Sustainable Development

UNIT 2 PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Structure
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Public Administration: Meaning, Scope and Significance
2.3 Role of Public Administration in Development of Nation States
2.4 Public Administration and Sustainable Development
2.5 Measures for Revitalization of Public Administration
2.6 Recent Global Challenges of Public Administration
2.7 Let Us Sum Up
2.8 References and Selected Readings
2.9 Check Your Progress- Possible Answer

2.1 INTRODUCTION
There is an increasing global realization that public administration can certainly
help in achieving the goals of sustainable development. A number of international
organizations including the UN have expressed their concern on the urgent need
for public administration reforms. It is has been demonstrated at various levels
world wide that goals of sustainable development can be achieved through a
number of institutional innovations and reforms such as democratization and
decentralization of decision making; developing legal and institutional
frameworks and economic governance systems; implementing ethics and anti-
corruption strategies at various levels in and out side government institutions;
improving resource mobilization at various levels; introduction of better financial
management systems; and tapping the potential of e-governance. In order to
update and broaden the scope and the understanding of public administration
roles in various sectors of government and non government institutions the UN
agencies have been highlighting for greater interest targeting a variety of public
administration revitalization measures undertaken world wide, to promote
macroeconomic stability and economic growth, human development and
achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. There is more thrust on the
civil society participation in the policy and development process. More and more
importance is laid in all development projects for responsiveness to citizen
concerns, conflict prevention and resolution efforts, public safety and security.
Some of the time tested components of management and governance like
transparency and accountability, efficiency and effectiveness are also being
considered components in all development projects. In this unit, an attempt has
been made to describe, how to build public institutions at all levels, from local
to national to global, in order to create a sustainable future.
After going through this unit, you should be able to:
• Describe concept and significance of public administration;
• Explain the scope of public administration in development projects;
• Analyse the role of public administration in meeting the goals of sustainable
22 development;
• Discuss role of various institutions and people in achieving sustainable Public Administration and
Sustainable Development
development.

2.2 PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION: MEANING,

SCOPE AND SIGNIFICANCE
According to Handbook of Public administration, 1989 “Public administration
houses the implementation of government policy and an academic discipline
that studies this implementation and that prepares civil servants for this work”.
As a “field of inquiry with a diverse scope” its “fundamental goal... is to advance
management and policies so that government can function.” Some of the various
definitions which have been offered for the term are: “the management of public
programs”; the “translation of politics into the reality that citizens see every
day”; and “the study of government decision making, the analysis of the policies
themselves, the various inputs that have produced them, and the inputs necessary
to produce alternative policies.” Public administration is “centrally concerned
with the organization of government policies and programmes as well as the
behavior of officials (usually non-elected) formally responsible for their conduct”.

Administration is as old as Mankind. It has existed ever since Man began to

organize himself. Administration is a process common to all group effort, public
or private, civil or military, large scale or small scale. The word ‘Administration’
is derived from the Latin word ‘ad’ and ‘ministrare’ which means to serve.
Considered as an concrete activity, administration includes all types of Work
necessary to achieve the goal in view it assumes myriad of shapes and forms in
various subject matter fields; it is both skill and on art and its process is universally
identical administration has been practiced from time immemorial only it form
and style have been undergoing changes to suit the changing needs over the
period of time.

Woodrow Wilson, who is considered the founder of the American Public

Administration (the discipline), has worked on American public administration,
and the big question for Wilson was how Americans could incorporate Public
Administration into the Constitution which did not mention it. Also in developing
Public Administration, Wilson’s basic difficulty was how to reconcile the
differences in notions of democracy (popular rule) and the systematic rules. To
do this he says there are two spheres: “Politics” and “Administration” Politics =
choices of government are made by the elected and Administration = carries out
the choices by the (popular consent) free of political meddling “politics-
administration dichotomy”. Before entering into the science of administration
Wilson felt it was needed that first there should be some account of the history of
what others have done in the field, secondly there should be an ascertainment of
its subject-matter, and thirdly the it should be determined the best methods to
develop it and the most clarifying political conceptions to carry into it. Public
administration is a segment of the wider field of Administration. Woodrow Wilson
defines Public administration as “detailed and systematic application of law”.

