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AbstractEconomic policies are drivers of development. The President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration in Nigeria (2015–2023) recognized that the economy is likely to remain on a path of steady and steep decline if nothing is done to change the trajectory of declining economic growth. This concern led to the initiation of the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan. The objective of the paper is to examine the experience of the Nigerian economy with the plan. This is desk research. Data are obtained from secondary sources and analyzed through content analysis. It leverages extant literature and the publication of the National Bureau of Statistics (2017), Budget Office of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (2020), and Nigeria Economic and Sustainability Plan (2020) to discuss the framework and implementation of the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP), Economic Sustainability Plan and the National Development Plan, in Nigeria. The results of the content analysis show that certain affect the effective implementation of the economic plan. The challenges include a lack of policy continuity, weak institutions and corporate governance, and inadequate funding of policy goals, among other things. By implication, the contributions of the policies to national development have not been significant. The paper advocates the need for the present administration to support the goals of the National Development Plan, by funding the policy goals and strengthening the administrative framework of the bureaucracy for effective performance and sustainability.

Background: TB is a significant public health problem around the world, with South Africa being one of the 30 high-burden TB countries, accounting for 87 percent of all estimated incident TB cases. In South Africa, which accounts for 3% of all instances worldwide, research on students’ experiences and understanding of underlying factors is lacking. These future leaders are still in a key time of physical and psychological development. This study aimed to test students’ understanding of pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) and its causes at a rural institution of higher learning. Methodology: Quantitative method was used using a cross-sectional design. The study was conducted in the 2020 Vhembe District, Limpopo, South Africa. In the poll, 199 students living in overcrowded campus housing were interviewed. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data at the Thohoyandou campus. Data were analysed using version 26.0 of the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), with a Spearman’s rank-order correlation run. Results: The findings of this study revealed that 25.6 percent of male students and 74.4 percent of female students, respectively, understood PTB, while students at the selected tertiary institution have insufficient awareness of the causes of PTB. The association between education and TB knowledge among the respondents was determined using Spearman’s rank-order correlation. There was a statistically significant positive association between education and TB knowledge (Spearman’s rho = 0.669, p = 0.035). Conclusions: The study found that students at a higher education institution lacked sufficient general Knowledge regarding PTB. PTB control measures should be adopted to implement better the NSP, NDP, Global STOP TB strategy and the SDGs.

The South African National Framework towards the Professionalization of the Public Service, moots the belief that professionalizing public administration is one of the key requirements for building state capacity. An efficient and effective public service may positively impact the state's development agenda. The United Nations' (UN) 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) serve as a blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all with the focus on an end to poverty, and inequality, the protection of the planet, and the assurance that global citizens enjoy health, justice and prosperity. The core question that this paper addresses is: To what extent will professionalization of the South African public sector through learning and training programs offered at the National School of Government (NSG), contribute to the UN's SDGs specifically and Africa Agenda 2063 (Agenda 2063) and the South African National Development Plan (NDP) 2030 in general? The paper is premised on a systematic stand-alone literature review. Content analysis was used to make sense of the secondary data consulted by honing in on pre-identified search terms. The study found that while the training programs offered at the NSG are aligned with the government's focus on professionalization of the public service, specific mention of the SDGs, the NDP and Agenda 2063, are not made. It is recommended that with much talk around the re-calibration of the public sector by way of the NSG, an opportunity exists to explicitly teach the principles, objectives and aims of the aforementioned SDGs, NDP goals and Agenda 2063 objectives, in all its training programs, or that new programs are devised by the NSG solely focused on the attainment of the SDGs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal Public Administration & Social Management / Administração Pública e Gestão Social is the property of Administracao Publica e Gestao Social and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

