IMPROVING PUBLIC SECTOR PERFORMANCE THROUGH INNOVATION AND INTER-AGENCY COORDINATION SUMMARY OF THE GLOBAL REPORT This is a summary of the October 2018 World Bank report on public sector performance. A product of the Governance Global Practice and WBG Global Knowledge and Research Hub in Malaysia, this report is an inaugural issue in a new series that aims to offer a fresh look at how developing countries are overcoming persistent problems in public sector management. The full report is available for download at http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/ en/833041539871513644/ SUMMARY OF THE GLOBAL REPORT – IMPROVING PUBLIC SECTOR PERFORMANCE 3 Public sector performance is fundamentally about governments being able to deliver on their policy commitments for the benefit of their citizens. G overnments with well- university programs. The primary performing public sectors purpose of the report is to help are capable of translating countries move further along the good policies into development path of reform to achieve better outcomes. Such governments can public sector performance. With also deliver outcomes to citizens in that goal in mind, the report aims a manner commensurate with what to serve as a reference guide for the country can afford. They will be all those involved in designing or able to align the planned outcomes implementing public sector reforms. with citizens’ preferences, doing so The report pays homage to an old in a way that is perceived as broadly Chinese saying, “Crossing the river fair and impartial. In some cases, by feeling the stones” by highlighting improving performance starts with the importance of experimentation, improving the policy-making and adaptation, and incremental reforms policy coordination process at the in reaching one’s goal. center of government. However, many countries adopt sensible This report consists of two policies that do not result in better parts. Part I, which is designed as healthcare, education, sanitation, a recurrent stocktaking of global infrastructure management or experience in improving public sector reduced crime. This is primarily performance, presents case studies because of implementation gaps organized along thematic lines in the public sector results chain. to highlight recent achievements Improving public sector performance in emerging economies. Part II therefore entails closing these gaps. focuses on a special, cross-cutting topic that is critical to public sector This report is an inaugural issue performance. This year’s special in a new series that aims to offer topic is Policy and Inter-Agency a fresh look at how developing Coordination, drawing on the countries are overcoming conclusions from the 2017 World persistent problems in public Development Report (WDR) which sector management. It builds on a cites “coordination” as one of three large body of literature on improving essential institutional functions for public sector performance, and making policies effective. Part II it complements efforts of other offers a canvas of strategies and international organizations, private techniques that countries employ to consultancies/think tanks, and operationalize this concept. 4 SUMMARY OF THE GLOBAL REPORT – IMPROVING PUBLIC SECTOR PERFORMANCE PART I Global Trends in Public Sector Performance Significant improvements in public sector performance As the interventions to improve public sector performance occur at many are being evidenced across different entry points, the report has categorized each of the cases into the developing world today, one of five broad themes. The themes as government officials reflect that reforms have different objectives; some address concerns such and political leaders find as policy formulation and government new and innovative ways to administration, while others focus on functions that tend to be citizen-facing. tackle long-standing public management challenges. The five themes are: A Driving Results from the T his report demonstrates that public Center of Government sector performance is not merely a concern of high-income and OECD countries; it is being pursued diligently and successfully across a variety of country B Civil Service Management contexts, including in low-income and post- conflict environments. Through surveying its governance specialists from around the globe, the World Bank has assembled a collection C Innovations in Managing Public Money of 15 cases that showcase how lessons from global experience are being adapted and applied in practice. Indeed, these cases reflect how the conceptual frameworks presented D New Approaches to Last-Mile Service Delivery originally in the 2004 and 2017 WDRs are being operationalized. They are not intended to represent global best practice, but rather E Innovations in Delivering Justice Services a mix of recent and ongoing efforts that are helping the public sector to deliver on its promises to citizens. Each of the cases offers evidence of a tangible impact on public sector performance, although the long-term story remains to be told. SUMMARY OF THE GLOBAL REPORT – IMPROVING PUBLIC SECTOR PERFORMANCE 5 Driving Results from the A Center of Government The four cases under the theme of driving results from the center of government offer very different experiences, but each brings a compelling story of impact on the ground. 