TheWorld Bank O c t o b e r PREMnotes 2 0 0 3 n u m b e r 7 9 Pu b l i c S e c to r Recent Bank support for civil service reconstruction in post- conflict countries The World Bank is engaged in civil service reconstruction efforts in several countries emerging from conflict. How do such efforts differ from traditional civil service reform, and what lessons do they offer for future civil service reconstruction in post- conflict countries? Civil service Civil service reconstruction is important in civil service reconstruction? And what inter- reconstruction is post-conflict countries because conflict erodes ventions can be used to achieve those goals? institutions and civil service capacity. And During fiscal 2000­02 the Bank's Board crucial in countries because successful reconstruction--in all sec- approved Transitional Support Strategies for tors--requires domestic capacity to implement nine post-conflict countries: Afghanistan, that have suffered projects, a weak civil service undermines over- Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, all reconstruction efforts. Moreover, donor the Republic of Congo, Kosovo, FYR Mace- from conflict assistance is crucial to a country's rebuilding, donia, Sierra Leone, Timor Leste, and and coordinating such assistance requires a Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro). This note certain amount of civil service capacity. presents the main findings from a review of In addition, the Bank has found that coun- those strategies and of documents for 12 recon- try ownership is essential for successful pro- struction projects in these countries. jects. But country ownership can be jeopardized if international agencies and non- Civil service reconstruction has governmental organizations (NGOs) domi- been a high priority nate reconstruction efforts, overwhelming All nine Transitional Support Strategies in- states already weakened by conflict. Civil ser- cluded support for reconstructing civil services vice reconstruction offers an opportunity to and public administrations--placing this ele- start anew, with little of the resistance to civil ment ahead of rebuilding human resources, service reform often encountered from politi- repairing infrastructure, and developing cians and civil servants. It allows good prac- private enterprises. Moreover, between fiscal tices to be instilled from the outset--without 2000 and 2002 allocations for projects with having to undo bad ones. civil service reconstruction components nearly tripled in the nine post-conflict countries, from The Bank provides significant 9 percent to 26 percent of total support. support to post-conflict countries The Bank gives the same priority to civil Nearly a quarter of the Bank's member coun- service reconstruction in post-conflict coun- tries--41 of 184--are affected by conflict, and tries as it does to civil service reform in non- such countries account for 16 percent of Bank conflict countries. During fiscal 2000­02, 18 lending. What role does civil service recon- percent of support to post-conflict countries struction play in the Bank's post-conflict went to projects with civil service reconstruc- agenda? What are the goals of Bank-supported tion components. During this period projects f r om th e d e ve lo p m e nt e co n om i c s v i c e p r e s i d e n c y a n d p ove rt y r e d u c t i o n a n d e co n om i c m a n ag e m e nt n e t w o r k with civil service reform components also Objectives of recent Bank-supported civil accounted for 18 percent of Bank lending. service reconstruction include: Some variation occurred among the · Raising civil service capacity for economic Bank's regions. For example, projects with management. civil service reconstruction components · Increasing accountability. accounted for 40 percent of project assis- · Improving service delivery. tance to the four post-conflict countries in The second and third of these are com- Africa--reflecting the high priority given mon to Bank-supported civil service reform. to addressing civil service weaknesses in the But the most common objective of recent civil region. Over the past 15 years the Africa service reconstruction efforts in post-conflict region has had the largest share of Bank countries, occurring in eight of the nine Tran- Only some of the projects involving civil service reform. sitional Support Strategies, was raising civil service capacity for economic management-- lessons from civil Civil service reconstruction and a rare objective in civil service reform. reform face different challenges On the other hand, correcting fiscal imbal- service reform can and goals ances by reducing the public wage bill--a Although the Bank has supported civil ser- common objective of civil service reform-- be applied to vice reform since 1978, only some of the has not been part of recent civil service recon- lessons from that experience can be applied struction efforts. And changing pay and reconstruction to civil service reconstruction. Governments career structures, another typical objective often give serious consideration to civil ser- of civil service reform, was a