Scope of Public Administration

• Public administration is the whole government in action, it includes all
operations having for their purpose the, fulfillment or enforcement of public
policy.
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Sustainable Development • The science of public administration is an enquiry as to how Policies may
best be carried in to operation.
• Public administration is concerned with “What”- the technical knowledge
of a field which enables the administrator to perform his tasks; and the ‘how-
the technique of management according to which the programmes are carried
to success.
• It involves, managing, directing and supervising the activities of thousands
or even millions of workers so that some order and efficiency may result
from their efforts.
• The core of the public administration is not the method management but the
goods and services that are produced or tendered.
Significance of Public administration
The full scope of public administration would cover administrative theory and
applied administration. The wellbeing of the nation (society) is increasingly
dependent on the efficiency of the government (i.e.) public administration. The
future of the civilized government and even the civilization rests on the
competence, efficiency and efficacy of the Public administration. Every Individual
in the modern society is concerned with and totally interlinked with public
administration at every form of his or her life right from the cradle to the grave;
nay even before his or her birth (in the form of pre-natal care of the expectant
mother) to even after his or her death (proving his will and thereby taking care of
his property in certain ways). Thus on account of the importance of public
administration, it has been rightly described as the “Heart of Modern civilization”.

Public administration deals with the organization of government policies and

programs and the behaviour of officials who are responsible for this conduct.
The role of a public administrator is to analyze public policies so that they come
out in the right context and are eventually implemented as policies that benefit
people at large. They are basically public servant and their role is seen across all
government departments and agencies and they include police officers, cabinet
secretaries, city managers, municipal budget analysts and census analysts. In
other words, the aim of public administration is to ensure that all government
bodies function normally and that there is no corruption in the handling of
government activities. It further seeks to improve the effectiveness and efficiency
of public services. UNDP has tried to define the role of public administration in
the following words “Public administration seeks to foster relationships that are
guided by respect for human rights, information sharing, and gender equality,
rule of law, integrity and transparency. Our initiatives focus on building robust
institutions at both national and sub-national levels, and are therefore closely
integrated with UNDP’s work in the area of local governance”.

The UNDP focuses its support of public administration in four priority areas:
• Public administration and democratic change: UNDP promotes incremental
steps towards reform, supporting the efforts of developing countries to shape
public administration institutions into robust, representative, responsive and
democratic institutions.
• Public administration and the MDGs: Public administration can play a key
role in the equitable distribution of benefits and opportunities to all —
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 especially the poor, women and minorities — which is of particular Public Administration and
Sustainable Development
significance in areas directly linked to the achievement of the MDGs.
• Public administration for state- and peace-building in post-conflict societies:
UNDP seeks to increase attention to public administration and civil service
management as an essential component of state-building in post-conflict
societies.
• Public administration for environmental sustainability: UNDP works to
strengthen public administration to better address climate change challenges,
environmental sustainability and disaster risk reduction.

The role of public will need to provide the legitimate rules and organizational
capacity required to promote societal transformations at all levels for a greener
and more equitable economy. Many governments and public administrations
still operate in an old development paradigm and do not have the capacity to
mobilize the full range of stakeholders and introduce the wide spectrum of policies
involved in bringing the three pillars consisting of society, economy and
environment components of sustainable development together in an effective
manner. In addition to the challenge of implementing cross-sectoral policies,
they are struggling to translate global concerns into local action and local concerns
into global actions. The mismatch between the international governance system
and national and sub-national administrations leads to ineffective agreements
and regimes with regards to implementation (Pinto and Puppimde Oliveira, 2008).
The capacity to accelerate the transition to a greener economy rests necessarily
on how public administrations can effectively incorporate the concept of
sustainable development into their objectives and translate these objectives into
results in practice.

2.3 ROLE OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION IN

DEVELOPMENT OF NATION STATES
According to the Report of the Secretary General of the United Nations, in its
60th Session Item 43, Report of the Economic and Social Council, “Africa is a
case in point. The dominant public policy and management issues in this region
of approximately 650 million people are how to sustain ongoing governance and
public administration reforms, alleviate poverty, restore normalcy to countries
emerging from conflict and reconstruct institutions devastated by civil strife and,
in some circumstances, by decades of dictatorial rule. Under the leadership of
the African Union, and within the context of the New Partnership for Africa’s
Development (NEPAD), wealth creation is being pursued as a new strategy in
the war on poverty”.

At the present time, access to the basic necessities of life (food, potable water,
housing, fuel and energy) is highly restricted in Africa. Social services and
infrastructure have largely collapsed owing to a lack of resources for their upkeep.
Life expectancy in the region declined from 49 years in 1999 to 46 years in 2001
owing largely to the impact of HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis.3 However,
life expectancy in Africa is projected to rise to 51.3 years by the end of 2010 and
to reach 69.5 years by 2045.4 Nevertheless, recent forecasts indicate that, in the
absence of a substantial infusion of resources, child poverty in the world’s poorest
countries (a significant number of which are in Africa) will not be reduced within
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Sustainable Development the 15 years expected by the Millennium Development Goals, but in 150 years.
The Human Development Index has not improved significantly from 1997 (0.463)
to 2001 (0.468). Between 1975 and 1999, 22 countries suffered setbacks in the
human development index. Of that number, 13 (that is, more than half) were in
Africa (UN, 2005).

