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Role of HRD in Improving Governance in the SAARC RegionIntroductionGovernance is about setting priorities, generating and using power to achieve a just andsustainable living standard. Aspects of governance are: political or public governance; economicgovernance, and social governance. These three aspects of governance are interdependent. Socialgovernance provides a moral foundation; economic governance provides a material foundation; andpolitical/public governance guaranties the order and the cohesion of a society. Governance is “good”when it allocates and manages resources to respond to collective problems such as efficient provisionof public goods of good quality and quantity to citizens. The Human Development Report 2002suggests “good governance” as a democratic exigency, in order to “rid societies of corruption, givepeople the rights, the means, and the capacity to participate in the decisions that affect their lives and tohold their governments accountable for what they do”. The UN views good governance asparticipatory, transparent and accountable. It encompasses state institutions and their operations andincludes private sector and civil society organizations.In most South Asian countries, the objectives of achieving good governance reforms areimprovements in the quality and delivery of public services, reform of judicial systems, publicadministration reform, strengthening public institutions, promoting transparency and informationsharing, decentralization, and public expenditure management. Several countries of the region havecommitted themselves to strengthen human resource base, increase budgetary allocations for pro-poorprograms and projects, and improve law and order situation. Public administration reform has beenhighlighted as an important aspect of creating good governance, such as introducing a merit-based civilservice system or efforts to decentralize delivery of public goods and services. Public expendituremanagement reforms include promoting auditing, monitoring, and reviewing procedures to increaseefficiency and capacity of public institutions to manage information about public expenditures and topromote greater transparency in the budgetary process. The issues of accountability and transparencyfigure prominently in the discussions of governance problems.One of the manifestations of the poor governance in the South Asian region is low skill base andinappropriate knowledge. A well-educated and skilled manpower not only promotes good governancebut helps to shift from low-productivity regime to higher value-added, skilled-intensive, andtechnologically advanced country. HRD also helps develop capability of those administering publicpolicy and capabilities of institutions to promote good governance in the management of publicresources and delivery of public services; identify and enunciate coherent policies; reduce influence ofvested interests; and develop meritocracy and incentive structure for better performance.SAARC Human Resource Development Centre (SHRDC) organized two weeks training courseon “Role of Human Resource Development (HRD) in Improving Governance in the SAARC Region”from October 04-17, 2010. Participants from the SAARC Member States viz. Bhutan, India, Maldives,Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka attended the training course. The training course provided fundamentaldimensions of governance such as: i) institutional framework: effective/responsive institutions; ii)political stability: perceptions that the government is creditable; iv) government effectiveness: qualityof public service provision, competence of civil servants and independence of civil service; v) voiceand accountability: political process, civil liberties and political rights and independence of media; vi)quality of the regulatory framework: market-friendly policies supporting civil and business rights; vii)1
SAARC Human Resource Development Centrecontrol of corruption: limiting use of public power for private gains; viii) rule of law: reducing incidenceof violence and crime, improving effectiveness and predictability of the judiciary, enforceability ofcontracts and monitoring; and viii) transparency and information sharing.ObjectivesThe objectives of the training course were to:discuss governance issues and reforms undertaken by the SAARC Member State to achievegood governancediscuss nexus between HRD and governancediscuss strategies most effective for promoting good governance and HRD in the South Asianregiondiscuss role of public institutions in the delivery of public goods and services, includingeducation and vocational trainingdiscuss the role and effectiveness of public expenditure for promoting HRD, reducing povertyand social development and achieving transparency in resource allocationsThe training course focused on: identification of a strategy or vision to promote goodgovernance and human resource development; translation of the strategy into a detailed program forreform with Measurable Performance Indicators (MPIs); effective implementation of the programs andprojects; evaluation and monitoring mechanism to assess the progress and identify bottlenecks; publicexpenditure management to reduce wastage of public resources; strengthening public institutionsparticularly HRD institutions; improving coverage of services, efficiency, and sustainability of basicservices delivery; achieving inclusive growth through adopting participatory approaches, particularlybottom-up approach (decentralization); and the Citizen's Charters and public-private partnership (PPP)as initiatives to improve the quality, transparency, and accountability of public services delivery.ModulesThe course consisted of the following five modules on the basis of which sessions werestructured:1: State of Governance and HRD in the SAARC RegionThe module described:Governance and characteristics of good governanceState of governance in the SAARC regionGovernance challengesPublic expenditure management to improve governanceRole of accountability in governance2
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