1 In Rwanda, government fused the modern concept of performance contracts with a traditional practice of public commitment called Imihigo. The President’s Effective leadership and Office began by using powerful non-monetary incentives to get coordination from the top mayors across the country to set development targets for their of the executive branch is districts and deliver on them; after the initial success at district level, perhaps one of the most it was expanded to cover central government ministries as well. important factors for improved 2 In Malaysia, the key CoG institutions public sector performance. adapted a management consulting concept from the private sector to encourage collaboration, break down silos across ministries, W departments and agencies (MDAs), hen the group reinforce accountability and find efficiency gains. Malaysia’s of institutions to the chief executive. case shows that it is possible to induce collaboration among MDAs that provides Unfortunately, many CoG to deliver services more efficiently support to the head of institutions fall short of and effectively. government and his/her this ideal. Governments cabinet is functioning experience challenges 3 The Mozambique case provides well, collective expertise upstream with flawed another example of how the CoG from across the public policy development, can provide appropriate incentives to enhance service delivery. The sector is mobilized and and equally vexing Ministry of Finance introduced brought to bear on the challenges to assure financial incentives and better most pressing decisions effective implementation information flows that enabled line facing the country. Once at the point of service ministries to achieve measurable improvements in medicine supply decisions are taken and delivery. There are often chains and primary education. ministries move forward information asymmetries with clear objectives and between policy-makers 4 In Armenia, a nascent but promising adequate resources, a and last-mile service effort has been made to strengthen well-functioning Center providers, as well as policy formulation at the very early of Government (CoG) differences in incentives stages. Armenia is integrating regulatory impact assessment (RIA) creates incentives for that can impede the into broader government systems implementation, such as quality and efficiency in order to enhance the take-up a systematic monitoring of services delivered to of more evidence-based policy- and evaluation system to citizens. making. 6 SUMMARY OF THE GLOBAL REPORT – IMPROVING PUBLIC SECTOR PERFORMANCE B Civil Service Management Effective management of the The report highlights two public sector workforce is another cases where countries have critical element to improving succeeded in improving the quality of civil servants the overall effectiveness and at entry and enhanced the management systems efficiency of the public sector. governing their day-to-day performance on the job. P The examples of Indonesia ersonal emoluments they are in. Yet, changes and China are all the more often constitute one to existing civil service pay impressive given the large of the largest shares and employment systems and diverse civil service of the annual budget are often politically difficult workforces they have to (between 24 and 27 to make due to the number manage. percent), and civil servants of people affected, legacy represent an important systems, and potential voting constituency for vested interest. As a 1 In Indonesia, the Civil Service many political leaders. result, governments often Agency (BKN) succeeded The quality of civil service contemplate carefully in introducing a computer- assisted testing system (CAT) performance is affected by whether to embark upon to disrupt the previously the policies and procedures whole-of-government long-standing manual testing that govern entrance into reforms or to target system that created rampant the service, as well as the one or more institutions opportunities for corruption in civil service recruitment policies for managing and where impact can be by line ministry officials. Now motivating them once demonstrated first. the database of questions is tightly controlled, and the results are posted in real time outside the testing center. Since its launch in 2013, CAT has become the defacto standard for more than 62 ministries and agencies. 2 In China, the State Administration of Taxation (SAT) embarked on a massive effort to transform the effectiveness of its core tax collection functions implemented by more than 800,000 staff. Over a three-year period, the SAT succeeded in implementing a performance plan for all staff. It included quantitative and qualitative indicators that cascaded down from the national level to the bureau level and to the individual. The new management systems were used by the Chinese authorities to expedite the transition from sales tax to value-added tax, while also gaining broad support from agency staff. SUMMARY OF THE GLOBAL REPORT – IMPROVING PUBLIC SECTOR PERFORMANCE 7 The three cases featured in this section offer a glimpse into how countries are taking steps to overcome institutional and technical constraints to improve their PFM performance. 