Prajapati Trivedi, Commonwealth Secretary General’s Special Envoy for SDG Implementation
Prof. Prajapati Trivedi is currently the Commonwealth Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for SDG Implementation.
Podcast
Overview
Performance management is the process of measuring the outcomes of the policies of the government. It’s a system that focuses on the results rather than just the process and looks if the plans and policies are implemented correctly. It aims to accomplish the goals created by providing frameworks and guidelines. In short, the chief objective of having a performance management system is to achieve more effectiveness and efficiency in the way governments function.
In today’s episode of TBCY, we have the extreme honour of having a conversation with Dr Pajapati Trivedi, who has contributed in this field wherein you’ll understand the subject in depth. So, tune in to know everything about Performance management, and enhance your knowledge on Sustainable Development Goals.
About Professor Prajapati Trivedi
Professor Prajapati Trivedi is currently the Commonwealth Secretary General’s Special Envoy for SDG Implementation, visiting faculty at Havard and the IBM for the business of the government and a distinguished professor at MDI.
He Has Served as the economic advisor to the government of India. He started his teaching career in 1974, has been the chair professor at the Indian Institute of Management and has worked for the world bank for 15 years as a senior economist.
Harry Hatry Distinguished Performance Management Practice awardee, Professor Prajapati Trivedi has contributed significantly as a consultant in performance management and is a prominent name in the field of administration.
Discussion:
Challenges within the system and how to overcome them?
Professor Trivedi talks about the challenges within the system and believes that these challenges can be overcome with the right implementation just as they have been solved in other countries.
He says that countries across the globe struggle with the same challenges, the most fundamental of which is, according to him, is having multiple principles. The problem with multiple principles is that all have different objectives, which utterly confuses the civil servants thus reducing their efficacy.
He says that all the departments must have the same objective instead of conflicting ones, so as to be able to achieve the desired outcomes and measure them.
Dr Prajapati Trivedi believes that the effectiveness of any organisation depends mostly on the quality of the system. He is of the view that the system determines the performance of the outcome more than the people and therefore it’s a must to have a great leader with a great system.
Does the performance of the government affect the economy?
When asked about the relation of performance with the economic development of a nation, he confirms that quality of governance is the most important factor today in deciding the economy of a country. It no longer depends on the availability of resources as has been proved by various small countries like Singapore and New Zealand which don’t have many resources yet are economically successful.
“The competitive and comparative advantage of the nations does not depend on resource endowments which is the traditional economic theory. Today, it depends on the quality of governance”
And this is where performance management again comes into the light.
More:
Further in the conversation, Dr, Prajapati Trivedi shares more ideas about what needs to be done in order to make the system efficient and accountable for the results.
He talks about his role in performance management, shares his experience and insights he has gained over the years with the audience as well as explains with several examples, the shortcomings of the government, the use of technology for the implementation of SDGs and a lot more.
Tune in to get more information on the subject.
Profile
Prof. Prajapati Trivedi is currently the Commonwealth Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for SDG Implementation. Earlier he worked as Senior Director in the Commonwealth Secretariat in London from 2018-2019 and was in charge of the Economic, Youth, and Sustainable Development Directorate, In addition, he is a visiting Economics faculty at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, where he has taught various courses for the last 40 years. Currently a Visiting International Fellow at the IBM Center for the Business of Government, Washington, DC. The USA.
One of the world’s foremost authorities on government performance management, till August 2014, Professor Prajapati Trivedi was Secretary to the Government of India with the responsibility for Performance Management in Government of India. Based in the Cabinet Secretariat, he reviewed and reported on the performance of all government departments to the Cabinet Secretary and Prime Minister. He designed and implemented the Performance Monitoring and Evaluation System (PMES) for the Government of India that covers 80 departments and 800 responsibility centers under them. Under his guidance 18 States of the Indian Union are at various stages of adopting PMES.
During 2009-2014, Prof. Trivedi was involved with a large number of administrative reforms and helped pioneer the implementation of many of them. In addition to the implementation of a system of Results-Framework Documents (RFDs) as part of PMES, some of his other major contributions are: implementation of Citizens’/ Clients’ Charter and Grievance Redress Mechanism in government departments through RFD system, ISO 9001 certification of government departments; E-office implementation; Innovation Action Plans to create an innovation eco-system in government departments; design and implementation of Corruption Mitigation Action Plans; Performance-Related Incentive Scheme (PRIS); and creation of executive agencies.
In addition, he was Chairman of the National Authority for Chemical Weapons Convention. In this capacity, he represented India in the Executive Council of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in The Hague, The Netherlands. Today, India’s National Authority is considered to be an example of best practice globally.
Prior to joining the Government of India, Prof. Trivedi worked as a Senior Economist for the World Bank in Washington, DC (from 1995-2009). He worked on various aspects of public sector reforms, including privatization. He advised several countries on improving their governance systems within government and public enterprises. In the World Bank, he pioneered the use of performance-based management contracts to improve the delivery of results in public organizations. As World Bank advisor to Saudi Arabia, he guided the development of their long-term development strategy. He pioneered the design of an implementation and accountability mechanism as an intrinsic part of a development strategy.
In his earlier stint in the Government, Dr. Trivedi was Economic Adviser to the Government of India from 1992-94. As Economic Adviser, Prof. Trivedi was the chief architect of the famous Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) system for performance management of Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs). This system (MOU) is now a mandatory requirement for finalizing the performance criteria for over 240 CPSEs in India and has arguably turned around the performance of the Indian public enterprise sector.
