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DENNIS CHUNG
Friday, October 12, 2007
Over the past week, I have received calls from persons saying that the government is not doing enough of what it promised and giving advice on what issues must be dealt with. We have also heard in the news, demands being made on the new government and persons expressing disappointment that commitments made have not yet been met.
While the great expectation shows confidence in the new government's commitments, my questions to the persons who make these requests are: (1) how can we expect a one-month-old government to do what was not done in 45 years of political independence? and (2) don't we all understand that the reason why everything cannot be done at once is because there is a problem of scarce resources? I mean, the demands seem so unreasonable, after we have all participated in the spoils from debt. We have quietly supported the decline in the economy over the years, we now expect the persons we have put there to immediately fix the problems we have created, as if we have elected magicians to govern us.
I would certainly advise against any hasty approach to appease these demands. The fact is that Jamaica today faces a myriad of problems, not least among them being the general level of indiscipline and high crime rate, a massive debt, a much lower literacy rate than our competitors, and the list goes on. It is as if we want the new government to come in shooting and then say "Who died?" This would certainly be the wrong approach and would create more havoc.
Determining the priorities
What we must ensure is that the approach is in the following order:
1. Determine what the problems are -- it is important to get a good grasp on this.
2. Identify what is needed to solve the issues and what the available options are.
3. Identify the available resources needed and determine what resources we have available -- human and capital.
4. Determine what are the best ways of prioritising the solutions -- so one would want to look at implementing the solutions with the highest return and also the ones that are easiest to accomplish. If a solution has both these characteristics then obviously it would be the preferred choice. The decision as to the highest return, of course, would take into account whether that solution also uses the least amount of resources.
5. Develop and present a plan to the people.
6. Implement the plan.
So, what is needed is a structured approach to determining what the priorities are after we have identified the problems. Persons will argue about how the list of priorities should be structured, and some may even attempt to use their positions of influence to determine what is done first. Others may also, as we see from time-to-time, try to influence with public pressure and say who is not doing the job properly. But I say to the government; that it is your responsibility, having the global view, to make the right choices for Jamaica.
An approach
The lobbyists will always see to their own special interests, as in many cases they operate within a vacuum. But if the government gives in to special interest groups, to the detriment of the country's development, then the responsibility will be no one else's but the government's. So, public pressure and private influence should never be reasons to set priorities for development.
Much has been said about bureaucracy, crime, justice, tax reform, etc. The truth is, that while we recognise that these are critical factors to be addressed, it is not easy to do so. While those are general areas of concern it is going to be very important to sit down and determine what the specific issues are and develop a task list that can address each of these in detail. And importantly, in the order that will give the greatest value.
As an example, while I may agree that bureaucracy and tax reform are important factors, it is important to do the following:
1. Set Goals: Determine what level of growth and other targets you want to achieve.
2. Through various channels make a determination of what the main obstacles are to these targets. For example if I want to achieve growth of four per cent, then what are the prohibiting factors? I still believe we do not currently have the capacity to grow in excess of three per cent consistently, and that needs to be addressed.
3. Detail the issues within each of those prohibitive factors that need to be addressed individually, getting it down to a task list.
4. Determine what the cost, return, and payback period is for each of those initiatives that need to be undertaken. It is important to note the dependencies between these tasks, as there are many that cannot be implemented on their own. So the cost and return of a dependent task includes the other dependencies. Dependencies would include programmes at other ministries and the national level.
5. Set out the costs and timeline for implementation.
6. Put in place a tool for measuring the outturn against the projections. Plans must be put in place for alternate action if the projected returns/outcome do not materialise, and that may mean something was wrong in the initial assumptions or some change has taken place.
That briefly would be a simplistic overview of an approach to achieving what is needed to achieve the desired objectives. Although the list looks simple, it is by no means an easy task and will require careful planning to ensure that the assumptions are correct and that the plan is credible. Inherent in this, though, is the need to set out the correct priorities for development because resources are limited.
At the end of the day the approach to the country's development must be determined in a holistic manner, recognising all the challenges facing us. It is important to first of all determine what is needed to meet the overall goals, and then determine what is to be done at each ministry to achieve the sub-goals that contribute to the primary goal. Any deviation from this could lead to an undesirable domino effect.
