From Form to Function to Sustainable Solutions? Reforming Public Sectors in Low Income Countries: New Approaches and Available Evidence of “What Works”
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/pad.1779 |
| Date | 01 December 2016 |
| Author | Verena Fritz |
| Published date | 01 December 2016 |
FROM FORM TO FUNCTION TO SUSTAINABLE SOLUTIONS?
REFORMING PUBLIC SECTORS IN LOW INCOME COUNTRIES: NEW
APPROACHES AND AVAILABLE EVIDENCE OF “WHAT WORKS”
VERENA FRITZ*
World Bank Group, USA
SUMMARY
The article reviews the evidence about success of public sector reforms in low and middle income countries, external support for
such reforms, and recent ideas of how such support could be better designed and implemented. Enthusiasm for supporting public
sector reforms has decreased over the past decade, and available data suggest that there has been little overall improvement.
However, it also indicates that a small number of countries have significantly strengthened their public sectors over the past
10 to 20 years. The article then reviews five new approaches that have been proposed for better supporting public sector reforms.
It looks at how they diagnose what has not worked and the implications of what should be carried out differently. Furthermore, it
explores to what extent the available evidence of overall stagnation as well as of success cases fits with these proposed alterna-
tives, to gauge to what extent they are likely to make a difference. The final section sets out the implications. Development agen-
cies should seek to deliberately test a combination of the proposed alternative approaches, particularly in more difficult contexts,
taking political feasibility as a basis and adding other elements. The urgency to make progress remains high. Copyright © 2016
John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
key words—public sector reform; development assistance; low income countries; governance indicators; political economy
INTRODUCTION
Achieving progress with public sector reforms in low income countries has posed major challenges and is some-
times perceived as having yielded at best mixed results over the past two to three decades (Andrews, 2013; Scott,
2011; Therkildsen, 2006). Low government effectiveness and corruption continue to be widely diagnosed. How-
ever, there are also at least partial indicators of progress (Robinson, 2007; World Bank, 2008).
The discovery of governance as a key foundational factor for development was an important reason behind
the scaling up of public sector focused reform efforts since the 1990s.
1
However, initial expectations that gov-
ernance in general and public sector performance in particular can readily be improved were disappointed in
practice—albeit with an overall track record that is mixed rather than a complete failure as is sometimes
assumed. Because of perceived limited progress, many donors have reduced their support for public sector
reforms.
While overall support for public sector reforms has declined gradually since 2005 (Figure 1), the decline has
been more pronounced for public administration reforms specifically, which has been reduced by almost one third
(Figure 2). These trends in part respond to evaluations suggesting that efforts to reform civil services are especially
*Correspondence to: V. Fritz, Senior Public Sector Specialist, Global Governance Practice, World Bank Group, Washington, DC 20433, USA.
E-mail: vfritz@worldbank.org
1
The term “public sector reforms”is used here as efforts to improve the public administration of a country, including core and line institutions at
national and sub-national levels. Public sector reforms are a sub-set of governance reforms, while public financial management reforms or civil
service reforms are considered as sub-areas of public sector reforms. See also UNESC (2006).
public administration and development
Public Admin. Dev. 36, 299–312 (2016)
Published online in Wiley Online Library
(wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/pad.1779
Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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