Magister Legum - LLM / This study is a response to the dilemma of poor service delivery or the lack thereof. In this regard, this study posits the professionalisation of local government as part of the solution. The focus is on the administrative arm of local government, which is the major conduit for service delivery. Professionalisation of local government is a broader theme. For the present purposes, focus will be devoted to the competency component which entails attracting qualified personnel competent to discharge local government responsibilities. However, it is not limited to attracting already competent and professional staff. It also entails developing the skills of existing staff. This definition, in essence, relates to qualification through training, learning and specialisation.11 In essence, professionalisation of local government ensures that all employees act and behave in a professional way. In this regard, this study seeks to identify the competency standards set by the legislative framework and then explore the legal avenues for enforcing compliance, by the municipal administration, with such standards. This requires one to look at and answer the following questions: What constitutes municipal staff? ; What is the content of the competency framework in question? ; What are the enforcement mechanisms currently in place? ; Whose role is it to enforce compliance with the competency framework?; Broadly speaking, enforcement can take two forms: hard enforcement and soft enforcement. The hard form of enforcement relates to giving incentives for compliance with the competency framework and dismissal for non-compliance. Softer enforcement, in turn, relates to correction and monitoring. / South Africa

Masters in Public Administration - MPA / This study investigates the challenges facing the management of public enterprises in the Democratic of Congo. The study is based on the hypothesis that poor performance by state-owned enterprises in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has been influenced by inadequate management which has led to the dissatisfaction of citizens. Due to this problem increasing attention is being paid by the DRC Government to encouraging private sector involvement in services such as water and electricity. This study investigates the arguments for and against privatization, especially in the water and electricity sectors. In pursuing this debate the study explores the following main research question: To what extent will the DRC Reform Law aimed at transforming the commercialisation of public enterprises enhance the effectiveness of basic services such as water and electricity services in the DRC? A case study of the city of Bukavu in the eastern DRC is used to explore this question. / South Africa

Magister Administrationis - MAdmin / The general aim of this study is to undertake an assessment of the health care service provision in the Khayelitsha Community Health Centre taking into consideration the underlying principles of the Primary Health Care. More specific objectives include: an overview and discussion of the framework approach to primary health care and its use; the documentation of the practice of primary health care in the Khayelitsha Community Health Centre; an analysis of the results and findings which will highlight the obstacles in the pursuit of a better primary health care service. The perspective of the patients and nurses will be solicited and examined with a view to highlighting factors that facilitate and constrain the delivery of service; and finally to draw conclusions and make recommendations. / South Africa

Masters in Public Administration - MPA / The study seeks to investigate the perceived lack of coordination, integration, and coherence among units of government as related to eGovernment. The nature of the study is qualitative with a focus on the use of eGovernment in the public sector and whether it can facilitate intergovernmental forums business processes in an effective and efficient manner. The scope of the study is confined to the intergovernmental fiscal system but focused on eGovernment, intergovernmental relations, and cooperative governance. The primary objective of the study is to explore the use of eGovernment whether it can facilitate, coordinate, and integrate intergovernmental relations. Some studies portray that there are challenges in the coordination of intergovernmental forums which have resulted into a disintegration of services. The study further investigates options that could mitigate these challenges through acknowledging the effective application of ICTs (eGovernment) in government services. The study has found that South Africa has a functioning system of intergovernmental which are not effectively coordinated in terms of engaging each other in matters of mutual interest. On the other hand, eGovernment promised to bring about cohesion and transparency when they are effectively employed. The study revealed that the application of eGovernment in the intergovernmental forums has the capability to improve their operations, respond to its ineffective coordination and improve delivery of services. In a nutshell, the study has found that there is a need for a radical planning outlook that recognises proper utilization of eGovernment in the intergovernmental forums to promote cooperative governance. / South Africa

Magister Bibliothecologiae - MBibl / The aim of this study was to determine whether or not knowledge was shared and created in the library of the University of the Western Cape (UWC). The study adopted the SECI model of Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995) as its theoretical framework. The service delivery points at the UWC library are as follows: Circulation section, which deals with walk-in users. These are users who, on a daily basis borrow books from and return books to the library. This section normally deals with queries such as users whose library cards are blocked due to outstanding library fines. It comprises front - desk staff, shelf attendants and inter-library loan staff members. Staff members working in the information section (IS) are referred to as faculty librarians (FAC/L’s), who are regarded as section heads and liaise with faculties on campus on a regular basis. The information section deals with walk-in users on a daily basis. The other sections, namely cataloguing, acquisition and periodicals, provide mostly ‘behind the scenes’ services, but their work is of such a nature that users have no access to their sections due to the strict policy with regard to areas of the library in which staff are working with new books and journals. Books and journals that are not on the cataloguing system are kept in the acquisitions and cataloguing section. This also has a significant impact on service delivery in the library. These sections have to ensure that books and journals are processed, in order for users to get access to these resources. This study attempted to answer the following research questions Is there evidence of knowledge sharing and creation in the UWC library? If so, what practices currently exist? How do staff share and create knowledge for service delivery not with general library users, but within and between the acquisitions, cataloguing and information sections? / South Africa

