Public Administration Reform and Anti-Corruption in Asia and the Pacific

Civil Service Reform

Civil service reform encompasses activities aimed at developing the capacity of the civil service to effectively and efficiently fulfill its role. The long-term target is to create a government workforce that is of adequate size and has staff with the appropriate skills as well as the right motivation, professional ethos, client focus and accountability. The support given by UNDP is this area aims to help build civil services that are cost-efficient and results-oriented, transparent, responsive and accountable to the needs of citizens.

As witnessed in a number of countries in Asia a professional and well-established civil service has played a vital role in economic development. In societies undergoing rapid change as an effect of globalization or other forms of transition, a strong civil service and administrative capacity offers much-needed clarity and coherence for the implementation of national priorities, including those connected with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Indeed, for many countries in the region today, achievement of MDG 1 to 6 will depend to a large extent on the quality of service delivery, the building of human resources and the professionalism of the civil service. In the Least Developed Countries in particular, underdeveloped private sectors require the civil service to play a major role in the delivery of services and the provision of economic infrastructure. An established, non-partisan civil service is also vital to democracy as it makes peaceful and orderly political succession possible.

But a challenge facing most countries in Asia and the Pacific in developing the enabling environment needed for the civil service to play its role in democratic and economic development, is the lack of incentive structures for career advancement and the absence of adequate compensation scales for civil servants. A further challenge is the fact that women, indigenous peoples and disadvantaged groups are often underrepresented in the civil service, in particular at middle and senior management levels.

Another challenge that is particularly acute in transition countries and in countries emerging from conflict is for policy makers to decide on the kind of civil service system they want to develop, when modernizing and improving the performance of their public administration. Different countries around the world apply different systems and have established different types of institutions for the management of their human resources. The way these resources are managed can have an important impact on the efficiency and effectiveness of the public sector.

In light of these challenges, the Asia-Pacific Regional Centre is currently undertaking a number of policy studies looking specifically at civil service personnel management systems and incentives and career management:

Comparative Study on Civil Service Personnel Management Systems in Asia and the Pacific

This study will compare and analyse the various systems for civil service personnel management in place in countries across Asia and the Pacific. Based on the analysis the study will result in a number of policy recommendations. The focus of the study is on the institutional arrangements for civil service personnel management, i.e. legal and institutional frameworks as well as mandate and function of existing institutions. In addition to looking at issues such as recruitment, discipline, appeals and training the study will also cover the arrangements put in place for policy formulation and the issuing of directives for management of the civil service.

Comparative Regional Study on Incentives and Career Management – Civil Service in a Decentralized Context

The focus on achieving the MDGs and eradicating poverty has intensified the debate on the capacity for service delivery at the local levels. Much of the work focusing on developing local capacity (individual, institutional and systemic) has not addressed the challenge of providing the right incentives for staff to serve in the local governments/administrations. The experiences from a number of countries suggest that in many cases, it is not possible to attract staff with the right profile, and in many poor and remote areas across the region, posts remain vacant for extended periods of time. The educated staff prefer working in the capital or the regional townships where education and health facilities are much better and where employment opportunities for the spouses are more evident. Finding the right incentives and career opportunities for staff who are willing to work at the local levels remains thus an issue of critical importance when localizing the MDGs and implementing policies to eradicate rural poverty. It requires that a range of structural and institutional factors are addressed.