Journal of Public Affairs Education 493 Connecting Good Governance Principles to the Public Affairs Curriculum: The Case of Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration Peter F. Haruna Texas A&M International University Lawrence A. Kannae Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration ABSTRACT For more than two decades, good governance reform policy has swept through sub-Saharan Africa like a wildfire. Although government watchers have assumed that this reform initiative is critical for achieving development, little attention has been paid to how it affects and is affected by public affairs education and training. Drawing on the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), this article examines how the curriculum integrates unique local and regional conditions with good governance principles advocated by several inter- national entities. Then it compares the curriculum to the new NASPAA standards of public affairs education and training and assesses how well it matches those standards. The analysis shows that there is a substantial convergence between the GIMPA curriculum and NASPAA accreditation principles and standards. We question how these principles can be reconciled with local sociocultural conditions. We conclude by making observations about how to strengthen the curriculum and improve the quality of public affairs education and training for development management. Keywords : governance, training, development, management Since its rudimentary beginning at the turn of the 20th century, public administration in sub-Saharan African countries has undergone multiple reforms with significant implications for the education, training, and preparation of JPAE 19 (3), 493–514
Transcript
Journal of Public Affairs Education 493
Connecting Good Governance Principles to the Public Affairs Curriculum: The
Case of Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration
Peter F. Haruna Texas A&M International University
Lawrence A. KannaeGhana Institute of Management and Public Administration
AbstrAct
For more than two decades, good governance reform policy has swept through sub-Saharan Africa like a wildfire. Although government watchers have assumed that this reform initiative is critical for achieving development, little attention has been paid to how it affects and is affected by public affairs education and training. Drawing on the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), this article examines how the curriculum integrates unique local and regional conditions with good governance principles advocated by several inter- national entities. Then it compares the curriculum to the new NASPAA standards of public affairs education and training and assesses how well it matches those standards. The analysis shows that there is a substantial convergence between the GIMPA curriculum and NASPAA accreditation principles and standards. We question how these principles can be reconciled with local sociocultural conditions. We conclude by making observations about how to strengthen the curriculum and improve the quality of public affairs education and training for development management.
Since its rudimentary beginning at the turn of the 20th century, public administration in sub-Saharan African countries has undergone multiple reforms with significant implications for the education, training, and preparation of
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individuals for practicing development management. The most recent of these reforms is good governance, a concept that the donor community has pursued and on which development assistance is increasingly being based (European Union [EU], 2006; Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development [OECD], 2007; World Bank, 2008; United Nations [UN], 2009; Van Doeveren, 2011). However, although good governance reform policies are well known and have been implemented throughout sub-Saharan Africa, the issue of how individuals are being educated, trained, and prepared to implement them has not received as much attention. Specifically, how is good governance operationalized and inte- grated in the public affairs curriculum of education to prepare individuals for effective public service? In a literature search, we found no systematic study that self-consciously examined the connection between good governance and public service education and training in sub-Saharan Africa.
As the African Capacity Building Foundation’s (ACBF) support for training and research progresses and as national performance evaluations expose institutional failures and gaps (United Nations Economic Commission for Africa [ECA], 2009), reflectively integrating governance principles in the public affairs education and training curriculum will become more critical in determining the outcome of governance reform policy implementation. Despite its multiple conceptualizations, analytics, and applications, the meaning of good governance has evolved to the point where general principles, values, and norms are beginning to crystalize that can be used for comparative studies (World Bank, 2008; Van Doeveren, 2011;) to gauge the extent to which it reflects in the education of individuals and the practice of development management.
We draw on the experience of Ghana with a focus on Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) to shed light on how good governance principles have been blended in the public affairs curriculum and what the results are. Ghana is of interest because it was among the first of sub-Saharan African countries to adopt good governance policies and to conduct an objective, independent, and nonpartisan self-assessment and evaluation under the African Peer Review Mechanism (Ghana Government, 2005–2006; ECA, 2009). Thus Ghana can serve as a unique case example of good governance reform that is worth critically examining with the view to sharing international, comparative, and cross-cultural experience.
Likewise, GIMPA, Ghana’s national flagship institution that has provided professional public service education and training for the past half century, was the first to host continent-wide, graduate-level training in governance under the ACBF’s program of support for research and training. Over the past two decades, GIMPA has gained much regional visibility and reputation, growing and expanding its student enrollment, degree program offering, and infrastructural development. In fact, GIMPA has striven during the past decade to become known as “a center of excellence for training in public and business administration” and the institution of choice in Africa (Ghana Government (GIMPA Law), 2008–2009, p. vi).