The Financing Policy for Developmental Social Welfare Services in South Africa (1999:15), which is currently under revision, aims to address and eliminate the current imbalances in service delivery by promoting equitable distribution of finances, services and infrastructure for all people in need of social services. In order to achieve these aims, the Financing Policy for Developmental Social Welfare Services (hereafter referred to as the Financing Policy) proposes a shift in service delivery from a remedial approach towards a developmental focus by 2004. As a social worker working in communities with other social service providers at grass-roots level, the researcher found little evidence that transformation to developmental welfare services was indeed taking place. Service providers working in communities do not know how to transform their services. The aim of this research study was to evaluate the impact of the Financing Policy for Developmental Social Welfare Services on service delivery in the Nellmapius community in the Gauteng Province. This research study formed part of a team research where the impact of the Financing Policy was studied in three different communities in the Gauteng Province. The researcher utilized a combined research approach whereby the qualitative research approach was more dominant than the quantitative approach. The researcher utilized a personal administrated questionnaire (quantitative) with the service providers working in Nellmapius. Focus group discussions (qualitative) were conducted with service beneficiaries in Nellmapius. From the research findings derived out of the data analysis, the researcher was able to made valuable recommendations with regard to the improvement of service delivery at grass-roots level. The final recommendation of this study is to integrate the findings of this study with the findings of the other three studies (respectively in Tembisa and Atteridgeville). This integration could then be utilized as a policy analysis towards writing the new planned policies to address funding, transformation and monitoring of social welfare services in South Africa. / Dissertation (MSD (Social Development and Policy))--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Social Work and Criminology / Unrestricted

The implementation of public policies continues to be a serious challenge for the South African public service. Giving the overarching demands for quality public service delivery from the citizens, there is a serious need for the public sector to accelerate implementation of public policies which aimed at promoting the development of society. The primary objective of the research for this study is to critically analyse the policy implementation issues in the provincial government, the special reference is on the social assistance grant policies in the North West provincial government. Subservient to the primary objectives of the research is to highlight and emphasise the pivotal roles of the theory and practices of policy formulation, policy analysis and policy implementation to promote understanding on the factors which contribute towards the effective and efficient formulation and implementation of policies that are aimed at improving the lives of the people in general and those with special needs in particular. The complexities of policy development can be identified as one of the reasons for the delay and complete failure of policy implementation. Failure of policy can also largely be attributed to issues of poor implementation of policies. In addition, it has proven that sometimes policies are set out to achieve too ambitious targets which ultimately fall short of their desired outcome. Absence of policy analysis skills and practice in the provincial governments are also major impediments to the implementation of policies. The poor policy implementation in the North West provincial government is influenced by lack of reliable data and adequate information upon which to make decisions which is a consequence of an inadequate management information system. Moreover, poor policy implementation in the provincial government is as a result of and ascribed to a lack of financial resources, inadequate trained staff, poorly framed policies, target group opposition and underdeveloped bureaucracies which are unable to formulate and plan systematically. The other recurring criticism of poor policy implementation in the North West province is that policy implementation is the orientation towards centralisation. This means that most of the policies and plans are developed in the national government with little consultation with the final implementers. Policies often fail to capture the subtleties of initiatives at grassroots level. The distance of policy makers from practice not only causes problems for the managers of the policy but also creates a lack of harmony among the different elements of the same policy and among machinery of governments which are used to alleviate poverty such as Social Assistance Agency. The imposed national policies and directives to the provincial government without regards to their specific circumstances and without assessing the human and financial resource capacity of the provincial government led to waist of money and a complete failure of the implementation of policy in the province. So to ensure that policy is successfully implemented, there is a need for a guide to the implementation in the form of a public policy implementation variables and policy implementation model in the provincial governments in general and the North West province in particular. Proper policy implementation which include sufficient resources like finance and human resource and effective policy translation, management of policy implementation processes which include accountability and control and human capital development will all ensure a great deal of improvement and success in the policy implementation. Copyright / Dissertation (MAdmin)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / School of Public Management and Administration (SPMA) / unrestricted

