Project profile — Building a Capable State

This project aims to improve the delivery of public services to improve the lives of South Africans—particularly those from marginalized groups and those living in remote areas. The project seeks to strengthen public administration in South Africa by providing technical assistance and support to various government departments. The project supports the Technical Assistance Unit within South Africa's National Treasury to enhance the ability of government departments to develop policies, and deliver and manage programs and services to South Africans. It also supports the South African Government's efforts to improve accountability and transparency by improving performance monitoring and evaluation government-wide.

The expected intermediate outcomes for this project include: (i) improved gender-responsive service delivery by government departments (national, provincial and local) and public institutions (GDPIs) supported by the Technical Assistance Unit (TAU); (ii) improved gender-responsive performance and accountability of the Department of Performance Monitoring and Evaluation (DPME) and throughout national, provincial and local governments; and (iii) improved gender-responsive operational performance and capacity of TAU to support GDPIs.

Results achieved as of the end of the project (September 2021) include: (1) improved South African government departments’ capacity by supporting South Africa’s Government Technical Advisory Centre (GTAC). GTAC responds to targeted requests for technical help from client departments by providing access to training and expertise; (2) GTAC supported over 100 capacity building projects. These projects include economic development, municipal support and human settlements, public management and organization development, and social development; (3) GTAC conducted 240 performance expenditure reviews across the government; (4) GTAC helped improve inter-governmental cooperation in Eastern Cape. This led to an expanded public works program and better economic opportunities in four communities; (5) institutionalized and strengthened the government’s Management Performance Assessment Tool (MPAT) process across 155 national and provincial government departments. They achieved this by supporting the Department of Planning, Monitoring, and Evaluation (DPME), and lessons learned from the Canadian model; and (6) DPME rolled out training to 10 hospital CEOs and 10 community health centres. These trainings focus on improving critical areas of hospital management. For example: patient waiting times, patients file management and maternal health services. The training has laid the groundwork to improve these facilities’ COVID-19 response.