Job insecurity is a treat to many Public Sector workers

A research dissemination workshop on the 'Challenges of State Effectiveness and Promise of Inclusive Development in Ghana' in Accra yesterday revealed that majority of public sector workers are at post because of job security, and not because they want to contribute their quote to development of the country.

The ESID disclosed that 64 percent of public sector workers are at post because of job security, and 15 percent gained employment on merit. The ESID, which consists of academia from Manchester University, University of Ghana Business School (UGBS), and Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD), attributed the findings to poor service delivery on the part of the public sector.

The leader of the research team, Prof. Philip Hulme, Chief Executive of ESID and a professor of Development Studies at the Global Development Institute, University of Manchester, said challenges in the public sector were a result of lack of policy formulation and effective implementation.

Prof. Hulme indicated that the research, which was also carried out in other countries like Malawi, Rwanda and Uganda, seeks to establish whether services being provided by the public sector cater for the needs of the poor, especially, in developing countries.

Dr. Pablo Yanyuas, a Research Associate at ESID, delivering a talk on his findings of "New approaches meet old challenges in Africa public sector reforms," said developing countries continue to face issues of high mortality rate, because governments lack the will power to enforce policies, adding, "good public service saves the lives of the people."

He noted many developing countries have allowed public sector failing policies to undermine development, and nothing was being done to correct the system. Dr. Yanyuas argued that the public sector is an inclusive part of national development, and governments must not just copy templates of high income countries into their systems, but put in place measures to enforce policies.