UNDP and the Public Service Commission: Working together for a strengthened public sector in Zimbabwe.

June 11, 2019

UNDP Resident Representative, Mr Georges van Montfort and Chairperson of the Public Service Commission, Dr Hungwe.

On the 4th of June, UNDP Zimbabwe and the Public Service Commission signed a partnership agreement on improving the capacities of public administration institutions for efficient service delivery to the citizens. As part of its commitment to sustainable and inclusive democratic and economic development, UNDP is supporting the Government of Zimbabwe in its efforts to modernise and transform the public sector, so it can effectively and efficiently support service delivery to the citizens and economic reforms.

Public Sector reforms and modernisation are a key pillar of the Government of Zimbabwe’s development roadmap anchored in the Constitution, Vision 2030 and the Transitional Stabilisation Programme. During the signing of the partnership agreement, Dr Hungwe, Chairperson of the Public Service Commission emphasised the importance of implementing these  reforms for strengthened public sector and public administration in line with the Transnational Stabilisation Programme . UNDP Resident Representative,  Mr Georges van Montfort re-iterated UNDP commitment to government’s public sector modernisation vision and stated that while recognising the complexity of public sector reforms and the challenging environment that these changes are being implemented, UNDP will support these efforts through provision of technical experts, purchase of much needed ICT equipment, media support among others.

As part of the broad roadmap towards achieving economic and governance reforms, the Government of Zimbabwe has prioritised introduction of changes to the public sector which include, right-sizing of the civil service, modernisation, retooling, reskilling and capacity development of the Public Service Commission and all government Ministries and departments. In line with this, UNDP is providing capacity to support strategic core government institutions and tools required for strengthening the basic functionality of the public administration.

UNDP and the Public Service Commission will begin with collaboration in the following key areas:

  • Enhanced capacity of Public Service Commission with regards to the development of a new organisational structure.
  • Deployment of senior-level advisory support and technical experts to address capacity gaps within the PSC.
  • Undertake a strategic functional review of critical public service institutions.
  • Pilot support to critical social service-oriented ministries.

This phase of the public sector reform and modernisation programme is anticipated to be implemented over a period of 4 years and UNDP is engaging with other key development partners such as World Bank and DFID to bring complementarity to the work and leverage on financial and technical resources.