Training for public service in Ghana in an evolving world: what can and must be done

ABSTRACT In post independence Africa Ghana stood out for producing public servants of rare distinction. Among them Kenneth Dadzie and Robert Gardiner went on to become international public servants of global repute. In... [ view full abstract ]

ABSTRACT
In post independence Africa Ghana stood out for producing public servants of rare distinction. Among them Kenneth Dadzie and Robert Gardiner went on to become international public servants of global repute. In contemporary times the former United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan cemented this hard won reputation.

Today the Ghanaian bureaucracy which nurtured these high performers has to contend with a barrage of critiques for inefficiency and consistent poor performance. These critiques have by and large created a dark, unsavoury image of the Ghanaian public servant as generally listless, shifty, corrupt, unpatriotic and hopelessly unsuited for the tasks of national transformation which has itself tarried.

To change such an image a new cadre of public servants must emerge both as a condition for and driver of rapid and urgent national transformation. In this regard training (in terms of underpinning philosophy and curriculum content) becomes imperative. This has been widely recognized in Ghana and some remedial actions taken (a proliferation of Executive MPA, Governance and Leadership education programmes were mounted in the 1990s) but the desired results have not been realized.

Employing a historical survey embedded in North-South political-economy the chapter will trace the emergence of some of the leading institutions and their programmes directed at equipping a new generation of public servants with fresh competencies and capacities. Through a critical engagement with the underpinning education philosophy and curriculum content of these training institutions this paper will attempt to identify some of the gaps that need to be addressed and offer some corrective suggestions.