The Government has reinforced its commitment to putting in place a strategic roadmap for Samoa by embarking on the development of a new Strategy for the Development of Samoa 2017-2020 document (SDS). The 4-year document will replace the SDS2012-2016, and will guide economic, social, environmental and infrastructural developments in the country over the next 4 years. The Ministry of Finance is spearheading this activity, and have been undertaking consultations with each of the 14 Sectors in November 2015.

The upcoming SDS document will be the eighth publication in the SDS series and is in accordance with the Public Finance Management Act 2001. The SDS is also referred to as the statement of economic strategy, and would be informed by the new Samoa Monitoring and Evaluation Reporting Framework developed by the Ministry of Finance.

All 14 sectors are expected to provide key strategic areas and indicators based on their priorities for the 4 year timeframe, aligned with the fiscal year. The Public Administration Sector, which falls under the Economic Group, believes that there should be great emphasis placed on ensuring that quality and coordinated service delivery to the people of Samoa is provided in the most cost effective, efficient and transparent manner.

The mid-term review of the current SDS highlighted that the launch of the Public Administration Sector Plan 2014-2018 was expected to contribute to strengthening Government effectiveness and improving the quality of service delivery. In keeping with this rationale, the Public Administration Sector have recommitted to achieving high quality and coordinated service delivery for the people of Samoa, through improvements to accessibility, the whole of Government approach and response, and human resource capacity in the country.

One of the key achievements for the Sector is the inclusion of the National Human Resource Development Plan (NHRDP) as one of the strategic indicators to guide the utilisation of resources in this area.

As highlighted in previous editions, the National Human Resource Development Plan 2015-2030 is a 15 year strategy that will identify the long term human resource needs not only for the public sector but for the country as a whole, in the context of its long term development needs. The initiative recognizes the gaps between the workforce implications of the current SDS and the skills and knowledge Samoa’s populace has, and will work towards identifying solutions to ensure the country has the required skill and knowledge-base it needs to achieve the goals set out in its SDS.

The NHRDP is an initiative of the Public Service Commission, and will work parallel to the SDS and the Employment Policy developed under the auspices of the Ministry of Commerce Industry and Labour.

It is expected that public consultations for the development of the new SDS would be carried out around the first half of 2016.