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Home»Governance»Public sector management»Civil service reform

Civil service reform

Institutional partnerships and twinning between civil service organisations

Helpdesk Report
  • Huma Haider
May 2018

‘Twinning’ typically entails a form of formalised partnership between similar institutions in the North and South for an indefinite period (Jensen, 2007; Baud et al., 2010), with the aim of strengthening the capacity of partners in developing countries (Jones and Blunt, 1999; Ouchi, 2004). Institutional twinning inherently implies that the primary focus of the capacity ...» more

Factors important to the establishment, renewal or rehabilitation of the civil service

Literature Review
  • William Robert Avis
November 2015

This literature review seeks to place the emergence of the civil service within its historical context, and highlight the role it has played in state-building. The civil service has helped the state to penetrate peripheral territories, standardise physical and psychological space, and accommodate competing sources of power. The review notes the expansion of the ...» more

Public service reform

E-Learning
  • Reading pack
  • Willy McCourt
November 2014

The focus in this Pack is on action: on the public service reform intervention, conceived as an exercise in helping. The readings included in this pack have been chosen to be interesting and fresh rather than comprehensive; that is, to stimulate thinking rather than necessarily to ‘cover all the bases’ in public service reform as…» more

Prioritising and sequencing public sector reform

Helpdesk Report
  • Sumedh Rao
February 2014

While there is a great deal of literature that alludes to the importance on prioritising and sequencing reform, there is very little literature that defines, in detail, what order public sector reform should take place. The exception to this is within specific public sector reform areas, such as Public Financial Management (PFM), where there is significant literature that ...» more

Civil service reform

Topic Guide
  • Sumedh Rao
October 2013

Improving a country's civil service can further development goals. Reforming the civil service is important in improving governance, service delivery, economic policy and public financial management. What do we know about what has – or hasn't – worked in civil service reform, and where? What lessons emerge from the literature? ...» more

Ethnic minority public sector employment

Helpdesk Report
  • Evie Browne
August 2013

This report identifies initiatives in developing countries which seek to attract, develop and retain indigenous or ethnic minority employees in the public sector workforce. This is supported with a brief overview of lessons learned from similar programmes in Australia, which are largely considered successful. The paper concentrates on civil service and central government ...» more

Staff Retention in African Public Service

Helpdesk Report
  • Andrew McDevitt
November 2010

This helpdesk report identifies lessons learned on retaining staff in the public service in Africa, with a focus on external auditing (Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) and Offices of the Auditor General (OAG)). However, because documented experience from these institutions is scarce, it also includes literature on internal auditing in public bodies as well as experience from ...» more

Monitoring and Evaluating Civil Service Performance

Helpdesk Report
  • Sumedh Rao
November 2010

There continues to be debate as to how best to monitor and evaluate civil service performance. This debate relates to what to measure, the best indicators to use, whether such a framework is appropriate and how best to implement a chosen framework. ...» more

Performance Related Pay

Helpdesk Report
  • Zoe Scott
March 2010

There are very few recent resources addressing performance related pay (PRP) in the central government administrations of developing countries. Several of the experts contacted emphasised that PRP has not been widely implemented in the developing world, and none were able to suggest a case where PRP had been implemented successfully. Most of the work in this area has instead ...» more

Support to Public Administration Reform in Central and Eastern Europe

Helpdesk Report
  • Emma Broadbent
January 2010

In general MDTFs are a popular way of organising donor support for public administration reform (PAR) in difficult transition environments. The perceived benefits are: lower transaction costs for donors coordination of donor priorities and approaches attracting a wide range of donors to contribute facilitating easier harmonisation with country strategies and ...» more

Civil Service Reform in Rwanda

Helpdesk Report
  • Emma Broadbent
December 2009

It is generally asserted that the Government of Rwanda has embarked on an impressive array of public sector reforms, with little criticism of their commitment or political willingness to support change. Public sector reform is discussed in the following policy contexts: human resource development; good governance and institutional strengthening; decentralisation to district- ...» more

Political Economy of Civil Service Reform

Helpdesk Report
  • Zoe Scott
December 2009

Much of the recent literature on civil service reform (CSR) emphasises that reforms have tended to fail and that political factors are critical to the success or failure or reform efforts. Political contextual factors and the impact of bureaucrats’ and politicians’ personal interests are most frequently discussed. Regional and ethnic political factors were generally not ...» more

Vetting Public Employees

Helpdesk Report
  • Brian Lucas
December 2009

Vetting refers to “processes for assessing an individual’s integrity as a means of determining his or her suitability for public employment.” Vetting may be applied to people who already hold public service positions, typically in post-conflict, post-authoritarian, or otherwise transitional contexts with the objective of removing individuals responsible for war crimes, human ...» more

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