Zim to host Africa Public Service Day

Ivan Zhakata

Herald Correspondent

ZIMBABWE will this year host the continental celebrations of the ninth Africa Public Service Day in Victoria Falls in June.

The day is a special day for public or civil servants and public service organisations across Africa and is celebrated annually on June 23 to mark and recognise the role of public servants and public sector organisations and their positive contributions and benefits to the population. The Africa Public Service Day initiative derives from the collaborative work of the Pan-African Ministers programme to enhance governance and public administration across the African continent.

The celebrations will be running under the theme: “The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCTA) will require a fit for purpose African public administration to succeed” derived from the African Union which centred on the acceleration of AfCTA implementation.

Speaking in Harare last Friday, Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Minister, Professor Paul Mavima, said participants for the event will be drawn from AU member states, including organisations active in the sphere of public administration, plus universities, the private sector, media and non-state actors.

Heads of national delegations will be ministers responsible for the public service and their permanent secretaries from member states of the AU.

Prof Mavima said the centrality of public service and administration in the success of the AfCTA could not be overstated.

“The African Continental Free Trade Area is one of the flagship projects of Agenda 2063, “The Africa We Want,” which seeks to broaden the scope of critical areas of Africa’s economy,” Prof Mavima said. “AfCTA, thus seeks to increase intra-African trade through deeper levels of trade liberalisation and enhanced regulatory harmonisation and coordination. Public administration is understood to be the key apparatus for the execution of the functions of the State and therefore, it is critical to the success of the AfCTA which is imaging Africa’s integration agenda.

“Part of the failure of integration experience in Africa is attributable to weak institutions at national level that are managed by a public sector that has insufficient capacity to render stellar performance. In view of the overarching continental theme, it bears reason to reflect on the role of the public sector in energising regional integration and in this specific case the AfCTA.”

Prof Mavima said the Africa Public Service Day will focus on improved diplomacy, harmonisation of legal systems and regional cooperation to combat cross border crime, to better manage coordination and implementation of AfCTA mandates.

The focus was on a developmental public administration that creates an enabling environment for investment value adding industries to maximise the benefit of the AfCTA framework, he said. “We are also looking at developing core techno-bureaucratic, managerial, technical and entrepreneurial skills, to ensure better use of scarce human, financial and physical resources in achieving more efficient cross border trade,” said Prof Mavima.

“We will also focus on building institutional capacity at national level through deployment of new technologies to better manage, coordinate and implement AfCTA obligations. We will also address the public administration impediments to cross border trade facilitation and implementation of regional integration commitments at national level.”

Prof Mavima said the event will be an opportunity for the delegations to enjoy Victoria Falls and its hospitality.

“This will bring Zimbabwe on the map as a key player in international trade, including the AfCTA, and as an ideal trade and investment destination,” he said.

“Furthermore, hosting the event is an opportunity to show the world the sterling contributions of public service to the attainment of our national vision of becoming an upper and prosperous middle income society by 2030.”