| Speech
delivered to: Donors Meeting on East Timor. Brussels
On:
5-6 December 2000
Made
By:
Mr. Finn Reske-Nielsen, UN Development Coordinator
Capacity Building for the
Public Administration
Mr. Chairman,
I am pleased to
make this brief comment on capacity building for the public
service both in my capacity both as UN Development Coordinator and
as the Representative of UNDP in East Timor, which as you know has
been designated as the lead agency for capacity building.
I would like to take this opportunity to highlight some of
the critical key issues related to capacity-building.
Firstly, as we
all know, there has been a systematic underdevelopment of East
Timorese human resources for many years.
The East Timorese have not generally had access to quality
education and they have not been able to occupy middle and senior
level positions in either the public or the private sectors.
As a result, there is now a dearth of well-educated,
experienced East Timorese to assume government positions at
various levels. Nevertheless,
we should not draw the conclusion from this that there are no
well-qualified and well-experienced East Timorese
- in fact, there are quite a few both inside the country
and abroad. In
addition, there are many more East Timorese who have the capacity
and potential to assume positions of responsibility - given the
appropriate support and training.
Secondly, East
Timor is a small country and the Transitional Administration has
decided – sensibly – to have also a small public service to
support a democratic Government intent on using the private sector
as the main engine of economic growth However, even the
establishment of the relatively small number of 11,154 public
sector positions will have be sustainable in the short, medium and
long term. We have to accept that the current size of the economy
would not be able to support many new positions or sustain
significantly higher salary levels for the foreseeable future.
The question then
is how can we speed
up the process of bringing East Timorese
effectively into the public service as part of
the overall strategy of
delegating authority to East Timorese while
moving international staff out or assigning them advisory
- as opposed to line – functions.
Indeed, this issue of accelerating the “Timorisation”
of the administration as part of the UNTAET mandate of
capacity-building for self-government was highlighted in the
recent report of the Security Council mission to East Timor.
All parts of ETTA
are in fact giving serious consideration to achieving full
“Timorisation” of
the public service as soon as possible with complete handover by
the time of
independence. Just
last week, for example, major progress was made in this regard in
the Health Department, where a total of 1,000 posts have been
advertised. At
present, almost 6,000 public sector positions have been filled
permanently, primarily
at the lower levels (salary levels 1-4).
In addition, there are more than 2000 East Timorese on
temporary contracts.
The main problem
has been to fill middle and senior positions as well as technical
posts at levels 5-6. Less
than 20% of level 5 and only 5% of level 6 had been filled as at
mid-November 2000. At
level 6, senior management level, this represents ten positions in
two departments only. The
remaining 190 positions at this level across the public service
are yet to be filled. This
means that there is still a serious shortage of East Timorese to
provide a major input into priority setting, policy formulation
and institution building. Correctly,
this has been identified by ETTA as one of the key problems that
must be addressed as soon as possible in order to ensure a smooth
transition to independence less than a year from now.
What are the main
reasons for this problem? Firstly,
there probably are not enough qualified applicants for the jobs.
Even though a complete skills inventory has yet to be
completed, there are indications that there simply aren’t enough
people with the requisite formal and professional skills.
Secondly, the salary scale of the public service is not
able to attract, in significant numbers, the many well-qualified
East Timorese who remain in exile.
Few of them are expected to return home, at least in the
short term. Thirdly,
the minimum standards that have been set for the middle and senior
level positions may be too high for a country like East Timor.
For all positions at level 5 and 6, the minimum academic
qualification required is a Master’s degree.
Given the realities of the East Timor situation, there may
be a need to substitute formal academic qualifications with relevant,
practical experience.
Given the
financial constraints, there is little room for changing the
salary scale even though consideration probably should be given to
devising at least a temporary system that would attract the right
applicants, including qualified East Timorese currently living
abroad, into key positions. Continuing
to fill these positions with expatriates is much more expensive
and will not be sustainable even in the medium run neither
financially nor politically.
However, the
issue is not merely one of recruiting East Timorese to fill the
11,154 positions in the public service, and this is clearly
understood by ETTA. A
preliminary survey conducted with UNDP support in a cross-section
of departments identifies low educational levels, lack of
job-specific training, little professional experience, poor work
methodology and inadequate language skills as the main factors
inhibiting the full integration of East Timorese staff into the
public service. The
survey also shows that the current managers in the public service
are acutely aware of the need for training.
