CAPACITY ENHANCEMENT IN THE LAO PDR
AN ANALYSIS OF A POTENTIAL PARTNERSHIP
BETWEEN
THE NATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR THE STUDIES OF POLICY AND ADMINISTRATION
AND
THE WORLD BANK INSTITUTE
by
Peter Morgan
Soumaly Dengchampa
Bounlert Sayavong
with
Khamla Keoounkham
Kaysone Chansina
Inthavong Khodpangna
Soukhine Manosine
Moira Hart-Poliquin
Dec. 15, 2003
ACRONYMS
AFD- Agence Francaise De Development
CAS- Country Assistance Strategy
CPC- Central Planning Committee
GOL- Government of Laos
GTZ- German Technical Assistance Agency
NOSPA-National Organization for The Studies of Policy and Administration
NPEP- National Poverty Eradication Plan
NSAM-National School for Administration and Management
ODA- Official Development Assistance
PDR-Peoples’ Democratic Republic
SIDA- Swedish International Development Agency
TORs- Terms of Reference
UNDP-United Nations Development Programme
WBI- World Bank Institute
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
A brief explanation of the authorship of this report. Morgan, Soumaly Dengchampa and Bounlert Sayavong are independent consultants to the World Bank Institute. Khamla Keoouunkham, Kaysone Chansina, Inthavong Khodpangna, Soukhine Manosine and Poliquin are permanent officials of NOSPA and the WBI. These latter officers contributed a great deal to this report but are listed separately from the authors to give them freedom of action and decision with regard to the recommendations.
Finally, Morgan and Poliquin would like to express their appreciation to Dr. Kikeo Khaykhamphithoune, the Vice President and his staff at NOSPA for their hospitality, good humour and insight.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
A. INTRODUCTION
Background
Purpose of the study
Methodology
B. CAPACITY ENHANCEMENT IN THE LAO PDR
Background
A strategic approach to capacity enhancement
C. OVERVIEW OF NOSPA (National Organization for the Study of Policy and Administration)
D. ORGANIZATIONAL ASSESSMENT OF NOSPA
History, evolution and future direction
Organizational structure, Systems and Mission
Role of the Party
Access to resources
Individual competencies
Organizational capabilities
E. POTENTIAL NOSPA-WBI PARTNERSHIP
General principles
Specific activities
F. STRATEGIES IN SUPPORT OF CAPACITY ENHANCEMENT
G. NEXT STEPS
A. INTRODUCTION
Background
To assist the authorities of the Government of the Lao Peoples’ Democratic Republic (Lao PDR)in implementing their development agenda, the World Bank will work with partner institutions in the Lao PDR that can participate in the design of the capacity enhancement framework, advise in the development of capacity enhancement activities in the World Bank’s portfolio and monitor implementation. The Bank is currently discussing the direction and content of its portfolio with the Lao PDR as part of the formulation of the Bank’s Country Assistance Strategy (CAS) due to be completed in the Spring of 2004.
Two key themes in the CAS will thus be the following:
· Support for the implementation of the National Poverty Eradication Programme (NPEP) of the Government of the Lao PDR.
· Establishing partnerships with Lao public sector organizations in support of capacity enhancement issues.
The World Bank Institute (WBI) is taking the lead on the theme of capacity enhancement on behalf of the Lao Country Team within the Bank. The Government has chosen the National Organization for the Study of Policy and Administration (NOSPA) as the potential WBI partner.
Purpose of the Study
The terms of reference of this study can be found at Annex -- attached to this report. In essence, the purpose of this study is to analyze the potential of a proposed partnership between the WBI and the NOSPA. It looks at the general partnership ‘fit’ between NOSPA and the WBI and some general activities that such a partnership could support. A second round of discussions between NOSPA and the WBI early in 2004 will be necessary to scope out the nature, timing, management and financing of the specific interventions.
Methodology
The research for this study took place in the Lao PDR from November 17-28th, 2003. The list of people interviewed can be found at Annex --. The terms of reference (TORs) are at Annex ...The general methodology including a set of issues for discussion with NOSPA staff is at Annex ...... A series of interviews were held with NOSPA teachers and instructors and the lists of questions in English (Annex --) are attached to this report. The research also included a review of some of the secondary literature on capacity enhancement in the Lao PDR. The bibliography is attached at Annex --. The team also conducted a brief visit to two schools at Khammouane and Bolikhamxay provinces. This report has been translated into Lao and has been reviewed by the NOSPA staff.
