Progress In Public Management In The Middle East And North Africa Case Studies On Policy Reform

This report offers a perspective on the progress made in public management in the MENA region since 2005.

Critical examinations of efforts to make governments more efficient and responsive Political upheavals and civil wars in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) have obscured efforts by many countries in the region to reform their public sectors. Unwieldy, unresponsive—and often corrupt—governments across the region have faced new pressure, not least from their publics, to improve the quality of public services and open up their decisionmaking processes. Some of these reform efforts were under way and at least partly successful before the outbreak of the Arab Spring in 2010. Reform efforts have continued in some countries despite the many upheavals since then. This book offers a comprehensive assessment of a wide range of reform efforts in nine countries. In six cases the reforms targeted core systems of government: Jordan's restructuring of cabinet operations, the Palestinian Authority's revision of public financial management, Morocco's voluntary retirement program, human resource management reforms in Lebanon, an e-governance initiative in Dubai, and attempts to improve transparency in Tunisia. Five other reform efforts tackled line departments of government, among them Egypt's attempt to improve tax collection and Saudi Arabia's work to improve service delivery and bill collection. Some of these reform efforts were more successful than others. This book examines both the good and the bad, looking not only at what each reform accomplished but at how it was implemented. The result is a series of useful lessons on how public sector reforms can be adopted in MENA.

The various and different Middle Eastern countries are addressing new key reform and governance reform processes but also administration and policy issues of enduring importance; decentralization and local government, non-profit organizations, political culture, and reform of the policy process. This book provides assessment of national strategies for reform in public administration and policy, how these strategies have fared in implementation; and what challenges must be overcome to achieve real and sustainable progress. Seven country case studies will explore the overall policy-making process from a critical perspective and consider how it could be strengthened. Four cases will deal with the controversial issues of decentralization of power and decision-making. Two cases will address the role of civil society in the policymaking and reform process. Introductory and concluding chapters will place these discussions in context and draw the primary lessons for policy-makers. The main objectives of the book are to present different examples of specific public policy and administration, as well as governance issues in the Middle East so that policymakers (both in the region and the world who are interested in the Middle East), as well as practitioners, scholars and graduate students can utilize the book as a study guide to better understand various dynamics in governance in the Middle East. This approach will enable the volume to bridge global perspectives on governance development with regional perspectives and experience, bringing shared expertise, intellectual inquisitiveness, and experience in the professional practice of public policy and administration to bear on these common challenges.

This book explores the issues and challenges involved in public sector reform in the Middle East and North Africa region by examining ten case studies of the most successful and/or interesting reforms that have been attempted during the past decade. The cases span a range of countries, including Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and the West Bank and Gaza. These include reforms to core systems and processes, such as cabinet coordination mechanisms, public financial management, and civil service reform, as well as regulatory and service delivery improvements in line departments. Some were impressive successes, whereas others failed to deliver as promised. Taken together, these cases offer a host of important lessons from which future reformers in both the Middle East and elsewhere can benefit. The book also discusses the unique issues and challenges confronting governance and public sector reform in the region and the implications for future reforms in the wake of the recent changes gripping the region.

This report combines a comparative cross-country analysis using Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA) data along with individual country case studies to examine the relative strengths and weaknesses of public financial management practices in the Middle East and North

This book examines the status of public administration in eight countries—the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia, Sudan, and Libya—in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). This volume explores the issues, perspectives, traditions, and cultures that shape the operation of public administration in the region. This book also offers critical narratives on how the region’s governments manage the state and statecrafts regarding their governance design. It reflects on the multiplicity of public administration structures, functions, processes, and procedures, as well as reform schemes, which are critical in achieving good governance to continuously improve the human condition in the MENA region. Public Administration in the Middle East and North Africa will be of interest to scholars, practitioners, and students concerned with the ways in which technological change, knowledge accumulation, and dissemination can increase a state’s effective governance capacity. Foreword by B. Guy Peters, University of Pittsburgh is freely available to download on the Routledge website.

This report provides a comparative overview of the policies affecting women’s participation in public life across the MENA region. It examines the existing barriers to women’s access to public decision-making positions, and provides a cross-country assessment of current instruments and institutions.

This volume contains seven chapters that consider how fiscal policies can address women’s and girls’ disadvantages in education, health, employment, and financial well-being. Researchers from a joint collaboration between the International Monetary Fund and the UK’s Department for International Development presented papers at a 2016 international conference on gender budgeting at the International Monetary Fund headquarters in Washington, DC, and detail the findings of their work here, which draws on published materials, a questionnaire sent to ministries of finance to all International Monetary Fund member countries, and interviews with country officials and international organizations that offer technical assistance to countries seeking to implement gender budgeting. They describe key gender budgeting efforts planning, allocating, and monitoring government expenditures and taxes to address gender inequality in sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Europe, Latin America and Canada, the Middle East and Central Asia, and the Pacific Islands and Caribbean.