Olivier Boucal, Minister of Civil Service and Public Service Reform, proceeded, Thursday in Dakar, to the official launch of the National Consultations for the Reform of the Public Service, which are part of the National Transformation Agenda VisionSenegal2050.
In Senegal, the adoption of the National Transformation Agenda Senegal 2050 after the political change of March 2024 reflects the desire to build a just, sovereign and prosperous Senegal.
This ambitious project requires a systemic transformation, encompassing a review of political, institutional, economic and social practices, based on the establishment of a modern, accessible, virtuous and proactive public administration. The objective of the consultations launched this Thursday is to restore the contract of trust between users and the public administration.
Senegalese public administration has often evolved on the basis of an imported model, sometimes disconnected from local realities, which has limited its effectiveness. This situation requires a paradigm shift in the management of public services, as highlighted by the President of the Republic in his end-of-year 2024 speech.
“We have chosen consultation and consultation as the guiding principle of our governance in order to make each citizen a decisive actor in the rupture and national construction,” he said.
According to Olivier Boucal, Minister of Civil Service and Public Service Reform, the National Consultations are in line with the strategic orientations of the President of the Republic, moving in the direction of giving a priority place to dialogue, to inclusion and co-construction.
“As you know, the Senegalese public administration suffers from many ills linked to various and varied factors clearly highlighted through a series of reports and documents relating to the performance of state services and the satisfaction of the concerns of the users. The latest findings drawn up in the diagnostic part of the Senegal 2050 Framework, recently recalled by the Head of State, on the occasion of the Conference of Public Administrators and Managers, relate in particular to the overlapping missions of certain services, the slowness in the execution of procedures and the lack of quality of services offered to users,” said Minister Boucal.
He stressed that the weaknesses mentioned above produce deplorable effects linked, among other things, to the ineffectiveness and inefficiency of administration services and the deterioration of citizens’ confidence in the government. administration, which strongly hinder the achievement of the country’s socio-economic development objectives and the construction of a “sovereign, just and prosperous Senegal”.
“Given the above,” he said, “public service reform is not only a governance requirement for more effective public action, it is a moral imperative, in the sense that the Administration must respond to the multifaceted development issues and challenges and the growing expectations of user-clients. In this regard, you will agree with me on the necessity and urgency of giving substance to the directions of the Head of State by taking the necessary measures to rethink our governance and renew our administration.
-The work of the national consultations will make it possible to carry out a thorough diagnosis of the administration and to “rethink the methods and modes of governance of public affairs in the service of the user-citizen”, in accordance with the instructions of the Prime Minister.
The approach that will be adopted for this purpose will be focused on a participatory approach to co-construction, which will be carried out through several exchange platforms involving the different stakeholders at the central and regional level and as well as at the Diaspora level.
This means that inclusion will be essential in order to involve all categories of actors in their diversity and to promote the free expression of ideas and the commitment of all stakeholders.
The online platform, which was the subject of a presentation this morning, is available to promote direct and open consultations with all user-citizens, particularly those from the diaspora.
At the end of this launching ceremony, the ministry will continue with regional consultations which will be placed under the aegis of regional governors. To this end, territorial development actors, by categories of actors (civil society, private sector, decentralized State services, technical and financial partners, etc.), will also be involved and mobilized through regional workshops, one workshop per region.
These regional consultations will be followed by sectoral and thematic exchanges, which will focus on key aspects linked to specific challenges of transformation of the Administration which should make it possible to deepen the diagnosis of the Public Service.
Already, the preparatory work has made it possible to identify several key themes for discussions, namely the quality of public service; the digital transformation of the Administration; the human resources management framework; the organizational framework of public services; and transparency, fairness and accountability.
TE/APA
