Publication: International Public Administration Reform : Implications for the Russian Federation
Loading...
Published
2004
ISSN
Date
2013-08-14
Author(s)
Parison, Neil
Editor(s)
Abstract
This paper has four objectives: 1. To offer an analysis of public administration reform experiences in a set of countries chosen to illustrate the range and depth of recent administrative change. 2. To pick out from this analysis those variables that seem particularly relevant to the current condition in the Russian Federation. 3. To suggest a way of organizing thinking about a very complex and contested field. 4. To provide some pointers toward a reform strategy for policymakers in this area in the Russian Federation. Identifying the key country comparators and the relevant variables and offering a way of thinking about their significance are particularly important for the Russian Federation authorities as they prepare for implementation of the Program for the Reform of the Civil Service System in the Russian Federation. As reforms intensify, there will be a flood of serious, experienced international advisers and management experts, but there will also be those with "snake oil" to sell. Reformers need some lenses through which they can critically examine reform proposals and evaluate advice from experts. The paper draws its conclusions from an analysis of 14 countries selected by representatives of the Russian Federation government: Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Finland, Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, the Republic of Korea, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The World Bank was asked to look at a number of countries that faced similar challenges to those facing Russia in this area, while also looking at some countries that faced different problems but achieved interesting results.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“Parison, Neil; Manning, Nick. 2004. International Public Administration Reform : Implications for the Russian Federation. Directions in development;; Directions in Development;. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/15068 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Digital Object Identifier
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Publication Democratic Republic of Congo Urbanization Review(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2018)The Democratic Republic of Congo has the third largest urban population in sub-Saharan Africa (estimated at 43% in 2016) after South Africa and Nigeria. It is expected to grow at a rate of 4.1% per year, which corresponds to an additional 1 million residents moving to cities every year. If this trend continues, the urban population could double in just 15 years. Thus, with a population of 12 million and a growth rate of 5.1% per year, Kinshasa is poised to become the most populous city in Africa by 2030. Such strong urban growth comes with two main challenges – the need to make cities livable and inclusive by meeting the high demand for social services, infrastructure, education, health, and other basic services; and the need to make cities more productive by addressing the lack of concentrated economic activity. The Urbanization Review of the Democratic Republic of Congo argues that the country is urbanizing at different rates and identifies five regions (East, South, Central, West and Congo Basin) that present specific challenges and opportunities. The Urbanization Review proposes policy options based on three sets of instruments, known as the three 'I's – Institutions, Infrastructures and Interventions – to help each region respond to its specific needs while reaping the benefits of economic agglomeration The Democratic Republic of the Congo is at a crossroads. The recent decline in commodity prices could constitute an opportunity for the country to diversify its economy and invest in the manufacturing sector. Now is an opportune time for Congolese decision-makers to invest in cities that can lead the country's structural transformation and facilitate greater integration with African and global markets. Such action would position the country well on the path to emergence.Publication An Investment Framework for Nutrition(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2017-04-12)The report estimates the costs, impacts and financing scenarios to achieve the World Health Assembly global nutrition targets for stunting, anemia in women, exclusive breastfeeding and the scaling up of the treatment of severe wasting among young children. To reach these four targets, the world needs $70 billion over 10 years to invest in high-impact nutrition-specific interventions. This investment would have enormous benefits: 65 million cases of stunting and 265 million cases of anemia in women would be prevented in 2025 as compared with the 2015 baseline. In addition, at least 91 million more children would be treated for severe wasting and 105 million additional babies would be exclusively breastfed during the first six months of life over 10 years. Altogether, achieving these targets would avert at least 3.7 million child deaths. Every dollar invested in this package of interventions would yield between $4 and $35 in economic returns, making investing in early nutrition one of the best value-for-money development actions. Although some of the targets—especially those for reducing stunting