Concept Paper Nr. 1: Public Sector Reform: An Introduction

This document has been developed under the supervision of Directorate for Quality of Operations in EuropeAid (former Unit on “Governance, security, human rights and gender”) with the support of Professor Norman Flynn in the frame­work the implementation of the Backbone Strategy on Reforming Technical Cooperation and PIUs

This is a document introducing public sector reform for people involved in designing and delivering aid interventions, in particular at sector level or through budget support. EuropeAid is implementing the ‘Backbone Strategy for Reform­ing Technical Cooperation and Project Implementation Units for External Aid provided by the European Commission’. The moves from project support to sector-wide approaches and to budget support have resulted in greater involve­ment of Commission staff with national public administration systems and with public sector reforms. Implementation of these reforms frequently involves the development of the capacity of the people involved, both in national govern­ments and at the Commission.

This paper includes a set of operational annexes supporting assessment and under-standing on the state of public sector:

- Annex 1 on “Governance – Corruption” provides a framework to discuss the extent, type and importance of corruption.

- Annex 2 on “Diagnosing the Public sector – An agenda for discussion” – sets out a range of issues to start diagnosis, including, financial and human resource management, regime type, constitutional framework, cultural and institu-tional context and the pressures for change.

- Annex 3 on “Instrument for Diagnosis” introduces four diagnostic instruments: 1. the Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability Framework; 2. “Organisational culture”; 3. “Governance indicators”; 4. “Micro-political mapping”.

It is available in English and French