A Commonwealth strategy to transform the civil service in Mauritius into a modern, technology-savvy institution has been approved by the country’s Cabinet.
A Commonwealth strategy to transform the civil service in Mauritius into a modern, technology-savvy institution has been approved by the country’s Cabinet.
The plan, produced by Commonwealth-funded expert, Kelly Culver, will help the government make the public sector more responsive to the needs of the population. Ms Culver is part of the Commonwealth Fund for Technical Cooperation programme which mobilises experts to help governments with specific requests in a variety of areas. She began a year-long assignment in April 2016 in the Ministry of Civil Service and Administrative Reforms. Her aim was to work with the ministry to help make their civil service less bureaucratic and more innovative.
“We have shifted away from the concept of civil service reforms and re-engineering, which is predominantly administrative and process-based, to a vision of whole-of-government public sector business transformation. It places emphasis on a collective response to the business of government as well as themes of national importance, creating a joint ownership model for implementation, action and results,” said Ms Culver.
Pauline Campbell, Head of the Commonwealth’s Technical Assistance Unit, said the strategy will assist the Mauritian government to use “a systematic, integrated, coordinated and common sense approach towards change”.
She said, “We are really pleased to announce that the Cabinet in Mauritius has now approved Ms Culver’s strategy, and her three year detailed implementation action plan. The values and principles they set out will inform and guide improvements, innovation and transformation across the public sector, making it more efficient, technology-friendly, adaptive and responsive to the needs of our rapidly changing world.”
She added: “Critically, it will also ensure there is a stronger workforce and more collaboration and sharing of information between ministries. Ultimately it is about improving important public services such as health and education.”
In Mauritius, there has been a high-level commitment to implement the strategy and Ms Culver has been retained by the government. The Minister of Civil Service and Administrative Reforms, Marie Roland Alain Wong Yen Cheong, said the strategy “supports the continuous evolution we are striving for.”
Picture: Port Louis, Mauritius by Peter Kuchar http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0
