Downsizing the civil service in developing countries: golden handshakes or smiling farewells?

✍ Scribed by Lucien Peters

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1998
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 83 KB
• Volume: 18
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0271-2075
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-162x(1998100)18:4<381::aid-pad34>3.0.co;2-v

✦ Synopsis

Some researchers have suggested innovative ways to successfully implement civil service reform in developing countries. Although most approaches to implementing public sector management reform are still very much process-driven, and focus almost exclusively on civil service reform, long-term success in making the public sector more ecient may be better assured if civil service reform is but one outcome of a broader public sector management reform agenda. Particularly, re-focussing from traditional input-driven reform thinking towards outputoriented measures, such as the introduction of accrual budgeting in the public sector, may well result in greater popular acceptance and, thus, longer-term success for sensitive reform programs. Although output-driven accrual budgeting is by no means a panacea for all public sector illnesses, it can at least set the scene for profound and durable cultural change in the public sector.