This report should be seen as an initial analysis of NOSPA. That organization is a complex structure with a national network of offices extending across all the Laotian provinces. NOSPA also has an intricate internal structure involving both the party and the regular formal hierarchy plus a complex set of relationships with a wide variety of other government stakeholders. This complexity together with the absence of any other report on NOSPA in English and the unavoidable difficulties of gaining insight through translation combine to make this report an early stage of building shared understandings between NOSPA and the WBI.
B. CAPACITY ENHANCEMENT IN THE LAO PDR
Background
Laos has undergone a slow but steady growth in its institutional and organizational landscape over the past decade. Market institutions such as regulations on business enterprises have been introduced as have those to do with the law and the judiciary. The National Assembly is slowly gaining legitimacy although its role remains limited compared to the executive and the party. The Governance and Public Administration Reform (GPAR) began in 1993. Laos, however, still lacks certain key parts of the landscape such as national non-governmental organizations, a range of media outlets and independent research organizations. Lao as a country appears to have its own approach to capacity enhancement and change. The Government takes dramatic steps forward to imbue the public consciousness with the need for change. It then takes a cautious step back to give space and time to people and organizations for adjust the process and learn incrementally.
By most accounts including those of the Bank, donor support of capacity enhancement has not been effective. Most have been conventional training and TA interventions which have a poor record of performance in virtually all low-income countries. The Government and some donors have tended to see capacity issues as a gap or constraint issue that can be addressed by providing restructuring, systems improvement and skills improvement at the level of individuals in support of programme and project implementation.[1] Most interventions have not been based on any systematic assessment of capacity issues. The Government also tries to have such activities supported through donor grants and for the most part, refuses to finance them through loan facilities.
Much of the donor analysis of capacity enhancement issues still contains heavy doses of technical and organizational rationality targeted on narrower functional issues. Little of this analysis or any of the plans of the Government suggest how Laos proposes to avoid the vicious cycles of capacity erosion that tend to build up in low-income countries such as Laos. Technical skills are in short supply everywhere and the capabilities to implement agreed plans are minimal. More important, the Government cannot afford to pay living wages to its employees who then seek better remuneration in salary-supplemented projects or in the private sector. Few capacity interventions achieve sustainability and are replaced by others that suffer the same fate. Programmes and projects proliferate with little effort at coordination.[2] Over time, the country gets ‘stuck’ in a circular pattern of capacity erosion and aid dependence from which it cannot easily escape.[3]
The pressures for more systematic attention to capacity enhancement are building. The prospect of joining the ASEAN free trade zone in 2008 and the appearance of complex interventions such as the NPEP are leading to the need for the development of more complex capabilities both within the country and within individual organizations such as NOSPA.[4]
As is the case in most countries, research on capacity enhancement issues in the Lao PDR can charitably be described as modest. Neither the Government nor the international donor community devote much resources to the subject despite its fashionability and both sides are in the early stages of coming up with a clear and coherent strategy through which to address capacity issues. The analysis of these issues in the current version of the NPEP, for example, is limited at best.
A Strategic Approach to Capacity Enhancement
The Bank has undertaken to give particular attention to capacity enhancement during the formulation of the Country Assistance Strategy (CAS). At an aggregate level, an international funding agency such as the Bank faces a series of choices as it crafts its strategy for capacity enhancement.
· It could work on the ‘demand’ side of capacity issues. Much of this would entail working on changes to governance and institutional aspects of the Laotian public sector.[5] We have already seen in this report the shifts in NOSPA’s direction in response to changes on the demand side.
· The Bank could intervene to support work in broad cross-cutting capacity issues such as public sector pay, public expenditure management, monitoring and evaluation, decentralization or privatization.
· It could intervene to support capacity enhancement in specific programmes and projects. Annex -- sets out some of the advantages and downside risks of this aspect of capacity enhancement.
