| | |
| | |
Publication of the World Bank Administrative and Civil Service Reform Thematic Group |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
July 2001
|
Vol. 1 No.1
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
 |
Traditionally, civil service reform programs supported by the World Bankhave responded to three sets of concerns. Some reforms, particularly those pursued in the 1980s, were primarily concerned to address the fiscal concerns arising from overstaffing and unsustainable wage bills. Other, more recent reforms, were intended to facilitate policy agility in government and to ensure that legitimate policies could in fact be implemented. Most recently, reforms have tended to focus on improving operational efficiency and service quality. The track record is distinctly mixed. Only about one third of reforms have achieved satisfactory outcomes. Even when desirable, outcomes often were not sustainable. Downsizing and capacity building initiatives often failed to produce permanent reductions in civil service size or overcome capacity constraints in economic management and service delivery. Four factors are associated with this modest track record:
Further details are available from http://www1.worldbank.org/publicsector/civilservice/evaluationofdonor.htm. The recent public sector strategy marks a determined effort to improve this track record (http://www1.worldbank.org/publicsector/strategy.htm). It reflects a more pragmatic approach to sequencing, implying that comprehensive civil service reforms, and other "whole of government approaches," seem to work in middle income and transitional countries where governments are motivated by arrangements that enable citizens, particularly the poor, to express their preferences and to hold public officials accountable for translating these preferences into results. These arrangements include a fair and transparent electoral process (with power-sharing arrangements to protect minority groups), as well as mechanisms to incorporate civil society and local governments within the policymaking process. In other settings, particularly with high levels of state capture and comprehensively weak governance; there are limitations of "whole of government" reforms. New approaches to civil service reform emphasize:
CAPAM is a membership organisation dedicated to the exchange of experience among senior public sector practitioners - both elected and appointed - throughout the Commonwealth and beyond. In addition to traditional membership services, CAPAM has recently developed new programmes and initiatives to bring greater depth to this exchange. In particular, CAPAM has now twice run its International Innovations Award Programme on the theme "Service to the Public." The 2000 Award winners included: in India, the State Poverty Eradication Mission (Kudumbashree) project: Malappuram CBNP: A Novel Experiment, A Unique Experience empowering women and fighting poverty; from Canada the Citizen-Centred Service Network which has measurably improved citizen satisfaction with government services through horizontal and vertical partnering and the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry in South Africa's Working for Water Programme, which achieves both social and environmental goals simultaneously. Building on this programme, CAPAM will work with the Commonwealth Secretariat and other organisations to replicate these innovations where appropriate throughout the Commonwealth. The International Innovations Cascading Programme draws upon the 240 submissions to the Awards programme to date that together represent a rich repository of experience in public sector innovation. The theme of the next CAPAM International Innovations Awards Programme is "Governance." The programme will be launched in August of 2001. CAPAM has responded to the demand for urgent interventions in the area of public sector leadership development through the creation of the CAPAM Leadership Development Programme. This programme will be delivered in four or five countries each year, beginning with South Africa in May, Uganda in August, and Barbados in September 2001. The programme has two parts: a leadership development programme for senior civil servants and a train-the-trainer programme targeting facilitators. This programme is also being delivered in association with the Commonwealth Secretariat. The Senior Public Executive Seminars offered by CAPAM now include not only a customised one-week programme for an individual country, but also a 'generic' programme offered once annually in August at the University of Birmingham, UK. The customisation of programmes has been well received, examples being recent deliveries in Samoa on service charters and in the Seychelles on human resource development. Together, the CAPAM generic and customised Senior Public Executive Seminars have reached over 500 individuals in more than 20 Commonwealth countries. CAPAM has been a prime contributor to the 'practitioner materials' portion of the World Bank Administrative and Civil Service Reform Web site. To date, the abstracts of over 700 documents, primarily written for and by senior level public sector officials, from the CAPAM Practice Knowledge Centre, are listed on this site and are available from CAPAM. In November 2001, CAPAM will run a National Seminar with the Government of Uganda in Entebbe entitled: Improving Service Delivery. The Seminar, which is expected to draw attendance from throughout Commonwealth Africa, will focus on public management frameworks for service delivery, tri-sector approaches to service delivery, spheres of government and service delivery as well as service delivery, and poverty alleviation. The conference, which will run from 18 - 20 November, will be opened by Commonwealth Deputy Secretary-General Winston Cox, who is also a CAPAM Board member. CAPAM programming for 2002 will see a regional seminar organized with the State Services Commission of New Zealand in April and the CAPAM Biennial Conference in September. The Biennial Conference - "Creating Self-Confident Government: Reflections and New Frontiers" - is scheduled for 7-11 September at the Glasgow Moat House Hotel in Scotland. The CAPAM Biennial Conference attracts Ministers, senior public officials, academics, and representatives of the private and non-governmental sectors. The winners of the 2002 CAPAM International Innovations Awards Programme will also be announced at that time.