in children and anemia in women—are ambitious and will require concerted efforts in financing, scale-up, and sustained commitment, recent experience from several countries suggests that meeting these targets is feasible. These investments in the critical 1000 day window of early childhood are inalienable and portable and will pay lifelong dividends – not only for children directly affected but also for us all in the form of more robust societies – that will drive future economies.Publication At a Crossroads(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2017-05-02)Higher education (HE) has expanded dramatically in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) since 2000. While access became more equitable, quality concerns remain. This volume studies the expansion, as well as HE quality, variety and equity in LAC. It investigates the expansion’s demand and supply drivers, and outlines policy implications.Publication Options for Aged Care in China(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2018-11-20)China is aging at an unprecedented rate. Improvements in life expectancy and the consequences of the decades-old family planning policy have led to a rapid increase in the elderly population. According to the United Nations World Population Prospects, the proportion of older people age 65 and over will increase by about one-fourth by 2030, and the elderly will account for about one quarter of the total population by 2050. Population aging will not only pose challenges for elder care but also have an impact on the economy and all aspects of society (World Bank, 2016a). The government is aware of the need to develop an efficient and sustainable approach to aged care. To this end, the General Office of the State Council issued the 12th Five-Year Plan for the Development of Aged Care Services in China and the Development Plan for a System of Social Services for the Aged (2011-2015). It is now in the process of formulating the 13th Five-Year National Plan on Aging, which will further elaborate and finalize the reform roadmap for 2016 to 2020. The Plan is expected to be finalized and launched by June 2016. The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) helped draft these plans and is now leading the development of policy measures for the provision of social services for the elderly. This volume has been prepared to support the translation of the broad ideas on aged care provision expressed in the 12th and 13th Five-Year Plans and other government plans into reality and to help the government tackle the challenges described above. It strives to identify a policy framework that fits the Chinese context and can be put in place gradually. Specifically, it aims to provide an up-to-date understanding of the evolving aged care landscape in China; review international experiences in long-term care provision, financing, and quality assurance and assess their relevance to China’s current situation; discuss implications of current developments and trends for the future of aged care in China; and propose policy options based on available evidence and best practices.Publication Transforming Karachi into a Livable and Competitive Megacity(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2018-02-27)With a population of 16 million, Karachi is the largest megacity in Pakistan. Despite being a large city that is home to many, it has seen a substantial decline in quality of life and economic competitiveness in recent decades. Basic service delivery is very poor, with very low indicators for water supply, sanitation, public transport and public spaces. Pollution levels are high, and the city is vulnerable to disasters and climate change. A highly complex political economy, institutional fragmentation, land contestation, crime and security issues and social exclusion exacerbate these issues and make city management challenging. The Karachi City Diagnostic and Transformation Strategy attempts to present detailed data on the economy, livability and key urban services of the city, by identifying and quantifying the requirements to bridge the services gap in the city. It also proposes pathways towards the transformation of Karachi into a more livable, inclusive and economically competitive city by outlining policy actions that the city can undertake. The first part of the report provides an in-depth review of Karachi and is organized into three themes focused on key aspects of city management: (i) city growth and prosperity – discussing city economy, competitiveness, business environment and poverty; (ii) city livability – discussing urban and spatial planning, urban governance and municipal service delivery (water and sanitation, public transport and solid waste); and (iii) sustainability and inclusiveness – discussing the city’s long term resilience based on fiscal management, disaster resilience and climate change, and social inclusion. In each section, a diagnostic is provided on the issues, along with possible prioritized actions to resolve them. The second part of the report concludes by identifying four pillars for city transformation. These include: (i) building inclusive, coordinated and accountable institutions; (ii) greening Karachi for sustainability and resilience; (iii) leveraging on the city's economic, social and environmental assets; and (iv) creating a smart city through smart policies and technology.