Similarly, with respect to the Middle East and North Africa, the dominant
revitalization concerns are how to enhance the capacity of public administration
systems to engineer high economic growth rates, respond to the needs of the
people (particularly young persons) and ensure peace and security within and
across countries. Like sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and North Africa is
confronted with the challenges of economic growth and, to a lesser degree, of
poverty alleviation. Not so long ago, the Middle East and North Africa achieved
high (almost 10 per cent) gross domestic product (GDP) growth rates. Impressive
economic performance enabled the region to invest in human and infrastructure
development. In recent years, GDP growth rates within the region have averaged
less than 2 per cent. Trade deficits and falling per capita growth continue to pose
significant public policy and management challenges in the diversified (non-oil)
economies.

With regard to Asia and the Pacific, the revitalization of public administration
has to address enormous poverty alleviation and human development challenges.
With a population of 3.4 billion, Asia and the Pacific is faced with enormous
challenges in the area of human development. Of the 1.2 billion people living in
extreme poverty (living on less than one United States dollar per day) worldwide,
two thirds are in Asia. While the aggregate poverty ratio has fallen in recent
years (rural poverty declined from 39 to 28 per cent and urban poverty fell from
24 to 20 per cent between 1990 and 2000), poverty remains a formidable challenge
in the region. The solution would at first appear to lie in the design and
implementation of policies geared towards economic growth. However, the
tsunami tragedy of December 2004 introduced another dimension in public policy
— the need for the capacity to anticipate climatic, environmental and other
changes impacting on the life and well-being of the people. Therefore, in addition
to economic growth and poverty alleviation concerns, public administration
revitalization must of necessity include the competence to read early warning
signals and institute the necessary proactive measures (UN, 2005).

The challenges facing the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) include

how to build and strengthen the institutions capable of engaging in a variety of
activities, among them, sustaining the wide-ranging governance and economic
transformation that started in the 1990s; confronting the risk of State capture by
organized crime; generating economic growth; creating gainful employment;
improving the people’s living standards; and ensuring regional peace and stability.
Proximity to the European Union (EU) serves as an additional incentive to public
administration reform in a number of the CIS member States. 17. Latin America
and the Caribbean, with a combined population of 518.8 million, face a major
challenge in poverty eradication. Of the total population, close to 221 million, or
44 per cent, live in poverty. Of the 221 million classified as poor, 19 per cent are
in a state of extreme poverty. The incidence of poverty is higher in rural than in
urban areas (54 per cent of rural and 30 per cent of urban households can be
classified as poor). The region made substantial progress towards poverty
reduction in 1997 only to backslide since then. Between 1999 and 2002, the
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incidence of poverty rose from 43.8 to 44.0 per cent, while the ratio of people in Public Administration and
Sustainable Development
extreme poverty stayed at 19.4 per cent. Over-reliance on market mechanisms
contributed to jobless growth, the gradual collapse of public services and the
deepening of poverty and inequality. There are, however, growing signs of a
turnaround. Besides taking proactive measures at home, Governments within
the region are sponsoring regional cooperation initiatives aimed at stimulating
economic growth and improving people’s living standards (UN, 2005).

2.4 PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Sustainable development can be defined as the environmental, economic and
social well-being for today and tomorrow. The term ‘Sustainable Development’
became popular in the beginning of the 1990s, particularly after the 1992 Rio
Conference (United Nations Conference on Environment and Development) and
the release of the Brundtland Report. The term definitively broke the competition
between environmental protection, economic and social development objectives,
offering the possibility that all three could come together without a trade-off, at
least in theory. However, this has not always held true in practice. Even though
social and environmental awareness have increased and there are many good
examples of sustainable development at the small scale, the world has become
dangerously more unsustainable over the past two decades. The challenge of
sustainable development cannot be underestimated. It will require a substantial
transformation of the present economic development model, analogous to the
transition economies underwent with the industrial revolution. According to the
most frequent definition as given by the Brundtland Report, which defines
sustainable development as the development that meets the needs of the present
without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
It has two key concepts of needs and the idea of limitations.

The ecosystems have been suitable examples of sustainable biological systems

along with the biogeochemical cycles. A condition of unsustainability occurs
when the natural resources are used up faster than it can be replenished. The
long-term result of environmental degradation is the inability to sustain human
life and such degradation on a global scale would result in the extinction of the
humanity. On our planet’s 20% of the population consumes 80% of the natural
resources making sustainable development almost impossible.