South Africa underwent apartheid, a system of racial segregation, during which the country's governance agendas did not offer too much emphasis on environmental issues. The policies implemented during that time were lacking the environment-inclusiveness, and thus regrettably remained unsuccessful in promoting sustainable development. This article aims to review the current state of SDG 11, which focuses on sustainable cities and communities, in South African context. This research is a qualitative analysis of secondary data obtained through reviewing literature. The data was analyzed using conceptual analysis. The literature review shows that the democratic governance in a post-apartheid era implemented some policies that now regulate various aspects of SDG 11 in the country-specific context. Some of the significant ones are the Housing Act (No. 107 of 1997); Water Services Act (No. 108 of 1997); National Environmental Management: Waste Act (No. 59 of 2008); Municipal Systems Act (No. 32 of 2000); Breaking New Ground, 2004; and the National Housing Code, 2009. However, despite these legislative frameworks, there are challenges that still hamper the effective achievement of SDG 11. The findings therefore explore these challenges that include insufficient skills, inadequate funding, and inadequate training to develop technical competence, among others. The study provides recommendations for addressing these issues and improving the situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the main and most dynamic challenges confronting South Africa is the high unemployment rate, which has been increasing more rapidly than the country's economic growth. The unemployment rate is increasing every year, supplemented with a financial crisis as the South African economy is experiencing a drastic recession and jobs are getting lost. In 2012, the National Planning Commission (NPC) implemented a new long-term strategy, the National Development Plan Vision 2030 (NDP), which is set over an 18-year period (2012 to 2030). The NDP was introduced to meet the government's objectives, which include economic growth, reducing triple challenges (unemployment, poverty and inequality) and improving service delivery. The main aim of the research is thus to assess the progress of the unemployment reduction targets set by the NDP, as well as recommend strategies that can be implemented to attain the unemployment reduction target and reduce unemployment to (under) 6%. The study employed a qualitative research method and a case study research design. Through literature review, information was compiled through studying budget reviews, the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA), press releases from international capital markets (International Monetary Fund and World Bank), official government documents, academic/scholarly newspapers, and relevant legislation. The finding explore that many factors hinder or impede the government from achieving its objectives, such as slow economic growth, the impact of Covid-19 on the labour market, skills gap and mismatch, the education system in South Africa and a severe lack of entrepreneurship. The article makes policy recommendations for improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Ciencia y Poder Aéreo is the property of Escuela de Postgrados de la Fuerza Aerea Colombiana and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Background: In South Africa, it has become essential to have better access to high-quality and relevant skills development to achieve the goal of the National Development Plan (NDP) 2030. Therefore, employee capacity building has become a strategic priority for the national growth and development of all emerging countries. Aim: This article seeks to investigate a nexus between employee skills development and competence. Setting: The study was carried out in the Eastern Cape Department of Education. Methods: The article employed an inductive research approach and an explanatory research design to achieve its desired objectives. Moreover, structured questionnaires were used as the data collection tool, and thematic analysis was used to analyse the findings. Results: The results of the article confirmed that skills training and development ensure that staff is empowered, informed and trained, which results in improved efficiency in the workplace. In this situation, spin-offs will benefit public organisations, since employees’ increased abilities open new opportunities for long-term employment growth and organisational effectiveness. Furthermore, the knowledgeable and well-trained individual would make sound organisational decisions while competently providing a public service. Conclusion: The article revealed that the Department of Education has a wider skill learning system that is informed by the Skills Development Act 97 of 1998 and perhaps the most critical problem that has hindered the development of employee skills in the public sector. The Department of Education does not do enough to incorporate the National Qualifications Framework (NQF) learning relationships, and the system becomes highly suboptimal without doing this. Such problems have cascaded down to affect the competence of many public employees. This article on the effect of training and development on employee performance has emerged as a tool for obtaining valuable knowledge on the issue. Contribution: This article contributed to the broader knowledge as a tool for obtaining valuable knowledge on the issues and on the effect of training and development on employee performance which has emerged.

The domestication of regional, continental and global development agendas can be confusing, leading to one concluding that these are either an addition to or a replacing of, a country's national development plan. What do these various development agendas mean for a country like South Africa versus the country's domestic development focus as espoused in the National Development Plan (NDP)? What does domestication of the various agendas mean? The key idea to note here is that domestication is not about replacing a country's development agenda with a regional or continental or global development agenda. What is important is to ensure that there is alignment of the domestic plan (objectives, priorities) with those of the rest of the world, the continent and the region. Global, continental and regional agendas are not separate programmes. They are part of the National Development Plan. South Africa's implementation of its own development plan indirectly implements other development agendas.