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We begin with a brief historical overview to provide the context for analyzing the GIMPA curriculum. In the second section, we present an analysis of the curriculum based on critical examination of sample program brochures, syllabi, assignments, and feedback from faculty and students to gain an insight on how good governance principles and local socioeconomic conditions have been inte- grated. Also, the curriculum is compared to NASPAA standards. The final section examines the challenge of providing public affairs education and training for development management and suggests ways for strengthening the curriculum.
bAckgroUnd oF gimpA pUblic AFFAirs edUcAtion And trAining
Planned professional public service education and training in Ghana has come a long way since British colonial rule passed the Imperial Orders-in-Council (1901), which laid the foundation of the modern state, its mode of governance, and public administration (Adu, 1965). With the establishment of British-style politico-administrative institutions and processes in Ghana, the foundation of public administration was firmly transplanted there. Consequently, small-scale civil service education and training began with Oxford, Cambridge, and London Universities mounting “Tropical African Service” courses in the 1930s to prepare expatriate administrators to work for the British Colonial Empire abroad (Kirk-Greene, 1969).
The establishment of GIMPA on June 30, 1961, formed an important histor- ical milestone in the development of administrative education and training programs. Since then, GIMPA has enjoyed successive mandates culminating in Act 676 (2004), which empowered it to restructure itself into a free-standing, self-financing, and graduate-degree-granting university. For much of its existence, GIMPA took the bureaucratic perspective of management education and training based on the British civil service model that cherishes the values of a professionally neutral and loyal civil service system.
As a model of the Royal Institute of Public Administration, the Ghanaian government expected GIMPA to contribute to capacity building for self-govern ment and national development (Stone, 1969, as cited in Wereko, 1998, p. 2). The early training encouraged the preservation of the core civil service knowledge and value base: neutrality, expertise, and loyalty. Thus GIMPA training from the onset emphasized bureaucratic management, including courses in civil service rules and regulations, organization theory, local government, economic development, comparative administration, and personnel management. In fact, the academic literature spanning the 1960s and 1970s echoed the themes of professional exper- tise and neutrality both in administrative training and practice (Adu, 1965; Greenstreet, 1971). Adu emphasized the bureaucratic values of integrity, impartiality, efficiency of service, and loyalty to the government of the day. He also pointed out that in the British tradition permanent secretaries served government ministers
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loyally but objectively, which ought to be the model for the newly emerging states in Africa.
The string of administrative committees established to examine civil service problems and make appropriate recommendations emphasized the protection of professionalism and merit in the civil service (Ghana Government, 1967). The Mills-Odoi Commission, one of the best-known postcolonial administrative reform commissions, focused attention on how to fine-tune the civil service bureaucratic framework without undermining its core normative values. The overall effect was that bureaucratic orientation became established throughout Ghana, making the norms of neutral competence, professional expertise, and loyalty the cornerstones for training and building a bureaucratized public administration system. Thus the early scholarship represented an endorsement of the bureaucratic perspective of training, providing the rationale that by their access to education, training, and socialization, civil service employees possessed requisite knowledge, skills, and abilities for conducting public affairs and administration.
governAnce perspective oF pUblic AFFAirs edUcAtion And trAining
The governance perspective of public affairs education and training described here and applied to examine the GIMPA curriculum grew out of reform initiatives that international and multilateral corporations have sponsored in sub-Saharan Africa. The most recent of these reforms is good governance, a concept that the donor community has pursued and on which development assistance is increas-ingly being based. In general, four good governance conceptualizations have shaped the experiences of Ghana and GIMPA since the 2000 United Nations Millennium Declaration envisioned a world of “peace and security, development and poverty reduction, human rights, democracy and good governance” (Abdellatif, 2003). Although there are differences, they share principles and values that have guided the implementation of good governance reform and its application in the GIMPA curriculum (Table 1).
Political good governance of the United Nations Development Program involves exercising political, economic, and social authority for and on behalf of the public interest (1997, pp. 2–3). The underlying normative values framing political good governance include participation, transparency, the rule of law, consensus, accountability, effectiveness, equity, effectiveness, partnership, and sustainability (Van Doeveren, 2011). On the other hand, the World Bank’s eco- nomic good governance (1992) and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) corporate good governance (2004) focus on the responsible management of economic and social resources. The World Bank’s 1989 and 1992 studies of African countries emphasized the need for “institutional reform and a better and more efficient public sector in sub-Saharan Africa” (Maldonado 2010, p. 4). In contrast, OECD principles promote economic performance, market integrity, and incentives for market participants.