component of vice reform only when the public sector only one civil service reconstruction project. wage bill becomes unsustainable. But whereas civil service reform typically must Reconstruction requires a different kind of address the issue of too many personnel, civil service capacity civil service reconstruction in post-conflict Civil service reconstruction and reform have countries often faces the problem of too different priorities when it comes to building few--resulting from the emigration of staff civil service capacity. As reconstruction begins, with relevant skills and training. Civil ser- civil servants must make, implement, and vice reconstruction in these countries must manage policies. But during reconstruction also establish control mechanisms, because the Bank has focused on building policy peace accords often include employment implementation capacity rather than poli- guarantees, and many former combatants cymaking capacity. In addition, only one of seek to fill what they claim were their civil the nine Transitional Support Strategies (in service positions prior to conflicts. Timor Leste) identified the need to increase Civil service reform and reconstruction civil service capacity for policy management. also differ in their approaches to wage With implementation capacity building reform. Civil service reform often requires as the main objective, the most common wage adjustments, reflecting fractured grad- components of civil service reconstruction ing systems, vertical wage compression, and projects have been equipment purchases salary supplements in the form of allow- and general management training. Projects ances. Civil service reconstruction usually have also emphasized building capacity for requires a completely different approach to budget and financial management. And be- wage reform, because salaries are often not cause external aid plays a critical role in adjusted during conflicts--and frequently post-conflict reconstruction, civil service fall below subsistence levels. But despite the capacity to manage aid is urgently needed. urgent need to adjust civil service wages, it Donors that provide support to central bud- is difficult to do so before determining the gets are sensitive about how it is used. Thus size and shape of the rebuilt civil service and all the Transitional Support Strategies before obtaining reasonable projections of emphasize the need for civil servants to future government revenue. be able to manage aid. P R E M n ote 7 9 O c to b e r 2 0 0 3 Capacity building has preceded accounta- reconstruction only in Sierra Leone, which bility strengthening already had a decentralized administrative Relative to civil service reform efforts, recon- structure well before its conflict. One reason struction projects have placed less priority for this could be that centralized management on strengthening accountability--and more is preferable where local capacity is weak, as on building civil service capacity. In Timor is usually the case in post-conflict countries. Leste the Bank decided that only after some In another departure from civil service success had been achieved in building capac- reform projects, improving human resource ity could attention be paid to monitoring management was a rare objective among civil government performance, strengthening service reconstruction projects, included in civil service accountability mechanisms (such just two countries: FYR Macedonia and as systems for citizen complaints), and Yugoslavia. In Yugoslavia the Bank's recon- Reconstruction's increasing transparency and integrity in pub- struction strategy included changes to the lic service recruitment. civil service structure (such as reducing pub- most urgent goal Accountability strengthening, an objec- lic employment and restructuring ministries) tive of civil service reconstruction in four of and to personnel recruitment and remu- is to get money the nine post-conflict countries, has also been neration policies. designed differently than in civil service But FYR Macedonia and Yugoslavia are moving through reform. Most accountability efforts in civil exceptions, as both countries already had service reconstruction have sought to relatively high civil service capacity before the central budget strengthen capacity for financial manage- their conflict. That fact, along with the over- ment. Other interventions to strengthen whelming emphasis on building capacity for accountability--such as publishing govern- budget management, could mean that ment accounts and contracts, closing special adjusting civil service structures and per- accounts, creating external audit agencies, sonnel management practices is a less press- and other measures common to civil service ing need for civil service reconstruction in reform projects--appeared in only one most post-conflict countries. Instead, the reconstruction project. In addition, only two most urgent objective is to get money mov- of the nine Transitional Support Strategies ing through the central budget. (for the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Republic of Congo) directly addressed