44960 Capacity Building 290 May 2008 Findings reports on ongoing operational, economic, and sector work carried out by the World Bank and its member governments in the Africa Region. It is published periodically by the Operations Results and Learning Unit on behalf of the Region. The views expressed in Findings are those of the author/s and should not be attributed to the World Bank Group. The Rapid Results Approach A Tool for Leadership Development and Institutional Change The following article is based on the summary from the volume Leadership for Development Results. This volume is a compilation of country case studies from the "Leadership and Change Forum," Marseille, France, October 2007. The complete case studies as well as more information on the Forum can be found at the World Bank Institute (WBI) Leadership Development Services website: www.worldbank.org/capacity/leadership. G ood leadership is vital in The Rapid Results Approach the fight to reduce poverty and improve The World Bank is using the lives. And the challenge of rapid results approach to link leading for results is acutely leadership to managing for felt in fragile and conflict- results through practical affected states, where the capacity support to clients. populations' needs are urgent The Bank helps leaders ? but where government engage operational teams in capacity to deliver critical government to achieve tan- programs is often eroded, gible results in 100 days. In and institutions are weak or the process the RRA reveals dysfunctional. institutional bottlenecks; and diagnosing and removing Ultimately, it is leadership these can help make a gov- that accounts for the stability ernment more effective. of the state and good gover- nance. Political leaders play The RRA has been applied in the central role in institu- about 23 Bank operations in Findings tional and state formation. 21 countries since 2002, And they are the principal primarily in Africa, and also forces that drive the institu- in South Asia, Latin America, tional change process ? a the Middle East, North Africa process that must engage and to a lesser extent in diverse stakeholders with Eastern and Central Europe, competing and often conflict- with some notable successes. ing interests. The RRA has been used by and local partners tailor a pilots delivered valuable the Bank and its clients to high- level consultation that lessons and, tangible results, · Improve capacity for diag- addresses the client's spe- while the high-level consul- nosing institutional con- cific needs and uses RRA to tations built the commitment straints introduce a stronger results and receptivity of the new · Improve capacity for orientation. The more ab- government. project/program planning stract dimensions of the and implementation leadership learning program The RRA, combined with · Increase the results focus are linked to observable high-level consultations, can of a project/program results, thus contributing to produce the following learn- · Strengthen a sense of operationalizing change. ing outcomes: accountability · Enhance engagement be- The use of high-level consul- · Enhanced skills in setting tween leadership and other tations, paired with the RRA, priorities, diagnosing and stakeholders across mul- illustrates how this can solving problems tiple sectors work. The process is dia- · Facilitated consensus and · Jump-start implementation gramed and described below. teamwork between political of difficult or problem projects From leadership to results: The virtuous learning cycle using high-level consultations and RRA pilots How RRA pilots have been combined with high-level consultations to link leader- ship to results. 3. High level 1. Set goals and The World Bank Institute's consultations, build skills in (WBI) high-level consultations review lessons, motivating & have provided a venue for scale-up & begin mobilizing change institutionalizing convening multi-sector lead- ership teams and political leaders to discuss the con- straints to achieving their goals, and to consider strate- gies for overcoming them. In 2. Achieves results Burundi, CAR, Madagascar in priority areas & and Morocco, RRA pilots were build capacity combined with high-level consultations to deepen the understanding of senior government officials and and operational leaders, political leaders on the ben- civil society and govern- efits and challenges of By combining high-level ment, and national and achieving pilot goals, and to consultations with rapid local leaders learn from the experiences of results pilots, participants · Development of strategy their peers in other coun- were able to go from the and plans with a results tries. abstract concepts of leader- focus ship to a concrete under- · Increased transparency The WBI team works to en- standing of strategy and and accountability gage political leadership by implementation, linking · Delivery of tangible results sharing lessons from other knowledge directly to the from the implementation of countries, often with support experience of achieving policies and strategies from peers. The WBI team results. The rapid results Context and Demand interventions helped the new stances. When WBI first president build ownership for recommended the use of Where country-readiness and the country's five-year Pov- RRA in Burundi, it met with pressure to produce tangible erty Reduction Strategy some skepticism. In re- results is high, the RRA, with (PRS), first among his cabinet sponse, WBI brought in RRA its tools, strategies, and and then across the country coaches from CAR to share accompanying teamwork, can for the Madagascar Action their experiences, describing open the door for engagement Plan. both the successes and across a range of difficult challenges of managing development situations. In Morocco, Sudan and Sierra ambitious change initiatives Leone, leadership work- in the security and customs In Kenya and Madagascar, shops/seminars and the RRA sectors. The government of new elections created high pilots were instrumental in Burundi then agreed to expectations among citizens. helping to build the local initiate two pilots using RRA