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Table 1.Governance Principles and Value Framework
Principle ACBF World Bank UN OECD ODI
Accountability X X X X X
Effectiveness X X X X
Efficiency X X X X X
Transparency X X X X X
Openness X X X X
Rule of law X X X
Participation X X X
Partnership X X
Sustainability X X X
Ownership X
Leadership X
Decency X
Fairness X
Poverty reduction X X X
Note. ACBF = African Capacity Building Foundation; UN = United Nations; OECD = Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development; ODI = Overseas Development Institute.
Source. Adapted from Van Doeveren (2011).
Consistent with political good governance, Ghana created a democratic, repre- sentative, and republican governing system in 1992 with separate legislative, executive, and judicial roles. It also created several independent oversight and regulatory institutions for protecting individual rights: Electoral Commission, National Commission on Civic Education, Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice, Media Commission, Office of Accountability, Securities Exchange Commission, and Serious Fraud Office, among others. Likewise, economic and corporate governance is reflected in legislation, such as the Ghana Revenue Authority Act, Civil Service Reform Act, Financial Administration Act, Public Office Holder Act, and Public Procurement Law. In addition, Ghana signed the Charter for the Public Service in Africa (2001) and the African Union’s Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption. Ghana became one of the first countries to be peer-reviewed as a test of adherence to the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM). The assessment, conducted by governance experts, found that Ghana was taking appropriate steps toward achieving good governance (Ghana Government, 2005). The assessment as a whole was just as rigorous as the NASPAA accreditation process.
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The United Nations Commission on Human Rights (2000 and 2001) links the protection and enjoyment of human rights to good governance. The test of procedural good governance is the degree to which citizens have rights and access to basic services—what Brinkerhoff (2008, p. 987) describes as “rights-based development.” The concern is whether the governing process guarantees rights to justice, education, health, food, housing, liberties, economic opportunity, safety, and security, among others (Abdellatif, 2003). In this regard, Ghana has imple- mented policies that promote procedural good governance, including Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy; Free, Compulsory, and Universal Basic Education; National Health Insurance Scheme; and National Youth Employment Program to achieve balanced and equitable development.
From this perspective, public affairs education and training ought to emphasize accountability, performance management, privatization, less bureaucratization, and budget austerity, to name just a few. In Ghana, public service training is required to improve the planning and analysis capability of government ministries, depart- ments, agencies, as well as municipal and metropolitan jurisdictions. A new breed of public administrators and analysts is needed to both understand and implement the World Bank and International Monetary Fund’s programs involving cutbacks and austere public management (Dia, 1996; Hutchful, 1996; Larbi, 1999). In short, administrative training is supposed to build and enhance “the requisite human and institutional capacity” for formulating and implementing development strategies, policies, and programs (Ogiogio & Ongile, 2002, p. 85).
For more than two decades, Ghana has implemented a variety of short- and long-term training programs that have aimed to create awareness of the new governance reform environment, impart knowledge, develop new attitudes, and upgrade skills among civil and public service employees (Ghana Government, 1993a, 1993b, 1994, 1997). Short-term training includes in-service orientation, induction, workshops, conferences, budget seminars, and dialogue sessions. The new Civil Service Act provides a new legal framework and ethical code for guiding and ensuring appropriate public conduct in accordance with good governance. The act also mandates training in new management techniques and reassigning responsibilities to improve decision making. The act establishes performance contracts and job inspections, along with computer training toward the enhance-ment of speedy and accurate decision making (Hutchful, 1996). Other short-term training programs have involved acquainting civil service employees with responsi- bilities associated with the restructuring, rationalizing, and decentralizing of gov- ernment functions.
As a consequence, the professionalism, impartiality, loyalty, and representative- ness espoused by the bureaucratic training perspective have shifted to a different set of managerial and market-based values related to that of good governance, including efficiency, effectiveness, competition, productivity, value-for-money, customer orientation, and profitability. Despite the differences surrounding the
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meaning and usage of good governance, core principles are beginning to coalescethat can be applied for public affairs education and training purposes (OECD, 2008; Osborne, 2010; Van Doeveren, 2011). For example, the African Capacity Building Foundation initiative for training and research supports the training of top-rated economic policy analysts and development managers, which has broadened the scope of the framework to include partnership, participation, sustainability, poverty reduction, ownership, and leadership (Ogiogio & Ongile, 2002, pp. 91–92).