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication A Guide to Government in Afghanistan(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2004-04)This guide has three objectives: First and foremost, it seeks to provide newcomers to the Administrative and political scene in Afghanistan with a basic guide to the structures and processes of government. Second and related, it intends to provide reformers with some understanding of how to work "with the grain" of the existing institutional arrangements. Third, this report seeks to pay tribute to the remarkable people who have kept the system running and who are now reforming it. In pursuing these objectives, this guide attempts to set out these underlying strengths of the public sector, describing the evolution of the Afghan state, the current political context, and the administrative and organizational components of the government. It sets out the legal basis and organizational responsibilities for key fiscal tasks including revenue collection, budget preparation and execution, and accounting and audit. It also describes the organizational structures in the provinces, the way in which the staffing establishment is determined, and the structure of pay and grading. In particular, it looks at the arrangements for service delivery in the education and health sectors. A companion paper, "Subnational Administration in Afghanistan : Assessment and Recommendations for Action," (report no. 29415) outlines some specific recommendations resulting from these studies.Publication The Republic of Uganda - Public Expenditure Review : Report on the Progress and Challenges of Budget Reforms(Washington, DC, 2002-09-23)This PER emphasizes the importance of the government and its development partners developing a systematic program and a sequenced approach to address identified concerns to allow Uganda to achieve macrostability, fiscal sustainability, and poverty reduction. The report is organized in seven chapters. Chapter 1 discusses the macro challenges Uganda faces and how these are linked to fiscal considerations. Macrostability has largely been achieved with satisfactory growth rates higher than in the previous year. But the unprecedented terms of trade shock has resulted in the decline of total receipts from exports. The reduction of foreign exchange revenues in combination with lower revenue collections has led to fiscal constraints. Chapter 2 notes the need to ensure stakeholder contribution to the budget process and to improve quality of budget planning, choices, and predictability. Chapter 3 analyzes the health, education, and water and sanitation sectors and describes the great progress made in aloocative efficiency --although these sectors are experiencing major challenges in achieving operational efficiency. Chapter 4 discusses how the government has "commitment control systems (CCSs)" to address the problem of arrears. Chapter 5 identifies how Uganda uses tracking systems to identify problems in flow of funds. Chapter 6 discusses the growing challenges for budget preparation, execution, and monitoring at the local government level. Chapter 7 draws conclusions.Publication Romania : Local Social Services Delivery Study, Volume 2. Main Report(Washington, DC, 2002-01-16)The study seeks to identify institutional, and procedural factors which may facilitate, or hamper the effectiveness of social services, and inter-governmental fiscal arrangements. Based on existing research on decentralization, the success of decentralized service delivery depends on factors, that include the quality of intergovernmental institutions, a stable fiscal framework, and a well established civil society, and social structure. The study focuses on public social services, where local governments play the greatest role, and, throughout the report, the greatest emphasis is on social assistance benefits, and services, addressing those cash benefits which are delivered, and financed by local governments, including national programs such as birth grants, emergency assistance, and the main poverty alleviation program. In education, the study focuses on compulsory, and secondary education, though it does not address specialized secondary education, which is under the purview of central ministries. The study comprises two volumes: volume 1 provides an overview of the issues, summarizes major findings, and presents policy options; volume 2 includes the detailed discussion, and analysis, and presents the empirical underpinnings of the report. The study finds that fiscal decentralization of poverty alleviation benefits, has undermined its effectiveness, and eroded social safety nets; thus the government is preparing the Minimum Income Guarantee Program Law to centralize financing of social assistance cash benefits. And, education seems to be the policy area with greatest potential for further decentralization, suggesting a careful capacity evaluation to decide whether to attain complete autonomy.Publication Moldova : Public Economic Management Review(Washington, DC, 2003-03-24)Unfavorable initial conditions, and extreme vulnerability to external shocks, as experienced by Moldova's economic transition, culminated in the 1998 regional financial crisis, which fostered the need for radical fiscal retrenchment, namely, reductions in social sectors expenditures. Currently, and despite a seemingly reasonable, attainable growth, the challenge for the Government is to improve basic outcomes in social sectors, and address inequities in access to basic social