Assessing Support for Capacity Building in the Public … · · 2012-09-18Assessing Support for...

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Assessing Support forCapacity Building in thePublic Sector

This evaluation has identified key features of successful capacitybuilding efforts from evolving thinking and practice to serving asbenchmarks for the assessment of the Banks support. The evalu-ation has also estimated the amount of Bank support for capacity build-ing in Africa over the period of the review (19952004), and carried outaggregate-level reviews of country strategies and operations as well as in-depth country studies, as described below.

Capacity building not a well-definedpractice

Although enhanced capacity is central toAfricas development, the internationaldevelopment community, including the WorldBank, has traditionally treated public sectorcapacity building as a collateral objective,rather than as a goal in its own right. The scopeof capacity building support has moved intandem with changes in other priority areas ofdevelopment assistancefirst, in infrastruc-ture, and moving over time to agriculture,social services, and governancerather thanbeing determined by identification of the mostpressing capacity shortfalls and their underly-ing causes. And the process of capacity

building has evolved in step with changes inthe overall practice of providing developmentassistance, rather than being based on theaccumulated knowledge of what works well inmeeting different kinds ofcapacity needs under diverseconditions. In short, capacitybuilding has not developed asa well-defined area of develop-ment practice.

In many areas of develop-ment assistance, such as fiscaldiscipline for macroeconomicstability and banking supervi-sion, a body of accepted ideasdirects international efforts.

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The internationaldevelopmentcommunity hastraditionally treatedpublic sector capacitybuilding as acollateral objective,rather than as a goalin its own right.

But capacity building lacks a fully articulatedframework for assessing capacity needs,designing and sequencing appropriate interven-tions, and determining results. The rise toprominence in the 1990s of institutionaleconomics and new perspectives on publicmanagement enhanced understanding of therequirements for effective public sectorperformance. In the World Bank, this newthinking was reflected in the 1997 WorldDevelopment Report [WDR], The State in a

Changing World (WorldBank 1997e), which wasan important step inenvisioning the role andeffectiveness of the state indevelopment. Noting thatthere can be no singleapproach to state reformworldwide, it provided aframework for guidingpublic sector reformefforts. The framework

was based on a two-pronged strategy thatinvolved focusing on core public activities asthe way to rationalize the role of the state tomatch its capacities, and strengthening publicinstitutions in order to increase incentives forimproved public performance and bolsterrestraints against arbitrary and corrupt

behavior. The Banks subsequent public sectorstrategy, Reforming Public Institutions andStrengthening Governance (World Bank2000c), and related Regional strategiesfollowed up on the main themes of the WDRby proposing a broadening of Bank support toinclude strengthening public institutions andstimulating demand for performance improve-ments through enhanced mechanisms ofaccountability. But these general directivesfocused heavily on institutional change; theydid not propose how to link that process withrelated processes of organizational andbehavioral change.1 New ways of building thecapacity to realize a more effective state wouldhave to come from experimentation andlearning, without the benefit of accumulatedknowledge or explicit guidance on how toselect and combine approaches and instru-ments appropriate to country and sectorconditions, or how to determine if support wasworking as intended.2

As noted above, the reasons for weakpublic sector performance are deeply rooted.Whatever pragmatic steps can be taken underthe rubric of capacity building can be only asmall part of the solution. Yet there is littleempirical evidence to clarify what part of theproblem international capacity buildingsupport can best help to solve; in what order

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C A PA C I T Y B U I L D I N G I N A F R I C A : A N O E D E VA L U AT I O N O F W O R L D B A N K S U P P O R T

CIDA (Canada): Activities, approaches, strategies, and method-ologies which help organizations, groups and individuals to im-prove their performance, generate development benefits, andachieve their objectives over time.

European Commission: To develop and strengthen structures,institutions and procedures that help to ensure: transparent andaccountable governance in all public institutions; improve ca-pacity to analyze, plan, formulate and implement policies in eco-nomic, social, environmental, research, science and technologyfields; and in critical areas such as international negotiation.

GTZ (Germany): Process of strengthening the abilities of indi-viduals, organizations and societies to make effective use of re-sources, in order to achieve their own goals on a sustainablebasis.

United Nations Development Programme: Capacity is theprocess by which individuals, organizations, and societies de-velop abilities to perform functions, solve problems, and setand achieve goals premised on ownership, choice, and self-es-teem. Capacity building is the sustainable creation, reten-tion, and utilization of capacity in order to reduce poverty,enhance self-reliance, and improve peoples lives.

D i f f e r e n t D o n o r D e f i n i t i o n s o f C a p a c i t y B u i l d i n g

B o x 2 . 1

Source: Whyte 2004.