The World Bank’s conceptualization of good governance remains as the most dominant (Van Doeveren, 2011, p. 304), even though its own definition of the concept has evolved since it was first applied in the study of development in sub- Saharan Africa (Maldonado, 2010, pp. 4–5). Nonetheless, there has been a consistent focus on a six-dimensional framework, Worldwide Governance Indicators, to measure differentials in the quality of governance: voice and accountability, political stability and absence of violence, government effectiveness, regulatory quality, rule of law, and control of corruption. These indicators are not only the best known, but also the most widely discussed (Pollitt & Bouckaert, 2011, pp. 127–129).
Without ignoring the differences in perspectives, good governance principles are crystalizing steadily, especially from the standpoint of the international development community. Analytic frameworks indicate a convergence around accountability, effectiveness, efficiency, openness, transparency, and the rule of law (Van Doeveren, 2011). The UN (2009), OECD (2007), World Bank (2008), and Overseas Development Institute (2009) either emphasize all or most of these principles. To a large extent, the commonalities imply that meaning and understanding of good governance are becoming shared among donors. This is not to suggest that they all agree on what the principles should entail in practice. While the World Bank emphasizes economic management to ensure returns for projects and sustained economic growth, the OECD focuses on the promotion of economic performance, market integrity, and market incentives.
To summarize, a broad good governance theoretical framework can be deduced from the literature that is shaping public affairs education and training in Ghana. The principles and value framework reflect a nascent “global consensus” of what constitutes good governance from the perspective of several major international development partners. Like all value frameworks, these principles are not only mutually reinforcing, but also generate tensions, conflicts, and trade-offs. This not only calls for different mind-sets, conceptual tools, and strategies, but also different theoretical orientations, and analytical and critical thinking abilities beyond those required for bureaucratic public administration thought and practice. From the standpoint of good governance education and training then, governmental performance largely depends on and is interrelated with environ- mental influences, internal processes, administrative structures, and managerial strategies that practitioners and analysts must know and be able to apply.
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GIMPA Public Affairs Curriculum of Education and TrainingThe GIMPA Act (Ghana Government, 2004) authorizes and mandates it to
pursue and promote professional education, training, consultancy, and service “in the fields of leadership, business management and administration.” Consistent with this mandate, the GIMPA mission includes the requirement
to maintain a Center of Excellence for training in public and business administration, by continuously enhancing the capability of middle and top level executives in public and private sectors, as well as Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) both in Ghana and internationally to manage their institutions and enterprises efficiently and effectively. GIMPA’s overall goal is to become the best Management Development Institute in Sub-Saharan Africa, known for quality program delivery in Leadership, Management and Administration. (GIMPA Annual Report, 2008–2009, p. iv)
The GIMPA public affairs curriculum of education and training consists of four separate master’s degree programs: Master of Public Administration (MPA), Master of Governance, Leadership, and Public Management (MGLPM), Master of Development Management (MDM), and Master of Public Sector Management (MPSM). All four degree programs aim to provide substantive knowledge, skills, and abilities to practitioners through instruction in administrative-managerial courses, governance principles and practices, and development management courses (Table 2). This structure is evident in both long-term degree-granting and short-term competency-based courses designed to address specific ministerial, departmental, and/or organizational need.
The administrative-managerial core that the degree programs share includes Public Administration/Management, Human Resources Management, Economics, Public Finance, Policy Making, Public Legal Framework, and Research Techniques. Governance-related courses have expanded the curriculum to include Strategic Management, Economic Development, Governance, Leadership, Globalization, Negotiation, Decentralization, International Relations, and Management Informa- tion Systems. Likewise, the development management major shares in some of the administrative-managerial core, while emphasizing Local, Regional, Agricultural, and Rural Development, and Environmental Management (GIMPA Brochures, 2009–2010).
