Building a Capable State

Results achieved as of the end of the project (September 2021) include: (1) improved South African government departments’ capacity by supporting South Africa’s Government Technical Advisory Centre (GTAC). GTAC responds to targeted requests for technical help from client departments by providing access to training and expertise; (2) GTAC supported over 100 capacity building projects. These projects include economic development municipal support and human settlements public management and organization development and social development; (3) GTAC conducted 240 performance expenditure reviews across the government; (4) GTAC helped improve inter-governmental cooperation in Eastern Cape. This led to an expanded public works program and better economic opportunities in four communities; (5) institutionalized and strengthened the government’s Management Performance Assessment Tool (MPAT) process across 155 national and provincial government departments. They achieved this by supporting the Department of Planning Monitoring and Evaluation (DPME) and lessons learned from the Canadian model; and (6) DPME rolled out training to 10 hospital CEOs and 10 community health centres. These trainings focus on improving critical areas of hospital management. For example: patient waiting times patients file management and maternal health services. The training has laid the groundwork to improve these facilities’ COVID-19 response.