1 The case from Rwanda demonstrates that modern procurement techniques that are widely used in OECD countries do not need to be off-limits for the developing world; capacity constraints we commonly expect in Sub-Saharan Africa can be, and are being, overcome. Drawing on the experience of other countries, Rwanda has Innovations C been able to implement an e-procurement system that in Managing now covers virtually all public procurement in the country. Public Money 2 In Indonesia, Ministry of Finance officials have demonstrated they can get timely, reliable expenditure Public Financial Management (PFM) and payment information to every government office is a broad field encompassing across the nation, even though Indonesia is an archipelago government functions that are spanning thousands of islands. They developed their online often invisible to the public, but monitoring system (OM- SPAN) at a fraction of the cost nevertheless impactful. that would have been the case under traditional approaches relying on international software licenses. W hile the public it, and others to perform may not observe their tasks on time and with 3 The case of the Brazilian city of Manaus demonstrates these functions accuracy. Service delivery that dramatic results can be directly, they can experience suffers when governments achieved in terms of fiscal problems with quality or do not adequately address performance with the help access to public services the performance of their of determined leadership, an overhaul of performance when PFM is not working management systems and management systems, and well. These are the functions institutional incentives. These enabling technology. Within for which civil servants include public procurement, a short time, Manaus went themselves are both the internal controls and from being one of the worst performing to one of the best agents and the customers. standards (fiduciary), and performing municipalities These internal clients the institutional incentives in Brazil in terms of fiscal require operating systems for budget management management. to work, information to be more broadly. available when they need 8 SUMMARY OF THE GLOBAL REPORT – IMPROVING PUBLIC SECTOR PERFORMANCE New Approaches to Last-Mile D Service Delivery While better services I t concerns: How can in information can give government create rise to middlemen, are the outcome of the the incentives for inflated costs, long complex machinery of service providers to deliver quality and waiting times, and often bribery. Many emerging the state, including its efficiency? How can it economies also face ensure ease of access absenteeism among upstream functions like for citizens? In many their public sector policy coordination and emerging economies, workers, and where citizens often lack easily absenteeism is not an budget management, this accessible information issue, governments still theme focuses on how about government services, including the struggle with the quality of service: a teacher countries are tackling types of services they simply showing up for can request, their price, class does not mean issues in the “last mile” of or how long they will that the students will service delivery. take. This asymmetry actually learn. Several techniques to address key service delivery challenges emerge in the cases included in the report: institutional reform, beneficiary feedback, monitoring, and open data. 1 In the state of Madhya Pradesh (MP) in 3 The Pakistani state of Punjab introduced India, the government addressed severe and a citizen feedback program to monitor the persistent service delivery challenges that performance of civil servants, stymy petty could not be overcome through regulation corruption, and improve public services. of service providers. By adopting the Public Starting from a small pilot in one of its districts, Services Guarantee Act (PSGA) in 2010, the province now operates a wide-ranging MP legislated citizens’ rights to a core 26 monitoring program that leverages the ubiquity services. The legislation has helped create of cellphones to actively solicit feedback from new norms for millions of day-to-day state– users of public services. The national passport citizen interactions, inducing higher citizen office has since taken the approach on board expectations, and creating new standards of and attributes citizen feedback to helping them behavior for government servants. slash the processing time for passports from three weeks to ten days. 2 In Uruguay, the Ministry of Public Health launched an innovative partnership with 4 Also in the state of Punjab, inexpensive civil society to make data on prospective smartphones have been used to monitor the healthcare providers more accessible and performance of officials in several sectors. The easy to use. The new web-based platform has smartphones have helped to significantly reduce been embraced by citizens who need to make absenteeism, improve the quality and timeliness healthcare choices, and has helped make of facility inspections, and enhance spatial service providers more accountable. coverage. SUMMARY OF THE GLOBAL REPORT – IMPROVING PUBLIC SECTOR PERFORMANCE 9 Innovations in Delivering E Justice Services The administration of justice provides a window into how public sector innovations are impacting a unique sector. T he delivery of court performance and The experience amassed over justice, as a core weak justice systems. the past decades of justice public service, helps Initial efforts to reform