While the content of training reflects academic flavor that is grounded in theories, concepts, and insights derived from disciplines such as international relations, management, economics, and political science, the programs have a predominantly practical, service-learning, and problem-solving orientation. In fact, elective courses in the public administration program of study are taught at the ministerial and departmental levels by experienced practitioners to focus attention on job-related practices and applications. Faculty encourage course
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Table 2.Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) Public Affairs Curriculum
Course Component MPA MGLPM MDM MPSM
Public administration/management X X
Human resources management X X X
Economics X X X
Public finance X X X
Public policy making X X X X
Public accounting X
Public sector legal framework X X X
Community organization X
Land administration X
Agricultural economics X
Development strategies X
Research techniques X X
Strategic management X X X
Entrepreneurship X
Governance X X X
Political systems X
Leadership X X
Globalization X
Decentralization X X X
Regional cooperation X
International relations/diplomacy X X X
Management information system X X X
Negotiation X X
Rural development X
Environmental management X
Local government X
Agricultural development X
Political economy X
Project planning/management X X
Economic development X X
Municipal administration X
Performance management X
Conflict management X
Ethics and professionalism X
Note. MPA = Master of Public Administration; MGLPM = Master of Governance, Leadership, and Public Man- agement; MDM = Master of Development Management; and MPSM = Master of Public Sector Management.
Source. From Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration Course Brochures (2009–2010).
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participants to complete research projects and theses with practical implications for, and applications in, their work. This orientation is understandable because it enables faculty to connect experience-based knowledge to, and balance it with, theory and conceptual classroom instruction.
GIMPA applies the semi-residential modular education and training format, in which course material is logically organized, segmented, and delivered. The modular or sandwich format enables public managers to combine work with study in a manner that minimizes the losses in man-hours while maximizing education and training. Both the Master of Public Administration (MPA) and Master of Governance and Leadership (MGL) programs consist of 10 modules each, two of which are completed over a 3-week period once every 5 months. Each module requires 120 hours of face-to-face instruction and another 8 hours of group work. A supervised project, arranged between residential sessions, enables faculty to guide course participants toward completing focused and applied research projects.
Likewise, both Master of Development Management (MDM) and Master of Public Sector Management (MPSM) are organized and delivered in modules to accommodate “the busy schedule” of target groups. The MDM program consists of 12 courses that are organized in five 3-week sessions, and the MPSM includes 20 courses delivered in four modules. Because participants are adult learners, they are able to cope with the intensity and compressed modular time frame. Active and participatory training techniques, including brainstorming, case study analyses, group sessions, game playing, simulations, group exercises, and field visits are standard practices in GIMPA public administration education and training. Program expectations include demonstrating knowledge and understanding of the substantive subject areas through examinations and demonstrating analytical ability by successfully completing practical projects.
GIMPA Curricular Standards, Principles, and Values What kinds of standards, principles, and values can be distilled from the
GIMPA curriculum? Like all other institutions of higher education, GIMPA provides education and training that enable individuals to qualify for professional positions in the civil and public services. The National Accreditation Board is responsible for regulating and assuring that programs conform to accreditation standards and national development priorities. The public affairs programs are fully accredited. GIMPA emphasizes three major goals consistent with its mission: educating practitioners in the best ways of maintaining organizational vitality and integrity, facilitating public-private partnership, and assisting agencies to achieve efficiency through better management, increased productivity, and more effective cost control (Ghana Government, 2004; Ghana Government, 2009). In more recent years, GIMPA has witnessed much transformation, resulting in a broad mission that encompasses good governance ideals, principles, and practices.
The GIMPA curriculum reflects three broad sets of principles and values based on bureaucratic, good governance, and development management perspectives.
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Bureaucratic-oriented values have followed the contours of public affairs education and training as they have evolved in Anglo-American society throughout the 20th century, emphasizing the public service ethos, civic virtues, and professional and constitutional standards (Hart & Wright, 1998; Cooper, 2004). This value orientation is associated with public administration core courses, including Public Policy Making, Human Resources Management, Administrative Law, and Administrative Ethics. However, while they may be covered in other courses, these values are being deemphasized because courses in Civil Service Rules and Regulations, Organization and Methods, and Organization Theory have not received much attention in the public affairs curriculum in recent times.
On the other hand, the second set of principles and values derives from mana- gerialism, pro-market, and neoliberal economics, which are consistent with or at least do not diverge from good governance reform policies, including efficiency, productivity, competition, profitability, and entrepreneurship (Osborne, 2010; Pollitt & Bouckaert, 2011). GIMPA courses such as Performance Management, Strategic Management, Environmental Management, Project Planning and Management, Conflict Management, and Economic Development are attuned toward this value orientation. These courses and their mode of delivery require students to master generic/technical competencies and broad-based analytic frame- works for studying good governance as it applies to policy making and manage- ment. Although the readings are drawn from a variety of sources, a good majority comes from the international development literature. The predominant conceptual tools focus more on performance, effectiveness, and competition and less on inter- institutional, inter-organizational, and inter-jurisdictional collaboration.