E-Mail: dra_chung@hotmail.com
To view this and other recent articles and post a comment go to http://dcjottings.blogspot.com
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/magaz...EVELOPMENT.asp
Friday, October 12, 2007
Over the past week, I have received calls from persons saying that the government is not doing enough of what it promised and giving advice on what issues must be dealt with. We have also heard in the news, demands being made on the new government and persons expressing disappointment that commitments made have not yet been met.
While the great expectation shows confidence in the new government's commitments, my questions to the persons who make these requests are: (1) how can we expect a one-month-old government to do what was not done in 45 years of political independence? and (2) don't we all understand that the reason why everything cannot be done at once is because there is a problem of scarce resources? I mean, the demands seem so unreasonable, after we have all participated in the spoils from debt. We have quietly supported the decline in the economy over the years, we now expect the persons we have put there to immediately fix the problems we have created, as if we have elected magicians to govern us.
I would certainly advise against any hasty approach to appease these demands. The fact is that Jamaica today faces a myriad of problems, not least among them being the general level of indiscipline and high crime rate, a massive debt, a much lower literacy rate than our competitors, and the list goes on. It is as if we want the new government to come in shooting and then say "Who died?" This would certainly be the wrong approach and would create more havoc.
Determining the priorities
What we must ensure is that the approach is in the following order:
1. Determine what the problems are -- it is important to get a good grasp on this.
2. Identify what is needed to solve the issues and what the available options are.
3. Identify the available resources needed and determine what resources we have available -- human and capital.
4. Determine what are the best ways of prioritising the solutions -- so one would want to look at implementing the solutions with the highest return and also the ones that are easiest to accomplish. If a solution has both these characteristics then obviously it would be the preferred choice. The decision as to the highest return, of course, would take into account whether that solution also uses the least amount of resources.
5. Develop and present a plan to the people.
6. Implement the plan.
So, what is needed is a structured approach to determining what the priorities are after we have identified the problems. Persons will argue about how the list of priorities should be structured, and some may even attempt to use their positions of influence to determine what is done first. Others may also, as we see from time-to-time, try to influence with public pressure and say who is not doing the job properly. But I say to the government; that it is your responsibility, having the global view, to make the right choices for Jamaica.
An approach
The lobbyists will always see to their own special interests, as in many cases they operate within a vacuum. But if the government gives in to special interest groups, to the detriment of the country's development, then the responsibility will be no one else's but the government's. So, public pressure and private influence should never be reasons to set priorities for development.
Much has been said about bureaucracy, crime, justice, tax reform, etc. The truth is, that while we recognise that these are critical factors to be addressed, it is not easy to do so. While those are general areas of concern it is going to be very important to sit down and determine what the specific issues are and develop a task list that can address each of these in detail. And importantly, in the order that will give the greatest value.
As an example, while I may agree that bureaucracy and tax reform are important factors, it is important to do the following:
1. Set Goals: Determine what level of growth and other targets you want to achieve.
2. Through various channels make a determination of what the main obstacles are to these targets. For example if I want to achieve growth of four per cent, then what are the prohibiting factors? I still believe we do not currently have the capacity to grow in excess of three per cent consistently, and that needs to be addressed.
3. Detail the issues within each of those prohibitive factors that need to be addressed individually, getting it down to a task list.
4. Determine what the cost, return, and payback period is for each of those initiatives that need to be undertaken. It is important to note the dependencies between these tasks, as there are many that cannot be implemented on their own. So the cost and return of a dependent task includes the other dependencies. Dependencies would include programmes at other ministries and the national level.
5. Set out the costs and timeline for implementation.
6. Put in place a tool for measuring the outturn against the projections. Plans must be put in place for alternate action if the projected returns/outcome do not materialise, and that may mean something was wrong in the initial assumptions or some change has taken place.
That briefly would be a simplistic overview of an approach to achieving what is needed to achieve the desired objectives. Although the list looks simple, it is by no means an easy task and will require careful planning to ensure that the assumptions are correct and that the plan is credible. Inherent in this, though, is the need to set out the correct priorities for development because resources are limited.
At the end of the day the approach to the country's development must be determined in a holistic manner, recognising all the challenges facing us. It is important to first of all determine what is needed to meet the overall goals, and then determine what is to be done at each ministry to achieve the sub-goals that contribute to the primary goal. Any deviation from this could lead to an undesirable domino effect.
E-Mail: dra_chung@hotmail.com
To view this and other recent articles and post a comment go to http://dcjottings.blogspot.com
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/magaz...EVELOPMENT.asp