United Nations (UN) Committee of Experts
2 April 2006
Geraldine Fraser Moleketi, Minister for Public Service and Administration,
was elected as Vice President of the second Committee of Experts on Public
Administration and Finance (UN CEPA) this week in New York. The term of this
Committee will last until 2009. Fraser-Moleketi was also a member of the first
Committee that served the UN during the period 2002 - 2005.
The committee has a particular mandate to discuss and give guidance
regarding directions in which public administration will have to take if member
states of the UN are to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The
relevance of the work of this committee for the ongoing reform processes of the
UN is increasingly being recognised. This week, during his opening address to
the Fifth meeting of the UN CEPA, the Under Secretary-General for the United
Nations Council for Economic and Social Affairs (ECOSOC), Mr Jos Ocampo, made
specific reference to this. Ensuring greater efficacy throughout the UN is
likely to be enhanced through achieving greater coherence across the various
bodies that make up the UN.
Ocampo underscored the critical role of good governance and of the rule of
law - the domain of the Committee of Experts - in the pursuit of
(a) Global development co-operation towards the accomplishments of MDGs
(b) North-South co-operation and growing South-South co-operation.
In her contribution on the panel that discussed the contribution that
innovation in the public sector could make to ensuring the realisation of the
MDGs, Fraser-Moleketi stressed that innovation in terms of governance and
administration should not be seen as automatically translating into sustainable
development nor the extension of democracy.
The potential that innovations hold for realising these goals have to be
actively pursued. Care needs to be taken that prevailing inequities in access
to information and communication technology, for example, does not add to
greater alienation and exclusion of disadvantaged communities from the benefits
innovations in these areas are to bestow.
Enquiries:
Clayson Monyela
Tel: (012) 336 1167
Cell: 082 806 7406
Email: Claysonm@dpsa.gov.za
Issued by: Department of Public Service and Administration
2 April 2006
