Canadian expertise lands in Brazzaville
A small but influential delegation from Canada’s National School of Public Administration, ENAP, stepped into the Ministry of State Reform in Brazzaville this Friday, offering technical know-how and training programmes designed to give Congo’s civil service the digital reflexes and managerial rigour citizens increasingly demand.
- Canadian expertise lands in Brazzaville
- Clear goals for faster administration
- Training opportunities for civil servants
- What ENAP brings to the table
- Workshops map bottlenecks and solutions
- Performance culture takes centre stage
- Funding the reform momentum
- Leaders underline shared responsibility
- Private sector voices and regional outlook
- Roadmap and immediate timeline
- Economic gains expected
- Everyday impact for citizens
- Signing expected soon
Minister Delegate Luc Joseph Okio welcomed the visitors with what insiders described as an “operational agenda”, insisting that any memorandum must translate into quick wins such as faster recruitment procedures, simplified payroll audits and fresh analytics on service delivery across Brazzaville, Pointe-Noire and interior prefectures.
Clear goals for faster administration
Okio’s team outlined the second axis of the State Reform Strategic Plan 2025-2029, which targets a 30 percent reduction in processing times for the most common administrative requests, drawing on benchmarks shared by Rwanda’s Irembo portal and Senegal’s newly centralised civil-status platform.
Training opportunities for civil servants
For Congolese civil servants, the partnership promises accredited courses in strategic planning, gender-responsive budgeting and e-governance, taught partly online and partly in Brazzaville by ENAP professors and local coaches from Marien Ngouabi University, according to draft documents consulted by our newsroom.
A 2022 survey by the National School of Administration in Kinshasa found that 62 percent of young graduates were willing to join the civil service if training included international certification; officials here think a similar incentive could rejuvenate Congo’s ageing administrative workforce.
What ENAP brings to the table
Founded in Québec in 1969, ENAP has coached more than 50 000 managers worldwide, from Haiti’s decentralisation programme to Morocco’s tax administration overhaul, earning recognition from the United Nations Public Service Forum.
Louise Picard, who heads ENAP’s international cooperation unit, stressed that the school does not impose models but helps countries adapt proven practices to local realities, pointing to its modular approach already tested in Benin and Cabo Verde.
Workshops map bottlenecks and solutions
During the five-day mission, round-tables will gather directors-general, mayors, fintech entrepreneurs and civic-tech activists to map out bottlenecks affecting everything from birth certificates to land titles; the aim, officials say, is to draft a joint action plan before the delegation flies home.
One workshop will focus on using low-cost biometric kits already piloted by the Ministry of Interior to cut the time for issuing national identity cards from 21 days to 72 hours, an initiative supported by the World Bank’s Digital Development Project.
Performance culture takes centre stage
Creating a culture of performance is another priority; ENAP proposes introducing simple scorecards where each ministry publishes quarterly targets and results online, echoing Kenya’s Performance Contract model that helped Nairobi push telephone registration of companies from 30 percent to 95 percent in three years.
Civil-society leader Séraphin Mabiala welcomed the idea, noting that citizens often learn about policy outcomes only through rumours; “if we see numbers posted, trust will grow,” he told reporters after meeting the Canadian team.
Funding the reform momentum
The PSRE 2025-2029, adopted by cabinet in August with support from the African Development Bank, allocates 18 billion CFA francs to digital transformation, staff upskilling and the establishment of an independent Public Policy Evaluation Agency, a first in Central Africa.
Parliament’s finance committee has already cleared an initial tranche, while senators urged the executive to prioritise regional training centres so that officials from Ouesso or Dolisie are not forced to travel to the capital for every seminar.
Leaders underline shared responsibility
“We are here to listen first,” Louise Picard insisted, adding that a draft memorandum will include monitoring indicators co-designed with the Congolese side. Minister Okio replied that success will be judged by citizens queuing less and accessing services through their phones.
Private sector voices and regional outlook
Outside government circles, Pointe-Noire’s Chamber of Commerce wants the programme to streamline customs declarations, a major cost for small exporters of cassava flour and smoked fish; ENAP experts promised to look at port-community systems used successfully in Abidjan.
Journalists asked whether the cooperation could extend to post-conflict provinces in neighbouring countries; officials answered that Congo prefers focusing resources at home first while keeping doors open for multilateral projects later, a stance described as pragmatic by analysts at the Institute for Security Studies.
Roadmap and immediate timeline
By Sunday evening the two parties expect to finalise a roadmap listing pilot ministries, budget envelopes and training cohorts for 2024. If signed, the agreement would mark a fresh chapter in Congo-Canada relations and, more importantly, offer citizens practical improvements they can measure in daily paperwork.
Economic gains expected
Economists at the University of Brazzaville highlight that every extra day spent on administrative formalities costs the national economy nearly 200 million CFA in lost productivity; trimming those delays, they argue, could free funds for schools and clinics without increasing taxes.
Everyday impact for citizens
Citizens like Micheline Ngoma, a market vendor in Makélékélé, put it more simply: “If I can renew my licence on my phone instead of closing the stall for a morning, that is real reform,” she smiled, summing up the stakes better than any policy brief.
Signing expected soon
Both sides hope to sign before the December budget session opens.
