Small government and better service delivery in liberia: an appraisal of the 2008 civil service reform

Project Abstract

This research project evaluates the impact of the 2008 civil service reform in Liberia with a specific focus on how the concept of small government was intended to improve service delivery. The study examines the rationale behind the reform, the strategies implemented, and the outcomes achieved over the years. By analyzing data from various sources, including government reports, academic studies, and expert opinions, the research provides a comprehensive appraisal of the reform's effectiveness in enhancing service delivery in Liberia. The findings suggest that the 2008 civil service reform in Liberia aimed to streamline the government structure, reduce bureaucratic inefficiencies, and enhance accountability in service delivery. Through downsizing government agencies, improving workforce capacity, and implementing performance-based management systems, the reform sought to create a more efficient and responsive public sector. However, the research reveals that while the reform made significant progress in certain areas, such as digitizing government services and implementing anti-corruption measures, challenges remain in fully realizing the goals of small government for better service delivery. The study highlights several key factors that have influenced the implementation and outcomes of the 2008 civil service reform. These include political will, funding constraints, capacity building, and the role of external partners in supporting reform efforts. By examining these factors in the Liberian context, the research provides insights into the complex dynamics of reforming the civil service in a post-conflict setting. Overall, the research underscores the importance of continuous monitoring and evaluation in assessing the impact of public sector reforms. While the 2008 civil service reform in Liberia has made notable advancements in promoting small government and improving service delivery, there is a need for sustained commitment from policymakers, civil servants, and development partners to address the remaining challenges and build on the achievements made thus far. By drawing lessons from the Liberian experience, this study contributes to the broader discourse on civil service reform and governance in developing countries.