The third and final set of curricular principles and values are oriented toward development management, which includes sustainability, development, partnership, capacity building, and poverty reduction among others. These principles and values are reflected not only in course names, but also in course brochure outlines, syllabi, and reading materials. They add uniqueness to the curriculum and reinforce the African Capacity Building Foundation’s vision of developing “sustainable human and institutional capacity for good governance and poverty reduction in Africa” (Ogiogio & Ongile, 2002, p. 91). Of particular relevance are courses relating to regional cooperation, land administration, rural development, and development strategies, which focus attention on understanding and analyzing development opportunities and challenges.
Development management courses are intended to analyze local and regional socioeconomic conditions with the view to promoting policies and programs that transform life in rural communities. Most of the coursework emphasizes community-based and problem-solving activities, using approaches that involve “modernizing” the traditional way of life—introducing mechanized farming and increasing agricultural productivity. The courses are designed as if to suggest that good governance principles and practices can replace traditional society’s age-old
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norms and belief systems. To a large extent, this reflects a narrow conceptualization of development management based on modernization theory. To be sure, good governance principles and values require broad-based participation and inclusion of all segments of society, but the priority for growing the economy and improving material welfare is unmistakably clear.
At least three pieces are missing in the development management program. First, a culture-based course is required to enlighten understanding of how to align good governance principles with the indigenous sociocultural institutions to minimize potential conflicts entailed in “institutional dualism” (Brinkerhoff & Goldsmith’s (2005, pp. 199–200). Second, another course is needed that will critically examine how to borrow and adapt Westernized concepts and theories to local conditions. Finally, a gender-based course is needed, one that will focus on and systematically analyze the socioeconomic conditions of women and propose practical solutions for closing or at least substantially narrowing the gender gap in public service leadership and top management positions, especially in govern- ment ministries, departments, and agencies.
Comparing the GIMPA Curriculum With NASPAA Principles and StandardsHow does the GIMPA curriculum compare with the National Association of
Schools of Public Affairs and Administration (NASPAA) principles and standards? Because NASPAA principles and standards constitute some of the best-known criteria for judging the quality of public affairs degree programs, the closer the match between GIMPA and NASPAA principles, presumably, the higher the degree of professionalism for maintaining integrity and reputation. While NASPAA is focused on U.S. institutions, it is also committed to helping other countries to develop and maintain high-quality public affairs education and training programs (Mazmanian, 2005; Berry, 2011). In fact, NASPAA has changed its bylaws to help international institutions to apply for full membership. Thus the comparison between GIMPA and NASPAA is in the overall interest of international exchange that can advance the work of both institutions.
NASPAA principles have evolved from what Berry described as “first generation” through “second generation” to “third generation” standards with increasing attention to “mission-based, outcome-oriented, and student learning objectives” (2011, p. 2). Anchored by public service values, the 2009 NASPAA principles and standards specify and define seven criteria that public affairs programs should meet to merit accreditation. In fact, public service values should constitute the “intellectual center of gravity” to guide “professional education for public service” (Henry, Goodsell, Lynn, Stivers, & Wamsley, 2009, p. 118). NASPAA emphasizes managing strategically: specifying mission and goals, gathering data, and evaluating outcomes. Programs are expected to systematically apply information about their performance in a manner that guides the evolution of their respective missions and continuous improvement.
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While recognizing the importance of flexibility in curriculum design, NASPAA principles and standards reflect core value elements that public affairs and administration programs should share in common: public service, social equity, public service leadership, legal governance, transparency, and accountability. Thus under these principles and standards:
NASPAA expects an accredited program to be explicit about the public service values to which it gives priority; to clarify the ways in which it embeds these values in its internal governance, and to demonstrate its students learn the tools and competencies to apply and take these values into consideration in their professional activities. (NASPAA, 2009, p. 4)
In comparing GIMPA and NASPAA, it is worth noting that Ghana’s admini- strative history has a long-standing connection with Anglo-American philosophies, theories, and concepts about public affairs education and training. This historical connection has grown stronger with administrative globalization: widespread application of a single administrative model based on the culture of the market, management principles, and neoliberal economic ideals (Haque, 2002; Haruna, 2004). Most of the GIMPA curriculum grew out of this tradition with grounding in good governance reform policy that draws on Anglo-American values from the perspective of international agencies and multilateral corporations and organizations.
