What is Development Administration ?

The traditional approach towards administration has been limited in its scope and premise, the core of which was strict adherence to laid down rules and hierarchy. In essence it has limited the role administration to that of a fire fighter or overseer of law and order in the comfort of laid down principals. While, nothing is wrong in this approach, if society is utopian but, in a more practical sense it causes problems. Since, bureaucracy is that arm of government which is responsible for executing plans and allocating resources at the grassroots, it is imperative that they take some risks and be innovative in approach, especially more so when the nation is a developing one.

Development Administration is about projects, programs, policies and ideas which are focused at development of a nation, with the point of view of socio-economic and socio-political development of society in general, carried out by talented and skilled bureaucrats.

A model of Development Administration must contain the following points.

• It should reject status quo and be directed towards change and more so towards results. It is result oriented at its core and every development function should have a defined objective.
• Planning is essential to decide the framework of resources and time to be allotted for a development function.
• Innovation. It is dynamic in approach and encourages new and better ways to achieve objectives.
• It should focus on planning for the people as well as with the people. It is people-centered, must empower society as a whole and not product or profit-centered.

The concept of Development Administration should be understood using two concepts Administration of Development and administrative Development.

Administration of Development: Resources are scarce, material or human thus the need to make optimum utilization of available resources and making new means for development gathers importance. So administration of development involves following objectives:

• Innovation at all levels of planning.
• Importance to the development at grassroots level.
• Development of human capital as a resource.
• Politics and administration must go hand in hand to establish rapid change in society and bring about just and distinct social order.
• Freedom of administrative machinery to express ideas, views for the most effective and efficient use of natural resources.

Administrative Development: For effective Development Administration the structure of Administration itself must be empowered, large and capable enough to sustain the pressures by the developmental activities. In simpler words it means to develop administrative health by rationalizing and institution building and bringing about a radical change in the administrative framework, from the traditionalist approach, to handle and create socio-economic and political development and social change. In essence the objective of Administrative development can be summarized as:

• Building decision making capabilities.
• Development of skill and specialization to tackle complex issues in the personnel.
• Giving importance to training, effective use of technology to bring about change in Administrative approach.
• Increasing administrative capacity, capabilities, removing corruption and bringing in more accountability.
• Creating leaders out of bureaucrats for promotion of development initiatives.

To achieve development goals it is necessary to that there is proper planning, optimum utilization of resources, skilled personnel, accountability in actions and words, self-reliance and emphasis on technology. At the same time we need to develop the bureaucracy, innovativeness, build capabilities, integrity and decentralized decision making.

So, Administrative development and Administration of Development both are important for the effective development of Society.