Improving agricultural productivity is critical, both locally and globally, particularly in the pursuit of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of eradicating poverty (SDG 1), increasing food production for food security (SDG 2), and promoting efficient use of agricultural resources and sustainable farming practices (SDG 12). This study examines and compares total factor productivity efficiency (TFPE) in the South African commercial agricultural sector, along with its drivers, using local municipal-level data. We used the Färe-Primont index to assess municipalities' TFPE levels, considering both traditional (economic) factors (labour, land, and operating expenses) and environmental variables (temperature, rainfall, and soil moisture index). Our TFPE index results are not only lower, but they show more variation across municipalities than the economic TFPE index, which is commonly used in agricultural productivity research. This implies that ignoring environmental variables may bias analysis; therefore, future studies should consider including environmental factors in their analyses. We then used hierarchical clustering to group municipalities with similar TFPE levels and components, followed by fractional regression to identify the drivers of efficiency levels. The cluster analysis results reveal that the best-performing municipalities are in cluster 4, comprising municipalities from the Western Cape Winelands specialising in horticulture production, municipalities near urban areas with better market proximity, those engaged in the global value chain, and those with a high proportion of farmers who own most of their farmland. Furthermore, the fractional regression results show that age, gender, race, market proximity, land use types, and production diversification are significant drivers of TFPE and its components. Our study offers insights into the divergent agricultural TFPE performance among municipalities and the underlying factors causing these disparities. The findings can inform the development of targeted strategies, particularly at the local level, aimed at enhancing agricultural productivity and making significant contributions to achieving the SDGs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Records are important assets in the decision-making process and promote transparency and accountability. The successful provision of educational and training services in public schools relies on reliable and authentic records. Thus, evidence-based decision-making can help address the challenges in the basic education sector in public schools. The challenges manifest as weaknesses between the different sectors and departments responsible for early childhood development services and poor quality of school education outcomes in public schools. The said challenges were identified in the National Development Plan 2030 and their resolution can contribute to the achievement of education and training goals. The main purpose of this study was to outline the role played by records and information management in supporting evidence-based decision-making in public schools in South Africa. This study adopted the qualitative research approach and used content analysis to identify challenges hindering national development plan goal achievement in the basic education sector. A content analysis of available literature consisting of policy documents, internet sources, books and journal papers was used to identify and describe the challenges and propose solutions. It is guided by the Association of Records Managers and Administrators' Generally Accepted Record Keeping Principles as a framework. The study found that poor educational outcomes could be improved through proper records management practices enabling evidence-based decision-making to thrive. The study recommends that governmental bodies in South Africa utilise the power of records and information management to enable goal achievement, with the professional assistance rendered by the National Archives and Records Service of South Africa (NARSSA) and provincial archives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A democratic government should adhere to firm public administration principles, legal instruments, structures and mechanisms. However, providing these elements is insufficient to guarantee integrated participative service delivery. This article aims to unravel the most important elements required to create a participative governance model that fuses horizontal intra-relationships between public officials and departments and vertical interactions between public and private networks. The research methodology entailed a critical desktop document analysis of books, articles, regulatory policy and strategy documents. Network governance was conceptually and contextually analysed through unobtrusive research methods. It served as a possible analytical model for democratic governance, where citizens take centre stage in participative decision-making. The findings provide both a description and a contextualisation of the themes that emerged from the research. The article highlights that the network governance model could help South Africa move forward from a dated, elitist democracy based on a dependency model, to a participative democracy model, where communities and government work together. The article concludes that South Africa can only realise the National Development Plans (NDPs) 2030 goals (to maximise people's development, strengthen governance networks and enhance state's capacity to provide adequate public services) by drawing on partnerships within a network governance framework.

Current global pressures on natural resources requires incorporating the environment into national planning and budgeting processes if sustainable development is to be realized. Thus, the role of National development planning in setting up objectives for all levels of government, directing national budgetary processes and managing support from external sources makes it an important driver in any country's environmental management system. Agenda 23 of the United Nations general assembly tasked each country with developing responses that would meet the overall implementation of the agenda, by building on existing appropriate planning instruments with the aim of supporting a transition to the Sustainable Development Goals. Zambia's current Seventh National Development Plan makes mention of the country's potential to productively harness its renewable and natural resources, and lists examples of what can be done. However, it does not explain how this will be done and what measures will be taken to achieve these sustainable goals. The aim of this paper was to review and evaluate gaps in how environmental management policies are incorporated into national development plans and, based on the findings, revise national policies in the goal of achieving sustainable development. A systematic quantitative literature review was carried out, and 19 pieces of literature met the criteria for evaluation. The findings revealed that incorporating environmental management policies into national development planning processes is multi-faceted and should be treated as long term programme. It also showed that keeping the focus on specific issues, places and people makes a stronger case for mainstreaming. They also showed that concentrating on key mainstream institutions and processes is more productive when considering policy processes. The findings though did not indicate whether facilitating projects at local government levels makes mainstreaming programmes more successful. It also did not indicate whether data acquired through monitoring can help determine if a national plan is more effective than a local level or micro-project plan when carrying out environmental mainstreaming. These are options for further research.

