In 2010, the government, private businesses, and local universities in the northern Mexico state of Nuevo León forged an unusual alliance to design and implement sweeping law-enforcement reforms in a challenging context. At the time, powerful drug cartels were fighting increasingly bitter and bloody wars to control their turf—which intimidated an existing police service already hampered by low pay, weak morale, corruption, and disorganization. Public confidence in the state’s ability to maintain order had evaporated. During the next five years, the public–private partnership oversaw the creation of an entirely new police service that, in tandem with other reforms, significantly strengthened the state’s capacity to ensure public safety and helped rebuild public confidence.

Patrick Signoret drafted this case study based on interviews conducted in March and April 2018 and on earlier research carried out by Ariana Markowitz and Alejandra Rangel Smith in October 2014. New York University’s Marron Institute helped support Alejandra Rangel Smith’s participation. Case published July 2018.

Beginning in 2007, Benin’s reformist leaders sought to strengthen the quality of governance and public management by instituting a system for evaluating public policies. National policies and programs often had little impact on development outcomes, and existing systems for monitoring and evaluating government initiatives were largely donor driven and designed to fit donors’ needs. As a result, the government struggled to define, prioritize, and coordinate policies within and across disparate sectors like agriculture, health, and education. With the support of newly elected president, Boni Yayi, Pascal Koupaki, Benin’s minister for planning, development and evaluation, created a bureau for policy evaluation to analyze public policies across different ministries, assess their impacts, and recommend improvements. Given the prevalence of inefficiency and ineffectiveness, the idea of evaluation initially enjoyed little political support. However, a small team based in Koupaki’s ministry, gradually built national evaluation capacities and increased internal demand for policy evaluation. By 2015, the bureau had become a permanent part of the administration, completed more than a dozen evaluation studies, and inspired the establishment of national evaluation mechanisms in West African neighbors Togo, Burkina Faso, and Mali.

Pallavi Nuka, ISS Associate Director, and Khady Thiam, of Sciences Po's Paris School of International Affairs drafted this case study based on interviews conducted in Cotonou and Abidjan in September 2015. This case study was funded by the French Development Agency. Case published April 2016.

In November 2005, Nitish Kumar became chief minister of one of India’s poorest states. The third-largest state by population, Bihar lagged behind other states in growth and development but scored high in corruption, lawlessness, and dismal service delivery. Mismanagement of financial resources, obsolete methods of data entry and reporting, a low-skilled workforce, insufficient transparency, and scarce accountability hindered service delivery. As head of state government, Kumar launched a series of reforms that applied information and communications technology to streamline operations, boost revenues, and improve the government’s responsiveness to citizens’ needs. By 2012, Bihar had earned national and regional acclaim for its technology-related gains, and the government of India recognized the turnaround through e-governance awards. Kumar’s efforts earned him the nickname Sushasan Babu, or Mr. Good Governance. Still, some reforms did not go far enough, and significant limitations remained: lack of integration among information and communications systems prevented proper coordination across departments; civil servants did not embrace all technology-related initiatives; and lack of electricity and Internet connectivity in many areas prevented citizens from taking full advantage of the services.

Juliette John drafted this case study in May 2014 while at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School on leave from the UK’s Department for International Development.  The case study was updated by Rushda Majeed and Pallavi Nuka following interviews conducted by Rushda Majeed in Patna, Bihar in August, 2014.  Three separate ISS case studies—Coalition Building in a Divided Society, Clearing the Jungle Raj, and Reviving the Administration,—outline Nitish Kumar’s broader efforts to build a coalition for reform, improve law and order, and resuscitate Bihar’s administration, respectively.

Associated Interview(s):  Anup Mukerji

Sierra Leone’s police service had a reputation for abuse and corruption even before the 1991-2002 civil war that slashed its numbers by a third and all but destroyed its infrastructure. Taking office in 1996, President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah set a high priority on police reform to ensure stability for postwar reconstruction and economic development. The United Kingdom, acting through the Commonwealth, was the primary benefactor, providing equipment, trainers and even an inspector general to lead the service during the first years of reform. By 2008, the Sierra Leone police featured strong and capable senior leadership, improved capacity for criminal investigations, and a positive relationship with the Sierra Leonean public. Although concerns about the sustainability of these reforms and the feasibility of additional changes remained in 2008, the development of the Sierra Leone Police during the preceding decade was an example of successful post-conflict police reform in a West African state.

Jonathan Friedman wrote this policy note based on interviews by Arthur Boutellis in Freetown, Sierra Leone, in May 2008. Case published November 2011.

Associated Interview(s):  Keith Biddle, Robert Bradley, Kadi Fakondo, Osman Gbla, Garry Horlacher, Adrian Horn, Sheka Mansaray