Meeting of the Public Services International (PSI) Africa and the Arab World and UCLG Africa

In the framework of the Africa Regional Executive Committee (AFREC) meetings of Public Services International (PSI), held from Tuesday May 9th to Thursday May 11th, 2023, at the Hotel Farah, Casablanca, in the Kingdom of Morocco, PSI and United Cities and Local Governments of Africa (UCLG Africa) held an important meeting on Tuesday May 9th, 2023.

The main objective of this meeting was to identify common priorities and synergies to enable equitable access to quality local public services for all, to make cities, communities and territories inclusive and equitable, to achieve sustainable and fair local socio-economic development, and to strengthen the capacities and skills of Local and Regional Governments’ staff, while guaranteeing decent working conditions in line with the Sustainable Development Goal 8.

To this end, the two Institutions have identified the following five (05) African cities/municipalities, one for each African region, for the design, preparation and deployment of a Pilot Program aimed at promoting Quality Public Services and Decent Work:

  1. North Africa: the Commune of Casablanca in Morocco: The pilot case study will focus on solid waste management in the city. The aim is to examine the opportunities and obstacles to improving service delivery and protecting workers’ health and safety through a process of social dialogue and engagement.
  2. West Africa, the City of Abuja in Nigeria: the pilot case study will focus on social dialogue and engagement around revenue generation and utilization at the local and regional governments’ level.
  3. Central Africa, the Municipality of N’Djamena in Tchad: Tchad is a country facing complex and difficult challenges. The “Fédération des Syndicats du Secteur Public du Tchad” (FSPT) has already had the opportunity to work on the working conditions and health and safety issues of the city’s garbage collectors, a sector largely made up of women.
  4. East Africa: Ilala Municipality in Tanzania: The Municipality of Ilala is one of five under the jurisdiction of Dar es Salaam. Solid waste management in the city poses many problems and challenges. The union (TALGWU) has already played an active role in raising these issues. The aim is to improve waste management, while improving health and safety conditions for workers through a process of social dialogue and engagement with the authorities/employers concerned.
  5. Southern Africa, the Municipality of Mazabuka in Zambia: the country is in a difficult economic situation. However, it is committed to decentralizing public services to Local and Regional Governments. The decentralization process has been slow. One of the main problems hampering it is the lack of funding for Local and Regional Governments, which remain dependent on intergovernmental transfers. The pilot case study will focus on the issue of decentralization of Public Services and how to ensure that it happens in practice, as well as on the financing of local governments so that it correlates with transferred competences. The aim is to join forces to guarantee adequate funding for Local Governments, including adequate staffing levels and decent working conditions and pay for workers in these Institutions.

The Honourable Ms Rosa Pavanelli, Secretary General of PSI, thanked the leadership of PSI Africa for the work carried out over the past three years, which has helped to keep the PSI community and network alive in difficult times. She thanked Mr Jean Pierre Elong Mbassi, Secretary General of UCLG Africa, for his commitment and for agreeing to be part of this project. For Ms Pavanelli, this struggle with communities cannot be won if there is no synergy between the members of PSI and UCLG Africa, whose aim is to serve citizens. She noted the many problems faced by public services, including privatization, centralization, corruption and decentralization without adequate financial resources.

The Honourable Ms Rita Thandek, Vice President of PSI Africa, highlighted the situation created by the COVID-19 pandemic and the fact that reconstruction is a difficult process, with much still to be done. This situation has had a very negative impact on several sectors of society and the economy, with dramatic repercussions on the exercise of human rights.

The Honourable Mr Sani Baba Mohammed, PSI Regional Secretary for Africa and the Arab World, thanked all PSI members, particularly those in the Africa and Arab World Regional Section, for their day-to-day battle, and mentioned the importance of holding the AFREC meetings and the Meeting between PSI Africa and UCLG Africa in Morocco, with the support of their affiliates in the Union Marocaine des Travailleurs (UMT). For him, this Meeting between PSI Africa and UCLG Africa will enable a structured discussion and dialogue, to have a clear idea of the modalities of implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed in 2021, so that the two Institutions can join their efforts in promoting quality Local Public Services for all, making cities, communities and territories inclusive and equitable, promoting decent work, and achieving sustainable, fair and resilient local socio-economic development.

The Honourable Mr Miloudi Moukharik, Secretary General of the UMT, welcomed the members of PSI Africa and the Arab World and UCLG Africa on behalf of the trade union center. He emphasized that, after the COVID-19 pandemic, workers are facing another economic pandemic through privatization and delegated management. He pointed out that privatization and delegated management processes call into question the gains made by public service employees, and create a precarious situation for them.

