WIKIPEDIA defines the whole-of-government approach as “a concept that refers to the collaboration and coordination of different government agencies and stakeholders to jointly address complex problems or issues.”
It aims to provide integrated and balanced responses to the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development. It is driven by the need to overcome the limitations of siloed public administration and to meet the expectations of citizens for more accessible and personalized public services.
Every now and then, we hear from government officials who promise to get things done by way of using the whole-of-government approach. I salute these government officials, but I also sympathize with them, because I know from my own experience that it is going to be a rough uphill climb for them, and they are going to be met with countless obstacles.
Wikipedia hit it on the nail when it said that the government is siloed, because that is actually the crux of the problem.
Siloed might be too mild of a description, because it would be more correct to say that the government is fragmented or balkanized, to use an old political science term.
Believe it or not, there are solid walls between Bureaus within the same Departments, and solid walls between Sections within the same Divisions.
Wikipedia also hit it on the nail when it said that the solution is to have more collaboration and coordination between the many different government agencies that should all be involved directly or indirectly, one way or the other, and that should also involve other stakeholders who may not be part of the government.
Perhaps our government officials could learn from our young netizens who find it very easy to collaborate and coordinate with each other by simply using the existing social media networking platforms.
There is hardly any bureaucracy involved between them, and they do not require big budgets at all./PN
