Framework for Economic Growth, Pakistan - Planning Commission

International conference on “Framework for Economic Growth, Pakistan”DiscussionDiscussant: Dr. Akmal HussainProfessor, Beaconhouse National UniversityLet me start this with a note of appreciation.Link between public sector management andeconomic growth is very important. Let mestart with the question that what is the linkbetween Result Based Management inpublic sector and the macro economics? Ithink the link precisely is the institutionalframework. Institutional framework,whether for a public sector organization oreconomy as a whole, consist of a set of rulesand norms and incentive structure embodiedwithin it to shape different kind of behaviorby the economic actors.The growth framework should unleash theproductivity, quality of life and growthpotential of various actors. At the same atmicro economic level it should beconsidered that what kind of institutionalframework we need to build so that they canset incentive structure, rules and norms thatcan be built in public sector organizations.An important challenge in front of us is togenerate a growth which is sustainable andequitable. It should be inclusive to involvelarge number of people both in middle classand the poor in the process of investmentand high wage employment. When a largenumber of people are involved in the growthprocess where there is competition,efficiency, innovation etc. it can besustainable.If we look at micro level public sectormanagement system we can have a systemwhich build new rules and performanceevaluation system to enable them to do theirjobs. Government should focus on providinga minimum set of key services such asquality education, quality health, sanitationetc. which are to be delivered by the publicsector. Internal performance and evaluationmechanism can also bring results. RBM isan important element. It should be customerat the other end to monitor the results andperformance. In Pakistan we need to enableorganizations of the poor to beinstitutionally linked with every part of thegovernment at provincial level, district andvillage level. We need to enable localgovernment with institutional network tobring results. Poor should be systematicallyinvolved in the process of performanceevaluation and results.***Discussant: Dr. Andrew RathmellCoffey International DevelopmentThank you very much for inviting me here. Iwill talk about four observations based onUK experience and other in a number ofdifferent environments around the world. InUK they are using target selectionapproaches using flexible managementframework for helping public sectororganization and civil society in gettingoutcomes. Pakistan has a complex politicaland economic environment with wholerange of issues. How can we improveorganizations in Pakistan to RBM40