Thirty Years of Public Sector Reforms in Africa


Book Description

Over the past three decades, African countries have been reforming their public sector with a view to improving efficiency, effectiveness, accountability and transparency as part of efforts to improve the delivery of public services. Reform actions have included privatisation, public/private partnerships, commercialisation and adoption of private sector approaches in managing public organisations. This book, put together by OSSREA, reviews measures by African countries in that regard, the extent to which the measures have achieved their intended results, as well as the factors behind the failure to achieve those results, where this was the case.




Key Principles of Public Sector Reforms


Book Description

Key Principles of Public Sector Reforms contains case studies from Cameroon, Ghana, Grenada, India, Kenya, Rwanda, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Saint Lucia, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania and Trinidad and Tobago on the policy reforms, strategies and methodologies that support national priorities and greater policy coherence for sustained development and growth.




Public Sector Reform


Book Description

The effectiveness and efficiency of a country's public sector is vital to the success of development activities, including those the World Bank supports. Sound financial management, an efficient civil service and administrative policy, efficient and fair collection of taxes, and transparent operations that are relatively free of corruption all contribute to good delivery of public services. The Bank has devoted an increasing share of its lending and advisory support to the reform of central governments, so it is important to understand what is working, what needs improvement, and what is missing. IEG has examined lending and other kinds of Bank support in 1999-2006 for public sector reform in four areas: public financial management, administrative and civil service, revenue administration, and anticorruption and transparency. Although a majority of countries that borrowed to support public sector reform experienced improved performance in some dimensions, there were shortcomings in important areas and in overall coordination. - The frequency of improvement was higher among IBRD borrowers than among IDA borrowers. - Performance usually improved for public financial management, tax administration, and transparency, but did not usually with respect to civil service. - Direct measures to reduce corruption-- such as anticorruption laws and commissions-- rarely succeeded.




A Decade of Civil Service Reform in Sub-Saharan Africa


Book Description

This paper assesses a decade of experience in civil service reform in a sample of 32 sub-Saharan African countries. Many countries have made an important start towards reducing excessive staffing levels and the nominal wage bill, but less progress has been made in decompressing salary differentials in favor of higher-grade staff. In the CFA franc zone countries, real wages fell sharply after the 1994 devaluation, but the wage bill relative to tax revenue is still high in many countries. There is a need to consolidate quantitative first-generation reforms that contribute to macroeconomic stabilization. Equally important is the need to make progress on qualitative second-generation reforms, especially remuneration and promotion policies that reward performance and measures to improve civil service management. Such policies will require strong political commitment by governments.




Public Sector Reform and Performance Management in Developed Economies


Book Description

"Over the past two decades, there has been a shift of paradigm in public administration and public sector accounting around the world with the increasing emphasis on outcomes as opposed to inputs and outputs focus. Understanding of how government departments and agencies develop and implement outcomes-based approaches to their services and programs to strengthen public accountability, financial scrutiny and good governance worldwide is limited. Covering a selection of international practices on outcomes-based approaches to government departments, agencies and public higher educational institutions in developed economies, this comprehensive compilation provides an essential reading in the public sector accounting, accountability and performance management field. The contributions are grouped into three jurisdictions: Australasia, UK and Europe, and North America. It incorporates outcomes-based practices in public services from advanced economies and will be of significant interest to global public sector regulators, consultants, researchers, and academic communities as well as academic researchers in public administration and development studies fields. The insights offered by a country-specific practice will also be useful to governments in other countries implementing similar systems and practices and facing similar socio-political environments. This book will also help to gain an understanding of the issues of government accountability from a management point of view as well as from a socio-political point of view"--




Season of Hope


Book Description

Offers an insight into the circumstances under which the policies were developed, implemented and reviewed, as well as a study of the outcomes. This book addresses questions such as: How could an organisation with no previous experience of governing accomplish a peaceful transition to democracy? How did they do it and where are they going?




African Successes


Book Description

"For the past twenty-five years Kenya has progressed while much of Africa has stagnated. Instead of the economic disasters, underdevelopment, and serious food shortages that have plagued its neighbors, Kenya has enjoyed an expanding economy and agriculture. And instead of a corrupt and incompetent public administration, Kenya has established several successful rural development programs run by public servants with integrity and professional commitment. What accounts for these Kenyan successes? In this innovative study, David Leonard illustrates the way public policy is made and implemented in Kenya by focusing on four public officials who have had a great impact on rural development. He skillfully weaves his analyses of Kenya's political, economic, and administrative systems into evocative biographical portraits of Charles Karanja, General Manager of the Kenya Tea Development Authority, Harris Mule, administrative head of Finance and Planning, Ishmael Muriithi, head of the Veterinary Department, and Simeon Nyachae, Cabinet Secretary and chief of the Civil Service. The result is a fascinating glimpse of Kenyan political life from the inside, set in the context of the historical and social forces that have shaped that country's government"--Publisher's description.




Public Sector Reform in South Africa 1994-2021


Book Description

Public Sector Reform in South Africa 1994-2021 is an examination of specific public sector reforms in three core Public Administration areas in the democratic South Africa: political-administrative relationships, the delegation of authority to senior managers and performance management.




Public Sector Reform in Developing Countries


Book Description

A country-by-country synopsis of the public sector reform programmes in 40 Commonwealth developing countries, with a profile of each country and an outline of the reform initiatives, implementation processes, achievements and problems encountered.