rapid results

Stanley Murage

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ZP
Focus Area(s)
Ref Batch Number
3
Country of Reform
Interviewers
Rushda Majeed
Name
Stanley Murage
Interviewee's Position
Former Special Advisor to the President
Language
English
Town/City
Nairobi
Country
Date of Interview
Reform Profile
No
Abstract

In this interview, Stanley Murage discusses results based management in the Kenyan government, particularly the implementation of Rapid Results Initiatives (RRI). He begins by recounting the early stages of reforming, from when he first started looking at results based management five years before its execution. The process began in 2003 with different economic sectors creating service charters with measurable goals and timelines. Departments set these goals in conjunction with citizens through stakeholder forums that discussed what aims to establish and how to achieve the desired results. This citizen participation is one demonstration of how citizen-centered the reforms were. In addition to soliciting public input, the Rapid Results reforms also improved communication to the public regarding what services to expect and how the reforms benefited citizens. As part of the new emphasis on results and evaluation, the reform teams also implemented results-based budgeting. Murage identified the political steering from the top as a key factor enabling the success of the RRIs. Having skilled people in government was another critical element. Overall, Murage explains that RRIs require accompanying reform structures such as a policy setting body, political will and a good communication strategy. He outlines the set up and process for each of these elements in Kenya’s implementation of Rapid Results. 

Profile

At the time of this interview, Stanley Murage was an engineering consultant. Prior to that he had served as Special Adviser to President Mwai Kibaki for strategic policy analysis. He had previously held other government posts, including Permanent Secretary of Labor, Transport and Communications, and Public Works. Early in his career he served in the public service as a surveyor. In 2005, he was awarded the Chief of the Order of the Burning Spear (CBS) for his government service. 

Nadim Matta

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EX
Focus Area(s)
Ref Batch Number
2
Critical Tasks
Interviewers
Jennifer Widner
Name
Nadim Matta
Interviewee's Position
President
Interviewee's Organization
Rapid Results Institute
Language
English
Town/City
Washington, DC
Country
Date of Interview
Reform Profile
No
Abstract

In this interview, Nadim Matta explains the philosophy and logistics of the Rapid Results Initiatives (RRIs). He describes how these highly choreographed 100-day projects, once introduced into large-scale programs, forge ownership and accountability for results at the local level. Furthermore, he discusses the creation of the RRIs and his projects with the World Bank. He talks about instances of RRI implementation in Nicaragua, Madagascar and Eritrea, describing the different forms of project management, leadership support and civil service rules. Finally, he notes contexts in which RRIs are more likely to succeed and potential roadblocks to results. 

Case Studies:  Building Capacity, Changing Norms: Rapid Results in Madagascar, 2005-2009Enhancing Capacity, Changing Behaviors: Rapid Results in Gashaki, Rwanda, 2008, and Building A Culture Of Results: Institutionalizing Rapid Results Initiatives In Kenya, 2005-2009

Profile

At the time of this interview, Nadim Matta was the President and founding board member of the Rapid Results Institute. Born and raised in Lebanon, he received a degree in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a Master’s Degree in Public Health from the American University of Beirut and an MBA from the Yale School of Management. He worked at the U.S. Agency of International Development in Beirut where he oversaw relief and rehabilitations programs during the Lebanese civil war. He also worked for Save the Children Federation where he led the implementation of food assistance programs for displaced families in Lebanon. In 1990, he joined Schaffer Consulting and became a managing partner of the firm in 2009. In 2012 he was named as one of the top 100 Global Thinkers by the Foreign Policy Magazine and was selected as a Yale School of Management Donaldson Fellow for 2012 and 2013. 

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

Author
Rushda Majeed
Country of Reform
Abstract
In 2006, politics and procedures hobbled Bangladesh’s civil service. As divisions hardened between the country’s two main political parties, civil servants were routinely transferred or dismissed at the whim of the government in power. Hierarchical reporting and decision-making structures discouraged innovation and the exchange of ideas. Moreover, many high-level civil servants lacked substantial experience in managing projects. To address these problems, the Ministry of Public Administration collaborated with the U.K. Department for International Development to launch a seven-year reform program called Managing At The Top 2, or MATT 2. Building on an initial three-year stage that ended in 2002, MATT 2 aimed to develop skills, foster networks and gradually reshape the incentives for senior civil servants to make their units more effective. As part of the program, senior civil servants designed and implemented small-scale projects. Ministry officials and project consultants strengthened support for MATT 2 by asking secretaries, the administrative heads of ministries, to endorse the pilot projects every year. During the next several years, about 1,300 reform-minded civil servants operated in teams to design and implement more than 200 innovative projects using a model similar to the Rapid Results approach, a results-focused learning process that some other countries adopted at about the same time. The intended benefits emerged gradually, as more civil servants participated and the public began to see results.  MATT 2 did not alter transfer and promotion policies, nor did it take steps to depoliticize the civil service. The case offers an alternative to traditional methods of building government, and explores both the potential and the limits of this distinctive strategy.
 

