Professional development
| Published date | 01 October 1987 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/pad.4230070406 |
| Date | 01 October 1987 |
PUBLIC
ADMINISTRATION AND
DEVELOPMENT,
Vol.
7,
395402
(1987)
Professional
Developments
This section
of
the journal carries summaries of recent
research findings and innovations
in
training and manage-
ment. The intention is to put readers in touch with new
developments which they can follow up by referring to a
contact person, and to fuller accounts published elsewhere.
The hope is that this will generate a self-sustaining exchange
of
new ideas
in
the general field of development adminis-
tration. Please send your news to the Assistant Editor (Pro-
fessional Developments).
In this issue there are reports
on
two programmes which,
in
different ways,
link
training with practice: ‘for-the-job, on-
the-run, learning-by-doing’
for
Sri Lankan officials concerned
with
the implementation
of
a new housing policy, and a
programme for Indian officials which links training in the
UK with a case study in India. The two other reports share
a concern with the development of information networks;
one relates to
a
system for bringing together information on
African public administration, and the other shows how mas-
ter planning can be used
not
to produce master plans, but
as a process for informing public and private urban managers.
TRAINING FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION OF
A
GOVERNMENT SUPPORT
POLICY FOR HOUSING
In 1982 the Sri Lankan Prime Minister announced a new programme for the construction
of
one million houses. This promise heralded a radical change in housing policy from
construction by the government to the provision only
of
those elements
of
housing pro-
duction that low-income households and communities could not themselves mobilize- credit,
land title, technical advice, supportive legislation and infrastructure. Such a ‘support’
or
‘enabling’ role has been advocated by many, but Sri Lanka’s Million Houses Programme
is the first instance
in
which such an approach has been made national policy.
This entailed the restructuring and retraining
of
the National Housing Development
Authority (NHDA). Officials who had been running a centralized construction programme
had to become managers of a vast state mortgage company and coordinators
of
an extensive
technical assistance programme. Political needs for immediate results, and uncertainty
about appropriate forms of administration, meant that the training had to be for-the-job,
on-the-run, learning-by-doing. The training had to be not only a practical course of
instruction but also a consultancy activity that could design and test procedures.
For
the Rural Housing Sub-programme training took the form
of
a series
of
1-week
workshops spread over a year, each involving a similar group
of
officials and technicians
from different districts. The first
3
days of each workshop were attended by the NHDA
district managers, their senior technical staff and senior local government administrators.
The second half
of
the week involved NHDA managers, their junior and field staff and
chairmen of village development committees. This second half considered the application
0271-2075/87/040399.$05
.oo
0
1987 by John Wiley
&
Sons, Ltd.
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