Clarence Kipobota draws on his experience working on pre- and post-election issues at the Legal and Human Rights Center to address various aspects of Tanzania’s electoral process.  He highlights problems with the independence of the Electoral Committee, updating the permanent voter registry, ensuring the enfranchisement of marginalized groups and combating voter fraud.  He also details how the center and its partners were pushing for reform, and he discusses the voter-education activities they were leading.

Jairo Acuña-Alfaro discusses Vietnam’s past and, at the time of the interview, ongoing and future efforts to reform the civil service. He discusses the Vietnamese public sector’s shortcomings, including corruption, nepotism, politicization, low salaries, and a lack of clear job descriptions. He describes what Vietnam is doing to modernize its civil service by introducing merit-based considerations in recruitment and promotions; to encourage professionalism by restructuring and formalizing the civil service and improving performance management; to improve service delivery through decentralization, consolidation, and the establishment of one-stop shops; and to curtail corruption by enacting pay reform and monetizing benefits. He also discusses challenges specific to Vietnam, including the politicization of civil service through the single-party system, rigid hierarchism and the consequent lack of initiative from subordinates, and other cultural factors. Finally, Acuña-Alfaro emphasizes the establishment of best practices as key to reforming a country’s civil service.    

Case Study:  Measuring Citizen Experiences: Conducting a Social Audit in Vietnam, 2009-2013

Former South African Revenue Service Commissioner Pravin Gordhan describes the internal organizational changes that helped the service consistently meet or exceed its revenue targets during his tenure. Appointed commissioner soon after the service obtained autonomy from South Africa’s civil service regulations, Gordhan talks about how he led a campaign of organizational transformation known as siyakha (“we are building” in Zulu), which reorganized tasks, shifted people within the organization, and led to large-scale racial transformation. The policy depended on aggressive outreach efforts both within the organization and to the public at large. By taking office staff on public campaigns during tax-filing season, Gordhan built public willingness to comply while motivating his employees.

Case Study:  Reworking the Revenue Service: Tax Collection in South Africa, 1990-2009

Charles Munyaneza speaks about his role as executive secretary of the Rwandan National Electoral Commission and the efforts to rebuild the country after the 1994 genocide. He begins his discussion by describing his experience working as the director of Political Affairs and Territorial Administration for the Ministry of Internal Affairs immediately after the genocide. He describes the situation in Rwanda in which many refugees had fled their land years before the genocide. With the new government, many refugees returned, causing a shortage of land and jobs. The Ministry of Internal Affairs was forced to look for innovative solutions to restructure the division of territory in Rwanda. Finally Munyaneza speaks about his efforts in the National Electoral Commission to push decentralization through promoting local self-determination.    

Case Studies:  The Promise of Imihigo: Decentralized Service Delivery in Rwanda, 2006-2010 and Government Through Mobilization: Restoring Order After Rwanda's 1994 Genocide

Kwamena Ahwoi recounts his experiences implementing decentralization policies in Ghana as part of his role in the Ministry of Local Governance and Rural Development. He goes into detail about the key challenges he faced, such as translating policy proposals into legislation, transferring functions from historically highly centralized agencies, and setting up political structures for decentralization. He talks about the methods to garner support for the initiatives through a consultative process with the support of a fully researched policy document, and effective use of the mass media, as well as the methods to overcome the challenges faced from those opposing the reform, such as some local chiefs. He details the bargaining that took place at the national level as a result of the policy document and the need for openness in the implementation process to allow people the opportunity to express their concerns. He explains that throughout the entire process there is a need to increase capacity at all levels to ensure the requisite skill set is assigned to its relevant area.  Finally, Ahwoi offers his thoughts on the best ways to deal with the devolution of power in the decentralization process.

Rose Kafeero describes the challenges she faced to implement “results-oriented management” reforms in the Ugandan government. While she believes that the mindset changed over the years and that budgets were prepared on the basis of outcomes, she says the impetus for outcome-based performance weakened when some of the managers leading these reforms left agencies. She also did not have full backing from top officials. She believes that other civil service reforms such as downsizing and divestiture of functions have been more successful. She outlines the merit-based selection process at both the national and district levels. She says that universities do not produce skill levels that match government requirements in some categories. She describes the difficulties of recruiting or retaining civil servants in some categories because of low pay and a failure to provide core benefits such as housing.

Emile Short recounts his experiences establishing the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice in Ghana from 1993 to 2004. He goes into detail about the strategies put into place to establish the commission while avoiding any politicization and patronage within this process. He recalls how he and others set up the commission with a triple mandate encapsulating human rights, ombudsman and anti-corruption activities, and how cases were selected and prioritized. The need for effective recruitment was essential in the initial stages, as well as the training that staff would receive initially, and continue to receive.  He details the character of the individuals sought for the commission and the particular skills set that was required. Throughout, he explains the challenges that were encountered and how these were overcome.    

Case Study:  Earning a Reputation for independence: Ghana's Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice, 1993-2003