Even though an actual skills audit has not yet been carried
out, there is little doubt that this assessment is accurate.
The next question
then is what kinds of skills are required. Here
it may be useful to distinguish between two types of training –
horizontal training needed by all civil
servants and vertical training
needed for various different specializations.
Horizontal training
focuses on the
generic skills required for the public service at different
levels, for example, planning, budgeting, human resources
management, information technology, public service ethics, etc.
UNDP’s preliminary survey identifies information technology,
language skills and communication and teamwork as key issues
across the board.
Some horizontal
training has already been conducted competently by the Civil
Service Academy and within the respective line departments and
central agencies. However,
there is a need for a coherent and systematic approach to ensure
that the same norms, values and standards are applied throughout
the public service. In
order to achieve this, the Civil Service Academy must be
strengthened to be able to conduct training on a much wider scale
than has been the case so far.
To achieve this, outside technical and financial support
will be required.
An immediate need
would be for the Academy to design and implement appropriate
induction courses for all newly
recruited public servants. Such
courses should highlight not only the administrative rules and
procedures, legal frameworks and so on, but should put particular
emphasis on the inculcation of a public administration ethos
consistent with the new democratic state of East Timor.
In a country where corruption and misadministration have
been rampant in the past, this is a key issue that should receive
priority attention.
For this
horizontal training, we should not overlook the resources we
already have in UNTAET. There
is a wealth of knowledge and experience among the international
staff of UNTAET, which must be
applied for the benefit of the East Timorese. However,
most of the international staff have been recruited to be
operational and not to coach and build capacity. As
these staff move from line positions to advisory position,
serious attention
must be given ensuring that
they in fact possess the required competencies to transfer skills.
At the same time,
care must be taken to ensure that the East Timorese staff are
firmly in charge and are accountable for their decisions in
accordance with normal practice in governments globally.
The effective transfer of knowledge through a twinning
arrangement is particularly important in East Timor, where as a
result of the events of September last year, there is virtually no
institutional memory in government.
As for vertical
training, meaning more specialized training requirements in
agencies and line departments, a lot of work has already been done
not only on terms of identifying needs but also carrying out
actual training. Examples
are ongoing training of police officers, judges, border service
officers. UNDP’s
preliminary survey shows that at present departmental training is
planned for close to 800 civil servants during 2001.
However, there is still much to be done in this area, not
least to ensure a common approach and overall prioritization
across the sectors. Further
outside technical support may well be required in order to prepare
the detailed training plans in each of the agencies/line
departments.
At this stage, it
is not possible to define the precise extent of horizontal and
vertical training required. Many
ETTA offices have designated focal points for capacity building
and specific needs assessments are under way.
However, a firm institutional structure that will provide
policy guidance, prioritize needs, ensure effective coordination
and oversight is yet to be firmly established.
There is, of
course, much more to consider beyond these immediate training
needs. We have to
also to consider what I would term building capacity to do
capacity-building. We
all recognize that the capacity-building needs of East Timor will
not be met in one or two years, but will be a continuous process
over many years. We
need therefore to put in place mechanisms which will allow East
Timor to continue capacity-building.
One area that is
of particular concern is the education system, which is after all
the foundation of any training or capacity-building. Much
as mass recruitment has already taken place into teaching
positions and classrooms are being rehabilitated, more emphasis
now needs to be put on the quality of education.
As very few teachers at primary and secondary actually have
formal teaching qualifications, we have a situation where many
teachers may not actually know how to teach.
There is therefore an urgent need to embark upon a major
exercise to up-grade teacher skills.
The background paper prepared for this Conference notes
that over 4,000 teachers will be trained before the beginning of
the 2001/02 school year. There
may be a need to look at the realism of this plan not least taking
into account that all teachers will have to continue their regular
work in the schools across the country during the current school
year. The magnitude
of the training requirements in this, and likely other, areas may
well have been underestimated.
Again, outside technical support may be required for an
exact determination of the needs.
Also in the
education field, you will have noted that the new University of
East Timor was formally opened last month.
