Publication: Reforming Civil Service in Sierra Leone through Collective Leadership
Loading...
Published
2014-06
ISSN
Date
2014-09-09
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
Improved capacity of the civil service in Sierra Leone is critical to deliver services for citizens. The government is tackling challenges of poor performance through a flagship public sector reform program (improving productivity through management and pay reforms), a part of which involves reform of the civil service. The World Bank is supporting the government on this civil service reform through a lending project on pay and performance. The project targets changes in three areas: (1) competitiveness in the pay of civil servants; (2) performance management and accountability of civil servants; and (3) recruiting and staffing to fill key positions. The World Bank leadership practice is supporting a collaborative leadership process to advance the pay and performance project results. They provided rapid results approach (RRA) coaching to approximately five inter-agency implementation teams to achieve the indicators set by the project, and facilitated discussions with the teams and the leadership team for the civil service reform agenda, in order to review progress and conduct problem-solving that will address implementation challenges.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“World Bank. 2014. Reforming Civil Service in Sierra Leone through Collective Leadership. © http://hdl.handle.net/10986/20004 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Digital Object Identifier
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Engaging for Results in Civil Service Reforms : Early Lessons from a Problem-Driven Engagement in Sierra Leone(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2013-05)Two related propositions have been central in the recent debates on public sector reforms. The first of these is that the appropriate measure of institutional strength is the ability of public sector management systems to deliver ("functionality") rather than the institutional "form" or what these institutions look like. This is a central idea in the World Bank's Public Sector Management (PSM) Approach 2011-2020. Second, and consistent with this, is the recognition that the process of engagement matters in the sense that how problems, solutions, and reform approaches are identified matters at least as much as what the solution is. This suggests that development institutions should focus on bringing a broad range of stakeholders together and facilitate a process of collective problem and solution identification. Recent contributions to the literature describe a "Problem-Driven Iterative Adaptation" approach as a means of putting this idea into practice. While both of these propositions have considerable intellectual and intuitive appeal, they are based on an inductive logic and neither is currently backed with a large body of robust evidence. This paper contributes to this literature by documenting the experience of a civil service reform project -- the World Bank-financed Sierra Leone Pay and Performance Project -- the objective of which is to improve the performance of the civil service in Sierra Leone by targeting a narrowly defined set of critical reforms. The paper concludes that intensive, client-led engagement together with use of a results-based lending instrument provide a promising way forward on a difficult reform agenda.Publication Sierra Leone Growth Pole Diagnostic : The Growth Poles Program(Washington, DC, 2013-08)This First Phase Report on Sierra Leone growth poles is the result of a 9 months consultative process led by the Office of the President which specifically requested that the output of this diagnostic be in an engaging format. The fundamental concept of growth poles is that they exploit agglomeration economies and spillover effects to spread resulting prosperity from the core of the pole to the periphery. At the basis of this theory is the assumption that economic development is not uniform over a region. Rather, it concentrates around a geographic feature or economic hub. In particular, it frequently concentrates around a key industry, around which linked industries develop. A growth pole can be used to nurture direct and indirect linkages from the flagship industry to supporting sectors, which vastly expands the employment generation potential of new investments in said flagship industry. The expansion of this key industry implies the expansion of output, employment, related investments, as well as new technologies and new industrial sectors.Publication Working with the Grain for Reforming the Public Service : A Live Example from Sierra Leone(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2012-07)Development practitioners still lack a critical mass of empirical evidence which can help identify the set of interventions that are more likely to work, and inform the design and implementation of feasible reforms. This paper contributes to fill this gap by looking at the case of the 'Sierra Leone Pay and Performance Project', a World Bank-supported initiative to reform the civil service. It analyzes the functional problems characterizing the civil service and discusses what factors account for the observed dysfunctions. The central argument is that the current dysfunctions might be difficult to reverse as they define a sub-optimal equilibrium which serves political purposes (dysfunctions by design). However, politics is not all that matters. This equilibrium is further reinforced by systemic dysfunctions that may not be the consequence of any strategic design or the outcome of elite preferences (dysfunctions by default). This is where there is scope for change, even in the short run. The authors conclude that the chances of successful civil service reforms are likely to be maximized if reform initiatives support modest and incremental changes that work with the grain of existing incentives and are consistent with government preferences. The Sierra Leone Pay and