Capacity Building in Public Management in the Times of Economic Uncertainty and Social Stress

Abstract

The roles and functions of the state in contemporary societies, cultures and economies have expanded to respond to numerous present-day challenges including that of coping with fiscal stress, economic recession and instability. These challenges have accelerated the need for development of more effective, and in some cases less costly, state and public institutional management capacity to recognize, plan, decide and implement workable and politically feasible solutions. Capacity building and development of core public management systems is needed to strengthen the ability of the state to generate methodologies, strategies, and actions to assist public and private sector organizations, communities and individuals in improving performance in the design and delivery of a wide variety of assistance programs and services. This has required and will require in the future enhanced leadership on the part of public officials, increased accountability of public managers and management systems and greater focus on the integrity of governance, economic and social institutions. Recent events clearly demonstrate that development of public management system capacity must be based on a clearer awareness of the growing complexity of global economies and the need for carefully coordinated strategies and innovative approaches to cope with the challenges at hand.