The history of sustainable development is littered with well-intended but ill-

designed or ill-executed policy initiatives. The past 20 years has witnessed a
number of institutional innovations at the local, national and global levels to
facilitate the integration of the three pillars of sustainable development and better
align global, national and local actions. Developing countries have an opportunity
to introduce these policies, managerial and technological innovations in the early
stages of economic development and to avoid the costs associated with some of
the unsustainable paths taken by today’s developed countries. This write up tries
to examine some of these innovations and to discuss options to scale them up to
produce wide-reaching governance and economic change. A broader policy
dialogue on public administration reforms is needed if we are to steer a course
towards a new ‘industrial’ revolution towards sustainability. The role of public
administration discusses the political, managerial and social challenges of
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Sustainable Development translating the concept of sustainable development into action. It reviews the
two-century-old debate surrounding the existence of limits to growth and the
different economic development paradigms rooted in this debate.

Industrial revolution had resulted in an exponential increase in the human

consumption of resources and an increase in health, wealth and population. The
combination of population increase in the developing world and unsustainable
consumption levels in the developed world poses a challenge to sustainability.
Other human impacts like air pollution, the pollutants like nitrous oxide, sulphur
oxides, particulate matter, carbon dioxide etc accumulate in the atmosphere lead
to the global warming and climate change. The impacts of global warming have
resulted in the unsustainable conditions for the humans as well as ecosystems.
The rising sea level, increasing temperature, variable precipitation and drought
conditions, increasing weather extremes like cyclones, heat and cold waves are
all impacting the sustainability. The corals are bleaching due to ocean warming
and ocean acidification due to increasing levels of dissolved carbon dioxide.
Increasing urbanization pollutes clean water supplies hence making it unfit for
use. The changes in the land use change pattern by the humans are resulting in
the loss of biodiversity due to habitat loss and fragmentation. Land use change is
fundamental to the operations of the biosphere because alterations in the relative
proportions of land dedicated to urbanization, agriculture, forest, woodland,
grassland and pasture have a marked effect on the global water, carbon and
nitrogen biogeochemical cycle and this can impact negatively on both natural
and human systems. The environmental costs of food production are topsoil
depletion, erosion and desertification, overgrazing, salinization, sodification,
water logging, high levels of fossil fuel use, reliance on inorganic fertilizers and
synthetic organic pesticides, reductions in genetic diversity by the excessive use
of monocultures, water resource depletion, pollution of water bodies by run-off
and ground water contamination. In the second half of the 20th century world
population doubled, food production tripled, energy use quadrupled, and overall
economic activity quintupled. Unsustainable economic growth has been compared
to the malignant growth of a cancer because it eats away the Earth’s ecosystem
services which are its life-support system. All of these environmental problems
associated with industrial agricultural and agribusiness are now being addressed
through such movements as sustainable development and organic farming and
more sustainable business practices.

In this session you have read about public administration: concept and
significance, role of public administration in development of nation states and
public administration and sustainable development. Now answer the questions
given in Check Your Progress-1.

Check Your Progress 1

Note: a) Write your answer in about 50 words.
b) Check your answer with possible answers given at the end of the unit
1) What is the meaning and significance of public administration?
.......................................................................................................................
.......................................................................................................................
.......................................................................................................................
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2) What is the relation between public administration and sustainable Public Administration and
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development?
.......................................................................................................................
.......................................................................................................................
.......................................................................................................................
.......................................................................................................................
.......................................................................................................................

2.5 MEASURES FOR REVITALIZATION OF

PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
The complex and dramatic challenges facing the world place a heavy burden on
public administration. The signs on the horizon also point to increasing awareness
on the part of Governments and their civil society partners that the world of
public administration is on the threshold of change and that assistance is needed
in making the right choices. The countries that responded to the questionnaire
confirmed this observation and provided concrete evidence of measures instituted
to reform and revitalize their public administration systems during the past 10
years. The measures adopted by many countries in recent years to reform and
strengthen public administration systems differ from those instituted in the 1980s
and the early 1990s. First, in contrast to the revitalization agendas of the 1980s,
which were formulated at the insistence of external financial and donor
institutions, recent reforms are more likely to be “home-grown” and directed at
specific problems and challenges. Second, rather than focusing narrowly on cost-
cutting issues and seeing public administration revitalization from a doctrinaire,
supply-side economics angle, recent revitalization measures have multiple objectives
and rely on a variety of pragmatic change management strategies. Above all,
contemporary revitalization measures differ from earlier ones in terms of the
emphasis given not only to the application of “business” and “customer
satisfaction” techniques — a carry-over from the early days of New Public
Management — but also to the entrenchment of fundamental public service values
and ethics.

