EuropeAid (2009): Concept Paper Public Sector Reform: an introduction

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 Reform- ing 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 involve- ment 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 govern- ments and at the Commission.

This paper argues that successful public sector reforms take account of the economic, social, cultural, constitutional and political context of the state in which they are implemented. External intervention, whether by donors and lenders or by foreign experts cannot proceed on the assumption that a pre-formed set of administrative reform processes will solve the particular problems of any specific government. The paper first sets out a definition of the public sector, then the likely faults with the public sector and the reasons for them. It then examines the impact of the type of state formation on the choice of reform strategy, presents the variety of reforms that have been attempted. It then covers the options for sequencing reform implementation.

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“InstrumentforDiagnosis”introducesfourdiagnosticinstruments: 1. the Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability Framework; 2. “Organisational culture”; 3. “Governance indicators”; 4. “Micro-political mapping”.