Botswana: Duma Boko puts the P&L at the heart of national transformation -

There are reforms that change the texts. Others seek to change the way the state acts on a daily basis. In Botswana, Duma Boko clearly places this second dimension at the center of its public transformation project.

The high-level workshop organized with the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa reveals a clear political orientation: to make public performance an instrument of national development. The choice of performance contracts reflects this desire to give institutions clear objectives, identifiable responsibilities and results that can be evaluated.

The political signal deserves attention. The Botswana administration must now look more towards the citizen and the concrete impact of its action. The government’s logic breaks with a central administrative culture on procedures and activities to establish a requirement for results. A functioning school, a faster administrative service, a more efficient institution: this is the ultimate measure of public action.

This ambition takes on a particular dimension as the 60th anniversary of independence approaches. Duma Boko seems to want to place this new stage in a deeper reflection on the Botswanan state: what administration to accompany the next ten decades? What institutional capacity to support the country’s economic and social ambitions? What is the responsibility of public leaders in the face of the population’s expectations?

The partnership with the CEA brings a continental scope to this approach. Duma Boko’s Botswana is not looking for an isolated reform. It participates in an African reflection on the construction of institutions capable of producing reliable services and measurable results. This cooperation also paves the way for the adaptation of experiences that have proven successful elsewhere on the continent.

The formula put forward by those in charge of the program sums up the issue: plans alone do not produce any service. It is the women and men of the administration, supported by solid institutions, who bring public policies to life.

With this reform, the Duma Boko affirms a demanding conception of the State: a State that acts, that measures, that assumes and that is accountable. For Botswana, this culture of results can become one of the strong markers of the new political sequence.

TheHatLady