The Influence of Human Capacity Development Programmes on Public Service Delivery in Kenya: A Case of African Association for Public Administration and Management (AAPAM)

Abstract

The improvement of public service delivery involves capacity building in public servants. This can be done through organizing training programmes, undertaking research and publishing the reports of the research findings as well as adoption of innovations. The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of these human capacity development programmes on public service delivery. The objectives of the study were to find out how training, research, publications and innovations influence performance improvement in the public service. The research used descriptive research design with stratified random sampling to select the samples. The samples were picked through simple random sampling thus enabling all members of the target population to be presented. The target population comprised of 300 active members of the African Association for Public Administration and Management (AAPAM) and 20% of the target population formed the sample size. Questionnaires were used for data collection. The data collected was analyzed through quantitative and qualitative techniques using SPSS. Tables and graphs were used to present the findings. The study found that training has a moderate positive influence on service delivery and this is attributed to effective training content and training methods. The study also found that research and publications influenced public service delivery positively through documentation of practical case studies and lessons important to the contexts of the public sector across Africa. There was no notable influence attributable to innovations on service delivery as a result of lack of proper integration of innovations by public officials for better service delivery. The study recommends adoption of proactive human capacity development strategies and incorporation of technology to enhance their positive influence on service delivery and mitigate on the negative influence to ensure efficient services are offered to the citizens.