A conference on “Shared Services in the Public Sector Africa” – the first of its kind — to be held in Sandton, Johannesburg, South Africa on 21-24 August 2007 will be addressed by NEPAD Chief Executive Prof. Firmino Mucavele at an exclusive session on the benefits of shared services.

The conference is being organised by the Gauteng Shared Service Centre (GSSC), one of South Africa’s most progressive provincial government departments.

Since its inception five years ago,the GSSC has successfully applied its shared services model to accomplish its strategic objectives.

Shared services involves the streamlining of a department’s functions to ensure that it delivers the services required of it speedily and efficiently.

The objective of the Johannesburg conference is to share the highlights of the GSSC shared services implementation journey with other African government departments as well as private sector organisations.

The conference will offer delegates the opportunity to discover how shared services works in practice by showcasing the successes achieved by others in the implementation and management of a shared services centre.

Those who have successfully rolled out shared services and who have been managing their operations according to international best practice, claim that shared services is the answer to far-reaching cost-savings, operational efficiency and value-added service delivery.

Shared Services In the Public Sector Africa has been developed by the International Quality and Productivity Centre (IQPC) in partnership with the GSSC. Source : NEPAD, august 8, 2007