Lessons for change makers in Pakistan

Your licence to give advice in the public sector in Pakistan is directly proportional to the number of teas you’ve been served working with (and in) Pakistani government offices. By conservative estimates, I’ve crossed my thousandth and now feel obliged to reflect on my experience and share some of the lessons that I’ve learnt over the past two years.

It is better to fail trying than to never try. We, as a country, desperately need less talkers and more doers. We are all political experts in our own right, and we can with explicit detail complain about almost everything that is wrong with (and in) Pakistan. We can harp on and on about how this country is a lost cause. Academics are keen on pinpointing all the faults of government over the last seventy years, with broad brushed recommendations and solutions (without a manual on how to do it). Government office shelves are lined up with beautiful sectorial plans. If you’ve ever read through any political party’s manifesto, you will realise that these plans are actually terrific on paper.

Why then do we not see change?

Significant amounts of our budgets actually go unutilised. We need more implementers, more people who understand how things can get done. More of those who can take these great ideas, and in the context of the bureaucracy and the field, go out and implement. The single factor in government that would transform our country would be having a bias towards implementation.

We have varying combinations of competence and good intentions, but lack management. Pakistanis, around the world have been a part of solving some of the world’s most pressing problems. We have built some of the world’s most admired companies.

There is no substitute for good talent. The civil services and the public sector used to be the employer of choice for our country’s top talent. Over time, for various reasons, including the steep variations between public and private sector compensation packages, our brightest minds now prefer to work for the private sector and in many cases are keen to leave Pakistan for more lucrative opportunities. The brain drain is real and we are already facing the repercussions in the public sector. Having the right people in the right roles is becoming increasingly challenging.

We have to absolutely find a way to retain our top talent, and to employ their skills to solve some of the most challenging public-sector problems we face. We should also look to our Pakistani talent abroad and find meaningful ways of remotely engaging our intellectual capital.

We must move from anecdotes to data. We are a nation that prides itself in its oral traditions. We delight in sharing experiences with those around us, and can talk endlessly about not just our lives but those of our entire neighbourhoods. When making policy decisions for a nation of over two hundred million people, we absolutely cannot rely on anecdotes (or shockingly in some cases gut-feelings). We have to build data systems to accurately capture the average citizen experience, and be able to use that data well to shape our decisions.

Never give up. Working in the public sector can provide many external benefits, but you cannot achieve outcomes if you are not driven by the moral purpose of your work. You will be distracted by the political noise, by the demands on your time and by those who have their own agendas. You will question almost everyday why you chose to work in Pakistan’s public sector. In those moments, go to the field and talk to citizens. If hearing about the impact your work has had on their lives is not enough to motivate you, then listening to all the problems that you have yet to solve for them definitely will.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 2^nd, 2018.

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