THE RATIONALE
The aftermath of the neo-liberal revolution, the resultant structural adjustment programmes and the marketization of the public sector have led to cutback management, public sector reform, deregulation, privatization, self-divestment, decentralization, electronic government and a strategic approach to managing public organizations. Globalization, the rise of international organizations and the growth of international humanitarianism, as well as spawning global civil society, by eroding the boundaries of states and markets, have brought new challenges of international administration. This has also been accompanied by the advent of the citizens’ charter revolution stressing standards, values, and accountability in public sector management. The resultant modern knowledge intensive society requiring participatory decision making is challenging public sector managers. It requires a multifunctional state able to achieve the multiple goals of administrative efficiency. Since public administration takes place in political, social and economic contexts, it is closely related to the society and state within which it takes place. In Africa and Uganda in particular, public management must be re-invented in the wake of changes, new research, contextual pressures and new knowledge. It must adapt itself to the changing faces of technology, gender, individual liberty, ecology, administrative capacities and advancing democratization. It must also address contemporary issues related to internationalism, state rejuvenation, the changing public sector, and the demand for humane governance. The New Public Management and New Political Economy models with their demand for rejuvenated corporate governance provide a new conceptual infrastructure relating underlying philosophical and social ideas to grounded reality. This is because effective public management provides the potent, catalytic forging glue, which releases the forces of social change. This course therefore targets managers of central and local government agencies, the civil society sector, parastatals, institutions, as well as the private sector.
PROGRAMME DESCRIPTION
The Masters in Public Administration and Management will be administered through the semester system. This will involve four semesters. The first three semesters will have six modules each and the fourth semester will involve a research project. The programme involves eighteen taught course units for three semesters, as well as a fourth semester for a research project, leading to a written project report. This means it is a taught masters degree involving coursework and writing a research project report
OBJECTIVES OF THE COURSE
General/Main Objective
To foster democratic values, build national capacity for, as well as practical knowledge and skills in public management.
Specific Objectives
1. To ensure the acquisition and mastery of knowledge, skills and
abilities relevant to public managers in organizations.
2. To build society’s individual and institutional capacity in policy
formulation, administrative management and service delivery.
3. To ensure the promotion of democratic values, good governance
and human rights observance.
4. To train specialists in programme design and general institutional
management for socio-economic transformation.
5. To promote research on challenges facing contemporary public
management in order to improve service delivery.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
1. Students are expected to have increased their capacity in managing policy formulation and management processes.
2. Students should have an improved operational capacity to carry out grounded research in various management areas.
3. The programme is expected to train and skill programme/project and development managers capable of decentralized corporate local governance, management of programmes and the development process.
4. The MAPAM programme will also equip organizational/institutional designers and managers for public, private and civil society sectors.