Professional developments
| Date | 01 April 1990 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/pad.4230100210 |
| Published date | 01 April 1990 |
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND DEVELOPMENT, VOL.
10,233-239 (1990)
Professional Developments
This section of the journal is intended to enable an exchange of ideas and information between
readers. These may take the form either of short ‘think pieces’ on some particular field of
development administration or reports on recent research findings and innovations in training
and management. Contributions should be sent to Richard Batley (Assistant Editor).
In this issue we carry a progress report on the UNDP’s Management Development Pro-
gramme, an account of a programme being undertaken by the Commonwealth Science Council
and the Policy Studies Institute on institutional capacity for environmental management,
a report on research on management training needs in Zimbabwe, and an announcement
of a digest of recent urban research in India. The section concludes with an account of an
international workshop on Urban Planning Management in the 1990s.
PROGRESS REPORT ON UNDP’S MANAGEMENT DEVELOPMENT
PROGRAMME
llOThe UNDP Governing Council established the Management Development Pro-
gramme (MDP) in 1988 and allocated
US$60
million for it until 1991. The initiative
was taken in response to
a
growing awareness that good management of human
and financial resources in a country’s public sector is a necessary pre-condition for
sustained and equitable development, particularly when financial resources are scarce.
The MDP’s objective is to assist developing countries in improving their public
sectors by enhancing government’s management capabilities. The thrust of the effort
is directed towards countries that request support for carrying out comprehensive
programmes aimed at strengthening public sector management on a long-term basis.
MDP activities in French-speaking African countries are in their early stages.
Two projects are under execution-in Guinea and Tunisia. Diagnostic-cum-
programming missions have been fielded to a further six-Angola, Burkina Faso,
Cameroon, Cape Verde, Madagascar, Mauritania-some on a preliminary or recon-
naissance basis. Third, three further missions in the latter category are actually in
the field or to be mounted soon: Comores, Congo and
Sgo
Tomt. Finally, four
requests (Cape Verde, CBte D’Ivoire, Guinte-Bissau and Togo) are under study.
In total, therefore,
15
French-speaking African countries are being attended to.
MDP is active or planning activities in some eight Arab States including Egypt,
Iraq, Jordan, Morocco, Somalia, Tunisia, and Yemen. The two projects already
underway are in Tunisia and Jordan. In Asia and the Pacific, some thirteen MDP
interventions are under way. Projects have been approved for three countries;
Maldives, Mongolia, and Vietnam. MDP interventions in the region fall into two
broad categories:
(1)
those states undergoing economic liberalization: Myanmar
(formerly known as Burma), Laos, Vietnam, and Mongolia;
(2)
micro-states and
smaller states including: Maldives, Papua New Guinea, Bhutan, and Pacific Islands
(Cook Islands, Fiji, Solomons, and Western Samoa, amongst others). And finally
a number of larger countries have requests under review, including Philippines, Bang-
ladesh and Indonesia.
In the Latin American and Caribbean regions, MDP has ten interventions under
way or being planned. Projects are under execution in Bolivia, Guyana and Ecuador.
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1-2075/90/020233-07$05.00
0
1990 by John Wiley
&
Sons, Ltd.
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