Gearing public/civil service reform to the health agenda rather than efficiency
The experience of public officials in Bolivia: what works in a weak institutional environment?
Targetted institutional reform in the Bolivian public health sector
Authors:
N. Manning; R. Mukherjee; O. Gokcekus
Publisher:
Administrative and Civil Service Reform Website, World Bank, 2000
Presenting an analysis of data obtained from a 1999 survey of public officials in Bolivia the authors use detailed survey data to map the points of weakness, and to identify the characteristics of organisations within the public sector that seem to be working well. The report draws conclusions regarding targets for reform and lessons that can be learnt.
The premise for the surveys is that the performance of public officials depends upon a series of factors. These factors include their institutional environment, the trust that they have in the future, the degree to which they believe that rules will be enforced, belief that resources will be provided, and belief that policies will make a difference.
The report is divided into nine sections; the first four sections prepare the background to defining and measuring the institutional environment and performance.
Section 5 presents indicators that measure the institutional environment. Performance measures are presented in section 6. The association between different performance measures and institutional environment measures are examined in section 7. Section 8 probes which elements of the institutional environment effect performance most, and thereby identifies which interventions have high institutional rates of return (IRR). Characteristics of resilient organisations are identified in Section 9. From the findings, conclusions are drawn in section 10.
Financed under the World Bank-Netherlands Partnership Program, the survey is part of a major program of public officials surveys.
[adapted from authors]