This represents a key element in ensuring long term
capacity building in East Timor.
With the appropriate courses geared to the immediate and
practical needs of the territory, the University could well become
a key agent of development in East Timor.
There is another
important aspect of capacity-building which we sometimes overlook
in our focus on immediate training.
At the present time, training needs are being defined based
on the existing structure of government including the public
service. With senior
East Timorese officials now being recruited, there is an urgent
need to review the current structural set-up to ensure that it is
consistent with the wishes and priorities of the incoming
administration. Once
this has been confirmed, detailed capacity building plans can be
prepared.
A particular area
of concern is the issue of decentralized governance.
At present, government functions are essentially
centralized in Dili with little or no delegation to district and
sub-district levels. There
seems to be general agreement that there should be a significant
degree of decentralization of governmental authority and broad
popular participation after independence, possibly to be reflected
in the Constitution. Such
a fundamental restructuring of government would inevitably have
implications for capacity building needs.
Another area of
concern relates to inclusion.
The institutions of government must be fully inclusive of
all the population of the territory.
The issue of gender is particularly worrying.
ETTA has taken a decision that 30% of all public service
positions must be women. However,
work still needs to be done to design strategies to ensure that
this goal will be achieved across the board.
At present, approximately 20% of the public servants are
women. However, they
are primarily concentrated in the teaching profession.
There are extremely small numbers of women in middle and
senior level positions in all areas.
When talking
about inclusion, we can not ignore the language issues. As the
background document points out this is an obstacle when it comes
to the transfer of skills and knowledge from expatriate staff to
the East Timorese. However
there are additional considerations in terms of ensuring effective
communication amongst the East Timorese themselves within the
public service, and facilating the inclusion of the younger
generation, the future hope of East Timor, in the public sector. A
formal decision on the national language is the prerogative of the
East Timorese Government and it is not for me to express any
opinion on the issue. However,
I would hope that due consideration would be given to the longer
term developmental implications of any language policy.
This brings me to
an important priority
area, which is focused more on the
political level, but which is still key for public administration.
There is an
need for short-term
capacity building to ensure that the East Timorese leadership is fully
empowered to take informed decisions with regard to the
preparation of the Constitution, functioning of the first
parliament, etc. An
urgent need would be to organize a series of short-term training
opportunities and study tours to effectively draw on the
experiences of other countries, which have gone through similar or
equivalent de-colonization processes.
In summary, there
is little doubt that the capacity building requirements of East
Timor, through no fault of its people, are immense and cannot be
fully covered in the short period leading up to independence.
A comprehensive capacity building strategy must include
short, medium and long-term measures.
In the immediate
term, agreement must be reached on the extent of the capacity
building needs for key
positions and the individuals for whom immediate skills up-grading
will be required. This
must be identified in
a consultative process led by ETTA.
In parallel, the necessary technical and financial support
must be identified within an agreed, coherent framework.
A the highest
level of government, there would not appear to be any significant
training needs in the short term and at least some highly
qualified East Timorese may be identified for the senior-most
positions of the public service.
The preliminary study, which I referred to earlier,
confirms that the main problems would be encountered at senior to
middle management level as well as among technical cadres.
It would, however, be a mistake to focus exclusively on the
management cadres. There
are other key functions of government that would need to be
performed by fully qualified East Timorese personnel.
Skills in areas such as information technology, basic
administration, finance, logistics are equally crucial to the
proper functioning of government after independence.
A further
determination of the precise capacity building needs in the short,
medium and longer term will be made in the coming weeks and months
in full consultation with all the parties concerned with the aim
to having in place complete training plans, at least for the short
term, by the end of March, as stipulated in the background
document.
At this stage it
is clear that even with a highly successful short-term capacity
building programme there is little doubt that East Timor will
require significant technical assistance, probably also in the
form of operational expatriate personnel for some time to come
after independence if key government functions are to continue to
be carried out. Such
a programme of assistance would need to be carefully designed and
the necessary financial and human resources would need to be made
available from a variety of sources.
We would all
agree, I am sure, that our ultimate aim is to ensure that the
people of East Timor finally achieve full ownership and
responsibility for their own future, both in this transitional
period leading to independence, and in the years beyond.
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