In this context, there is an apparent convergence of administrative principles, especially in regard to the value framework undergirding public affairs education and training (Table 3). The GIMPA values framework, informed by good govern- ance, reflects the common value elements that NASPAA-accredited programs share: accountability, transparency, legal governance, public service leadership, and social equity, which are among the most enduring values of Anglo American-style public administration. Although GIMPA is not a NASPAA-accredited program, such values and expected technical and managerial competencies can be extrapolated from the existing public affairs education and training curriculum.
Of interest here is NASPAA’s concern for social equity because it resonates well with Ghana’s poverty reduction strategy and GIMPA’s rural development training program that aim to create a more equitable society. Social equity has not only established itself as one of the four pillars of US public administration, but also has gained increasing attention among scholars and theorists as the basis for building a just and democratic society (Gooden & Wooldridge, 2007). Several Several conference symposia have been and continue to be held to give reflective attention to how programs can embed and teach issues of social equity along with gender, ethnic, and international diversity (Gooden & Myers, 2004; Frederickson, 2008). If equity is an issue in an advanced democracy such as the US, it is certainly more so in Ghana, where the context of public affairs education and training is characterized by visible political, social, and economic marginalization.
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Table 3.GIMPA Curricular Representation and Learning Outcomes
CourseComponent
Generic Managerial Values
Generic Managerial Competencies
Ethics and Professionalism Accountability Reasoning ability
Public Policy Making Transparency Decision-making ability
Research Techniques Effectiveness Problem-solving skill
Human Resources Effectiveness Motivational skill and ability
Development Strategies Effectiveness Analytical thinking ability
Conflict Management Public service leadership Consensus-building ability
Negotiation Public service leadership Consensus-building ability
International Relations Public service leadership Collaborative ability
Source. Compiled by authors (2010–2011).
chAllenges FAcing gimpA pUblic AFFAirs edUcAtion And trAining
The preceding section argued that there is an apparent value convergence, one that enables GIMPA to draw on NASPAA institutional experience in pro- viding the professional value orientation and competency for public service. Although much has been achieved, challenges remain as development management makes a difficult transition from its bureaucratic and managerial posture to that of good governance. It is true that resource constraint hampers the quality of professional public service education and training delivery as Sawyerr (2003) rightly has argued. But the challenge of public affairs education and training is more deeply rooted than is often admitted. Public affairs programs face the challenge of how to manage strategically along NASPAA lines by clarifying their missions and connecting the curriculum to the social, political, and economic experience of the population of students that they intend to serve.
The common approach to the challenge of public affairs education and training typically emphasizes resource scarcity (Sawyerr, 2003) and a difficult administrative terrain that makes it hard, if not impossible, to accomplish change and reform
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(Blunt & Merrick, 1992). Of course, as one of the poorest regions, one with the lowest gross domestic growth rates, dramatic population growth, and rampant cycles of violence and conflict, sub-Saharan Africa can hardly be described as the friendliest professional education and training environment. That being said, the challenge is exactly that: how to make a meaningful connection between the public affairs education curriculum and the reality of the lived experience of society under those difficult conditions.
Most of the GIMPA curriculum responds to external pressures, offering inter- nationally acceptable courses that provide students with generic managerial and technical managerial competencies comparable to global standards. This is parti- cularly the case with bureaucratic education and training that prepares students for managing restrictive and short-term organizational goals. To be sure,internation- alizing the curriculum is most welcome given the trend toward globalization, but the curriculum is skewed more toward global standards. As a result, education and training produce professionals who are somewhat disconnected from society and a knowledge gap between classroom learning and local socioeconomic conditions.
The need for public affairs education and training to respond more to domestic and community-level dynamics is supported by scholarly interest in communitarian approaches to public service and nongovernment provision of services, including varieties of participatory mechanisms for complementing public administration (King & Stivers, 1998; Clark & Menifield, 2005). This is especially suited to GIMPA because Ghana is immersed in unique communo-ethnic diversity, a sense of localism, and a huge urban-rural disparity (Ayittey, 1992; Boamah-Wiafe, 1993; Gyekye, 2010). Government is perceived in terms of local community—the organic unit for cultural, social, and political organization (Ayittey, 1992; Haruna, 2008). As well as being politicized, sociopolitical connections affect recruitment, promotion, scholarships, and budget allocation decisions, creating a sense that government is not treating everybody fairly. Thus public affairs education and training ought to build knowledge and the ethic for administering in the unique context of Ghana.
