Chapter 2 The challenge of evidence-based strategy development: Linkages between evidence, policy and practice

3 Assessing the context 3.3 Potential limitations and risks 3.3.7 The capacity to effect change

The Minister is quoted at the beginning of this chapter as saying DLA faces leadership and management challenges. She has also highlighted the high number of vacant posts within the Department. Evidence from the field indicates that there is still a rapid turnover of staff despite strategies in place to retain staff. This contributes to loss of institutional memory and is cited as a problem which impacts negatively on the planning and support of projects over time. This raises questions as to whether DLA currently has the human capital to effectively drive and manage change and take on additional responsibilities. If the human resources are inadequate, the Strategy will have to identify complementary measures to offset this. This is further discussed in Chapter 11.