The United Nations General Assembly in the year 2015 determined the Agenda 2030 with 17 Sustainable Development Goals (ODS), which are oriented to improve the standard of living of the citizens of the different countries. In addition, they include new issues such as climate change, economic inequality and innovation. There are three actors: The Ecuadorian government, which through its National Development Plan establishes the national objectives that are oriented towards the ODS; the private sector, which is the productive sector and marks the economic development of the country; and the universities, which develop lines of research that resolve society's problems. This work aims to establish lines of research aligned from the ODS and the national legal regulations through a documentary review to develop in Ecuadorian universities scientific research work that partly solves the problems of society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The domestication of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has been progressing in various countries across the world. Five years into the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development that embraces 17 inseparable SDGs, this study documents how South Africa has been domesticating the SDGs. The study uses a mixed-method approach that includes a survey and interviews as well as critical discourse and document analysis. It emerges that South Africa has taken reasonable steps to domesticate and implement the SDGs with the hope of meeting many of the targets in 2030. The study demonstrates that there are SDG-aligned initiatives based on the National Development Plan (NDP) Vision 2030, some of which were in existence prior to the 2030 Agenda. The intersection between the NDP Vision 2030 and the SDGs saw South Africa continuing with many existing initiatives while seeking to enhance alignment of those initiatives with the 2030 Agenda. At the same time, the study also reveals that South Africa has put in place institutional mechanisms to implement the SDGs, although these have taken longer than planned to be finalised. Even now, there remains uncertainty regarding separate funding for the SDGs, as currently funding is provided mainly through the NDP Vision 2030 government programming. This article recommends continued alignment and further domestication of the SDGs, especially at the provincial and local government levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Education, which is addressed by Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4 of the United Nations (UN), is a driving force of nations world-wide. Quality education remains a powerful tool that can be used internationally to entrench socio-economic development. SDGs are particularly significant in enabling poor and developing African countries to work towards achieving these goals by the 2030 target date. In South Africa, the goals of the National Development Plan (NDP) should also be achieved by the same date as SDGs. To achieve the SDGs and chapters of the NDP, equitable access to information is critical. Universities have a fundamental role to play in producing knowledgeable and professional PhD graduates of a high standard, who will work productively to boost weak and slow-performing economies in their respective countries. Academic libraries are mandated to support students in completing their studies. They also need to support researchers in producing impact-based research that is crucial in solving the persistent socio-economic challenges that citizens face daily. Based on the literature review, this study was aimed at highlighting the expanding roles and services that academic libraries can embark on in South Africa in achieving SDG 4 and Chapter 9 of the NDP. The key recommendation is that universities need to provide academic libraries with an increased budget to enable them to expand their roles and services to ensure that SDG 4 and Chapter 9 of the NDP are achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay results from the project registered before the Research and Extension Commission, School of Administration Sciences, at State Distance University in Costa Rica (UNED), according to code P2018-015, whose main course was to scrutinize the reality of Costa Rican administrative-budgetary scheme, in accordance with its consubstantial and closest conditioning factors on the international scene. Therefore, according to a qualitative approach, and the descriptions and inferences uncovered by that approach, it is possible to determine that Costa Rica has an arsenal of historical, legal, jurisprudential and methodological elements that, despite the budgetary burdens imposed on current specific destinations, can make it possible to route programmatic machinery for national development goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Colombian government presented to Congress, the National Development Plan (PND) 2018-2022 "Pact for Colombia, Pact for Equity," which was approved by Law 1955 of 2019. The reflections and proposals included in this paper refer to the main components of the PND, the reforms proposed, the Multi-Annual Program of Investments that accompanies it, as well as to its apparent omissions. The paper does not intend to cover all the topics in the PND. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of A&C - Administrative & Constitutional Law Review - Revista de Direito Administrativo e Constitucional is the property of A&C - Revista de Direito Administrativo & Constitucional (Instituto Bacellar) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The effective functioning of institutions is the hallmark of a developmental state globally. This is because institutions have a key role to play in the implementation of policies and the delivery of public goods. One of the fundamental roles played by institutions is the coordination of government interventions. In the absence of such, policy implementation and service delivery will not be rational. For coordination to take place, governments all over the world need to enter into partnership with other societal players such as business, labour and civil society. In essence, the idea developmental states requires that states enter into social contracts on the basis of long-term national developmental goals in partnership with other developmental partners. However, the state should be able to play a guiding role in pursuit of national developmental goals. In order for the state to effectively play this role, it needs to insulate itself from external influence and pressure. It should also be able to appoint its personnel based on merit, so as to enable its bureaucracy to interpret and implement policy accordingly. The government should also establish powerful oversight structures capable of conducting checks and balances on the affairs of the state and its partners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The Limpopo Provincial Government, like other provinces of South Africa, has developed the Limpopo Development Plan (LDP) 2015/2019. This has been a revision of the previous developed plans that also had to be revised without the realisation of their goals. It has come to be the norm in government to develop plans that fail to be implemented. This is attributed to a lack of effective monitoring and evaluation (M&E) systems in departments. Most of the departments in Limpopo have under-capacitated and under-staffed M&E directorates; hence, they fail to align development interventions as in the LDP and M&E processes. Aim: The aim of this study was to probe the alignment between intervention plans and M&E. When there is a lack of alignment, there is an obvious lack of monitoring if government activities are geared to strengthen the realisation of the development plan, failure of which leads to a waste of resources and continuous under-development in the province. Failing to realise that the set goals results in government are being postponed by the continual drafting and redrafting of the same goals in different tones and sentences. Setting: The M&E should be at the centre of decision-making as it gives evidence-based decisions. This is important in the Limpopo Province which is one of the poorest provinces in the country. Method: This study adopted the techniques of qualitative methodology where assessment is conducted to find out the alignment between the development interventions as set out in the LDP and the concept of result-based management which is key in M&E. The Annual Performance Plans that are not directly responding to the goals of the National Development Plan 2030 and the LDP 2015/2019 in particular. Results: This study demonstrates that the lack of alignment between the LDP and M&E processes leads to failure in realising the goals of the LDP on the one hand, and the ability to improve the living conditions of its citizenry on the other hand. Conclusion: It can be concluded that without effective M&E systems government will continue to waste resources without getting improvement. All that is done by the government should be aligned to proper M&E systems.