· It could support additional research on capacity issues either directly or through organizations such as NOSPA.
· The Bank could work with the Government to help build the organizational and technical support systems required to support capacity enhancement.
The task for NOSPA and the WBI will be to decide, amongst other issues, how many of these priorities they wish to address through their partnership. The greatest risk would appear to be lie in being overly ambitious, i.e., having NOSPA try to address too many capacity issues too quickly both internally and within the Government without adequate resources or without enhancing its own capabilities to play such a support role. We are assuming in this report that the WBI and the Government of the Lao PDR will be discussing the Bank’s role in capacity enhancement and in the implementation of the NPEP.[6] Part of those discussions may involve the larger support role of NOSPA and the ways in which its capabilities would have to be developed to play that role.
C. OVERVIEW OF NOSPA
NOSPA is a public sector institution established in 1995 to promote training and research. It is relatively advanced in many respects compared to comparable training organizations in many low-income countries. It has reasonable physical facilities, an established set of systems and procedures and progressive leadership. It has two main campuses, one in downtown Vientiane to maintain contact with Government ministries and the international community and one in Thangone Village in Saythany District about twenty-four (24) kilometers from downtown where the main academic and teaching facilities are located including the new residence completed in early 2003. It also has eighteen associated schools throughout Laos. Its training mandate is to design and deliver courses for high and middle level public officials in both the government and the party to enable them to contribute to the development of Laos. NOSPA has an intake of roughly 350 long-term students annually plus over 1000 short-term participants.
In support of this mandate, NOSPA (see Table 1 below) offers the following range of short and long-term courses, some of which are being changed or redesigned.
Table 1 - NOSPA courses
Present courses and degrees /Proposed redesigns and additions
short term (not more than two weeks)[7]
training course on policy (45 days) [8]
training course on politics and administration (4-6 months)
high-level diploma course in public administration (about 2 years) / To be replaced by a a three year in 2008
a Bachelor Degree course on politics and administration over four years
A Master’s Degree course on politics and administration over two years / To be started in 2004-2005
A Master’s in Business Administration over two years / Replaced the pre-masters of business
administration to be started in 2010
a Ph.d course on Politics and Public Administration over four years / To be started in 2010
The central unit of NOSPA has a total of 162 staff covering teaching, research and management of which 50 are contract staff.[9] Of this total, 63 are permanent teachers (see Annex --- attached) excluding the President and two Vice-Presidents. Of this total, twelve (12) are women. The majority of these permanent teachers are over 46 years of age, a percentage which a good deal higher than the Lao average.[10] NOSPA also has 60 visiting lecturers from other Government departments.[11]
At the level of the provincial schools, NOSPA has a total of 82 permenent staffs and 202 visiting lectureres including from the central NOSPA.
D. ORGANIZATIONAL ASSESSMENT OF NOSPA
History, evolution and future direction
A sense of NOSPA’s history and evolution is helpful to understand its current situation. The ‘political’ or ideological side of NOSPA can be traced back to its roots in the Samakhixay School of Solidarity established in 1964 in Huaphan Province in Northern Laos. After 1975, this school was moved to the Vientiane Municipality and renamed the High Level Party School. Its main function continued to be the training of members of the party and the core cadre of the country. The ‘management’ side of NOSPA came from the National School of Administration and Management (NSAM) founded in 1990. Both these schools were merged in 1995 to form NOSPA which became a ministry-equivalent agency of the Government with the mandate to train middle and high-ranking officials in public policy and administration.[12] Annex -- sets out the 1995 Decree # 9 of the by the Lao Revolutionary Central Party Politburo which jointly authorized the merger with the Office of the Prime Minister. Annex --- sets out the Prime Minister’s Decree.
We can detect in this brief history at least three influences that shape the direction and activities of the current NOSPA.
· The organization has emerged out of a complex blend of historical experiences including the Marxist revolutionary struggle, Buddhist perspectives on learning, a European - mainly French - conception of a state training organization and finally, the institutions of modern management and development cooperation including action plans and strategies, monitoring and evaluation and human resource management. Not surprisingly, NOSPA the organization is, in many way, a reflection of Laos the country in the way that it has added rather than replaced cultures and mindsets as it has evolved.