Capacity buildinglacks a fully articulated

framework forassessing capacity

needs, designing andsequencing appropriate

interventions, anddetermining results.

capacity needs should be addressed; what canbe expected of different kinds of interventionsand why; and how knowledge of suchprocesses as organizational change, learning,and incentives should shape capacity buildingefforts. There is not even a shared definitionof what constitutes capacity building support.Some development agencies use a narrowdefinition focused on strengthening organiza-tions and skills, while others use a muchbroader definition that encompasses levels ofcapacity from the individual to the whole ofsociety (see box 2.1). The World Bank has nocorporate-wide definition, and no operationalpolicy to guide its capacity building work.3

Key features of capacity buildingIn the absence of an established definition,

this evaluation bases its assessment of Banksupport on the following key features ofsuccessful capacity building, suggested byevolving thinking and practice in this areaover the past decade.4

First, enhanced capacity should be treatedas a goal in its own right, not merely as ameans for achieving other developmentobjectives. This was the principal insightbehind the introduction of the term capacitybuilding at the start of the 1990sit wasproposed as an improvement on the prevailingpractice of technical assistance, which servedmore to fill capacity gaps than to buildsustained country capacity (see box 2.2). Thecapacity building approach emphasized that aroot cause of poverty, illiteracy, and ill-healthwas lack of capacity: in government, to designand implement proper development strategies,and, in society, to hold government account-able for its actions. Only if political andeconomic institutions functioned properlywould development achievements be scalableand sustainable. Therefore, developmentsuccess lay not merely in outcomes on theground, but in outcomes on the ground thatwere the result of effective public and privateinstitutions.

Second, support for public sector capacitybuilding needs to address three dimensions ofpublic sector capacity:

Human capacity: individuals with skills toanalyze development needs; design and im-plement strategies, policies, and programs;deliver services; and monitor results.

Organizational capacity: groups of individu-als bound by a common purpose, with clearobjectives and the internal structures,processes, systems, staffing, and other re-sources to achieve them.

Institutional capacity: the formal rules ofthe game and informal normsfor example,in collecting taxes, reporting on the use of pub-lic resources, or regulating private businessthat provide the framework of goals andincentives within which organizations andpeople operate.

The traditional focus on creating or reorgan-izing government units and building individualskills cannotby itselffoster improvedpublic sector performance. The institutionalcontext in which organiza-tions and individuals operateis critical to ensuring thenecessary incentives andrewards for improved publicsector performance. Andbecause human capacity,organizational processes, andinstitutional frameworks areclosely interrelated and do

A S S E S S I N G S U P P O R T F O R C A PA C I T Y B U I L D I N G I N T H E P U B L I C S E C T O R

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In a 1993 speech, former World Bank Vice President for Africa, Ed-ward Jaycox, captured these concerns, stating that donors and Africangovernments together have in effect undermined capacity in Africa; theyare undermining it faster than they are building it (Jaycox 1993). A report issued by the United Nations Development Programme(UNDP) that same year further noted that almost everybody ac-knowledges the ineffectiveness of technical cooperation in what is orshould be its major objective: achievement of greater self-reliance inrecipient countries by building institutions and strengthening localcapacities in national economic management (Berg 1993, p. 244).

E a r l y C a l l s f o r aN e w C a p a c i t yB u i l d i n g P e r s p e c t i v e

B o x 2 . 2

Support for publicsector capacitybuilding needs toaddress the human,organizational, andinstitutionaldimensions.

not change quickly, capacity building effortsmust necessarily be long-term and systemic.

Third, demand as well as supply factorsshape capacity constraints and capacitybuilding opportunities and outcomes. Publicsectors are often weak, not just because oftheir lack of capacity, but also because theirweakness benefits powerful interests that seekto avoid taxation, regulation, or other

reforms. External assistancecan help on both the supplyand demand sides of theprocess by providing inputsto enhance the functioningof the public sector and bystrengthening structures ofdemand and accountability.But it cannot directlyinfluence the cultural normsand political economyunderpinning the demandfor public sector perform-ance. Therefore, capacity

building efforts will succeed only where theytake adequate account of the prevailing localpolitics and institutions, and are countryowned rather than donor driven.5

General knowledge of foreign adminis-trative practices needs to be combinedwith a deep understanding of the localconstraints, opportunities, habits,norms, and conditions. This means thatadministrative and institutionalsolutions need to be developed not justwith input or buy-in from localofficials, running local institutions, butby them . . . What this implies inpractice is that outsiders wanting tobuild administrative capacity . . .should not set precise conditions forhow resources are to be used but ratherenforce strict accountability standardsfor certain kinds of results . . . Underthis concept, the demand must existalready on the part of candidate recipi-ents (Fukuyama 2004, p. 88).

The Banks capacity building support to Africa

Bank support for the process of capacitybuilding in African countries is substantial.Although the Bank does not have a compre-hensive capacity building strategy, it uses thefull spectrum of its financial and knowledgeservices to support capacity building invirtually all countries and development areasin which it is active. The bulk of this supportto Africa is provided within the framework ofcountry assistance programs. The main focusof this evaluation is thus on the treatment ofcapacity building in Country AssistanceStrategies (CASs), lending operations, andnonlending activities.

