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, based on his experiences at the Liberia Institute of Public Administration (LIPA), Harold Jonathan Monger explains the challenges involved in institutionalizing capacity building. LIPA is an internal consulting and civil service trainer entity. Monger discusses the budgeting problems in equipping the institute to be able to provide better training and to improve the marketing of its services to government agencies. He also details LIPA’s changing relationships with other internal and external capacity-building consultants such as the Governance and Economic Management Assistance Program and IBI International, both of which have also played significant roles in the designs of certification trainings and civil service workshops. Finally, Monger draws from his extensive experience to comment on what he says are the main obstacles to improving governance in Liberia. He recommends establishing formal, uniform systems and procedures and improving communication and collaboration between agencies to avoid duplication.

Sheka Mansaray talks about the strides that Sierra Leone's police service has made since the brutal civil war which ended in 2002.  He details the chaotic security situation when he took over as national security adviser in 1998, and he talks about the decision to recruit a foreigner to be the inspector general of the reorganized police force.  This decision was based on the importance he assigned to having a neutral person in the role, in order to help rebuild public respect, to assist in depoliticizing the service and to provide expertise and knowledge.   Mansaray also talks about redefining intelligence roles within the police and military in order to reduce duplication of effort.  He talks about the importance of extensive and effective training for police because of the agency's close engagement with the public and the increasing sophistication of criminals.  He believes training in upper-level management skills has been very successful and advocates a stronger focus on training lower-ranking police who walk beats.  Mansaray emphasizes that despite the continued challenges, the Sierra Leonean police have made progress in transforming a politicized force allied with “dysfunctional elements in society” into a more effective and accountable service.

Case Study: Building Strategic Capacity in the Police: Sierra Leone, 1998-2008

Alex Paila discusses various aspects of national and local election management in Sierra Leone during 2007 and 2008. These areas include the recruitment, training, evaluation and monitoring of election staff; election security; voter registration, audits and curtailment of voter fraud; information dissemination, media relations and enfranchisement of marginalized groups; and financial and logistical constraints and concerns.  He also emphasizes cooperation with community-based civilian organizations as key for information dissemination and higher voter turnouts, and he stresses relations with international organizations to improve workers’ training and monitoring, and secure funding. Paila also speaks about the issues of districting and determining electoral timetables.  Finally, he reflects upon some of the challenges faced by Sierra Leone during the elections in 2007 and 2008, as well as possible hurdles that the country may face in the future.    

Nasouh Marzouqa discusses major reforms in Jordan’s Civil Status and Passports Department during his time as its director.  He describes how he improved the physical infrastructure of the department and streamlined the process for issuing passports.  Marzouqa also worked to institute a system of national identification numbers and began the process of computerizing the department.  He also discusses his efforts to motivate employees.    

Case Study:  Creating a 'Citizen Friendly' Department: Speeding Document Production in Jordan, 1991-1996

Former IRS Commissioner David Adom describes the organizational changes that helped improve revenue collection at the Ghanaian IRS between 1986 and 2001.  He focuses on changes to human resource policy and organizational structure.  On his watch, first as deputy Commissioner and then as Commissioner, the IRS became autonomous from Ghana’s civil service regulations.  Using that freedom, the organization tripled salaries and hired a large new cohort of professionals—mostly lawyers and accountants.  In order to integrate these new hires into the pool of existing employees, Adom kept retrenchments to a minimum, applied salary raises equitably throughout the whole organization, and spread new hires across different units in order to give new and old staff a chance to mix on the job.  Finally, in an attempt to target the small number of taxpayers who accounted for more than half of Ghana’s revenue, Adom introduced an elite Large Taxpayer’s Office, which offered better service—and more careful enforcement—to wealthy individuals and firms.  

Case Study:  Professionalization, Decentralization and a One-Stop Shop: Tax-Collection Reform in Ghana, 1986-2008