South Africa is currently emerging from a political and socio-economic crisis. A political faction largely based on patrimonialism threatened to destroy the economy and thus social service delivery. With the recent election of Cyril Ramaphosa as State President a new start has been made to build a successful economy which can act as a base for pro-poor policies. This process will however not be easy. Although South Africa is known as the welfare leader in Africa, with 45.5% of its population receiving welfare grants, these social grants are not large enough to alleviate poverty, and almost 54% of the population remains under the poverty line. The National Planning Commission of South Africa is attempting to institute a comprehensive social security floor to cover all possible needs of the poor and excluded, but with the numbers cited above this remains a difficult undertaking. I will argue that a range of interventions is necessary to address this complex situation. The comprehensive social security floor at a low- income level is important. This will contribute to the alleviation of high levels of extreme poverty found at present. However, South Africans are highly aspirational and most of the poor aspire to “a better life.” The National Development Plan therefore also proposes welfare programmes which can act as a leverage into economic activity. An example of such a programme would be the proposed social security programme for informal workers (Devereux and Conradie, 2015).

In this article, the reasons why ethics ought to be one of the pillars of an all-inclusive economic growth strategy are expounded. Because of the unethical burden of the South African history, coupled to the myopic way of transforming the post-apartheid society and building an inclusive nation, a deep rooted ethical and trust deficit prevails among the people of South Africa. This is the reason why the South African society is in a sophisticated and self-inflicted war with itself that permeates nearly all segments and components of the politico-economic order. The authors argue that a shared ethics and vision, founded upon a strong shared ethos, would restore and bolster trust and confidence in the economy. This would reform the economic household and place the economy on a growth strategy of 6% per annum that is needed to improve the economic prospects and allow to break free from the equilibrium of low growth and high inequality in which South Africa has been trapped for decades.