While the foundations of the National Development Plan (NDP) were largely sound, the plan’s proverbial “Achilles’ heel” would likely lie in its implementation.

Addressing a morning session of the Southern African Transport Conference, on Monday, South African Road Federation adviser and transport engineer Dr Malcolm Mitchell said government agencies – with few exceptions – had long demonstrated an inability to implement well-developed policy – transport-focused or otherwise.

“Experience shows that transport policy doesn’t always have a desired impact and realisation of objectives and, [in South Africa], there is general incongruence [in policy] between what is planned and what the outcome is. This history of poor policy implementation in South Africa has potential to derail the NDP,” he cautioned.

Mitchell noted that several lessons could be learnt from the findings of a research report compiled by the University of Johannesburg on the implementation of transport policy between 1986 and 2006, which found that monitoring and evaluation during policy implementation was critical to the achievement of its stated objectives.

Among the recommendations made was that a complex, adaptable implementation leadership process was required, rather than a “mechanical, administrative” process that remained inflexible to economic or social changes.

He added that NDP implementing agencies could learn from the so-called South-East Asia “Tiger Cub” economies of the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia, by ensuring that the plan was led by a committed, strong, honest and nonpolitical leadership base that was supported by a consensus on a clear vision and attainable “action proposals”.

Central to this was ensuring that the complexity of implementation was kept in mind and was not considered a “mere mechanical process”.

The appointment of a nonpolitical, central and effective professional implementing agency was also critical and would need to be supported by commitment to the plan by all sectors of society.

“In addition, the implementers need to have access to the necessary resources and ensure the creative, pragmatic use of these.

“Moreover, there needs to be effective strategic and operational management, a performance monitoring culture, an amenable democratic and economic environment, and a measure of good luck,” Mitchell maintained.

Elaborating on the causes of policy failure, he noted that policy often contained “too much detail” without a true understanding of the complexity of the issue.

“Policies that fail also often contain excessive demands [or expectations]. There need to be clear and focused policy objectives, because you can’t kill too many birds with one stone.

“Government needs to bear these in mind if the NDP’s transport facet is to fulfil its stated objectives,” he advised.