Newly elected leadership government's capacity to in the Ministries of Educa- teams responded to the jump-start implementation in tion and Public Health. political imperative for support of decentralization. change by breaking away RRA has subsequently been from business as usual to Sudan, CAR, Sierra Leone, used in pilots across eleven launch early reforms. Each and Burundi share the chal- ministries. RRA coaches government sought to insti- lenges and constraints of from CAR, Madagascar, tute new national strategic countries in post-conflict Kenya, and Yemen have plans that would improve the transition. Sierra Leone and traveled to other countries in quality of life for citizens, Sudan turned to decentrali- the region to share their produce more inclusive zation as a means of bringing experiences and, in a few growth and opportunities, the government and service cases, to help implement and build ownership for these delivery closer to the people, RRA pilots. plans. with a bottom-up approach. By contrast CAR and Burundi New leadership teams must used top-down approaches, The Changing Role inspire and engage adminis- relying on the strong per- of Leaders trative leaders, persuading sonal commitment of high- them to carry out new agen- level government officials and RRA helps government lead- das and adopt new roles, their willingness to act as ers conceptualize and com- including new ways of doing champions to break down municate what they plan to business and new attitudes barriers to change. do and how they will do it. and/or changes in behaviors. RRA also helps mobilize The RRA appears to be well change throughout an orga- This was the case in CAR, suited for dealing with the nization, as evidenced in the where civil servants had conditions of fragile and case of Kenya, where RRA stopped reporting for work. conflict-affected states, has helped mainstream a An important aspect of RRA where there is an acute government-wide policy of here was building ownership need for implementation results-based management. and commitment and mobiliz- capacity, along with human In Kenya, political leadership ing support for implementa- resource constraints. These at the highest level emerged tion ? from the senior leader- and other challenges call for as the main driver in the ship and mid-level managers learning on the job. implementation of reforms. to the local level and beyond to ordinary citizens. RRA has been valuable in New business practices and helping achieve project re- processes that also empower In Madagascar, the Bank's sults across a range of diffi- leadership include the del- leadership development cult development circum- egation of responsibility and accountability, more system- where - for the first time ? elected governments, and in atic frameworks for collabo- textbooks reached schools on governments undertaking ration and for sharing infor- the first day of class. This large-scale reforms. mation, enhanced monitoring was piloted in one area and of implementation and feed- eventually scaled up As a methodology for leader- back, process decentraliza- throughout the country. ship development, RRA has tion, and participation. helped leadership teams set There are drawbacks to goals and priorities, mobilize As an experience-based applying RRA that must be consensus, engage and learning tool, RRA requires considered in working to inspire their governments to leadership teams to be flex- institutionalize its benefits. implement change and de- ible, adaptive, and opportu- First, leadership teams can liver on promised results. nistic as they work to become unstable from the achieve objectives amid high turnover of trained With the help of RRA, politi- unanticipated constraints government personnel (serv- cal leaders have learned how and changing conditions. The ing as RRA coaches). It may to make institutional change methodology relies on learn- be difficult to find enough happen. The case studies ing-by-doing, and an experi- personnel to keep teams on illustrate that when capacity mental approach, where track with the additional support to government lead- lessons are drawn from both workload required of the ers incorporates the practi- successful and unsuccessful RRA. Monitoring and evalua- cal, hands-on experience of results in the short term, tion (M&E) systems may be achieving tough goals, this and applied more broadly. inadequate because of poor can lead to changes in per- metrics, and project M&E formance, as well as the In this way the RRA provides systems have at times failed development of new leader- tools for mitigating risk, to link with national M&E ship skills, greater capacity, which allows leadership systems, creating parallel or and learning for leaders at teams to take limited risks stand-alone systems in all levels. without investing beyond the support of RRA pilots. pilot. Should the gamble pay By linking leadership with off, then the government may There is also the risk of poor managing for results, the opt to scale up the results. A donor coordination, and, at approach has been instru- successful pilot also produces the other extreme, the use of mental in prompting change, a demonstration effect, sector-wide approaches may both in scaling up broader which may enable a new make it more difficult to governmental reform initia- leader to deliver on a few apply RRA. tives and in targeted small- campaign promises quickly. scale interventions. Conclusion Impact and Institutionalization For public sector reform, good leadership means the ability In institutionalizing the to drive change toward impact of the RRA, the re- achieving the right results. sults achieved are more a The Marseille Forum cases Findings and InfoBriefs are means to an end than an end document how RRA has been edited by Lawrence Mastri, itself. Vertical scalability of used to strengthen the ca- lmastri@worldbank.org the RRA works best in sec- pacity of government leader- tors where there are tangible ship to make change happen products, services and ben- in countries in transition, efits, as in the case of including those in post- Burundi's education sector, conflict situations, in newly