Public Sector Management Issues In Structural Adjustment Lending

Public sector management components of structural adjustment loans (SALs) progressed unevenly, and the outcomes varied with different political, administrative and economic conditions. Change was often incremental and sometimes unsustainable. Reforms linked to specific, actionable steps were more successfully implemented.

Overstaffed bureaucracies afflicted by eroding salaries, demoralization, corruption, moonlighting, and chronic absenteeism are often unable to carry out the key tasks of economic recovery. What should the Bank do about it?

This paper assesses the efforts of the World Bank to improve management in the public sectors of its borrower countries. It identifies the problems that created the need for Bank involvement, reviews the steps taken and the instruments used by the Bank to help correct these problems, and assesses which of these steps have accomplished their goals, and which have not. The paper's specific objectives are threefold: (a) to evaluate the Bank's practical achievements in strengthening public agencies; (b) to offer governments and Bank staff guidence on design and implementation of reform programs; and (c) to map out the issues and areas where prescription can only be partial because knowledge is insufficient, and where more work and reflection are needed.

This report seeks to assess the progress to date in implementing the World Bank's strategy for governance and public sector reform. It also highlights specific challenges and approaches of individual regions, the Development Research Group and the World Bank Institute.

Our Continent, Our Future presents the emerging African perspective on this complex issue. The authors use as background their own extensive experience and a collection of 30 individual studies, 25 of which were from African economists, to summarize this African perspective and articulate a path for the future. They underscore the need to be sensitive to each country's unique history and current condition. They argue for a broader policy agenda and for a much more active role for the state within what is largely a market economy. Finally, they stress that Africa must, and can, compete in an increasingly globalized world and, perhaps most importantly, that Africans must assume the leading role in defining the continent's development agenda.