sector reform is highlighted define and protect rights – the justice sector focused in the cases from Serbia and individual, collective, and mainly on institutional Azerbaijan. commercial – and enforce strengthening of the corresponding obligations. courts and the judiciary, The quality, efficiency, and including investment in 1 In Serbia, the broader political dialogue on EU accession independence of justice new/refurbished court provided an important motivation sector institutions have houses. Building on and urgency for tackling reforms a direct impact on the lessons learned, justice in the justice sector. However, economic performance of sector reforms now for the government to overcome longstanding challenges to a country and contribute incorporate broader progress in the sector, it needed to creating an enabling public sector management to be innovative in its approach. environment for the growth concepts and tools to Serbia combined a system of and development of the design performance performance incentives for courts with increased management private sector. Poor and incentives, measure results, authority for presiding judges to vulnerable populations, and support change help stimulate new approaches to as well as micro, small, management. reducing backlogs and enhancing and medium enterprises, court performance. suffer most from poor 2 In Azerbaijan, the government developed a new approach to dealing with their own backlog of cases, one which addressed both supply side and demand side elements. Recognizing that much of the backlog stemmed from relatively simple civil cases, such as claims for unpaid bills, the government partnered with the private sector in the use of an automated system to streamline the handling of uncontested cases, thus freeing up judges’ time for more important cases. 10 SUMMARY OF THE GLOBAL REPORT – IMPROVING PUBLIC SECTOR PERFORMANCE Success Factors in Undertaking Public Sector Performance Innovations The cases, despite their diversity, offer insights into the relevance of five key factors to improving public sector performance: political leadership, institutional capacity building, incentives, transparency, and technology. Political leadership is needed because few, if Transparency can benefit either internal any, of the innovations are a purely technocratic stakeholders (e.g., other government officials) exercise. In some cases, innovation required a or external stakeholders and citizens. Aside change in leadership at the top to create the from the usual argument about the intrinsic catalyst for a new approach to organizational value of the right to information and general management. Whether it applied to breaking benefits of openness, the key takeaway down organizational silos, holding managers from the case analysis in this report is that accountable, or requiring MDAs to comply with increased transparency can help deliver a more efficient and transparent procedure, change in public sector performance. Greater each innovation required strong political internal transparency may mean breaking leadership. Leaders need to find ways to down government silos and ensuring inter- collaborate with a wide range of internal and agency information sharing, or publishing external stakeholders on the one hand, and and circulating performance information. overcome inherent opposition on the other. Transparency can also be a powerful driver for changing incentives. Institutional capacity building of existing bodies is a common element across many of Technology , while not a panacea, is present the cases, especially in driving results from in two-thirds of the featured cases, either the CoG and in managing public finances. showcasing the technology application Officials often used a mix of technology, new that was central to the reform, or playing management approaches, and staff training a supporting role (e.g., application of to strengthen institutional capacity to deliver smartphones supported a broader operational results. For reforms to endure, one ultimately change in Pakistan). While the cases give needs to create sustainable institutions. insights into the relevance of technology for public sector performance, none of Incentives matter, and we see this applied them reflected the use of cutting-edge both at the institutional level (e.g., through technology. Instead, they applied relevant, government-wide policy, creating systems and even basic, IT tools and know-how to their structures that shape institutional objectives, specific functional requirements and did not and program monitoring systems) as well over-design their efforts. Furthermore, the as at the level of civil servants (e.g., through technology application is rarely a stand-alone performance targets and reward systems). We solution; rather, it is accompanied by policies see examples of performance management and procedures to change behavior. upstream at the CoG where broad policy is formulated, and also downstream at the point of service delivery closest to citizens and beneficiaries. SUMMARY OF THE GLOBAL REPORT – IMPROVING PUBLIC SECTOR PERFORMANCE 11 FIGURE 1 The Five Key Factors to Successful Public Sector Performance Innovations INSTITUTIONAL POLITICAL LEADERSHIP 1 2 CAPACITY BUILDING 5 KEY FACTORS in improving Public Sector Performance TECHNOLOGY 5 3 INCENTIVES 4 TRANSPARENCY This analysis suggests