Publication: Rethinking Civil Service Reform
Date
1999-10
ISSN
Published
1999-10
Author(s)
Nunberg, Barbara
Abstract
A gnawing critique of civil service
reform efforts persists, intimating that these civil service
reform operations of the World Bank have boosted neither
efficiency nor effectiveness. The outlines of the problem
are fairly clear: civil service pay and employment reforms
have had only limited achievements, and there have been
difficulties with government ownership and
oversight--especially in Africa. At the same time, an
emerging agenda for government reform includes standard
personnel management and pay and employment reforms, but
also tries to link these activities with fundamental tasks
of transforming the state. The main problem with the
Bank's conventional approach to civil service reform is
that it has tried to use palliative measures to solve
problems that require major surgery. Technical
administrative fixes have been applied to fundamental
problems of political economy. And even the technical side
of the focus has been narrow, ignoring crucial links with
other parts of the larger system. Overcoming the
limitiations of this approach will require a more
comprehensive and realistic framework for reform--as well as
new instruments of support.
Citation
“Nunberg, Barbara. 1999. Rethinking Civil Service Reform. PREM Notes; No. 31. © World Bank, Washington, DC. http://openknowledge.worldbank.org/entities/publication/3c820c33-a4cb-57ca-8870-f204899cd857 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”