services. Key recommendations in this report suggest: a) launching a major program of public service reform; b) strengthening the government decision-making process, through the introduction of a system of Cabinet Committees, and the restructuring of the State Chancellery into a non-political Government Secretariat; c) strengthening strategic prioritization in budget formulation, through a structured approach to developing, and implementing the Medium Term Expenditure Framework; d) strengthening the budget process, through increased budget coverage - deepening Treasury coverage - and setting a stronger, internal/external accountability framework. Similarly, recommendations call for a strengthened civil service management, by amending the Civil Service Law, securing the application of key merit principles, and de-politicization, while launching a functional program to rationalize government structures. Furthermore, sector-specific reforms in the social sectors should be accelerated, particularly for education and social assistance, balancing basic education, primary health care, and emergency services.Publication Madagascar : Public Expenditure Review 2004 - The challenge of Poverty Reduction(Washington, DC, 2005-02)This Public Expenditure Review (PER) analyzes the Government of Madagascar's efforts to meet the challenge of poverty reduction. The report first evaluates the macroeconomic and fiscal framework within which the Government is implementing its Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS). Secondly, reviews the resource allocation and current budget management process in Madagascar, and the extent to which the current budgeting, and budget management process allows the Government to effectively implement the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP). This section also deals with overall budget execution in implementing the Government policies, and the use of human resources. The final sections analyze the effective use of public resources in three priority sectors which are crucial for the implementation of the PRSP - education, transport and environment - and absorb the largest sectoral allocations. The findings of this report expand, and further deepen existing knowledge about the public finance system in Madagascar, and its contribution to the delivery of services in specific sectors. While they acknowledge Government efforts to improve the system of public finance, they confirm significant weaknesses in allocating and executing public resources at the sectoral, and cross-sectoral levels. The findings and recommendations of the report call for the development of an integrated reform program, which prioritizes intended reforms in view of the absorptive capacity of the Government machinery. At the cross-sectoral level, it is anticipated to feed the recommendations into the development of the Priority Action Plan of the Ministry of Economy, Finance and Budget (MEFB) for the year 2005. At the sectoral levels the recommendations of this report will contribute to a refinement of government's interventions, aimed at improving implementation of sectoral policies, and delivery of services.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Decentralization and Corruption : Evidence across Countries(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2000-02)The relationship between decentralization of government activities and the extent of rent extraction by private parties is an important element in the recent debate on institutional design. The theoretical literature makes ambiguous predictions about this relationship, and it has remained virtually unexamined by empiricists. The authors make a first attempt at examining the issue empirically, by looking at the cross-country relationship between fiscal decentralization and corruption as measured by a number of different indices. Their estimates suggest that fiscal decentralization in government spending is significantly associated with lower corruption. Moreover, they find that the origin of a country's legal system - for example, civil versus common legal code - performs extremely well as an instrument for decentralization. The estimated relationship between decentralization, when so instrumented, and corruption is even stronger. The evidence suggests a number of interesting areas for future work, including investigating whether there are specific services for which decentralized provision has a particularly strong impact on political rent extraction, and understanding the channels through which decentralization succeeds in keeping corruption in check.Publication The Impact of Health Insurance on the Access to Health Care and Financial Protection in Rural Developing Countries : The Example of Senegal(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2001-09)Community-based health insurance schemes are becoming increasingly recognized as an instrument to finance health care in developing countries. Taking the example of "les mutuelles de santes" (mutual health organization) in rural Senegal this paper analyzes whether or not members in a mutual health insurance scheme have better access to health care than nonmembers. A binary probit model is estimated for the determinants of participation in a mutual and a logit/log linear model is used to measure the impact on health care utilization and financial protection. The results show that, while the health insurance schemes reach otherwise excluded people, the very poorest in the communities are not covered. Regarding the impact on the