced according to the availability of qualified staff. It should

be carried out on the basis of careful planning. In a country like Ethiopia where transportation is slow, communication is difficult

and many people are isolated, decentralization of the local service

system should be considered as one possible way to improve efficiency. Thus, delegation of certain administrative functions

to the local levels must be carried out carefully in order to mesh effectively with the central systems and procedures.

62. Decentralization can be pursued in two different ways. The first involves changing the structure of authority and responsibility so as to increase the autonomy of units at the lower

levels. Decentralization can, in this context, contribute

significantly to better management by increasing the responsiveness of the local levels to the demands of the local community. While some functions remain at the central ministry level, and the performance of this functions will need to be improved, the challenge to improving management lies at the lower level. Central ministries must concentrate more seriously on their own management development needs, especially in the areas of performance monitoring and policy planning and analysis. Local service units should be given greater responsibility for planning and budgeting and for determining how transfers of funds from the central government will be spent. They need to have the freedom to economize on inputs and to adjust their services to demand.

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63. The second type of decentralization can be achieved by relaxing restrictions on the activities of the private sector.

This includes private schools, clinics, other local service and institutions run by the private concerns. This policy expands the range of local services and it shifts more of the costs to the beneficiaries. Planning for decentralization in a given local service organization is a complex task. Decentralization is not an end in itself, but a means to more effective administration of some specific activity or set of activities. Work, decisions, responsibility and authority can all be assigned to various levels.

Effective decentralization requires explicit attention to the definition of the roles of units at various levels and to the establishment of effective information flows between them. The successful management of local services requires careful delineation of appropriate tasks to decentralize and others to maintain at the centre. In general, central ministries should regain policy planning and monitoring functions. As certain functions are delegated to lower levels, central ministry functions may be simplified and reoriented toward quality control, analysis and dissemination.

64. Structural simplification can support decentralization and local service management if specific measures are taken as part of a broad strategy for structural reform. As certain administrative functions are delegated to lower levels, central ministry functions will be simplified. Thus structural simplification will be possible. Ethiopia can consider structural consolidation in the areas where more than one ministry deal with one local service function. For example, both the Ministry of Education and Higher Education Commission deal with education. Therefore, an inventory of all government organizations should be prepared and the possibility of consolidating those with similar functions should be considered.

(iii) Streamlining Governmental Regulations and Operational Procedures

65. The first deliberate attempt to improve the effectiveness of local service administration should be addressed at correcting deficiencies in the operational procedures and in government regulations. Measures for the simplification of systems, procedures and forms in use is necessary for efficient operations.

Deficiencies in laws and regulations should be corrected. The first step is to prepare an inventory of laws and regulations in the local service sector such as education, health, housing, sanitation, and determine why they were created. The authorities can then decide how regulations should be improved. Continuous evaluation and reorganization of the administrative devices would be extremely important for monitoring efficiency and progress in local service sector development.

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(iv) Strengthening Non-Government Sector Provision of Local services

66. Governments cannot shoulder the entire responsibility of

providing all the needed local services to their citizens.

Community run and privately managed local services should be encouraged by:

(a) providing technical and financial assistance to voluntary organizations for training and coordination of activities.

(b) making credits accessible to communities and private ventures that want to expand or upgrade services or facilities.

(v) Enhancing the Quality of Services

67. There are a number of promising approaches to improving educational quality.

(a) The selection and training of teachers should be improved through more training facilities, a greater use of in- service training and more resources such as teachers' guides, advisory services, mass media programmes..

(b) The design, production and distribution of learning materials should be upgraded. Increasing the availability of text books is the most effective way of raising educational standard. Instructional materials need be stored adequately and distributed to schools in a timely manner. All this need planning and organizing and, above all, funds.

