Evaluation In Public Sector Reform

Articles from internationally renowned scholars highlighting the connections between public-sector reform and evaluation.

Governments across the world are pursuing reform in an effort to improve public services. But have these reforms actually led to improvements in services? Evaluating Public Management Reforms develops a framework for a theory-based evaluation of reforms, and then uses this framework to assess the impact of new arrangements for public service delivery in the UK. This book: * identifies the conceptual and practical problems of finding clear criteria for evaluating reforms * focuses on the shifts in public management towards markets and competition, towards the publication of performance indicators, and from larger to smaller organizations * considers what impact these reforms have had on the efficiency, responsiveness and equity of services * comprehensively reviews the evidence on the effects of reform on health care, housing and education * discusses the implications for public sector management.

The effectiveness and efficiency of a country's public sector is vital to the success of development activities, including those the World Bank supports. Sound financial management, an efficient civil service and administrative policy, efficient and fair collection of taxes, and transparent operations that are relatively free of corruption all contribute to good delivery of public services. The Bank has devoted an increasing share of its lending and advisory support to the reform of central governments, so it is important to understand what is working, what needs improvement, and what is missing. IEG has examined lending and other kinds of Bank support in 1999-2006 for public sector reform in four areas: public financial management, administrative and civil service, revenue administration, and anticorruption and transparency. Although a majority of countries that borrowed to support public sector reform experienced improved performance in some dimensions, there were shortcomings in important areas and in overall coordination. . The frequency of improvement was higher among IBRD borrowers than among IDA borrowers. . Performance usually improved for public financial management, tax administration, and transparency, but did not usually with respect to civil service.

Concerns over discontinuation of evaluation strategy and the efforts of Rosemary Ince.

This paper explains why tough public sector reform and a sound macroeconomy are essential to sustained growth. It provides a strategy to help countries evaluate how well their governments' policies work. Decisionmakers will learn ways to build an evaluations program that can make governments more accountable and improve their performance. Some options could include making central banks independent, eliminating earmarked funds, and balancing the national budget. The author suggests which government offices should oversee and develop evaluation policies to get the best results, and explains why evaluation results must be linked with all budget decisions. He describes the political and economic environment that allows the evaluation process to develop freely. Also discussed is the role that the World Bank and other insti- tutions should play in supporting evaluation programs. The study examines how sound evaluation can lead to more consistent international policies and better international governance.

A host of promising public sector reform efforts are underway throughout the world. In governments challenged by budget deficits and declining public trust, these reform efforts seek to improve policy decisions and public management. Along the way, program efficiency and effectiveness help rebuild public confidence in government. Whether through regular measurement of program inputs, activities, and outcomes, or through episodic one-shot studies, performance monitoring plays a central role in the most important current reform efforts. Monitoring Performance in the Public Sector, now available in paperback, is based on experiences derived from comparative analysis in different countries. It explains why there is interest in perfor!mance monitoring in a given setting, why it has failed or created uncertainties, and identifies criteria for improving its design and use.One of the challenges this book offers is the need to consider dimensions of performance beyond the traditional ones of economy, efficiency, and effectiveness. With an increasingly diverse, interdependent, and uncertain public sector environment, for some stakeholders meeting objectives fixed some time ago may not be as important as the capacity to adapt to current and future change. In this vein, the contributors address a number of themes: the criti!cal importance of organizational support for performance monitoring and making it consistent with the organizational culture, the need for active and effective leadership in defining criteria and implementing practical performance monitoring, the value of linking ongoing measurement with more than the traditional, strictly quantitative aspects of public sector performance.As we gain experience with performance monitoring and its uses, such systems should become more cost effective over time. This book will be of deep interest to public managers, government officials, economists, and organization theorists, and useful in courses on p

Distinguished scholars from six countries investigate the effects of reforms in a number of areas, including budgeting, personnel management, and accountability. While reforms have been beneficial in some of these areas, success has been far from universal. By comparing and contrasting measures in Canada, the United States, Britain, Australia, New Zealand, and Europe, contributors isolate and evaluate factors - such as individual political leaders and the complexity of government - that influence the success or failure of reforms. Contents: Introduction - B. Guy Peters (Pittsburgh) and Donald J. Savoie (Moncton) The Changing Role of the State - Bert A. Rockman (Pittsburgh) Managerialism Revisited - Christopher Pollitt (Brunel) What Works? The Antiphons of Administrative Reform - B. Guy Peters Public Sector Values and Administrative Reforms - Nicole de Montricher (École Normale Supérieure, Paris) Public Consultation and Citizen Participation: Dilemmas of Policy Advice - Jon Pierre (Göteborg) Making Public Policy: The Changing Role of the Higher Civil Service - Patricia W. Ingraham (Syracuse) Assessing Past and Current Personnel Reforms: The Pursuit of Flexibility, Pay-for-Performance, and the Management of Reform Initiatives - Hal G. Rainey (Georgia) Innovation in Public Sector Management - Michel Paquin (École nationale d'administration publique) A New Generation of Budget Reform - Naomi Caiden (California State) Central Agencies and Departments: Empowerment and Coordination - John Hart (Australian National) Restructuring Government for the Management and Delivery of Public Services - Peter Aucoin (Dalhousie); The Changing Nature of Accountability - Paul G. Thomas (Manitoba); Fifteen Years of Reform: What Have We Learned? - Donald J. Savoie

Deregulation, privatization and marketization have become the bywords for the reforms and debates surrounding the public sector. This major book is unique in its comparative analysis of the reform experience in Western and Eastern Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Canada. Leading experts identify a number of key factors to systematically explain the similarities and differences, map common problems and together reflect on the future shape of the public sector, exploring significant themes in a lively and accessible way.