Whole-of-government approach (WGA) is a strategy that encourages government institutions to work together, rather than in isolation, to tackle complex problems and achieve shared goals and citizens’ expectations in respect of service delivery, among other outcomes.
It also seeks to introduce coherence in the decision-making process of public administrations. The first reference to this operational approach, then referred to as joined-up-government, is found in Tony Blair’s administration in the United Kingdom.
Closely related and complementary to this approach is the whole-of-nation approach (WNA), which is gaining ascendancy as a more holistic and comprehensive approach to governance that further takes into account actors and players beyond the mainstream government and government agencies.
There is some notable success in the mainstreaming of the whole-of-government approach in other jurisdictions and even nationally.
Examples include Australia's Digital Transformation Agency; Korea’s Green New Deal; Seoul Metropolitan Government’s e-Government services and digital innovation; Singapore’s Smart Nation. In Kenya , we have the Vision 2030 and the Huduma Kenya Service Delivery Initiative.
There currently exist low-hanging fruits in consortium or multi-agency services and goods buying for closely related agencies, cross-cutting identified problems and needs, public entity to public entity direct procurement, use of force accounts and procurement of common user items, as provided for under the Kenya public procurement law, among other possible areas where the whole-of-government approach can be optimised.
As good as the approach may sound, the challenge is to find ways of making it work effectively, optimally and sustainably.
There may be need to establish and strengthen clear governance structures and guidelines, reach for enhanced leadership and political will to support inter-agency collaboration, strengthen legal and regulatory frameworks, develop clear shared vision, strategy and collaborations, address possible resistance to change, develop comprehensive implementation plan, promote cross-functional and departmental working groups and develop monitoring and evaluation frameworks to track progress and assess the efficacy of the approach.
Capacity development initiatives are a key feature and enabler of this approach in many jurisdictions and include building repositories of shared lessons, experiences, practice guidelines and networking initiatives.
The efforts and capacity building initiatives currently being undertaken towards mainstreaming the ‘whole-of-government’ approach by the Head of Public Service in coordination with the Kenya School of Government are highly commendable enablers in accelerating the uptake of the approach in the delivery of public services to the citizenry.
The writer is a corporate legal counsel and certified secretary. Email: [email protected]