International Institute of Administrative Sciences The
statutes of the IIAS (Articles 4 and 5) oblige us both to develop the
academic study of the field and to improve governance methods and implementation
in a practical way. We are a non-governmental organization (but obsessed
by governance and public administration), a unique bilingual 100-nation
community of scholars and practitioners, political leaders and blue-sky
thinkers, based in Brussels, with a small management team but with global
contacts. Our round of major international meetings continues, but there
have been some changes at the centre and there will soon be more. People First, the President of the Institute, the senior Mexican diplomat, Mr Ignacio Pichardo Pagaza, will be standing down in July at the end of his three-year-term. It is expected that Mr Atangana Mebara, the Higher Education Minister of Cameroon will replace him. Second, Giancarlo Vilella has stood down as Director General and returned to the European Parliament. His successor is Mr. Michael Duggett, who took over at the beginning of April. Mr. Duggett has stated that he sees the job as one where the balance is vital for a body like the Institute – in particular between the world of practice and theory, English and French, the developing and the developed world - should not prevent the Institute from also moving forward. “A tight-rope walker cannot stand still for long” is how he has put it. In particular, Mr. Dugget is interested in keeping together the aspects of the Institute’s work that focus on modern governance, the strengths and weaknesses of the NPM and the service-delivery information-driven technological revolution with those of public law, administrative reform, development and the upholding of proper standards in government in the state. Diary Forthcoming events will be:
If you or your institution are not members, contact us now so that we can tell you about the benefits of membership. Speak to Gail Darge on 00322 536 0880 – darge@iiasiisa.be For more information visit the web-site at:http://www.iiasiisa.be
OECD Programme on Public Management and Governance The OECD Public Management Service (PUMA) is advancing its work on issues central to the efficient functioning of government and the promotion of good governance. To meet this objective, PUMA has developed a new Mandate and work programme which reflects the priorities of the Member states. Under the heading of "Enhancing Public Sector Capacity" in the Mandate, PUMA is currently working on four major projects: leadership development, competitive public employer, knowledge management, and public service ethics. Click here to see mandate. Leadership Development. In this new century, countries need new types of public sector leadership to be reform agents and to promote enhanced performance. PUMA has collected leadership development strategies and good practices by holding a series of meetings. The first report of this project will be published around July 2001. PUMA is planing to hold a series of high level leadership seminars in the coming years. Competitive Public Employer. Most OECD Member countries are currently searching for strategies and policies on how to retain and enhance the professional quality of their public service in an ageing society and tighter labour market. The project focuses on: how to recruit and retain qualified personnel; how to increase professionalism in the public service; and how to improve public sector competitiveness. PUMA held an expert meeting on this issue in April 2001, where various challenges and policies were discussed. Knowledge Management. Knowledge has become a fundamental source of wealth creation supplementing industrial capital and land. KM represents a management modernisation challenge for the public sector, which involves adapting classical management tools in a way that systematically promotes knowledge sharing. Countries are anxious to put in place a knowledge management programme in the public sector, but lack the experience or knowledge to do it. The project aims to help Members countries' efforts in this area. For this purpose, PUMA hosted a conference on comparative experiences between public and private organisations in Copenhagen in February in co-operation with the Danish government and other institutions. Public
Service Ethics. In the last two years, OECD has carried out a comprehensive
survey on mechanisms promoting public service ethics and countering corruption.
The result of this survey was published as a book entitled "Trust
in Government: Ethics Measures in OECD Countries." As a follow-up,
further PUMA work focuses on sensitive areas, especially at the public-private
sector interface. A survey was launched to review policies preventing
and resolving the problem of conflicts of interest. At present, PUMA is
in the process of collecting relevant data around this issue.
The SIGMA approach to civil service reform has been driven by the necessities of its client countries coupled with the requirements from the European Union. All countries where SIGMA is active come from former communist regimes in Central and Eastern Europe. These countries are now split into two categories: those that are candidates to membership in the European Union (10 countries) and those that are not candidate for the time being, but that are negotiating or concluding negotiations with the EU on "Association Agreements" or other kinds of instruments. These latter countries are situated in the Balkan region. In both groups of countries the preoccupation is to align their civil services with standards and principles that are shared by EU Member States. The first concern has been to introduce the notion of a public administration governed by law. The rule of law, in its dimensions of legal certainty and predictability of public actions and decisions, is crucial for making future partners in the EU reliable. There is an acquis communautaire that has to be applied homogeneously across the European Union and the national administration in each Member State is the main implementing authority of the acquis in that country. For that reason, since the EU Summit in Madrid in 1995 reform of public administration in candidate countries has become one of the main EU accession requirements. From this standpoint, the civil service in candidate countries needs to become professional, free of undue politization and with acceptable integrity standards. Selection systems for recruitment and promotion based on merit and carried out through competitive procedures along with adequate training strategies have been one of the basic means proposed to attain professionalism of the civil service. Other means are a clear definition of rights and duties and disciplinary arrangements, including limitations to political involvement and incompatibility of a certain number of economic activities with the civil servant status. The SIGMA approach to civil service reform has been basically and necessarily a legal approach because the change required from candidate countries by the EU is mainly about changing the rules of the game and building a new legal order for public administration that is compatible with EU membership aspirations. It was understood that legal change was the precondition to build up a new and sufficient administrative capacity to cope with the requirements of EU membership. This approach stems from administrative traditions in continental Europe, where public administrations have a strong legal component. No a priori reason exists for this approach to be necessarily valid elsewhere. By now some more advanced candidate countries have managed to reach an acceptable threshold in developing their new public administration and civil service legal frameworks. SIGMA's focus can shift to implementation and to improving efficiency and quality of public services in these countries. Other candidate counties, however, are still far from having the necessary legal framework enacted. Further
information about SIGMA work on civil service can be found at
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||