In addition to more strongly connecting the curriculum to the sociocultural conditions of Ghana, another challenge GIMPA faces is how to rationally connect the curriculum to the larger field of public administration and management. This is both a critique and challenge that schools of policy and administration in general should address. For example, Henry and coworkers (2009) have observed that public administration faculty often “provide education and socialization in an academic discipline” rather than “provide professional education for public service.” They also argue that because courses are not well coordinated, students fail to develop a holistic appreciation for the field (p. 118), which is the exact challenge facing the GIMPA curriculum.
To address these challenges and attempt to reconcile NASPAA and good governance principles with the GIMPA curriculum, a composite curriculum is proposed with components that integrate good governance ideals while grounding
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public affairs education and training in the larger society (Table 4). Specific course components are suggested not only to address local conditions, but also to foster unique competencies tailored to development management. Similarly, a course in Western theories is included as a way of selectively borrowing from and adopting them to the requirements of the unique sociocultural conditions. However, such a curriculum requires support from professional associations, similar to NASPAA and ASPA with clear goals for promoting excellence in public service (Haruna, 2008).
Table 4Sample Public Affairs Education and Training Curriculum for Development Management
For a half century, GIMPA has provided public affairs education and training to meet the national need of coping with the problems of development manage- ment. Initially conceptualized based on a restrictive path of public affairs education and training, the curriculum has grown and expanded in response to the quest for answers to the problems of development. This has resulted in an emphasis on responding to global and international pressures to produce “world-class human resources” based on good governance values and principles. The perspective taken here considers a more balanced, composite curriculum framework, one that care- fully balances global and international issues and interests with unique needs and demands of a developing society.
The comparative sketch between NASPAA and GIMPA shows that values are converging, dominated by good governance principles. These principles do not only link the GIMPA curriculum to Westernized forms of public administration, but also highlight tensions and conflicts in the cross-cultural transfer of theories and concepts (Heady, 2002). The GIMPA experience indicates that developing a curriculum focused on NASPAA and good governance principles as opposed to one based on the National Accreditation Board’s priorities reflects tensions similar to those with which comparative theorists wrestle. The tension arises from the question of how much of the curriculum should be devoted to good governance and how much of it should depend on local conditions. It also raises the question of what the focus of good governance should be or what the content and competency should entail. A future research question then will be one that assesses the extent to which the public affairs curriculum should be culturally unique and identifies common principles that make comparative studies fruitful.
The challenge facing GIMPA focuses on designing a composite public affairs curriculum appropriate to and useful for a developing nation. The impetus is not cynicism about the good governance model of public affairs education and training, but the recognition that public administration education and training must include its “ecology,” just like the study of public administration itself (Broadnax, 1997; Stillman, 2000). It is critical to make theoretical connections between classroom instruction and development management. Such an effort entails making compromises between domestic conditions and external pressures and demands.
A normatively comprehensive curriculum is suggested, one that is informed by local material conditions and remains sufficiently attentive to global and interna- tional awareness. Such a curriculum should aim first to clarify the understanding of the context in which public affairs education and training occurs and then develop courses that have relevance and meaning to the lived experience of the people, including seminars in African History, Cultures, and Nation-Building experiences. This will serve as a basis for developing a truly global curriculum of public affairs education and training to prepare future generations of public administrators and development managers for working in a diverse and rapidly changing world (Pires, 2000).
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AcknoWledgment
The authors conducted this study while the first author served as a Fulbright Senior Scholar at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (2010–2011). He is grateful to the U.S. Fulbright Scholar Program, Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration, and Texas A&M International University for jointly supporting his research and teaching there. However, the authors remain responsible for any errors and omissions contained in the study.
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Peter Fuseini Haruna is an associate professor of public administration and MPA program director at Texas A&M International University. He is also 2010–2011 Fulbright Senior Scholar to Ghana. His research interest focuses on comparative public administration and public service education and training. His previous research work has appeared in Public Administration Review, Administrative Theory & Praxis, and Public Integrity, among other journals.
Lawrence Akanweke Kannae is deputy chair of the Ghana Public Services Commission. He has previously served as deputy rector at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration. His research interest centers on change management, management development, and public sector monitoring and evaluation. He has published in the Journal of Comparative Family Studies, Journal of Asian and African Studies, and Greenhill Journal of Administration.
