Conference Proceedings (School of Public Leadership)

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    A public value approach to collaborative governance implementation in South African municipalities
    (International Institute of Administrative Sciences, 2019-06) Jessa, Fakier; Uys, Frederick M; School of Public Leadership
    The form of governance which prevails in the bureaucratic-hierarchical apparatus of South African municipalities, is characterised by fragmented departmentalism (silos), an inflexible administration, fractured relationships with communities and stakeholders, a skew politicaladministrative interface and resistance to systemic transformation. Such governance attributes discourages (i) open dialogue with communities and stakeholders, (ii) bottom-up innovation and (iii) responsiveness to citizens’ needs, demands and expectations. ‘Corporate’, ‘cooperative’ and ‘good’ governance forms struggle to flourish in municipal environments, exuding unique, inwardly focused institutional constraints relative to most needed effective, accountable and inclusive governance practice and policy. This paper proposes an integrated public service system (IPSS) and the generation of public value (PV), as means to achieve effective, accountable and inclusive governance, focussing on (i) community common objectives, i.e. public interest and public purpose, (ii) stakeholder teams and integrative leaders, operating in a defined, distributive (integrated) network and (iii) collaborative governance, which embrace collaboration between stakeholders as a vehicle for integration, systemic transformation and effectiveness in service delivery. Collaborative governance encompasses the structural and functional aspects of effective, accountable and integrated practices, only when contained a nonlinear system (an IPSS), in synchrony with the propagation of inclusiveness, feedback, efficiency, efficacy, equilibrium, equity, viability, legitimacy, adaptation and sustainability. Collaborative governance is appropriate for municipal engagement with stakeholders, given (i) communities and their support stakeholder teams are engaged in locally based programmes and projects, (ii) civic education for community enablement is prioritised as a primary, inclusive and engagement mechanism, (iii) a viable means to assure continuous focus on the satisfaction of community needs, demands and expectations, social progress, quality of livelihood, quality of life standards, liveability (environmental sustainability) is devised and (iv) the delivery of tangible and nontangible goods and services, i.e. PV, by municipalities to communities is generated. The generation of PV, which involves whole communities, compels the utilisation of collaborative governance in assuring the achievement of accountability, oversight, feedback, inclusivity and transparency in measuring performance outputs, outcomes, adaptation to transformative change and sustainability in generating stable communities. This paper will deal with the critical importance of collaborative governance at the municipal level, the theoretical genesis of PV and similarly, the IPSS. In addition, results from a study conducted by the authors, will show a willingness among senior managers (in 15 municipalities in South Africa) to implement collaborative governance as a daily practice.
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    A systemic and public value approach to integrated public sector reforms: a case for South African municipalities
    (International Association of Schools and Institutes of Administration (IASIA), 2019-06) Jessa, Fakier; Uys, Frederick M; School of Public Leadership
    The bureaucratic-hierarchical apparatus in municipalities constrain systemic integration (systemic transformation), open dialogue with communities and stakeholders, bottom-up innovation and responsiveness to citizens’ needs, demands and expectations. This paper asserts that the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (17 UN-SDGs) can be realised upon the institution of an integrated public service system (IPSS) generating public value (PV) in municipalities. The emergence of an IPSS is forged upon open systems theory, nonlinear democratic stakeholder networks, collaborative governance and PV theory, vital to citizens’ needs, demands, expectations and broad socio-economic goals. The key outcomes from research undertaken in 15 municipalities the Western Cape region in South Africa, points to a 75% - 100% acceptance range for IPSS and PV generation performance functions and indicators. The actualisation of public sector reform therefore necessitates systemic transformation in the micro sphere of government primarily, where transformative change is essential for social progress and well-being.
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    Sustainability and sustainable development as the making of connections : lessons for integrated development planning in South Africa
    (South African Planning Institute, 2006-12) Muller, Anneke
    ENGLISH SUMMARY : Africa’s many developmental problems (poverty and environmental degradation) have to be solved in a sustainable way. However, the complex, multi-dimensional concepts of ‘sustainability’ and ‘sustainable development’ (SD) can be interpreted in different and even clashing ways by various interest groups and are often used as ‘spin’ or buzzwords. The many potential meanings include SD as a process or end point/ goal, SD as inter-generational, intra-generational or inter-species equity, SD as separate ecologically or socially sustainable development or as holistic/ integrated economic, social, ecological, institutional, technological and physical development, SD as conservation (the Green Agenda), SD as development (the Brown Agenda); SD as Human Rights (the Red Agenda); SD as Human Development and as democracy/participative development. Even when a certain meaning of SD is promoted (such as for instance SD as inter-generational equity or SD as integration as in many South African policy documents), the practical application of the concept rarely conforms to the meaning that is promoted. One of the conceptions of sustainable development that has the greatest potential for future development in Africa, is that of a collaborative, communicative learning process of ‘making connections’ and linkages between various role-players -experts, disciplines (transdisciplinarity), communities; formal and informal businesses, politicians, officials and civil society (NGOs, CBOs) at local level. ‘Integrated Development Planning’ can potentially play a role in ‘making connections’ and in the construction of local meaning regarding SD. A recent study of completed IDP documents, however, showed a very simplistic and superficial understanding of the concepts of sustainability and SD. These plans also illustrated a lack of knowledge about the theory regarding communicative or collaborative planning and did not try to deal with the underlying conflict regarding the meaning of ‘development’ and therefore were little more than ‘lowest common denominator’ plans. This paper will analyse the meanings given to the concept of SD in IDP documents and from this will recommend some lessons for future planning.