Senior Public Executive Seminar, Samoa

The final CAPAM Senior Executive seminar for 2006 on the theme of Leading for Reform was held in Apia from 4-8 December. The seminar was hosted jointly by the Oloamanu Centre for Professional Development (OCPD), National University of Samoa, and the Public Service Commission (PSC) of Samoa, and it was the first such major cooperative exercise hosted by the two agencies.

CAPAM organised the seminar, with the support of the Commonwealth Secretariat. The commitment to the seminar followed the CAPAM Senior Executive seminar held in Cape Town in June 2006, at which Samoan representatives presented a case study of progress to date with PSR in Samoa. The recent seminar was the in-country follow-up to that case study and review.

In view of recent regional developments, considerable time was devoted to Pacific issues and presentations were made covering:

• The Pacific Plan: This Plan was endorsed by Pacific Leaders at the PI Forum meeting in October 2005. The goal of the Pacific Plan is to enhance and stimulate economic growth, sustainable development, good governance and security for Pacific countries, through regionalism. Plan documents set out detailed proposals for cooperative action and provide guidance and tests to identify relevant areas for regional cooperation.


• Pacific 2020: This is a different type of document prepared by Australian Government agencies after extensive consultation with the Pacific nations. It was published in June 2006. Pacific 2020 highlights constraints to economic growth and provides policy guidance and options in relation to nine critical growth areas: four cross-cutting areas (private sector investment, land, labour and political governance) and five sectoral areas (agriculture, fisheries, forestry, mining and petroleum, and tourism). Poor implementation of policies was identified as the most serious constraint to successful reform and more rapid growth.


• PI Forum Nine Principles of Good Leadership (August 2003)


• PI Forum Eight Principles of Financial Accountability (July 1997)

The Programme focussed on management, leadership, HRM, Performance Management, Service Delivery and Improving Personal Effectiveness.

Participants also reviewed issues dealing with the Political-Administrative interface. This session was aimed at discussing the traditional relationships and identifying the skills and techniques needed to manage these relationships effectively.