Dr Kodjo Esseim Mensah-Abrampa, the Executive Director, National Development Planning Commission, has called for the comprehensive capacity building of the public service and servants for effective service delivery.

He called on the authorities to empower public servants to institutionalise early warning, emergency, planning and preparedness to respond to unforeseen situations in the sector.

Dr Mensah-Abrampa said this on Thursday at the commemoration of this year’s United Nations/African Public Service Day in Accra.

The programme was on the theme: “Enhancing the Resilience of the African Public Administration to Support and Facilitate the Realization of Africa’s Nutritional Needs during and Post COVID-19 Pandemic.”

The day is to celebrate the value and virtue of public service to the community, highlight the contribution of public service in the development process and encourage young persons to pursue careers in the public sector.

The Director-General said the Government must create and operate an effective public sector and ensure a well-coordinated institutional framework to support the sector to be anticipatory to look out for signs of crisis.

Public servants, he stated, must be facilitated to network, collaborate and share ideas among the institutions to enhance co-learning for the improvement of the sector.

He called for a sustained development of responsible, responsive, accountable and people-focused leadership in public sector institutions.

Dr Mensah-Abrampa said effective governmental coordination was required within sectors and at all levels of Governmental institutions for efficient performance and outcomes.

He called on the Government to optimize the decentralization processes of institutional services to bring their operations closer to the clients for sustained growth.

Dr Patrick Kuma Aboagye, the Director General, Ghana Health Service, called for a multi-faceted approach to address food nutrition and ensure food security in the country and across the continent.

That, he said, was critical in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals of zero hunger and good health and well-being.

Dr Janet A. Fofie, the Chairperson, Public Service Commission, said the day would create enthusiasm among the public for increased access to the services provided by the public sector institutions and the demand for quality service delivery from the public servants.

She said the expectation of the celebration was to motivate public servants to continue the good work done, more especially during the COVID-19 pandemic and to come up with new initiatives.

Nana Ato Arthur, the Head of the Local Government Service, called on all public services to embrace and leverage on digitization to improve internally generated funds of public service sectors, reduce corruption and ensure efficiency.