In this interview, Saah Charles N’Tow describes his roles as program director for the President’s Young Professional Program (PYPP) and John Snow Inc.’s (JSI) Scott Family Liberia Fellows Program. He talks about the process of designing a two-year fellowship program to bring young Liberians into key government ministries and agencies. He explains the creation of a selection criteria for fellows and the procedures that ensured the applicant-screening process remained transparent and fair. He discusses how the program held support sessions for applicants focused on resume writing and interview preparation. He addresses the program’s coordination practices with donors on budget support. He notes instances of resistance against the program from ministries and agencies and describes how the program responded to problems arising from the placement of fellows. He highlights the program’s administrative components that included mentoring, training, performance management, and program immersion. Finally, he describes the importance of sustainable funding procedures and talks about the likelihood of continued support for the program through future administrations

In this interview, Sigitas Šiupšinskas discusses his work in public administration, regional policy and public service with the Lithuanian government. He discusses the VORT (Improvement of Performance-Based Management – from the Lithuanian Valdymo, orientuoto j rezultatus, tobulinimas) project and the Sunset Commission (The Commission for the Improvement of State Administration). He details the methods of the reforms, the gains achieved and the challenges faced. He talks about the effects the cultural environment of the Lithuanian government had on these reforms. He also talks about the successful efficiency gains in public administration and civil service reforms, and the implementations that led to those. Šiupšinskas discusses evaluative measures, methods of prioritization, and functional reviews.

Lisa Cleary talks about the role of the Public Service Improvement Program and her role as human resource adviser to develop a human resource strategy for the Solomon Islands.  First, she conducted a human resource survey across every ministry in order to develop a baseline for future work the PSIP would do to put a new payroll system in place.  Then she mapped workforce budgeting to prepare a strategic plan to change the way people are recruited and hired in the workforce and to develop a collective bargaining agreement.  She talks about problems such as patronage appointments, the length of time between recruitment and processing an appointment, the inequities in salary structure, the problems in service delivery and the problem of accelerated promotions.  She also talks about devising an administrative procedure toolkit for civil service positions as a way to achieve change in the processes to make them transparent and fair.

Case Study:  Starting from Scratch in Recruitment and Training: Solomon Islands, 2004-2009

Krishna Devkota provides a history of numerous attempts to reform Nepal’s civil service since the 1950s. All of them, including the most recent donor-instigated initiative, have either not been implemented, or only partially implemented. As a contracted consultant to international donors funding the most recent effort, Devkota describes both the aim and design of the reform effort and his opinion about why implementation of most of the reform efforts failed.  He cites political and civil conflict and tensions in the country, a lack of political will or commitment to the reforms by top leaders, the short time horizons of donors, corruption that diverted donor funds from their intended use and resistance to change by civil servants because they did not sense any possibility for reward or promotion.    

Sir Peter Kenilorea, speaker of Parliament, describes and evaluates recent efforts to rebuild the Solomon Islands public service, which was near collapse when external intervention ended five years of civil unrest in 2003.  Kenilorea gives a detailed account of his own efforts, together with Taeasi Sanga, clerk of Parliament, and a United Nations Development Programme adviser, Warren Cahill, to strengthen the Parliament Secretariat.  By hiring and training a cohort of recent graduates, Kenilorea and Sanga largely avoided the absenteeism and patronage problems that plagued other parts of the Solomon Islands government.

Case Study:  Starting from Scratch in Recruitment and Training: Solomon Islands, 2004-2009

Rizwan Khair reviews the reasons he thinks civil service reform had not taken place in Bangladesh. He argues that the mindset of government leaders and the senior civil servants was risk averse and that Bangladesh was stuck in the mindset of the old colonial civil service, with its emphasis on seniority rather than performance. He believes that the development of Bangladesh in a globalized world economy requires that a premium be set on performance, accountability and innovation in the civil service. He suggests that international donors had not been persistent enough in pressing for civil service reform in Bangladesh. More importantly, he calls for his country to look at reforms in Malaysia and India to see why Bangladesh must follow suit in order to build its long-term future.    

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

Agim Selami discusses the obstacles to depoliticizing the civil service in Macedonia.  He points to neighboring Slovenia as a model for civil service reform in Macedonia, particularly emphasizing Slovenia's "rightsizing" and merit-based promotions.  His views cover the limitations of the Civil Servants Agency, its failure to follow through on enacted legislation, and necessary reforms such as a career system, in which internal candidates are recognized for service and promoted from within.  Selami recognizes European Union membership as a driving force for reform in Macedonia and other southeast European states.  He also discusses the ethnic representation within the civil service and the lure of higher rates of pay in the nongovernmental sector.