Rushda Majeed drafted this case on the basis of interviews conducted in Dhaka, Bangladesh, in June 2011, as well as interviews conducted in Bangladesh by Andrew Schalkwyk in February 2009. Case published October 2011.

Associated Interview(s):  Zahurul Alam​, Iqbal Mahmood, Abdul Muyeed Chowdhury, Syed Tanveer Hussain, Rizwan Khair, Mohammad Mohabbat Khan, John Wallace

Enhancing Capacity, Changing Behaviors: Rapid Results in Gashaki, Rwanda, 2008

Author
Rushda Majeed
Country of Reform
Abstract

More than a decade after the 1994 genocide, Rwandan government ministries struggled to implement long-term plans or even meet mid-term targets. A skills shortage hindered projects at the district and local levels. In 2008, Charles Karake and Stella Mugabo, senior officials at the Human Resources and Institutional Development Agency, a government organization charged with improving national capacity, experimented with a management practice known as the Rapid Results Approach to enhance ministries’ ability to implement successful projects. Rapid Results encouraged officials to focus on small-scale projects that could be completed in a relatively brief time span, usually less than four months. This case shows how Rwanda’s Ministry of Local Government, under the direction of Protais Musoni, championed the technique to advance the goals of an anti-poverty program. A pilot program in Gashaki, an impoverished region in north Rwanda, improved the ability of local officials and leaders to help poor families raise their incomes. Although adoption of Rapid Results did not progress beyond the initial phase for a variety of reasons, public servants who participated in the program increased their ability to deliver services effectively and many of Gashaki’s residents improved their financial positions and quality of life within a surprisingly short period. However, critics noted the high cost of implementing Rapid Results and stressed that other factors also contributed to the positive results in Gashaki. This study considers the approach as an alternative to traditional methods of building capacity.

Rushda Majeed drafted this case study on the basis of interviews conducted in Kigali and Gashaki, Rwanda, in September and October 2011. Case published January 2012.  Two related ISS cases, “The Promise of Imihigo: Decentralized Service Delivery in Rwanda, 2006-2010” and “Energizing the Civil Service: Managing at the Top 2, Bangladesh, 2006-2011,” examine approaches similar to Rapid Results.
 
Associated Interview(s):  Nadim Matta, Protais Musoni

Building Capacity, Changing Norms: Rapid Results in Madagascar, 2005-2009

Author
Jonathan (Yoni) Friedman
Country of Reform
Abstract
Madagascar president Marc Ravalomanana won office under the slogan “rapid and sustainable development,” but by 2004, two years into his presidency, progress had been frustratingly slow. The government’s risk-averse and weakly coordinated administrative culture was hindering implementation of the president’s reform agenda. His chief of staff, Henri Roger Ranaivoson, led a pilot project, called Rapid Results, to increase rice production in four of the country’s 22 administrative regions in response to a steep drop in production that year, which, coupled with the rising global price of rice, threatened the livelihoods of millions of Malagasy. The pilot project produced some impressive and previously elusive benefits, increasing production by 60% in one critical region. Enthusiastic about the gains and intrigued by the ways the fast-paced project had challenged administrative norms, Ranaivoson, with the president’s backing, introduced the project management tool in central ministries and other regions as well as across a variety of sectors, including family planning, local tax collection and birth registration. Although a 2009 coup d’état cut off efforts to institutionalize Rapid Results, a cadre of civil servants and partnering nongovernmental organizations continued to use elements of the approach into 2012.
 
Jonathan Friedman drafted this case study based on interviews conducted in Antananarivo and Fort Dauphin, Madagascar, during May 2012. Case published August 2012.
 
Associated Interview(s):  Nadim Matta

Building A Culture Of Results: Institutionalizing Rapid Results Initiatives In Kenya, 2005-2009

Author
Rushda Majeed
Focus Area(s)
Country of Reform
Abstract

In 2004, Permanent Secretary Joyce Nyamweya faced a daunting task when she took over Kenya's Public Service Reform and Development Secretariat. President Mwai Kibaki had charged Nyamweya with building both capacity and a results-oriented culture in ministries and other government institutions unaccustomed to providing quality public services or delivering on medium and long-term targets. With the help of Stanley Murage, special adviser to the president, Nyamweya focused on ministries that provided key public services and pushed them to apply Rapid Results, a management technique that breaks long-term plans into 100-day projects. In 2008, after Nyamweya's departure, a competent team trained in the Rapid Results methodology continued to advance its use in government institutions. By 2012, Rapid Results initiatives had helped improve services in more than 25 ministries and had boosted the government's capacity to implement projects. The technique also helped improve the performance of 175 local authorities, 45 state corporations, and three public universities. This case documents Kenya's success in applying Rapid Results across the public sector and looks at how this management technique proved to be an alternative to traditional methods of building capacity. 

 
Rushda Majeed drafted this case study based on interviews conducted in Nairobi, Kenya, in June and July 2012. Case published October 2012. 
 
Associated Interview(s):  Nadim Matta