Towards effective governance – Building inclusive societies

Posted on August 15, 2022

Cities across the world need effective governance for them to function optimally and promote inclusivity and sustainable development. Governments play a key role in fostering inclusivity and bridging inequality by ensuring that all citizens have access to basic public services regardless of their socio-economic status.

The International Association of Schools and Institutes of Administration (IASIA), in collaboration with the United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) Africa, and the African Local Governance Academy (ALGA) in partnership with the Faculté des Sciences Juridiques, Economiques et Sociales - Agdal of l'Université Mohammed V de Rabat hosted conference in July in Rabat, Morocco  that brought together researchers, public administration scholars, practitioners and students to discuss effective governance

IASIA is an international association, whose mission is to strengthen administrative capacity building around the world, to advance excellence in public administration education and training, and to conduct, discuss, and disseminate cutting-edge scholarly research and "smart practices" on governance and administration.

Themed, : "Implementing and Promoting Effective Governance Principles to Leave No One, No Place Behind”, the IASIA 2022 conference was inspired by the key focus of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), “leave no one behind” (LNOB), which is centred on supporting the most vulnerable, poverty-stricken and marginalised citizens in a quest to build a just society.

Achieving equitable societies requires political will and public management commitment amongst others. In pursuit of this, the 2022 conference theme illuminated the 11 Principles on Effective Governance designed by UN-CEPA and endorsed/adopted by ECOSOC for sustainable development.

Professor Natasja Holtzhausen, Dr Norman Nhede and Dr Tyanai Masiya of the School for Public Management and Administration (SPMA) in the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences (EMS) at the University of Pretoria attended the conference to share their perspectives on promoting effective governance and building inclusivity.

Dr Masiya’s presentation, “Decision making and Stakeholders Experience of the Innovative Ways of Co-producing Neighbourhood Security in Johannesburg, South Africa”, focused on the practical understanding of difficulties in policing in Johannesburg and the potential of co-production in improving neighbourhood security.

Prof Holtzhausen delivered a paper titled “Filling the gap by leaving no one behind: the value of learnerships for skills development and employability" that was co-authored by Dr’s Sumari O’Neil and Jannet Davel from the Department of Human Resource Management in EMS.  The paper provided an overview of experiences of those who were part of a learnership programme as well as practical suggestions on how learnerships can be structured to achieve skills transfer and how the government can adjust policies to address inequalities by following a solution-based approach. Dr Nhede’s presentation was also based on a paper, Re-defining the role of universities in the era of digital transformation, in which he argued that the educational system and the curricula should be adapted in line with the emerging digital revolution.

 

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