some recommendations for both governments and development institutions who seek to support improvements in public sector performance. In the short term, it pays to invest in the initiatives that foster transparency and/or employ technology in a context- savvy and fit-for-purpose manner. At the same time, the medium- to long-term efforts can focus on changing incentives and building institutional capacity. Changing incentives is a particularly broad category, as it may include some quick wins in government-wide monitoring and HR systems, while also involving more long-term transformations of the institutional and civil service culture. Last but not least, acknowledging that political leadership is a necessary precondition for most public sector performance reforms is important. All too often, public sector performance reforms fail because they are attempted as purely technical solutions, rather than having a political ownership and drive. 12 SUMMARY OF THE GLOBAL REPORT – IMPROVING PUBLIC SECTOR PERFORMANCE PART II Special Topic: Policy and Inter-Agency Coordination major investments in water, sanitation, and land Why coordination matters management in an integrated and holistic manner? and why it is difficult Without appropriate forums to weigh these policy and operational tradeoffs, agencies can often work at cross-purposes. A s the responsibilities of government have grown in volume and complexity, policy The social and economic impact of poor coordination and program coordination has become ever takes various forms. First, poor coordination can lead more challenging, and the stakes have never been to decisions being made on the basis of inaccurate, higher. Government ministries, departments and biased or incomplete information. Second, decisions agencies (MDAs) have expanded in size and mandate taken may not be implemented because they were not to serve a growing population that demands more and properly vetted for their cost, legality, and consistency better services – a phenomenon that applies to both with established policy. Third, it may generate needless rich and poor countries alike. As bureaucracies have waste and duplication of effort among agencies. grown, coordination within MDAs also becomes more Fourth, poor coordination can create additional challenging, as more players and a greater array of compliance burdens on citizens, for example, by forcing interests now need to be brought into the decision- them to invest time, effort, and energy fulfilling similar making process. Larger bureaucracies in turn lead to requirements with different government agencies greater separation between the citizens and those who because of lack of inter-agency information sharing. are supposed to serve them, contributing to a growing feeling of alienation from government. Although this part of the report deepens the analysis of coordination, the cases presented in Solutions to public service delivery often require Part I illustrate the importance of coordination in more joined-up and inter-connected responses driving performance from the CoG and improving than was previously thought necessary, if they are service delivery. In particular, Case #1 (Rwanda) to deliver results. A survey by OECD found that inter- detailed the coordination between the central and agency coordination was viewed as the most pressing local governments at a critical time for this nation’s challenge to implementation of the Sustainable post-conflict rebuilding and development. Case #2 Development Goals (SDGs). Indeed, many social (Malaysia) has illustrated how coordination may problems that require government attention and action involve breaking down silos among line agencies to are not easily structured and contained, requiring that achieve better service delivery outcomes for all. Case agencies with different mandates and missions work #3 (Mozambique) focused on coordination between together to coordinate their activities for the common the Ministry of Finance and line ministries to improve good. Different levels of government may be involved health and education outcomes. At the same time, every step of the way, which may require not only cases illustrating coordination mechanisms in Part I horizontal coordination across sectors, but also vertical are not confined to the CoG theme. For example, Case coordination across the national-subnational axis. The #10 (India) highlights the establishment of one-stop challenges to such coordination may be magnified in shops as part of the implementation of the PSGA, in emerging economy contexts because information which inter-agency coordination greatly increases flows are often more rigid and hierarchical in nature, convenience and citizens’ access to public services. and subordinate employees are often not empowered to share information with employees from other Effective coordination can be viewed across a ministries. continuum of simple to complex. The Metcalfe scale is a useful first-cut approximation for addressing inter- An important benefit of improved coordination is agency coordination from a CoG perspective, as it that it helps to ensure that disparate agencies shows what a desirable trajectory would look like. In are pulling in the same direction. Many government practice, however, coordination is not an integrated decisions often involve the delicate weighing of whole