In the name of the President of UCLG Africa, President of the Nouakchott Region in Mauritania, Ms. Fatimetou Mint Abdel Malick, on behalf of the Executive Committee and all the members and staff of this Organization, Mr Jean Pierre Elong Mbassi, Secretary General of UCLG Africa declared in his speech that this Organization attaches great importance to the Partnership and collaboration with PSI, embodied by the signature of their Memorandum of Understanding signed in 2021. The two Partners are, in fact, convinced that it is more necessary than ever to rehabilitate the Public Service in the minds of populations and decision-makers after a long period of mistrust following the degradation of the Public Service that we have witnessed in African countries, particularly during the very long period when they underwent structural adjustment plans.

He pointed out that many countries, including in Africa, failed to do justice to the essential role played by civil servants during the COVID 19 pandemic. Indeed, health services and municipal workers were on the front line of the battle against the Pandemic. In the aftermath of the Pandemic, the hard-won trust of the Public Service went back to square one, as we saw little improvement in the consideration of the same civil servants and municipal workers, and at times we even observed that civil servants at national and local levels continued to be mistreated as they had been before, without any outspoken support, even from ordinary people at grassroots level.

For him, this breakdown of trust in the Public Service must be addressed starting with the towns and territories, the level of governance closest to the people. He reiterated UCLG Africa’s conviction that sub-national and local government officials have a responsibility to build trust between the government and the people. This is why UCLG Africa strongly supports social dialogue between civil servants and agents of local administrations through their representative trade unions. This dialogue must, of course, focus on working conditions in these administrations. But we must not lose sight of the common battle to be won, that of building trust between public authorities and the people. This is why UCLG Africa is so insistent on the need for a charter of commitment defining the rights and duties of citizens in terms of access to public services, as well as the rewards and sanctions linked to compliance or non-compliance with the charter’s provisions.

High-level meeting between UCLG Africa and PSI Africa

The High-Level Meeting was chaired by Ms Daria Cibrario, Head of Local and Regional Government,        Dr Najat Zarrouk, Director of Director of Development, Knowledge Management and ALGA of UCLG Africa and Ms Sandra van Niekerk, Head of Local and Regional Government, PSI. They respectively made presentations on the contextualization and framing of the activity and summarized the results achieved so far, the modalities of building a common vision as well as the next steps – Elaboration of the action plan 2023 – 24, and standards of excellence in HRM at local and regional levels. These presentations were followed by discussions and recommendations with the Mayors and Representatives of the 5 Municipalities identified and mobilized to benefit from the Pilot Cooperation Program Project.

Wednesday May 10th, 2023 was marked by a visit, prepared and facilitated by the Communal Council of Casablanca and the UMT Central Trade Union, first to the City Hall of the Communal Council of Casablanca and then to the Headquarters of one of the city’s waste management companies.

The delegation was welcomed by the Honorable Madame Nabila Rmili, President of the Communal Council of Casablanca, joined by Mr Abdessadeck Mourchid, President of the Maarif Borough, Mr Ahmed Bahannis, Secretary General of the Civil Service of the Greater Casablanca and Mr Ahmed Afilal, Deputy Mayor in charge of the Property and Waste Management Sector.

The Honourable Madam Nabila Rmili began by praising the initiative of PSI and UCLG Africa in choosing Morocco, and in particular the City of Casablanca, as the venue for the AFREC and PSI Africa-Arab World and UCLG Africa meetings. She expressed her gratitude for their commitment and above all for their noble mission of working alongside Local and Regional Governments to contribute, together, to the effective implementation of the Global Agendas at territorial level. She underlined the importance that the City of Casablanca attaches to the solid and liquid sanitation sector as a vital sector for the population and the territory. Finally, she took the opportunity to express her full readiness to take part in this pilot program, whose theme, she felt, had been perfectly chosen by PSI and UCLG Africa. For the Honorable President, the waste management sector raises a number of problems and challenges that affect the daily lives of the inhabitants of the Casablanca Metropolis.

Mr Youssef Chakour, Managing Director of “Société de Développement Local (SDL) Casablanca Baia” (Environment in Arabic) gave a presentation of this initiative, which was set up in 2008 and has technical and management autonomy. It is an instrument for strengthening local services policy. Its vocation is to advise, plan and act, in consultation with the other players involved, to protect and improve the living environment within the city of Casablanca.

The delegation then paid a visit to SDL, responsible for part of the Casablanca metropolitan area’s waste management, where a presentation was given on the use of Information and Communication Technologies to monitor the various activities in this sector.

As a reminder, PSI, which brings together more than 20 million workers in 163 countries and territories, and UCLG Africa, the pan-African organization that represents nearly 320 million Africans via 54 National and Regional Associations of Local and Regional Governments in Africa, as well as 2,000 cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants, will be holding several joint meetings in the future to finalize their Action Plan and strengthen their cooperation and dialogue on quality local public services and decent work in African local authorities

Attached is the media coverage of these meetings by Moroccan National Television: Video

Concept note: Click here

Agenda: Click here