The Project Management Institute (PMI) has joined forces with the University of South Africa Graduate School of Business Leadership (UNISA SBL), the South African Revenue Service (SARS), the Project Management Office in the Presidency and other public sector partners to launch a new Community of Practice aimed at strengthening project delivery across government.
The Public Sector Project Management Community of Practice (PSPMCoP) brings together senior government leaders, policymakers, academics and project professionals to improve execution capability across the public sector as governments face growing pressure to deliver complex programmes with limited resources.
The initiative was formally launched at UNISA SBL in Midrand and is intended to create a long-term forum for sharing knowledge, improving governance and building project leadership capability across South African public institutions.
Responding to growing delivery complexity
The new Community of Practice has been established against a backdrop of increasing project complexity and rising expectations for public service delivery.
Governments are managing increasingly ambitious programmes spanning healthcare, education, transport, digital services, housing and economic development while simultaneously responding to fiscal pressures, technological disruption, artificial intelligence, changing policy priorities and heightened public scrutiny.
According to PMI’s Pulse of the Profession® 2026 report, 81% of project professionals believe projects have become more complex in recent years, with 37% reporting a significant increase.
The research also highlights the consequences of ineffective delivery. Around 61% of complex projects experience value loss, 55% suffer delivery disruptions and almost one-third fail to achieve their intended benefits.
PMI argues that stronger governance, collaboration and the ability to manage complexity significantly improve project outcomes, forming the basis for the new initiative.
Creating a forum for shared learning
The Community of Practice will provide a structured environment where public sector organisations can exchange lessons from major transformation programmes, discuss common delivery challenges and develop practical approaches to improving execution.
Participants are expected to collaborate on areas including project governance, leadership capability, institutional learning and programme delivery.
Rather than operating as a formal qualification programme, the initiative focuses on peer learning and knowledge sharing between organisations responsible for delivering some of South Africa’s largest and most complex public programmes.
George Asamani, Managing Director of PMI Sub-Saharan Africa, said strengthening delivery capability had become increasingly important as expectations for public services continue to grow.
“As expectations for service delivery continue to grow, strengthening the government’s ability to consistently implement complex programmes has never been more important,” he said.
“This Community of Practice creates a practical forum for leaders to exchange knowledge, strengthen governance, and build the capability needed to deliver better outcomes for citizens.”
Bringing together delivery expertise
The initiative combines expertise from organisations with different perspectives on public sector transformation.
SARS contributes experience in managing complex national programmes involving regulatory compliance, digital transformation and operational performance.
William Mpye, Group Executive and Head of the Enterprise Programme Management Office at SARS, said no single organisation could solve today’s delivery challenges alone.
“Creating opportunities for practitioners to exchange practical experience, learn from one another, and build institutional capability is essential to strengthening execution across government,” he said.
“We are proud to partner with PMI, the Project Management Office in the Presidency, and the UNISA SBL in establishing this Community of Practice.”
UNISA SBL will contribute leadership development and academic expertise.
Professor Walter Matli, Executive Dean of UNISA SBL, described the initiative as an important step towards developing a stronger community of public sector project professionals capable of managing increasingly complex programmes.
Supporting wider public sector capability
The Community of Practice forms part of PMI’s broader strategy to strengthen project management capability across Sub-Saharan Africa through professional standards, education and evidence-based practice.
By creating an ongoing network rather than a one-off conference or training programme, the partners hope to establish continuous collaboration between departments responsible for delivering nationally significant projects.
The organisers believe stronger institutional capability will ultimately improve the delivery of public services and increase value for citizens.
Project management perspective
The launch reflects a growing recognition that improving public sector delivery requires more than better project management tools or additional training. Many government organisations already possess capable professionals, but experience and lessons learned often remain isolated within individual departments.
A Community of Practice addresses this challenge by focusing on organisational learning rather than individual capability alone. It creates mechanisms for sharing practical experience, discussing common problems and spreading proven delivery approaches across institutions facing similar challenges.
This represents a shift from developing project managers in isolation towards strengthening the wider project delivery ecosystem.
Its success, however, will depend on maintaining active engagement beyond the launch event. Communities of Practice create value when participants contribute real delivery experience, openly discuss failures as well as successes and apply lessons learned to future programmes.
For public sector organisations, there is also an opportunity to standardise approaches to governance, assurance, benefits management and stakeholder engagement. Greater consistency across departments can reduce duplication, improve collaboration and strengthen confidence in government delivery.
The involvement of organisations such as SARS is particularly valuable because they bring experience of managing large-scale transformation programmes under demanding operational, regulatory and political conditions. Practical examples drawn from live programmes often provide more useful learning than theoretical case studies alone.
The Community of Practice also aligns with a broader trend towards viewing project delivery as a strategic capability rather than simply an operational function. As governments increasingly deliver policy through programmes and projects, execution capability becomes directly linked to public trust, economic development and national competitiveness.
For project professionals, the initiative highlights the growing importance of collaborative leadership across the public sector. Building delivery capability is no longer solely about improving individual competence; it requires stronger institutions, better governance and sustained knowledge exchange between the organisations responsible for turning policy into measurable outcomes.
