The role of professionalization in the South African public service and its contribution to the UN’s SDGs, Agenda 2063, and NDP 2030

Abstract

The South African National Framework towards the Professionalization of the Public Service, moots the belief that professionalizing public administration is one of the key requirements for building state capacity. An efficient and effective public service may positively impact the state’s development agenda. The United Nations’ (UN) 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) serve as a blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all with the focus on an end to poverty, and inequality, the protection of the planet, and the assurance that global citizens enjoy health, justice and prosperity. The core question that this paper addresses is: To what extent will professionalization of the South African public sector through learning and training programs offered at the National School of Government (NSG), contribute to the UN’s SDGs specifically and Africa Agenda 2063 (Agenda 2063) and the South African National Development Plan (NDP) 2030 in general? The paper is premised on a systematic stand-alone literature review. Content analysis was used to make sense of the secondary data consulted by honing in on pre-identified search terms. The study found that while the training programs offered at the NSG are aligned with the government’s focus on professionalization of the public service, specific mention of the SDGs, the NDP and Agenda 2063, are not made. It is recommended that with much talk around the re-calibration of the public sector by way of the NSG, an opportunity exists to explicitly teach the principles, objectives and aims of the aforementioned SDGs, NDP goals and Agenda 2063 objectives, in all its training programs, or that new programs are devised by the NSG solely focused on the attainment of the SDGs.