Performance Project aims to do so by adopting a limited and targeted focus on pay reform, performance management and recruitment and staffing. In addition, the use of the results-based lending instrument is expected to help mitigate the current dysfunctions by aligning the incentives of the various players and, in this way, create the conditions for greater coordination across government agencies. Although the suggested approach is not without risks, recent dynamics suggest that the chances of success are greater today than in the past.Publication A Leadership Approach to Achieving Change in the Public Sector(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2007)Many leadership interventions in Madagascar and other countries have shown that focusing on leadership can be effective in leveraging and accelerating technical reforms in a variety of settings. Reinforcing leadership capacity is important because leaders play a critical role in prioritizing, leveraging, modeling and implementing reforms, and because they need new skills as their roles and responsibilities change as a result of reforms. This note tells the story of Madagascar's transformation after the 2001 crisis. Emerging from crisis and riddled with systemic and institutional barriers to development, amply manifest in all of its systems, structures, and in behaviors and perceptions at the individual level, Madagascar made significant progress through committed leadership and attention to systemic, underlying dysfunctions. It is the story of how delivery of customized support to those in power who are willing to make a difference can unleash capacity.Publication Assessing Forest Governance : A Practical Guide to Data Collection, Analysis and Use(World Bank, Washington, DC and FAO, Rome, 2014-06-01)In the last twenty years, practitioners have come to appreciate that governance is often the weak link in addressing unsustainable use of forests and trees. Technical knowledge alone is insufficient, and no natural forest management, protected area, plantation, or agro-forestry project will succeed if the resources are poorly governed. The concept of "forest governance" is often difficult to grasp because many laws, rules, policies, actions, and interactions shape forests. This also makes it difficult to be clear about what the major governance impediments are and what to do about them. The guide is the outcome of a collaboration of experts from organizations with different views and roles on governance issues who united to direct the compilation of a common set of good assessment practices. This guide presents a step-by-step approach to planning forest governance assessment or monitoring, collecting data, analyzing it, and making the results available to decision makers and other stakeholders. It also presents five case studies to illustrate how assessment or monitoring initiatives have applied the steps in practice, and it includes references and links to dozens of sources of further information.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication China Country Climate and Development Report(World Bank Group, Washington DC, 2022-10)The China Country Climate and Development Report (CCDR) provides analysis and recommendations on integrating the country’s efforts to achieve high-quality development with the pursuit of emission reduction and climate resilience. Without adequate mitigation and adaptation efforts, climate risks will become a growing constraint to China’s long-term growth and prosperity, threatening to reverse development gains. Conversely, if efforts to tackle climate risks lead to a significant decline in growth and rising inequality, they would deprive millions of people of development and likely erode support for the reforms necessary to achieve a lasting economic transformation. Hence, China will need to grow and green its economy at the same time. This report offers policy options to achieve these dual objectives by easing inevitable trade-offs and maximizing potential synergies between China’s development and climate objectives.Publication The Road to Results : Designing and Conducting Effective Development Evaluations(World Bank, 2009-12-01)The analytical, conceptual, and political framework of development is changing dramatically. The new development agenda calls for broader understandings of sectors, countries, development strategies, and policies. It emphasizes learning and continuous feedback at all phases of the development cycle. As the development agenda grows in scope and complexity, development evaluation follows suit. Development evaluator are moving away from traditional implementation and output-focused evaluation models toward results-based evaluation models, as the development community calls for results and embraces the millennium development goals. As the development community shifts its focus away from projects in order to comprehensively address country challenges, development evaluators are seeking methods with which to assess results at the country, sector, theme, policy, and even global levels. As the development community recognizes the importance of not only a comprehensive but also a coordinated approach to developing country challenges and emphasizes partnerships, development evaluators are increasingly engaged in joint evaluations. These joint evaluations, while advantageous in many respects, add to the complexity of development evaluation (OECD 2006). Additionally, development evaluators increasingly face the measurement challenge of determining the performance of an individual development organization in this broader context and of identifying its contribution. This text is intended as a tool for use in building development evaluation capacity. It aims to help development evaluators think about and explore the new evaluation architecture and especially to design and conduct evaluations that focus on results in meeting the challenges of development.Publication The Power of Survey Design : A User's Guide for Managing Surveys, Interpreting Results, and Influencing