The challenges highlighted in the preceding paragraphs have in one way or another
informed the actions taken to revitalize public administration systems in the past
10 years. While the responses to the questionnaire administered by the Secretariat
pointed to the differences in the Member States’ priorities, they also highlighted
issues of common concern. Fine-tuning and consolidating New Public
Management reforms and applying information and communication technologies
to internal management and external service-delivery processes are among the
dominant concerns in well-established public administration systems. By contrast,
in the former command economies of Central and Eastern Europe, the western
Balkans and the Commonwealth of Independent States, and in many of the
emerging market economies of Asia, Latin America and, to some extent, the
Middle East and Africa, the raison d’être of public administration revitalization
was to prepare public administration systems for the challenges of democratic
governance and for the implementation of market reforms. In countries emerging
from conflict, revitalization was expected to be an integral part of the State
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Sustainable Development reconstruction process, and a means of stemming the decay of State and civil
society institutions.

Within the European Union (and among the Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development (OECD) member countries), public administration
revitalization is at once a straightforward and complex exercise. For the older
members of the European Union, whose administrative systems are founded on
more or less similar and deep-rooted values, revitalization simply entails
reorienting internal processes towards external demands, rather than subjecting
the systems to radical, roots-and-branch restructuring. In recent years, however,
the longer standing members of the Union have had to grapple with complex
public policy challenges, not the least of which is the reconciliation of citizen
expectations with fiscal and budget constraints. The recent “No” vote in France
and the Netherlands is putatively a rebuff to the draft constitution of the European
Union, but the verdict actually highlights a deepening concern on how to resolve
the crisis of the welfare state. That crisis has far-reaching implications for public
administration revitalization in the EU as a whole. For the new members, entry
into the Union marks a major turning point at which difficult public choices
have to be made, and substantial adjustments in institutions, management
practices, and processes become absolutely essential. Since the EU is a community
of values, the new entrants would, in forging ahead with their public
administration revitalization plans, need to bring recruitment, promotion and
service-delivery standards up to the EU level and ensure that public officials
subscribe to a common code of professional ethics (Glemarec and Oliveira, 2012).

2.5.1 Emerging Revitalization Measures and Trends

According to Glemarec and Oliveira (2012) there are strong indications of
commitment to the revitalization of public institutions worldwide. The recent
eagerness to embrace change goes against the trend that started in the 1980s
when public service reform was, in many countries, a part of cost-cutting
economic restructuring programmes, implemented at the urging of international
financial and donor institutions, and widely perceived as an “external imposition”.
In much of today’s world, and as Governments acknowledge the necessity to
reassess the workings of public administration and to orient public institutions
towards citizen concerns, revitalization is viewed not as a bitter pill to be
reluctantly swallowed, but as a natural and prudent response to escalating
challenges. The major challenge is how to make a transition from commitment
to action. This requires forging strong coalitions for change.

Not withstanding differences within and across regions, the rationale frequently
cited for embarking on revitalization efforts includes the following:
a) Promoting ethics, transparency and accountability;
b) Enhancing public service efficiency and effectiveness, especially in the
delivery of public services (however, interest in performance and productivity
management and in value-for-money auditing has been particularly observed
in developed economies, emerging markets and economies in transition);
c) Ensuring the responsiveness of public administration to citizen needs and
legitimate demands (through the adoption of citizen charters, dissemination
of service pledges, and implementation of quality service initiatives);
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d) Promoting human development (and achieving the Millennium Development Public Administration and
Sustainable Development
Goals);
e) Promoting economic growth and macroeconomic stability (by acquiring and
applying the capacity to implement programmes geared towards promoting
investor confidence and creating an environment conducive to private sector
participation in development).

Other reasons cited for revitalizing administrative systems, though less frequently
than the preceding ones, are as follows:
a) Preventing and resolving conflict, and development of emergency
preparedness and community policing (for countries faced with threats to
security or emerging from conflict);
b) Applying information and communication technologies to improve internal
management processes and external service delivery systems, and promoting
civil service automation (this is especially the case in well-established and
rapidly changing administrative systems);
c) Repositioning the public service for the challenges of democratization and
economic liberalization (Africa, Central, Eastern and South eastern Europe
and the Commonwealth of Independent States);
d) Promoting popular participation in local governance and implementing
decentralization programmes (an aspect of democratic reform);
e) Creating an environment conducive to private sector growth and
development;
f) Coupling pay and employment reforms with the reassignment of posts and
miscellaneous redundancy management programmes.

Among the issues on which there is a convergence of views are those relating to
the integrity, efficiency, effectiveness and responsiveness of public institutions,
as well as to the significance of the role played by those institutions in promoting
economic growth, macroeconomic stability and human development. Without
reading too much unanimity into the responses from the Member States, it is
possible to add that the measures and strategies frequently applied by countries
in achieving their revitalization objectives include the enactment of new laws
and regulations (cited by 73.7 per cent of the respondents), personnel and human
resources management and training (68.4 per cent), organizational restructuring
(65.8 per cent), the adoption of anti-corruption measures (55.3 per cent) and the
deployment of information and communication technology capacities to provide
quality service (55.3 per cent). At the same time, privatization and enhancement
of the law-making capacities of the legislature were among options not frequently
cited (36.8 and 39.5 per cent respectively). A few of the responses indicated the
challenges encountered in outsourcing essential services, particularly the
challenges of accountability and quality control (Glemarec and Oliveira, 2012).