Bank projects have incorporated lessons from the need to increase transparency and reduce previous reconstruction efforts corruption, and both were in countries where Although downsizing is a prominent feature diversion of state resources had been a major in Bank-supported civil service reform, it has source of conflict. not been part of recent civil service recon- struction interventions. This difference may Other differences from civil service reform reflect a 1998 finding by the Operations Eval- Improving service delivery is considered a less uation Department that the Bank's post- pressing need in civil service reconstruction conflict reconstruction efforts paid inadequate projects. This objective was mentioned in only attention to political realities (OED 1998). In one Transitional Support Strategy--even Cambodia, for instance, the Bank pushed for though health and education needs were downsizing the civil service even though the urgent and conflict had seriously eroded political coalition created by the country's social capital in every post-conflict country. peace accords was partly based on expanding In contrast, improving service delivery was the civil service to absorb a large number of the most common objective of Bank-sup- functionaries from incoming parties. ported civil service reform in fiscal 2000­02. Recent projects in post-conflict countries Deconcentration or devolution of admin- have also not transferred noncore govern- istrative power is often emphasized in civil ment functions to the private sector-- service reform, but administrative decen- perhaps partly because the 1998 OED report tralization was an objective of civil service criticized the Bank for promoting sweeping P R E M n ote 7 9 O c to b e r 2 0 0 3 privatization in post-conflict countries with- formulating and implementing policies and out taking into account cronyism between programs that achieve that goal. Govern- the public and private sectors. ment officials must be able to establish a sta- tistical base for calculating debt sustainability Future work on civil service and determining HIPC eligibility, to develop reconstruction a strategy for reaching the HIPC decision Because most of the Bank's recent civil ser- point, and to strengthen public expenditure vice reconstruction projects are still active, management to ensure effective use of funds it is too early to evaluate their effectiveness. freed by debt relief. During fiscal 2003­04 Thus this review has focused on the Bank's three post-conflict countries (Burundi, reconstruction priorities. In preparing for Democratic Republic of Congo, and Repub- There is a strong future civil service reconstruction efforts, it lic of Congo) are scheduled to undergo would be logical to evaluate the Bank's HIPC tracking assessments by the Bank. need for continued strengths in the reconstruction areas identi- fied in this note--including assessing and (if Further reading Bank support for necessary) augmenting staff skills and capac- Mukherjee, Ranjana, and Nick Manning. ity. Approaches to increasing accountability 2002. "Recent Trends in Lending for Civil civil service should also be tested. It would also be useful Service Reform." PREMnote 71. World to determine whether it has been by design Bank, PREM Network, Washington, D.C. reconstruction or default that the Bank's reconstruction [http://www1.worldbank.org/prem/ priorities do not include strengthening pol- PREMNotes/premnote71.pdf]. icymaking, promoting administrative decen- OED (Operations Evaluation Department). tralization, improving human resource 1998. The World Bank's Experience with Post- management, and making the civil service Conflict Reconstruction. Report 18465. more responsive to civil society. Washington, D.C.: World Bank. There is a strong need for continued Bank World Bank. 2002. Review of the Poverty Reduc- support for civil service reconstruction. tion Strategy Paper (PRSP) Approach: Early Although many countries emerging from Experiences with Interim PRSPs and Full PRSPs. conflict are poor and require Poverty Reduc- Washington, D.C. [http://www.world tion Strategy Papers, they often have insuf- bank.org/poverty/strategies/review/ ficient administrative capacity and statistical earlyexp.pdf]. information to develop such strategies. Civil service reconstruction is also impor- This note was written by Ranjana Mukherjee (Con- tant to enable such countries to participate sultant, Public Sector Group, PREM Network) in the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries and benefited from comments from Ian Bannon, (HIPC) initiative--sponsored by the Bank Nick Manning, David Sewell, and Helen Sutch. and the International Monetary Fund-- If you are interested in similar topics, consider because most post-conflict countries are joining the Administrative and Civil Service heavily indebted. Obtaining debt relief from Reform Thematic Group. Contact Ranjana the initiative requires establishing economic Mukherjee (x34301) or click on Thematic Groups discipline, and thus a civil service capable of on PREMnet. 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