access to health care, members have a higher probability of using hospitalization services than nonmembers and pay substantially less when they need care. Given the results of this study, community financing schemes have the potential to improve the risk-management capacity of rural households. To reduce identified limitations of the schemes, an enlargement of the risk pool and a scaling up or linking of the schemes is, however, a prerequisite. Appropriate instruments to be further tested should include reinsurance policies, subsidies for the poorest and developing linkages to the private sector via the promotion of group insurance policies. All these instruments call for a stronger role of public health policy.Publication Implementing Decentralized Local Governance: A Treacherous Road with Potholes, Detours, and Road Closures(World Bank, Washington, D.C., 2004-06)During the past two decades, a silent revolution in public sector governance has swept across the globe aiming to move decision making for local public services closer to the people. The countries embracing and adapting to this silent revolution have had diverse motives and followed even more diverse approaches. This paper attempts to present a stylized view of the motivations and approaches used to strengthen local governance. The quest for the right balance, i.e. appropriate division of powers among different levels of government, is not always the primary reason for decentralizing. There is evidence that the decentralization decision may have more to do with short-term political considerations than the long-run benefits of decentralization. To take stock of progress worldwide, we take a comparative look at developments in political, fiscal and administrative decentralization for a selected group of countries. Most of the decentralization literature deals with normative issues regarding the assignment of responsibilities among different levels of government and the design of fiscal transfers. The process of decentralization has not received the attention it deserves as the best laid plans can fail due to implementation difficulties. We revisit major controversies regarding preferred approaches to obtaining a successful outcome. Key approaches examined are big push versus small steps; bottom up vs. top down; and uniform vs. asymmetric decentralization. Finally, Indonesia's 1999 big bang decentralization program is evaluated. The program should be commended for its achievements over a short period of time, however incentives are lacking for local governments to be accountable and responsive to their residents.Publication Digital Africa(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-03-13)All African countries need better and more jobs for their growing populations. "Digital Africa: Technological Transformation for Jobs" shows that broader use of productivity-enhancing, digital technologies by enterprises and households is imperative to generate such jobs, including for lower-skilled people. At the same time, it can support not only countries’ short-term objective of postpandemic economic recovery but also their vision of economic transformation with more inclusive growth. These outcomes are not automatic, however. Mobile internet availability has increased throughout the continent in recent years, but Africa’s uptake gap is the highest in the world. Areas with at least 3G mobile internet service now cover 84 percent of Africa’s population, but only 22 percent uses such services. And the average African business lags in the use of smartphones and computers as well as more sophisticated digital technologies that catalyze further productivity gains. Two issues explain the usage gap: affordability of these new technologies and willingness to use them. For the 40 percent of Africans below the extreme poverty line, mobile data plans alone would cost one-third of their incomes—in addition to the price of access devices, apps, and electricity. Data plans for small- and medium-size businesses are also more expensive than in other regions. Moreover, shortcomings in the quality of internet services—and in the supply of attractive, skills-appropriate apps that promote entrepreneurship and raise earnings—dampen people’s willingness to use them. For those countries already using these technologies, the development payoffs are significant. New empirical studies for this report add to the rapidly growing evidence that mobile internet availability directly raises enterprise productivity, increases jobs, and reduces poverty throughout Africa. To realize these and other benefits more widely, Africa’s countries must implement complementary and mutually reinforcing policies to strengthen both consumers’ ability to pay and willingness to use digital technologies. These interventions must prioritize productive use to generate large numbers of inclusive jobs in a region poised to benefit from a massive, youthful workforce—one projected to become the world’s largest by the end of this century.Publication World Development Report 2016(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2016-01-13)The 2016 World Development Report shows that while the digital revolution has forged ahead, its “analog complements”—the regulations that promote entry and competition, the skills that enable workers to access and then leverage the new economy, and the institutions that are accountable to citizens—have not kept pace. And when these analog complements to digital investments are absent, the development impact can be disappointing.