For countries emerging from dictatorial rule, particular emphasis has been given
to the enactment of career-oriented civil service laws; the creation or strengthening
of institutions responsible for public service management; the review of
recruitment practices to ensure that they conform to the highest standards of
integrity, competence and professionalism; entrenchment of the values of political
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Sustainable Development impartiality and non-partisanship; adoption of measures to insulate the “career
service” from political influences; and the organization of programmes to provide
training and upgrade skills. Reports of experiences in “engaged governance” in
some countries further testify to the importance accorded by recent revitalization
programmes to issues of concern to the people. In addition to promoting the
adoption of participatory development planning and budgeting approaches, the
programmes have led to the establishment of one-stop service-delivery centres
in national public administration systems. Variously termed “citizen centres”,
“service assistance to citizens”, or “people first”, these quality service initiatives
have one common objective — to place public administration at the service of
the people and, by so doing, to alleviate poverty and promote development.

One item that consistently appears on revitalization agendas in all regions of the
world is public integrity. It is a revitalization challenge that transcends geographic,
economic, socio-political and cultural boundaries, and it serves as a linchpin in
contemporary revitalization efforts. The growing interest in public integrity (also
referred to as “ethics and values”, “ethics and accountability”, “transparency”,
etc.) should not come as a surprise. Aside from its role in consolidating the gains
of fiscal, macroeconomic, management, institutional and other “technocratic”
reforms, the focus on integrity proves critical in reviving and reasserting traditional
public administration values and ethos, particularly those that had, in a number
of countries, succumbed to systematic politicization or had been subverted by
the tendencies of New Public Management towards “corporatization” and the
downgrading of rules.

Over and above the measures reported by the respondents, the actions taken to
date attest to the importance accorded to public integrity worldwide. Particularly
in the last five years, when reports of ethical violations have undermined citizen
trust in public and business organizations, Governments in different parts of the
world have mounted multipronged assaults on grand and petty corruption. Among
the measures adopted are the enactment of strict anti-corruption laws; the
establishment of anti-corruption, assets declaration and allied watch-dog bodies;
the restructuring of judicial and law enforcement agencies; and the enhancement
of the agencies’ investigative, data-gathering and information-sharing capacities.
Freedom-of information laws were enacted in a few countries, and in many others
civil society organizations and the media were enlisted as allies in the fight against
corruption. Over time, a broad measure of consensus was reached on the outline
and contents of global and regional anti-corruption conventions — examples of
which are the United Nations Convention Against Corruption;9 the United
Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime;10 the Inter-
American Convention Against Corruption adopted by the Organization of
American States on 29 March 1996; the Convention on Combating Bribery of
Foreign Officials in International Business Transactions, adopted by the
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development on 21 November 1997;
and the African Union Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption,
adopted by the Heads of State and Government of the African Union on 11 July
2003.

The measures adopted within and across countries to entrench the principles of
merit, professionalism, accountability, “customer care” and citizen responsiveness
complement efforts at mainstreaming high ethical standards in public
administration systems. From the western Balkans, through Central and Eastern
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Europe, the Commonwealth of Independent States, to Latin America, the Middle Public Administration and
Sustainable Development
East, Asia and the Pacific, and Africa, a great deal of effort has gone into the
enactment of laws and the formulation of codes aimed at delineating the “career
service” from offices falling within the political patronage net. Examples include
the miscellaneous civil service laws enacted in countries preparing to join the
EU, the Charter for the Public Service in Africa adopted in Windhoek, Namibia,
by the Third Pan-African Conference of the Ministers of Civil Service in February
2001 and the Ibero-American Charter of Public Service adopted in Santa Cruz
de la Sierra, Bolivia, by the fifth Ibero-American Conference of Ministers for
Public Administration and State Reform on 27 June 2003. The “customer care”
and the supporting productivity measurement and performance management
initiatives launched in various countries should, if vigorously pursued, give
concrete expression to the quest for professionally competent, ethically sound
and citizen-responsive public administration systems, and strengthen the capacity
of public institutions to meet development challenges. The challenge, however,
is how to ensure enforcement of those measures (Glemarec and Oliveira, 2012).

