Public sector capacity reform in Ethiopia: a tale of success in two ministries?

Abstract

To enhance the capacity of public institutions in Ethiopia and to create an ideal environment for investment and economic growth, the public sector has gone through a series of reform processes including the civil service. This article attempts to assess the outcomes of the Public Sector Capacity reform, based on a small‐scale survey conducted in two ministries. The survey, which was conducted between March and May in 2005, reveals a notable transformation of service delivery in each organisation. Very high levels of user satisfaction and spectacular improvements in performance were also recorded as a result of the introduction of business process reengineering (BPR). Although the change process in both organisations tended to be sluggish, these improvements appear to be outstanding within the context of Ethiopia's system of public administration. However, one challenge will be for the government to maintain the momentum of reform and to cascade BPR and other elements of the reform to other divisions, departments and work units in the government. Putting in place incentive schemes and an appropriate monitoring system should protect the reform from backsliding. Despite the pessimistic accounts of public sector reform in African countries, this article reveals that there are positive findings of interest to the field of development administration. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The CSFs, Quality Governance, BPR Performance and Gaining Competitive Advantage

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Cultural Patterns Influencing Project Team Behavior in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Case Study in Ethiopia

“…Thus, organizationwide transformational programs targeting processes, structure, technology, and people (Hammer & Champy, 1995; Heeks, 2002) have come and gone under different names over the last 18 years: the civil service reform program initiated in 1993, the performance and service delivery improvement program piloted in 2001, and BPR launched in 2005 (“Business Process Re‐engineering,” 2009). Mengesha and Common (2006, p. 4), for example, indicated:

With a view to realize comprehensive “state transformation” and “total system overhaul” and in line with recommendations forwarded by the World Bank, as in the case of African countries in general, the Ethiopian government has embarked on multiple public administration reforms since the early 1990s.

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“…BPR is still in an experimental phase, and there are only a handful of success stories in some sections of government ministries (“Business Process Re‐engineering,”2009). In order to assess the impact of BPR projects, Mengesha and Common (2006), for example, conducted small‐scale surveys in two government ministries and proceeded to discover promising achievements in both performance and user satisfaction by implementing major improvements in the service delivery system.…”

Reforming a Broken System: A New Performance Evaluation System for Pakistan Civil Servants

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