Denis Biseko of the World Bank traces the history of civil service reform in Tanzania back to the mid-1990s, focusing on two phases of the Public Service Reform Program. He outlines some of the institutional underpinnings of reform, such as open performance appraisals for public servants, merit-based recruitment, and capacity building. He also describes various challenges involved in reform, including retaining qualified staff, a lack of political will, and announcing new policies without taking into account the plans that had already been set out. Biseko argues that the government should have started small rather than push for a comprehensive approach of pursuing reforms simultaneously. He discusses pay policy reform in detail as well the evolution of donor relations. Donors have played an instrumental role in civil service reforms in Tanzania, but the government has by and large been in the lead in terms of their design. Biseko explains how reform was affected by the decentralization process. He relates the process for determining allowances and setting targets for advanced salary enhancements and describes various methods for determining the success of reform policies. He maintains that the government was not able to maintain the size of its workforce because of the growth in the demand for social services, especially education and health. He highlights the importance of being able to ensure that successes are demonstrable on a smaller level before moving to a larger scale.

In this interview, Edward Kamara discusses the attempts at implementing civil service reform and rebuilding institutions in Sierra Leone following the end of the civil war in 2002. The capacity of the civil service remained very low following the conflict, the result of rampant corruption as well as the inadequate training provided to civil servants. Some obstacles to implementing reform in the sector include the lack of adequate funding, disagreements within the government and weak capacity. Additionally, these reforms can be politically unattractive, affecting support among local leaders whose popularity might be damaged because of the misperceptions of constituents, particularly about reforms like the creation of a Senior Executive Service. Kamara emphasizes the importance for reforms to be state-led and owned, with policies tailored to reflect the needs of the country rather than the ideas of donors. He ends by emphasizing the potential of traditional structures in the country, suggesting that reforms should build on existing structures rather than starting from scratch.