Thun Saray describes, from the point of view of a human-rights activist, reforms needed to achieve social stability and economic progress in Cambodia. He says that, even though Cambodia has enjoyed some of the highest economic growth rates in its region and made progress on several fronts, direct foreign investment and general economic development has been deterred by failures to implement the constitution and the many laws. He suggests that a key problem was corruption and unfairness in the court system, a result of low salaries and political party control. He argues that many farmers were dislocated from their land as part of concessions to domestic and foreign investors. He asserts that military corruption and military-owned businesses contributed to widespread deforestation and that the military still acted in its own right without adequate civilian control. He adds that social stability and broadly-based economic development could be achieved only if the income gap between the powerful and powerless was closed and government became more accountable.    

Vargas characterizes the Centro de Coordinación de Acción Integral (CCAI, Comprehensive Action Coordination Center) as a coordinating agent established under the Colombian Presidency that connects local demands with national supply. Focusing on the Montes de María region, Vargas traces a process of i) identifying Montes de María as a strategic transit point near the Venezuelan border and the Caribbean sea that merits institutional attention, ii) assessing local priorities incorporating input from local authorities and producers (including the chamber of commerce, avocado and cacao growers), iii) relaying that assessment to the national level for strategic action, and iv) facilitating state interventions in the region. CCAI activities pertaining to two main issue areas: road infrastructure and land ownership.  Vargas singles out the Transversal de los Montes de María, a major road across the region that is under construction by army engineers, but some work is done on secondary roads by private contractors.  He notes that in the face of limited resources, the CCAI chose to maximize impact by focusing on highly productive and densely populated areas and by delivering durable (but more expensive) road infrastructure, which led to a tradeoff between number of projects and quality of output.  To put CCAI land ownership work in context, Vargas points out that the issue is complicated by internal displacement and land transactions during the conflict, by the return of the displaced in the post-conflict era, by a culture of informality and by limited state capacity. To address this range of situations, the CCAI has adopted three approaches: First, to coordinate investigation of land purchases during the conflict, exploring the possibility of transactions under duress. Second, to normalize land ownership through various programs focused on restitution. Third, to promote socially-responsible industrialization by providing platforms for dialogue between small landowners and new private developers.  Vargas also shortly elaborates on a pilot program aimed at victims from small towns, on funding sources, on channels of cooperation with regional authorities and on recent structural changes within the CCAI.  He underscores that the Center does not pursue a policy of return for the internally displaced, but instead responds to the observable phenomenon that they are returning on their own. He also assimilates the problem of continuity across political administrations with the need to phase out CCAI activities as local capacity is strengthened. He closes by zeroing in on two keys for success: honesty about what can and cannot be done when dealing with the local community, and the fostering of trust, which may require an intervention as inexpensive but valuable as installing a water pump.

Abdul Muyeed Chowdhury details his involvement with the Bangladeshi civil service, providing insight on civil service reform within the country. In particular, he describes his role in government attempts to restructure administrative agencies through the creation of review committees. Chowdhury talks about how he became chairman of one such committee, called the Muyeed Committee, which sought to assess departments within the government and produce recommendations for reform. He also elaborates upon his roles in the 1993 Nurunnabi Committee and the 2007 Regulatory Reform Commission. Outlining the importance of land in Bangladesh, Chowdhury talks of the problems created in the country by an archaic land management system and describes his frequent attempts to institute modernization in land administration. He is quick to note, moreover, that regardless of how eager governments may be to set up review commissions at the start of their tenure, they often fail to implement reform recommendations. Indeed, electoral politics and party rivalries often prevent committee reports from being fully carried out. Chowdhury further describes the way civil servants are impacted by the tussles between rival parties as different government administrations succeed each other. This leads to a broader discussion of the major challenges facing the civil service and the need for effective reform. Chowdhury concludes with anecdotes from his time as a Fulbright scholar in America, sharing stories from his life that, in his opinion, serve to exemplify the changes needed in the civil service of Bangladesh.    

Case Study:  Energizing the Civil Service: Managing at the Top 2, Bangladesh, 2006-2011