Municipalities need to employ an effective policy framework to keep service delivery on track. Local government politicians like to make promises about service delivery initiatives to their communities. Municipalities, however, often fail to deliver these promised services for a range of reasons including poor budgeting and ineffective management. This is why municipalities need to not only maintain effective policy frameworks but ensure these are reviewed and updated regularly.

1. Policy Frameworks and
Municipal Effectiveness
by: David Fellows, Director, PFMConnect
Thoughts on the connectedness between service policies, service
development planning, managerial practices and their impact on the
effectiveness of municipal government

2. Presentation outline
Municipal strengths and barriers to capitalising on these strengths
The policy framework:
– basics
– change planning & capacity development
– Budgeting
– setting priorities
– budgetary control
– benefits realisation
– performance
– public engagement
– understanding the effectiveness system
– periodic reviews of the framework
Conclusion
About us

3. Municipal Strengths
The strengths of local government are:
• manageable scale
• challenges reasonably evident
• stakeholders are known to those in charge
• those in charge are mostly from the locality and identify strongly with it
These characteristics should help the leadership identify their
mission and prioritise service developments within resource
constraints and national mandates.

4. Barriers to capitalising on these strengths
Municipal strategic policy agendas are often asserted without :
• sufficient regard to their consistent articulation
• internal coherence
• supporting administrative sub-structure.
Without these attributes municipal leadership can easily lack:
• clarity of direction
• delivery competence
• support from community and media

5. The Policy Framework: basics
The elements and principles of the policy framework required to
provide coherence of objectives and delivery are outlined below:
• broad policy objectives should be set at a long-term level
• detailed policies should be set at shorter timescales
• this policy cascade from broad to detailed level must be consistent
• the cascade must be achievable in a practice
• there must be sound reasons to expect the necessary resources
(finance, skills and materials) to be available in the timescales
envisaged by the policy objectives

6. The Policy Framework: change planning & capacity
development
Operational changes must be supported by:
• realistic planning for change implimentation (physical and
administrative)
• staff training for new administrative arrangements
• personnel capacity development to support new delivery
requirements
• collaboration with like-minded municipalities and external
expertise as necessary

7. The Policy Framework: budgeting
There should be a medium term budget that:
• reflects the policy framework over a minimum 3
year timescale
• all budgets should contain both revenue and
capital provision that should be consistent
between the two
• budgets must be realistically achievable
• where policies are changed the budget must
change too

8. The Policy Framework: setting priorities
No project commitment must be made unless:
• budget provision has been allocated as a priority
above all competing demands for the available funds

9. The Policy Framework: budgetary control
Budgetary control requires that:
• expenditure and revenues are consistent with the
budget
• when consistency becomes unachievable changes must
be made to policy, practice and budgets to restore
alignment
• the overall responsibility for containing spending
within budget must be imposed on departmental
heads without the option of delegation to a lower
level.

10. The Policy Framework: benefits realisation
Success can be supported by:
• benefits realisation strategies designed to focus on the
pathway to delivering intended outcomes
• risk management strategies that anticipate and mitigate
possible challenges

11. The Policy Framework: performance
Civil servants must have performance contracts for
achieving service outputs and outcomes within budget

12. The Policy Framework: public engagement
There must be:
• public engagement in the development process to
gain ideas and test acceptability of intentions
• transparency about what has been done and
achieved and at what cost

13. The Policy Framework: understanding the
effectiveness system
Politicians and administrators at all levels must:
• understand the links between policy, prioritisation,
development planning, budgeting and change
management arrangements
• be capable of using and explaining this linkage in
order to achieve municipal effectiveness

14. Review
Periodic reviews of the policy framework:
• offer an opportunity to improve its coherence and
effectiveness
• can identify critical areas of weakness in municipal capacity
that must be addressed if ambitions are to be realised.
• may be developed through a series of workshops with key
stakeholders and circulated for comment prior to finalisation

15. Conclusion
Municipalities are well placed to make crucial contributions
to community well-being and development.
Better governance based on coherent policy frameworks can
help municipalities deliver on their potential.
In the author’s view development partners can be too keen to
rush developing countries into adopting practices that are
unsustainable before the necessary organisational capacity
has been achieved.

16. About us
David Fellows began his career in UK local government where he became
President of the Society of Municipal Treasurers and a pioneer of digital
government, he followed this with stints in the UK Cabinet Office and the
National Treasury of South Africa. He is a director of PFMConnect.
PFMConnect is a consultancy specialising in the provision of public financial
management services
The article on which this is based can be found at:
http://blog-pfmconnect.com/policy-frameworks-and-municipal-effectiveness