that progresses in a unified manner from simple priorities against each other. How should a government operational coordination between two ministries in the Middle East, for example, best balance the need to complex whole-of-government coordination of to diversify non-oil revenue sources through increased government strategy. Some areas, such as national visa fees with its broader desire to increase tourism? security and foreign affairs, may have tight and well- How should a large municipality in Africa manage defined procedures for coordinating policy, whereas SUMMARY OF THE GLOBAL REPORT – IMPROVING PUBLIC SECTOR PERFORMANCE 13 others (such as business regulation or social protection) Their role varies greatly, from determining policy may be much looser and more fragmented. and coordinating operations in the Commonwealth systems, to largely ceremonial in nature in some Governments around the world have adopted presidential systems. The institutions that provide various approaches to enhance coordination. support to the chief executive, such as a Cabinet Some are formal and enshrined in their country’s Office, Chancellery, or General Secretariat, generally constitution; others are more informal; and yet others establish procedures that ensure smooth cross- are by-products of formal processes established to agency information flow and help with the technical achieve other goals. In emphasizing that coordination scrutiny of how decisions affect other sectors. was one of three essential institutional functions for Cabinet sub-committees are used to help coordinate making policies effective, the 2017 WDR stressed the decision-making in certain areas. They can either importance of focus on the function, rather than on discuss specific issues before they are considered by the form of the institution. Depending on the historical the cabinet, or serve as the actual decision-making traditions, the political and bureaucratic culture, but bodies. Other countries seek broader support and also the task at hand, a range of various mechanisms technical input from civil society and business can be fit for purpose. representatives by establishing expert panels and advisory boards to feed into the policy process. Vertical coordination with sub-national governments Toward enhanced presents specific challenges to central governments, coordination: Key dynamics which have generally relied on fiscal transfers and regulation as the primary tools to influence them. and approaches E • Government practices that influence coordination: nhancing coordination will depend not Such practices include formal government processes only on the adopted formal institutional that have different primary functions, but still aid mechanisms, but also on their interplay with coordination. For example, budget process reforms the broader institutional environment and with focused on program budgeting have been used other processes that influence coordination. Table to promote greater coordination around shared 5 of the report presents a broader breakdown of objectives among multiple MDAs. Government-wide the dynamics influencing government coordination. monitoring and evaluation (M&E) systems have Formal policy coordination mechanisms at the apex played a similar role, especially for the goals that of government (such as cabinet offices, cabinet/sub- fall outside the jurisdiction of a single implementing cabinet committees, and delivery units) make up only agency. Some governments have experimented with a relatively small proportion of the diverse array of Delivery Units, small agile bodies at the CoG set up coordination mechanisms and approaches taking place to drive a limited number of high-priority goals, most within government. They are important, in that they of which are usually beyond the purview of a single address the question of what government should do ministry. Administrative reorganization, when a new in a given domain, and decisions reached at that level department is created to carry out the functions of will have implications down the line. But much of the disparate agencies working toward a single goal that actual work of coordinating government activity and is deemed a priority of the administration, is another interaction on a day-to-day basis takes place elsewhere. indirect mechanism to improve coordination, albeit with varying results. Finally, socialization within an • Broader environment: A host of broader political organization can play an important role in shaping and social dynamics influence how easy (or difficult) the perspectives, incentives, and preferences of it will be to establish institutions and procedures that civil servants. A generalist civil service cadre is not facilitate policy and operational coordination. At the a panacea, but at its best can inculcate a strong most basic level, effective policy and operational sense of collective identity and the broader public coordination is more difficult in environments where good that transcends the parochial incentives of the government structure is highly fragmented. the ministry where the civil servant happens to be Leadership style matters, in that some leaders posted. more naturally seek consensus, while others prefer more hierarchical decision-making structures and processes. The existence of shared national values and a national vision promote cooperation