2.6 RECENT GLOBAL CHALLENGES OF

PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
There is a global consensus that urbanization and economic development are
complementary to each other. Global urban population being only three per cent
in 1800, 13 per cent in 1900 and 30 per cent in 1950 has crossed 50 per cent
mark in the year 2007 (UN, 2007). This journey of urbanization has witnessed a
rapid pace of industrialization and expansion of business, industry and trade
covering a sequence from Europe to America, Japan, NICS (Newly Industrialized
Countries), ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations), China and South
Asia. This dispersal of economic activities associated with competitive edge
confirms that cities and towns are specifically known for their economic function
and have economies of scale and economies of settlements (Michael Cohen,
1990). It is noted that urban economies account for 55 per cent GDP in low
income countries, 73 per cent in middle income countries and 85 per cent in
higher income countries (World Bank, 1999, Elements for a New Strategy on
Urban Development and Municipal Issues, Washington, D.C., World Bank).
Therefore, cities and towns being engines of economic growth acquire crucial
role to achieve national policy objectives of a welfare state. Accordingly national
policies across the board are giving emphasis on urban development and
associated delivery of services and infrastructure to a cross section of households
(Pandey, 2012).

In order to address the issues arising due to the process of urbanization and other
related unsustainable economic issues, increasing gap between rich and the poor,
unsustainable harvesting of natural resources at different levels and increasing
social maladies led to grow pubic concern at national and international levels.
As a result, in 1992 the world leaders met at the United Nations Conference on
Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro, the largest gathering
of heads of states or governments to have ever been organized until then,
promising to chart a development path that is equitable, environmentally just
and economically rewarding. They recognized, under the call for ‘sustainable
development’ that a different kind of development was needed, one which would
simultaneously achieve the economic, social and environmental objectives of
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Sustainable Development human development. Twenty years after UNCED, the Rio + 20 Summit again
met to re affirm past commitments, but, even more importantly, accelerate their
implementation by focusing on the greening of the economy, promoting social
equity and improving environmental governance. A fundamental and often
overlooked pre-requisite to achieve sustainable development is the role and
capacity of public institutions. Practice has shown that public institutions faced
a number of challenges to translate political will and policy change into action.
Therefore, to deliver a new development paradigm, we need to strengthen the
‘visible hand’ of public institutions worldwide to supplement the so-called
invisible hand of markets. In view of these initiatives by the UNCED, there
started more discussions and actions on the role and newer dynamics of public
institutions all across the world particularly after liberalization and globalization
of economy all across.

The social and economic fibre of global societies have undergone tremendous
change due to the process of urbanization, modernization, increased awareness
and public participation in development and decision making. The processes of
globalization and political and economic change have introduced socio-economic
changes taking place worldwide. The challenges confronting public administration
systems as the developed and the developing countries have implemented different
types of innovative and capacity-strengthening initiatives at different levels. All
these have also multiplied and introduced new challenges into the realm of public
administration worldwide. The world has also witnessed the accelerated
development of information and communication technologies, the emergence of
trading blocs and economic unions. The rural to urban mass migrations
accompanied by the increasing pressure on urban resources and the increasing
number of urban poor and unemployed youths have posed serious rich and poor
divide in developing countries particularly India are some of the new challenges
before the government and the public administration. The other types of new
emerging challenges include growing intercultural interactions economic
liberalization, expanding opportunities for the movement of goods and capital,
climatic and environmental changes with catastrophic consequences. Some of
the more recent ones include the marketing of new drugs and genetically modified
food products and the discovery of mysterious diseases that recognize no political
or geographical boundaries have compounded the ever increasing challenges for
public administration.

Many developing and under developed countries are still struggling with the
new realities of globalization and liberalization and are yet to introduce few
desired and required reforms in governance and economic policy. While the
developed nations have already moved much ahead in terms of certain reforms
in the functioning of the government and administration, but many developing
countries are yet to begin their reforms in order to meet the new challenges due
to liberalization and globalization of world trade, production and economy. Some
of the events, which have far reaching consequences world wide like the events
of 11 September 2001, which has placed security firmly on the public policy
agenda in a number of issues and countries. Now, there is more realization that
security needs to be broadly defined to include human concerns, particularly
concerns for the socio-economic welfare of the people.

It is also important to understand here that how quickly the developing countries,
particularly the least developed ones, improve their economy, and emerge from
34
poverty and achieve improved living standards depends partly on the support of Public Administration and
Sustainable Development
the international community but also on the effectiveness of national public
administration systems in implementing the poverty reduction components of
the Millennium Development Goals. Those concerns explain the attention given
in recent years to measures aimed at enhancing the policymaking capacity and
the service-delivery capacities of public administration systems worldwide. The
objectives and strategies of public administration revitalization are as varied as
the challenges encountered at different times and places. This is to be expected.
In a world characterized by diversity of culture and by disparities in socio-
economic and political conditions, public administration revitalization cannot
be projected in a monochromatic format, but rather in a way that vividly brings
out the various hues and circumstances distinguishing one environment from
another (UN, 2005).

In this session you have read about means for revitalizing of public administration,
recent global challenges and public administration. Now answer the questions
given in Check Your Progress-2.

