MILESTONES ACHIEVED BY KSG IN THE TRANSFROMATION OF THE PUBLIC SERVICE

The Kenya School of Government (KSG) is a national institution that responds continuously to capacity development needs across the Public Service by providing training to enhance knowledge,
skills and competencies; consultancy services to support organizational reengineering; research to strengthen evidence-based public policymaking and implementation; and public outreach programs to promote uptake of Government programs. The School runs programs that are also continuously reviewed are specially designed to address real capacity gaps with manifest bearing on delivery of services by Ministries, Departments, Agencies and Counties (MDACs). KSG programs are therefore problem-solving interventions that have kept the Public Service on the path of transformation and rising capacity of each MDACs to cope with present and emerging organizational and performance
challenges and improve the quality of services that are offered to citizens.

Counties
The School has in the past ten years focused on supporting County Governments to steer
successfully through some four critical challenges. The Constitution of Kenya 2010 introduced the devolved system of Government that had to be established on the ground and put into operation from the year 2013. KSG has been able to work with county Governments in establishing county structures, governmental and administrative systems, and development of human resource capacity
to manage different functions and bear the enormous responsibilities bestowed by the constitution. The most outstanding of the support has been in the field of financial management with focus on
Integrated Financial Management Information System, Budgeting and Expenditure Management,
and Financial Accounting, Reporting and Auditing.

A challenge that counties faced was fulfilling the demanding mandate in Local Economic
Development that called for competencies in project planning, implementation, monitoring and
evaluation. The School has been able to develop and deliver training and consultancy assignments in these fields of competency requirements that has seen counties introduce and implement programs that continue to improve the living standards of their residents.

Counties faced a formidable challenge in management of human resource that the School was on hand to assist in, namely inheritance of three categories of staff: staff that belonged to the defunct Local Authorities, national government staff whose functions had been devolved, and staff that were being recruited by counties. The three categories of staff reflected varied competency levels and work ethos, requiring therefore immediate efforts to create harmony through development of standard human resource policy documents and guidelines, and staff training needs assessment, and roll out of training.

One of the transformational features of the Constitution of Kenya 2010 that counties had to abide by was the requirement for public participation in critical decision making matters, especially policy formulation, budget preparation, and development of County Integrated Development Plans
(CIDPs). Partnership with the School to develop and implement strategies for public participation
along with offer of relevant training has produced positive results.

Management of urban areas, including establishment of local-level governance structures, especially Municipal Boards and Management has been a challenge that the School has played a role in trying to overcome. The Governance and Management of Urban Areas and Cities program, for example,
has been of much assistance in development and provision of services delivery system such as in waste management, physical planning, street lighting, and urban transport management, provision of fire services, and recreational facilities.

Environmental and climate change mitigation is a new field of urgent concerns that counties had to grapple with in order to get onto the path of sustainable development. In this regard, the School continues to support counties in implementing international and national agenda such the Sustainable Development Goals and Climate Change mitigation, environmental impact assessment environmental and social safeguards; and trained county Climate Change Focal Persons with support from FAO.

Ministries
The civil service has in recent past attempted to come to grips with the compelling need for
innovation and adaptation. Accordingly, the School has developed and rolled out programs that encourage the search for new workways that enhance capacity to cope with new and emerging constrains in society and realize better results. Training in Change Management, Business Process Re-engineering, and productivity improvement have made a notable difference. Furthermore, inadequate preparations for succession management has in many cases constrained output and
overall organizational performance. Therefore, KSG has rolled out programs in skills and competency gaps analysis, Training Needs Assessments, and preparation of staff development plans in effort to address this challenge.

Most sections of the civil service face frequent disruption of services due industrial disputes. In order to address this challenge, the School, in partnership with the Salaries and Remuneration
Commission (SRC), has developed and rolled out a training program in Public Sector Collective Bargaining, resulting in improved work environment and stable industrial relations. The Kenya Constitution 2010 introduced within the Public Service some novel practices such as public access to
information, mainstreaming Human Rights agenda in service delivery, and fair administrative action. In order to assist Ministries to adjust to the new requirements, the School runs some new and relevant training programs such in social protection, fair administrative action, and data protection.

State Corporations
Public sector Boards are entrusted with governance responsibility in State Corporations and other
semi-autonomous government agencies, particularly in respect of sound investment decisions
resulting in high returns and rather than losses. To this extent, the School has developed programs in public investment appraisal and risk analysis, Accounting Officers training, and Human Resource Management to align with expectations for returns rather than routine public administration, and performance evaluation and improvement.

Sustainability of organizations in tumultuous environments such as the Covid-19 pandemic, global
financial economic crises, inflation and how to respond to these environments has placed many in tough situations. Leading Organizations in time of Crisis is one of the programs that the School has rolled out to facilitate overcoming the crunches presented to the Public Service.

Mismatch of competencies with job placement has affected job satisfaction and consequently
performance of staff and the organization. In this regard the School conducts consultancies in
recruitment of executive staff on the strict criteria of merit; linking competencies to appointment by
ensuring the right people are appointed to positions through advertising, shortlisting, and selection of the most suitable candidate for the different positions in senior management. The aim is to enhance productivity and performance in State Corporations.

Further, the School runs induction programs to acquaint newly appointed staff, whether in Boards or management into the peculiar public sector doctrines, ethics, ethos and practices that in many ways tend to be different from what obtains in the private and NGO sectors.

Boards are trained on policy making and investment strategies for higher returns; public institutions but with private sector orientation; investment appraisal, good corporate governance, management
of Public Sector to overcome conflict within Boards, failure to appreciate the mandate of Boards, conflict with management, general stewardship of Boards, prudent utilization of resources, and
capacity building for prudent decision making for higher returns. Programs at the School that seek to address these challenges are: Accounting Officers Programs for CEOs, Corporate Governance
for Public Sector Boards, Induction programs, Finance for Non-finance Managers among others. Cross Cutting Competencies in the Public Sector

The quality of public services and achievement of targets is not measured by the number of hours
put into the work by public officials but by the targets achieved within the hours put in. The School promotes this through results-based management programs such as Productivity Measurement and
Improvement as well as Performance Evaluation to ensure value driven public officers for best results in the public service.

Reports about loss of public funds and unaccountable use of public resources have brought to fore the need for the School to develop programs that promote public service doctrines, ethics, and values under the KSG Institute of Public Service Ethics and Values. Other programs in this genre aim to promote professionalism, particularly adherence to standard operational procedures as set out in different professional fields.

The e-Learning Development Institute has invested in the Learning Management System (LMS) and video conferencing that has been instrumental in the digitization of functions and operations in order to reach a wider clientele and enhance efficiency of the business process and service delivery programs. This was also strengthened through the response of the School to the Covid-19 pandemic by automation of most of its programs.