Global experience with because they can facilitate policy legitimacy. Other strengthening coordination important factors are whether the country is a single T party or multi-party state, and whether structures he experience of the Bank staff in assisting within the dominant political party are designed for governments around the world with coordination. strengthening coordination is multifaceted. Improving coordination at the sectoral level has • Formal coordination mechanisms: These include found a heavy focus in the Bank’s sector investment apex bodies at the CoG, such as cabinets, councils, loans, where more than 440 interventions over the or politburos, which are all forms of committees that past 30 years have sought to improve the quality of are chaired by the chief executive of the government coordination within a specific sector. At the same time, – be it a president, prime minister, or a monarch – in response to the rapid increase in country demand in and consist of heads of government ministries. the past decade, the Bank is now involved in over 40 14 SUMMARY OF THE GLOBAL REPORT – IMPROVING PUBLIC SECTOR PERFORMANCE interventions dedicated to improving coordination at the CoG. This includes coordination at the time when policies What Has Worked? are formulated, as well as coordination at the time of their implementation. High-level political backing is important for any reform to enhance • Policy Development. In systems where cabinets play an coordination, as is the quality of important role, their collective decision-making capacity leadership. The person at the helm of the reform should be technically has often required strengthening. This can take various skilled and politically savvy, as well as forms, from preparation of a cabinet manual in Sierra close to the chief executive. Leone to cabinet workshops in Serbia focused on a shared vision and collective leadership. Some countries, Flexible and adaptive coordination such as Latvia, established formal bodies to strengthen mechanisms work better than rigid cross-ministry coordination and aid in the policy and prescriptive ones, as they have review process. The lesson from these reforms is that a better chance to be sustained and the technical advice must be delicately balanced with become self-reinforcing even as political imperatives; a policy coordination mechanism leaders change. that is perceived to replace political decisions with technical solutions may not be sustainable. The reforms that anticipated resistance and invested in buy-in were most likely to succeed. • Policy Implementation. Various overarching processes tend to provide an impetus for the coordination of Routine reporting procedures, reforms focused on whole-of-government M&E. These combined with a careful assessment include high-level public sector reforms spurred by the and monitoring of obstacles and long-term Vision exercise in Botswana, or European measures to resolve them, are integration efforts in the Western Balkans or Moldova. essential links in the accountability The institutional arrangements for government- chain. wide M&E vary, ranging from dedicated ministries and specialized agencies, to delivery units and other Coordination of cross-sectoral agile bodies. No single form is preferred or best priorities was most likely to succeed practice; rather, its success depends on how it fits the when there was an established link between these cross-institutional purpose. Some overly ambitious efforts, such as India’s objectives and the budgetary Performance Management and Evaluation System, resources allocated to them. could not be sustained because they did not achieve the full buy-in of the relevant stakeholders. Another Center of government functions key message is that the role of the CoG should be on best when it focuses on strategic high-level coordination issues rather than managing the coordination and leaves the granular M&E that is best done by the MDAs themselves. granular upstream and downstream coordination tasks to the MDAs. Malaysia’s experience offers additional insights about what types of coordination mechanisms can work and why. Malaysia is an upper-middle income country with about 100 agencies operating in the Prime Minister’s Department What Has Not Worked? as of May 2018, rendering coordination within the CoG as well as with and among MDAs particularly important. Complex designs often lead to It has a sophisticated and comprehensive ecosystem faltering reforms. Simple mechanisms of institutions and processes for policy development often work best in low-income and policy implementation. The specific examples of countries and FCV contexts. coordinating the implementation of past national agendas such as the National Transformation Programme through a Overlapping functions and blurred delivery unit, as well as the National Blue Ocean Strategy accountability make coordination through the Ministry of Finance, further strengthen the difficult. This is often as important takeaway that the specific institutional arrangement is in sectoral coordination as it is in less important than whether it is fit for purpose. Similarly, government-wide coordination. overcoming the challenges in the coordination of urban public transport shows that under certain conditions, even Before introducing new institutional a highly fragmented institutional landscape