This report examines the pay-setting arrangements for senior civil servants in three settings: the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Singapore. It concludes that: a robust analytic approach for pay setting seems to be sufficient to maintain some general sense of legitimacy in the process, but...

Developing a national budget has always entailed a complex set of negotiations between national Government priorities, line ministry priorities, and a national funding envelope. This note explains how to introduce a medium term horizon into a government’s budgeting process, including the key...

A grand design attempt at public administration reform can be thought of as any centrally designed, multiple agency reform program or process designed to modernize or improve the performance of administrative structures at the center of Government, usually with a focus on addressing persistent...

This note sets out approaches to reform which start with identifying the shortcomings in results and which then look for pragmatic solutions that fit the particular context: no best practice, fewer universal recommendations for institutional design. The relative merits of this type of approach...

Located at the hub of Government’s decision-making system, center-of-government offices are crucial to a government’s capacity to define and implement their policies and programs. The work of coordination can be complex and demanding, especially where conflicting political imperatives are...

The Government of Japan began introducing evaluation techniques in 2001 within the context of a Central Government reform program that involved the establishment of new ministries and the integration and abolition of existing ministries. Japans approach emphasizes assessing policies and...

This brief describes in detail Canada's policy on alternative service delivery and service delivery reviews in the UK, such as the prior options reviews, better quality services and best value reviews, market testing, and fundamental expenditure reviews. Links are provided to relevant documents...