Respondents(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2006)The vast majority of data used for economic research, analysis, and policy design comes from surveys-surveys of households, firms, schools, hospitals, and market participants, and, the accuracy of the estimate will depend on how well the survey is done. This innovative book is both a 'how-to' go about carrying out high-quality surveys, especially in the challenging environment of developing countries, and a 'user's guide' for anyone who uses statistical data. Reading this book will provide data users with a wealth of insight into what kinds of problems, or biases to look for in different data sources, based on the underlying survey approaches that were used to generate the data. In that sense the book is an invaluable 'skeptics guide to data'. Yet, the broad storyline of the book is something that should be absorbed by statistical data users. The book will teach and show how difficult it often is to obtain reliable estimates of important social and economic facts, and, therefore encourages you to approach all estimates with sensible caution.Publication World Development Report 2014(Washington, DC, 2013-10-06)The past 25 years have witnessed unprecedented changes around the world—many of them for the better. Across the continents, many countries have embarked on a path of international integration, economic reform, technological modernization, and democratic participation. As a result, economies that had been stagnant for decades are growing, people whose families had suffered deprivation for generations are escaping poverty, and hundreds of millions are enjoying the benefits of improved living standards and scientific and cultural sharing across nations. As the world changes, a host of opportunities arise constantly. With them, however, appear old and new risks, from the possibility of job loss and disease to the potential for social unrest and environmental damage. If ignored, these risks can turn into crises that reverse hard-won gains and endanger the social and economic reforms that produced these gains. The World Development Report 2014 (WDR 2014), Risk and Opportunity: Managing Risk for Development, contends that the solution is not to reject change in order to avoid risk but to prepare for the opportunities and risks that change entails. Managing risks responsibly and effectively has the potential to bring about security and a means of progress for people in developing countries and beyond. Although individuals’ own efforts, initiative, and responsibility are essential for managing risk, their success will be limited without a supportive social environment—especially when risks are large or systemic in nature. The WDR 2014 argues that people can successfully confront risks that are beyond their means by sharing their risk management with others. This can be done through naturally occurring social and economic systems that enable people to overcome the obstacles that individuals and groups face, including lack of resources and information, cognitive and behavioral failures, missing markets and public goods, and social externalities and exclusion. These systems—from the household and the community to the state and the international community—have the potential to support people’s risk management in different yet complementary ways. The Report focuses on some of the most pressing questions policy makers are asking. What role should the state take in helping people manage risks? When should this role consist of direct interventions, and when should it consist of providing an enabling environment? How can governments improve their own risk management, and what happens when they fail or lack capacity, as in many fragile and conflict-affected states? Through what mechanisms can risk management be mainstreamed into the development agenda? And how can collective action failures to manage systemic risks be addressed, especially those with irreversible consequences? The WDR 2014 provides policy makers with insights and recommendations to address these difficult questions. It should serve to guide the dialogue, operations, and contributions from key development actors—from civil society and national governments to the donor community and international development organizations.Publication Assessment of the Zimbabwe Public Finance Management System for Investment Lending Projects(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015-06-29)This study was undertaken under the leadership of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development (MOFED) to assess fiduciary risks in using country financial management (FM) systems in full, or in part, for implementing Donor and Bank-financed investment projects in Zimbabwe and to identify risk mitigation measures required for such use. Fiduciary risk is the risk that Bank funds (or donor funds) will not be used for their intended purposes or that they will be used without due attention to economy and efficiency. In projects using country FM systems, Bank funds are potentially commingled with the country’s own funds; therefore, a fiduciary risk assessment also needs to consider broader country PFM risks that could affect the fiduciary risk. This assessment uses a risk-based approach consistent with the interim guidance note issued by the FM Sector Board in 2009, entitled ‘assessment of fiduciary risks in the use of country FM systems in bank-financed investment projects’; and supplemented by the framework methodology for channeling investment lending projects through country financial management systems and the approach used for regular FM assessments. The risk-based approach provides a ranking of the fiduciary risks to be managed as high, substantial, moderate, or low. The decision to use country systems for a specific project then rests with the project's task team, guided by the country management team, after taking into account this fiduciary risk assessment and other factors such as the nature and complexity of the project and an assessment of implementing entities.