can produce coordination mechanisms, it is results. important to take stock of what already exists. Building on the existing institutions tends to work better. The main conclusions from the review of global experience with coordination reforms reinforce the idea Institutional solutions uncritically that no single institutional arrangement works for all transferred from one context to contexts. In the spirit of the 2017 WDR, the institutional another lead to isomorphic mimicry function is more important than a particular form. and rarely produce the desired outcome. SUMMARY OF THE GLOBAL REPORT – IMPROVING PUBLIC SECTOR PERFORMANCE 15 Conclusions Successful efforts to improve coordination at the center of government described in Part II share some common dimensions with those identified in Part I: Political leadership: Political leadership manifests Rewards and sanctions may be targeted to individuals or itself in the degree to which the chief executive – Prime institutions. Incentives take diverse forms, and Malaysia’s Minister or President – can give focused attention and experience shows how institutions were motivated to follow-up to making sure that coordination happens. accept support to break down silos between them and As a result, a delivery unit or comparable body within achieve fast results. the Cabinet Office or Chancellery that has the political backing and weight of the chief executive will see its Transparency: Successful policy coordination at the requests and actions taken more seriously by the MDAs. CoG contributes to enhanced transparency. Transparency Delivery Units fail when they are technocratic only and may pertain to internal or external stakeholders or both. detached from those with the political clout to reward, Well-functioning Cabinet processes will make new policy punish, and unblock. In addition, the number of priorities proposals and their potential impact transparent to to be pursued needs to be limited; otherwise, the political others in Cabinet who might be affected. Transparency leadership will be unable to give them the attention they – like good coordination mechanisms in general – is fit require. for purpose. It does not overwhelm the capacity of CoG bodies to absorb the information or respond to it. On the Institutiona l capacity building : Long-lasting one hand, performance management systems have been coordination mechanisms are those that have used successfully to communicate to public officials established a set of work processes that contribute to and citizens the performance standards that need to be the long-term capacity of CoG institutions and where the met by MDAs. On the other hand, when there are too processes have intrinsic value in improving performance. many indicators to monitor, important accountability Government-wide monitoring bodies are more likely to relationships are undermined because critical information leave a legacy if they are not designed merely as an ad cannot be processed and acted on in a timely manner. hoc effort to address a temporal (political) problem of performance. Effective coordination also needs to take Technology: While technology has been instrumental in into account the existing institutional relationships and helping improve service delivery in the cases presented in inter-dynamics across ministries. Merging institutions Part I, its importance to policy coordination at the CoG is rarely produces the benefits to coordination that their less prominent. The role of technology can manifest itself designers promise. in the enabling of one-stop shops by helping agencies share information more easily across service platforms Incentives: As policy-making inherently involves and by making exchange of citizen information more compromises and competing objectives, policy seamless among agencies (e.g., Egypt’s one-stop shops coordination around the Cabinet process has to created by GAFI). Technology takes a more prominent speak to the incentives and motivations of political role in facilitating intra-sectoral coordination to officials. Incentives may be even more important at the improve last-mile service delivery. For example, modest implementation stage: there are abundant examples technology applications are enabling data collection that of the use of performance management dashboards, directly feeds into performance dashboards, which are accompanied by a set of formal and informal rewards for monitored by CoG institutions. those who deliver on their agreed outputs or outcomes. The underlying message of this report is a positive one: improving public sector performance is possible even in difficult circumstances, although the trajectory is not always linear. In today’s world, governments and the public sector are facing increasing pressures to perform at a higher level than ever before. While this report does not provide all the answers to public sector performance challenges, it analyzes innovations that have worked and identifies key factors that have contributed to their success. However, the overarching element of success is strong coordination to ensure that governments and their MDAs are no longer operating at cross- purposes. Through coordination, performance can be boosted, and through innovation and experimentation one can get a glimpse of the other side of the river and ideally the direction of the next stone.