What lessons have emerged from recent civil service reform programmes in Eastern and Southern Africa? This paper reports on the findings of a consultative workshop organised by the Civil Service Department (CSD) of the President’s Office in Tanzania. Broadly speaking, reforms often failed because political pressure imposed excessive time and budgetary constraints. Strategic priorities for future programmes include better pay for administrators, greater political commitment to reform and a results-oriented, long-term perspective.
Recent civil service reforms in Eastern and Southern Africa have often followed the “New Public Management” (NPM) model in which the private sector assumes greater responsibility for service delivery and command-driven hierarchies are replaced by more flexible results-based structures. The outcomes of civil service reforms in Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe show varying degrees of compliance with the NPM paradigm. One common weakness is that these countries often implement NPM policies outside a strategic framework, which may undermine their impact.
- In Kenya, payroll reduction was achieved through an early retirement scheme and abolition of vacant posts. However, poor ministerial capacity, low morale and insufficiently reliable personnel information impeded greater success.
- In Malawi, reforms led to a reduction in the number of ministries and the contracting-out of some public services. Challenges to reform included political opposition, the profusion of reform agencies and poor implementation sequencing.
- In Mozambique, successes included the decentralisation of human resource management and the introduction of a code of conduct. Neverthelss, some problems endure, such as political influence over appointments, a weak private sector and inadequate ministerial co-ordination.
- In South Africa, changes have been underpinned by decentralisation, open competition in employment, performance-related career structures and improved information technology. However, the programme is hindered by excessive centralisation of policy, inadequate monitoring of service delivery and poor local capacity.
- In Tanzania, the workforce was successfully downsized, wages were increased, management structures were rationalised and performance-related budgeting was implemented. However, pressure to achieve immediate results, inadequate financing and the diffusion in external funding sources have impeded progress.
- In Uganda, reforms included devolution of centralised functions to local government and agencies, bureaucratic downsizing and pay reform. Future success is dependent on high-level political commitment, participatory programme design and better resource mobilisation.
- In Zambia, ministerial auditing and restructuring were implemented, a performance appraisal system was introduced and a training policy was developed. Challenges to reform included poor managerial capacity, resource and time constraints and resistance to change among personnel and trade unions.
- In Zimbabwe, achievements included workforce reductions, decentralisation of personnel functions and the computerisation of information systems. However ineffective communication between politicians and administrators, officials’ resistance to change and sequencing faults have hampered progress.
While the lessons learned vary from country to country, some broad recommendations can be made:
- Funding should be carefully planned in advance to ensure that civil servants receive a living wage and programmes are properly implemented.
- Sequencing must be carefully designed: excessive reforms introduced simultaneously often hinder implementation.
- Consensus and information-sharing among administrators and high-level politicians is often critical to success.
- Programmes should be flexible enough to respond to changes in macro-economic circumstances.
- Local institutional capacity should be strengthened by training and broad participation in policy formulation.
- New technologies should be harnessed to increase efficiency.