(vi) Increasing Accessibility of Local services

68. Financial constraints will often be compounded by difficulties in reaching the rural poor because of distance, poor communication and transportation so that building health stations, schools and supplying the necessary materials, equipment and staff is a difficult and expensive task. Governments have to minimize the migration of people from rural areas to urban centres by strengthening basic local services in rural areas. This must be reflected in the infrastructure and organization of the sectors and in the way they are financed.

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(vii) Introducing Cost-Effectiveness

69. There is an urgent need to maximize cost saving and cost effectiveness and to explore cost recovery. Capacity expansion must be geared to the availability of funds for recurrent costs avoiding unaffordable local service infrastructure. Providing more facilities such as construction of hospitals and schools but with inadeguate staff and fund to make them operational is less desirable from the stand point of cost-effectiveness. Increased

efficiency in financial resources utilization within existing institutions would be achieved by reducing unit costs. Efficiency

has to do with how well inputs into the local service process are used in producing desired outcomes. Efficiency exists whenever the output obtained from a given budget is at a maximum, or when the budget used to achieve a given output is at a minimum. Savings realized from more efficient production methods may become available for redeployment. In education, unit costs may be reduced by larger classes, heavier teaching loads, extension of the school calendar; multi-rather than single-subject specialization of teachers and strengthening distance learning by using radio broadcasts. Strengthening radio broadcasts allows the extension of services like education to very small communities.

70. Reducing construction costs and raising physical facility utilization offer considerable potential for reducing unit capital costs. It will be necessary to minimize expenditure by utilizing low-cost construction methods and by using local materials. In addition, the possibilities of using educational facilities during the long vacation periods need be studied. New construction should be deferred until full utilization of existing capacity as well as of capacities under construction but sill to be completed, is reached.

71. As human and financial resources are extremely limited, there is the need to complement formal education with non-formal approaches to education including distance teaching technigues so as to reach the rural areas with a view to improving their living conditions. To maximize resources, formal education must be complemented by non-formal education so that education is no longer regarded as an end in itself but as the fundamental component of total educational activity which includes both institutionalized formal education and out of school education. There is therefore the need to deformalize and diversify educational activities, and reduce excessive prolongation of compulsory schooling which at present is beyond the capacity of many African countries.

Education should continue through out life and be formal and non- formal . The complementarity of formal and non-formal education cannot be over-emphasized. Together, they foster political awareness and civic responsibility. The procurement and supply management of local services should be reviewed with the aim of

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finding ways and means of securing enhanced integrity and efficiency in their employees, effecting economies in public spending and the elimination of avoidable waste.

(viii) Diversifying Sources of Finance

72. The severe constraint on recurrent budget points to the need for making use of other possible sources of financing. Recovery of some greater portion of the costs of providing local services would be achieved through such measures as encouraging the establishment of privately owned and financed institutions under state-set quality standards. Regulations that currently constrain the operation of privately owned institutions should be relaxed.

Increased privatization can also be expected to lower unit costs and enhance efficiency to the extent that individuals are more cost-conscious when spending their own funds than when making use of a "free" public service.

73. Community participation is another source of finance. The role of Peasant and Kebele Associations in Ethiopia for example is crucial not only in decision making but in the provision of labour, materials and financial support for local service such as health, education, water supply and sanitation at a minimum cost and every effort should be made to provide them with maximum support.

74. Attention should also be given to the possibilities for raising finance through increased user charges. A study is proposed focusing on:

(a) the existing system of local service charges, their relationship to the cost and the likely effect of alternative changes in prices on demand for services.

(b) The existing system for determining eligibility for free service and the alternatives.

This study should be framed in the context of the government policy not to price the poor out of access to basic services.

75. Spending for the provision of local services can be increased by reallocating government revenues from less productive uses including wasteful projects, subsidizing inefficient enterprises and military spending. Within local service programmes resource allocation can be made from high-cost and less-urgent projects to more basic programmes such as primary health care and education.

(ix) Conducting a Survey

76. It is essential to make a survey in the local services sector