Check Your Progress 2

Note: a) Write your answer in about 50 words.
b) Check your answer with possible answers given at the end of the unit
1) What are some of the measures for revitalizing public administration?
.......................................................................................................................
.......................................................................................................................
.......................................................................................................................
.......................................................................................................................
.......................................................................................................................
2) Discuss some of the recent global challenges with regard to public
administration?
.......................................................................................................................
.......................................................................................................................
.......................................................................................................................
.......................................................................................................................
.......................................................................................................................

2.7 LET US SUM UP

Public Administration can certainly help in achieving the goals of sustainable
development. Sustainable Development can take place in a more efficient manner
if public administration officials are honest and willing to take risks to perform
better. For this there is an urgent need for public administration reforms. It is has
been demonstrated at various levels worldwide that goals of sustainable
development can be achieved through a number of institutional innovations and
reforms such as democratization and decentralization of decision making;
developing legal and institutional frameworks and economic governance systems; 35
Sustainable Development implementing ethics and anti-corruption strategies at various levels in and outside
government institutions; improving resource mobilization at various levels;
introduction of better financial management systems; and tapping the potential
of e-governance. Ultimately, an efficient government is an instrument of change,
a change which will secure and preserve resources for the future generations.

2.8 REFERENCES AND SELECTED READINGS

Brundtland Report. (1987), Our Common Future, Report of the World
Commission on Environment and Development, United Nations.
Handbook of Public Administration, (1989), Eds Jack Rabin, W. Bartley Hildreth,
and Gerard J. Miller. 1989: Marcel Dekker, New York, p. iii.
Jerome B. McKinney and Lawrence C. Howard, (1998), Public Administration:
Balancing Power and Accountability. 2nd Ed. Praeger Publishing, Westport, CT.
p. 62.
Kettl, Donald and James Fessler, (2009), The Politics of the Administrative
Process, Washington D.C., CQ Press.
Michael Cohen, Urban Policy and Economic Development – An Agenda, 1990s,
World Bank.
Pandey, K.K. (2012), Administration for Urban Development and Urban Services
Delivery, Theme Paper for 56th Members Annual Conference, Indian Institute
of Public Administration, New Delhi.
Pinto RR, Puppim de Oliveira JA. (2008), Implementation challenges in
protecting the global environmental commons: the case of climate change policies
in Brazil, Public Administration and Development 28(5): 340–350.
Robert and Janet Denhardt (2009), Public Administration: An Action Orientation.
6th Ed., Thomson Wadsworth, Belmont CA.
United Nations (2005), Report of the Secretary General, 60th Session Item 43.
Report of the Economic and Social Council, United Nations.
United Nations, 2006. Economic and Social Council, Committee of Experts on
Public Administration, Definition of Basic Concepts and Terminologies in
Governance and Public Administration, 2006.
UN Habitat, (2007), Status of World Cities.
UN, (2005), World Urbanisation Prospects – Report.
Yannick Glemarec and Jose A. Puppim De Oliveira, (2012), The Role of the
Visible Hand of Public Institutions in Creating a Sustainable Future, John Wiley
& Sons, Ltd. Public Administration Development, 32, 200–214.
World Bank, (1995), World Development Report.

36
 Public Administration and
2.9 CHECK YOUR PROGRESS - POSSIBLE Sustainable Development

ANSWERS
Check Your Progress 1
1) What is the meaning and significance of public administration?
Public administration is the whole government in action; it includes all
operations having for their purpose the fulfillment or enforcement of public
policy. The wellbeing of the nation (society) is increasingly dependent on
the efficiency of the Government (i.e.) Public administration. The future of
the Civilized Government and even the Civilization rests on the competence,
efficiency and efficacy of the Public administration.
2) What is the relation between public administration and sustainable
development?
The role of public administration discusses the political, managerial and
social challenges of translating the concept of sustainable development into
action. Public administration can implement ethics and anti-corruption
strategies at various levels in and outside government institutions; improving
resource mobilization at various levels; introduction of better financial
management systems etc.
Check Your Progress 2
1) What are some of the measures for revitalizing public administration?
Some of the measures for revitalizing public administration are:
a) Promoting ethics, transparency and accountability;
b) Enhancing public service efficiency and effectiveness, especially in the
delivery of public services
c) Ensuring the responsiveness of public administration to citizen needs
and legitimate demands
2) Discuss some of the recent global challenges with regard to public
administration?
Some of the recent global challenges include growing intercultural
interactions, economic liberalization, expanding opportunities for the
movement of goods and capital, climatic and environmental changes with
catastrophic consequences. The marketing of new drugs and genetically
modified food products and the discovery of mysterious diseases that
recognize no political or geographical boundaries have compounded the ever
increasing challenges for public administration.

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