The Ibrahim Index of African Governance is a comprehensive ranking of African countries according to governance quality. Funded and led by an African institution, the Ibrahim Index aims to be Africa’s leading assessment of governance that informs and empowers citizens to hold their governments and public institutions to account. Thus it is hoped to stimulate debate in a constructive way and establish a framework for good governance in Africa.

The Ibrahim Index measures the delivery of public goods and services to citizens by government and non-state actors. The Ibrahim Index uses indicators across four main pillars: Safety and Rule of Law; Participation and Human Rights; Sustainable Economic Opportunity; and Human Development as proxies for the quality of the processes and outcomes of governance.

This is a useful guide from the UNDP Oslo Governance Centre on the evaluation of the many tools to measure Local Government. Specifically the guide covers:

1. Urban Governance Index (UN-HABITAT)

2. Local Governance Barometer (Impact Alliance)
3. Good Governance for Local Development – GOFORGOLD Index (Afghanistan)
4. Local Democracy Assessment Guide (International IDEA)
5. Indicators of Local Democratic Governance (Tocqueville Research Centre & OSI)
6. Methodological Guidelines for Local Governance Analysis (UNDP)
7. Governance Index (Indonesia, Kemitraan - Partnership)
8. Measuring Municipal Performance – MIDAMOS (Paraguay)
   

Many people in government and in the ANC do not agree that service delivery has failed in South Africa. It seems there is no agreement about what is Service Delivery or how it should be brought about or made to happen. Many people also do not know why it was called Service Delivery in the first place; but the unending spate of public protests definitely spells it out loud and clear that there is something wrong with Service Delivery in South Africa.

Service Delivery is a collective term and may include a vast array of factors residing almost in all spheres of government, communities and municipalities which may make it possible to achieve success in improving the quality of life of ordinary South Africans.

By: Jack Fine and Thembisa Norushe

INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND

The Director-General: Provincial and Local Government, Msengana-Ndlela, (2006), identified that the provision of basic service delivery and infrastructure still has to face the challenge of the slow pace and poor quality of service delivery. Specific mention was also made of the water, sanitation, and housing backlogs (Msengana-Ndlela, 2006:28).

BCM has made significant progress in meeting the basic needs of the majority of its population through the provision, expansion, upgrading and building of the necessary services. However, service delivery still has to overcome a number of challenges and setbacks in order for BCM to fully realise its aims and objectives to service the entire population within its jurisdiction.

No matter how much we're tempted to judge service quality from our own point of view, it is only the customer's opinion that counts. Any judgement of service quality is irrelevant unless made by the customer. So what creates the sense of good or bad service? Can the customer 'service experience' be managed and if so, how? Consumers and tourists are becoming increasingly discerning and expecting more for their money and it seems that service providers who are proficient in managing their clients' experience can benefit significantly, especially in tight economic times. And some of these principles are applicable are as applicable to government service delivery as they are to hotels, restaurants, retain and any other space where there is an interraction between client and service provider.

It is always advocated that knowledge sharing is important for improved service delivery. The question is how do you measure the impact? Is it possible to measure knowledge? If we cannot measure the contribution of knowldge sharing to improved service delivery why are we doing it. Programmes such as knowledge sharing and management are initiated to fill a specific gap.

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT FOR SERVICE DELIVERY IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN PUBLIC SECTOR

• The purpose of this paper is to share with the Conference the findings of the research conducted on Knowledge Management for Service Delivery in the South African Public Sector in 2007/2008 .

• The concern was why is it that after the new Government in South Africa took office in 1994 and have addressed so many of the service delivery challenges, service delivery strikes have continued from the community and public servants perspectives.
• Experiences from different countries (e.g. Canada, United States, Australia, New Zealand) have shown that service delivery through knowledge management can be fast tracked. There is unfortunately no African experience on how knowledge management can be leveraged to improve service delivery.