Project Overview

<p> </p><p><strong>INTRODUCTION</strong></p><p>Rebuilding<br>public administration becomes an urgent reform of government in nations like<br>Liberia recouping from civil war, insurrections, or outside military invasions.<br>Rebuilding a vibrant administration is at the crux of post-conflict<br>reconstruction (Rondinelli, 2006). The assertion offered by Rondinelli (2006),<br>is confirmed by the creation of the Governance Commission of Liberia in August<br>2003 amid the Accra Comprehensive Peace Accord (CPA). One of the central<br>guidelines of Governance Commission is to advance reform, proficiency, and<br>transparency in the public sector of Liberia thereby suggesting rationalization<br>of institutional orders and structures; coordination, capacity building and<br>designed an appropriate merit-based system (GC, 2003).</p><p>Anazodo,<br>Okoye, and Emma (2012) affirmed that countries throughout the world are<br>presently in the corridor to construct a resilient civil service that will<br>adequately give the proficient and viable service delivery that reinforces<br>establishments and add to the adequacy and efficiencies of a nation’s<br>developmental activities. Public sector reform of which civil service reform is<br>a subset is one of the critical elements that strengthens institutions and<br>contribute to the effectiveness and efficiencies of a country’s public sector<br>leading to developmental activities (Zazay, 2015). Kwaghga (2010) characterized<br>the civil service as a collection of men and ladies who utilized their<br>capacities on a non-political basis as ordered by the positions which they<br>occupy in the bureaucracy, fundamentally, they are charged to render basic<br>social services, and also plan and execute the approaches of the government.<br>Civil service as a body ought to be neutral in administering their assigned<br>obligations as far governance is concerned.</p><p>Civil<br>service reform is an activity that enhances the proficiency, efficiency,<br>refined skill, representativity and democratic character of a civil service,<br>which is premised on the enhancement of better public service delivery of<br>depended public goods and services, along these lines advancing accountability,<br>which is one of the elements of good governance (Rao, 2013). As indicated by<br>Repucci (2014) civil service reform is one of the most obstinate yet important<br>challenges for governments and their supporters today.</p><p>Mutahaba<br>and Kiragu (2002) asserted that the force that propelled the wave of Public<br>Sector Reform (PSR) in Africa, just like the case in other developing nations,<br>emerged out of the macroeconomic and financial reforms that were introduced and<br>supported by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF).</p><p>Unlike<br>the first wave of reform that was instituted by the World bank and<br>International Monetary Fund (IMF) which was entrenched in the Structural<br>Adjustment Programs (SAPs), as was<br>asserted by Mutahaba and Kiragu<br>(2002,) in the case of Liberia, several<br>years of civil upheaval in Liberia decimated the agency and demolished the<br>merit instituted recruiting framework by<br>disregarding standards and methods of<br>employment thus recruiting unprofessional<br>individuals of different warring factions that exacerbated the civil decadence.<br>As the result of an unprofessional system, the civil service was evident by a<br>disorganized service delivery that negatively affected the full implementation<br>of policies and programs, consequently leading to inadequate service delivery<br>in Liberia (Nyemah, 2009).</p><p>This<br>predicament of the underserved and unqualified workers in the civil service as<br>indicated by Zazay (2015), led to an incompetent civil service that had a negative<br>influenced on service delivery in Liberia. The civil service was extremely<br>weakened and did not have professionals and the institutional systems expected<br>to accomplish the basic results for social improvement. In President Ellen<br>Johnson Sirleaf’s quest of restoring the Liberia Civil service from this<br>problem, the government of Liberia in June of 2008, implemented its civil<br>service reform strategy called the “Small government, Better services” that<br>consisted of five distinct orientations, namely: restructuring and rightsizing,<br>pay and pension reforms, develop leadership, gender equity in the service, and<br>improving service delivery (Nyemah, 2009.)</p><p>As<br>per Adegoroye (2006), civil service reform becomes a vital approach for<br>redesigning the institution for the attainment of their goals as a component of<br>a multi-sectorial to manage and propel good governance guaranteeing<br>maintainable democracy and speedy recovery. Zazay (2015) declared that the<br>underlying principle of such reform including the Liberia 2008 reform<br>interventions was, and has been, to enhance the adequacy and effectiveness of<br>civil service and to guarantee its execution, which is necessary to support<br>continual socio-economic growth. The main objective of these reform exercises,<br>as indicated by Zazay (2015), is to enhance the nature of service offered to<br>citizens and to improve their ability to carry out center government<br>capacities, which are basic to advance supported financial improvement. Omoyefa<br>(2008), posited that productivity, adequacy, and responsiveness of government<br>to the longing of its citizens must be gauged through the lenses of the public<br>sector reform.</p><p>In<br>spite of the gradual and systematic reforms, inclusive of restructuring and<br>rightsizing since June 2008, the ministries in Liberia are still faced with<br>immense challenges. To further validate<br>this statement, the Ministry of Health in its 2015-2025 policy paper captioned<br>“Investment Plan for Building a Resilient Health System in Liberia” &nbsp; expressed that the health service delivery<br>systems were already weak before the Ebola virus disease outbreak. Community<br>interventions and services were not well coordinated with many vertical efforts<br>ongoing ( the Republic of Liberia, Ministry of Health, 2015).</p><p><strong>1.2 Statement of the Problem</strong></p><p>Civil<br>service reform, a worldwide phenomenon has been an extensive challenge to<br>almost all developing nations and war-torn government like Liberia around the<br>globe.</p><p>Reforms<br>are intended to enhancing the competence and efficacy of the civil service.</p><p>&nbsp;The 14 years of civil decadence caused the<br>Civil Service to go into a recession that ruined the entire merit-based system<br>by disregarding its fundamental standard procedures and recruiting unqualified<br>individuals based on the patronage and generosity of various armed groups that<br>exacerbated the civil conflict. This situation created an inefficient public<br>service, thereby adversely affecting performance and contributing to poor<br>service delivery in Liberia.</p><p>Apparently,<br>several years of these rigorous reform exercises that were meant at<br>re-invigorating the civil service, there seem to be strong traces of<br>ineffective and inefficient service delivery in Liberia. This is evidenced by<br>the poor quality of educational and health systems in Liberia. The President,<br>Ellen J. Sirleaf, in an interview with the Reuters on 7 August 2013, branded<br>the educational system a “mess”, which requires a complete overhaul.<br>Additionally, the 2015 Ebola menace that claimed the lives of approximately 184<br>health workers and 1000 men, women and children, could have been attributed to<br>the poor delivery of drugs and combating accessories that were needed to tackle<br>the killer disease.</p><p>It<br>is against this backdrop, that the researcher was poised, to have investigated<br>those factors that militated against better service delivery in Liberia, as was<br>proposed in the 2008 civil service reform captioned “small government, better<br>service”.</p><p><strong>1.3 Objective of the Study</strong></p><p>The<br>main objective of this study appraised ways in which the 2008 Civil Service<br>Reform will lead to Small Government, Better service in Liberia. The specific<br>objectives are to:</p><ol><li>examine service delivery &nbsp;in Liberia prior to the 2008 Civil Service<br>reform ;</li><li>identify<br>the concept of “small government” on service delivery in Liberia;</li><li>assess<br>the re-engineering of governmentministerial structures in Liberia on service<br>delivery and</li><li>identify<br>factors that &nbsp;militated against effective<br>service delivery in Liberia.</li></ol><p><strong>1.4<br>Research Questions</strong><strong></strong></p><strong><p>&nbsp;The researcher questions are based on the stated<br>objectives below:</p><ol><li>How<br>was service delivery engaged in Liberia prior to the 2008 Civil Service reform?</li><li>&nbsp;How has the concept of small government led to<br>better service delivery in Liberia?</li><li>In<br>what way has there-engineering of government ministerial structures enhancedservice<br>deliveryin Liberia?</li><li>What<br>are factors that militated against effective service delivery in Liberia?</li></ol></strong> <br><p></p>