This thesis explored the role of traditional leaders in the promotion of municipal service delivery. The study focuses on three main areas, namely the history and development of public administration, the effects of government environment on traditional leaders and a case study of the Royal Bafokeng Administration. To achieve the objectives of the study, it is necessary to indicate the objective of local government outlined in the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa 1996. The Constitution states the following objectives: the provision of services to communities in a sustainable manner, the promotion of social and economic development, as well as the involvement of communities and community organisations in the matters of local government. The quest for a better municipal service delivery cannot be achieved in isolation from the integration of traditional leaders into the South African Public Service. The integration of traditional leaders into the South African Public Service is to ensure that municipal services are rendered equitably, efficiently and effectively. A comparative analysis of the role of traditional leaders in the Republic of South Africa, Namibia, Swaziland, Lesotho and Botswana shows that, should African traditional leadership and governance be fully integrated into the South African Public Service structures, municipal service delivery will be accelerated. The study suggests that recognition of the role of traditional leaders in the promotion of service delivery will help to expedite the redress of municipal service delivery imbalances and inequities in the rural disadvantaged communities in South Africa. The study analyses the following question: to what extent can traditional leaders provide and add value in the promotion of municipal service delivery which will contribute to the new constitutional democracy in South Africa? The study examines the present state of the role of traditional leaders in the promotion of municipal services by studying three local government cases namely, Botswana tribal authorities, the Modjadji Tribal Authority and the Royal Bafokeng Administration. The study suggests that there is an urgent need to integrate traditional leaders into the local government structures to assist in clearing the municipal service delivery backlog. This thesis also suggests that the South African traditional leadership system be compared with its Southern African counterparts such as Botswana. / Thesis (DAdmin)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / School of Public Management and Administration (SPMA) / Unrestricted

Policy transfer defies the notion of national boundaries in policy making and development. With globalisation processes in the picture, purely state centric policy making models are not the only option. International and domestic policy entrepreneurs have been pivotal in transfer processes. For developing countries, international donor organisations have been instrumental through conditioning assistance to policy reform. Due to the prevailing hierarchical aid regimes, the assumption is that developing countries would implement these policies for the fear of losing the much-needed aid. However, this study argues that the actual implementation of reforms emanating from the global arena is not an automatic process even in the context of coercive transfers, as it is mediated by country specific contextual frameworks. Moreover, even if implemented, the extent to which the transfers attain the promised transformation ends depends on prevailing environmental factors, appropriateness of the reforms, and the implementers' in-depth understanding of the reform instruments. The analysis used the cases of hospital autonomy and district health management decentralisation reforms which are based on the new public management (NPM) paradigm to examine the mechanisms of policy transfer; factors constraining or facilitating the adoption and/or implementation of transferred policies; and the impacts of the policy programmes on service delivery transformation in Malawi. A multilevel framework was used to analyse the dynamics at international, national and application levels. It used a qualitative research strategy. Therefore, data was collected through in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, documents, and observations. The study finds that due to Malawi's heavy aid reliance, international donor organisations attempted to introduce the hospital autonomy and district health management decentralisation reforms on its policy agenda through aid conditioning mechanism which has coercive attributes. In the former, USAID as an international institutional entrepreneur was the driving force through its non-project assistance (NPA) aid regime while in the later case it was the European Commission within the institutional framework of the Lome IV Convention. A comparative analysis of the two reforms revealed that a combination of contextual issues of: mode of transfer, policy content and political-economic context, path dependence, parliament-cabinet configuration, bureaucratic politics, pressure from citizens, institutional compatibility and prerequisites, and social economic forces; determined their adoption and subsequent implementation. While hospital autonomy was rejected by cabinet, and not implemented, despite large amounts of donor resources invested in the transfer processes because of these contextual issues, decentralisation was implemented as the environment was favourable, although it met bureaucratic resistance. However, the study found that when implemented, decentralisation faced several contextual challenges including modest levels of application, reproductions, reversals, cultural factors, and unintended consequences so that it has not achieved the intended transformational results. To this end, the findings provide a better understanding of the dynamics of policy transfer in developing countries and work as a springboard for donor organisations to reorient their approach in aiding policy development in developing countries.

The aim of this thesis is focused on service delivery reports at DHL IT Services, primarilly analyzing the current status of available service delivery reports, then designing a new optimized solution, and is presented in both a theoretical and practical sense. Theoretical sections consists of three topics related to report design. Topic one describes managing reports (creation, distribution, change requests, etc.), topic two focuses on identifying service delivery areas within the ITIL framework, by explaining which metrics should be used to measure service delivery. Topic free is devoted to best-practices of visual presentation. Practical sections describe the current solution for measuring service delivery within DHL IT Services, and is analyzed in all three of the above mentioned topics. A streamlined solution design is presented based on personal findings in analysis and information gathered. The main benefits of this thesis is twofold: An analysis of the current solution, and designing a proposed solution for use within the compnay. Benefits for a wider audience, relating to key aspects of service delivery report creation, is found within the teoretical sections of this thesis.