The Director General of the Bureau of Public Service Reforms, Dr. Joe Abah has delivered a presentation on lessons from Public Service Reforms in developing Countries. The event took place recently in Abuja at the end-of-programme event of DFID/SPARK programme.

Using a range of publications and research papers, Dr. Abah highlighted fifteen lessons:
(i)    Reforms tailored to the local context have a better chance of success
(ii)    Even in the most difficult institutional environments, good public sector performance is possible
(iii)    You need a holistic framework for reforms but also strategic interventions that solve specific problems
(iv)    Ignoring the politics and taking a purely technocratic approach is a sure way to fail
(v)    Gradual approaches to reducing size and cost have worked better than sudden and drastic steps
(vi)    Assuming that setting out formal rules or passing laws are enough to change behavior is erroneous
(vii)    Copying models blindly from elsewhere does not work
(viii)    Failure to protect and nurture reforms to maturity leads to “infant mortality” of reforms
(ix)    Monitoring and Evaluation is important
(x)    Meritocracy improves performance and accountability attracts better staff, reduces corruption and aids development
(xi)    Flexibility, pragmatism and vigilance for opportunities are crucial for success
(xii)    Political leadership is crucial as reforms are intensely political but organizational leadership is also important
(xiii)    Peer learning is an important method of capacity building
(xiv)    Donor support, properly and intelligently managed can help
(xv)    There is no single silver bullet for reforms
The presentation which is part of body of knowledge that BPSR is constantly developing  was well received.