Country programsIt is not possible to identify the total

amount of lending directed to capacitybuilding because the Bank does not have astandard way of accounting for capacitybuilding activities in its lending operations. Amethodology developed and used in thisevaluation estimates that over one-quarter oftotal investment credits is directed to capacitybuilding activities, ranging from some 10percent in transport, to 30 percent in healthand education, to 80 percent in public sectorprojects. Also, close to half of the conditionsunderpinning adjustment loans relate directlyto strengthening institutional, organizational,and human resource capacities. (See Annex Bfor a description of the methodology used inmaking these estimates.) Policy dialogue andrelated knowledge sharing activities also playa significant role in the Banks support forpublic sector capacity building, although theamount of that support is not quantifiable.The total amount of economic and sectorwork (ESW), which is often described in CASsas a key part of their capacity buildingprograms, would add an additional $1.1billion of capacity building support over thereview period.6 However, not all ESW isintended to build client capacity, and sincethere is no established procedure for distin-guishing ESW activities that are expressly

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Capacity buildingefforts will succeed

only where they takeadequate account ofthe prevailing local

politics andinstitutions, and are

country owned ratherthan donor driven.

directed to capacity building, no crediblecalculation can be made of the scale of thiscomponent of the Banks capacity buildingsupport.

Corporate and Regional mechanismsThis evaluation examines three mechanisms

that provide additional support that is directlyfocused on capacity building in Africa.

WBI provides training and knowledge serv-ices on a global, regional, and country level.Its annual budget is around $75 million, in-cluding trust funds. Since 2000, WBI has com-mitted approximately $92 million to Africa.Nine of WBIs 33 newly identified prioritycountries are in Africa.

IDF, which makes small grants to country-ex-ecuted capacity building projects, often in-volving studies, seminars, or trainingprograms, has provided $60 million to Africanprojects since its start-up in 1992.

ACBF, an independent, regionally based in-stitution, has received some $158 millionfrom the World Bank since its establishmentin 199141 percent of its total commitmentsof $389 millionfor its grant-making andrelated support to country and regional pol-icy analysis, training, and other programs.

Tools and techniquesThe Bank finances technical assistance,

training, studies, and equipment as its maintools for supporting capacity building. Techni-cal assistance (TA) is provided both withininvestment loans and in the form of stand-alone Technical Assistance Loans (TALs). Inthe past, TA often took the form of long-termassignment of international experts withingovernment agencies of client countries. Theexperts were to perform ongoing roles in theabsence of local capacity and, in principle,train local staff to take over the tasks. Butevidence of the failure of this approach tobuild local capacity has led the Bank tosupport more use of short-term TA and, asemphasized in its TA guidelines, to make useof local expertise where possible.

In addition to the trainingprovided directly by WBI,the Bank supports training inmost of its operations inAfrica. The bulk of thistraining now takes place in-country in the form of in-service seminars, workshops,and short-term courses forlarge numbers of middle-level civil servants anddegree programs for higher-level personnel. Inaddition, overseas training in the form of bothdegree and short-term programs is funded forsmall numbers of higher-level personnel.7

Capacity building support within projects isalso given through studies and equipment toupgrade the functioning of individual organi-zations. And since 1999, 14 distance learningcenters have been funded by the Bank in Africaas a means of expanding the reach of trainingand knowledge sharing among both policy-makers and middle-level civil servants.

Evaluation approachTo assess the relevance and effectiveness of

such Bank support in Africa, this evaluationexamines how well the Bank has aligned itscapacity building interventions with thedevelopment priorities and related institu-tional, organizational, and individual capacityconstraints in client countries. It alsoexamines the extent to which its capacitybuilding support has helped improve publicsector performance. Figure 2.1 depicts astylized results chain for public sector capacitybuilding and provides the basis for describingthe scope of this assessment. The results chainlinks capacity buildinginputs (such as studies,TA, training, equipment,and financial resources forthe support of changeprocesses) and outputs(such as new or enhancedinstitutional frameworks,organizational structuresand processes, and individ-ual skills and perform-


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The Bank financestechnical assistance,training, studies, andequipment as its maintools for supportingcapacity building.

The results chain linkscapacity buildinginputs and outputs toimmediate publicsector outputs andlonger-term outcomesand developmentresults.

ance) to immediate public sector outputs andlonger-term outcomes and developmentresults.

Since it is not possible to directly attributedevelopment impacts to capacity buildingefforts, the evaluation looks to intermediateoutcomes and improved public sectorperformance to assess the effect of efforts toenhance capacity. It also seeks to identify thereasons for success and failure in the chainfrom inputs to intended outcomes, takingaccount of both demand- and supply-sidefactors. The absence of baseline data and theextremely limited evidence from monitoringand evaluation limit the inferences that can bedrawn from the activities reviewed.

The evaluation combines aggregate-levelreview of CASs and project data with in-depthreview of six country case studies.8 The reviewcovers the years 1995 to 2004, with emphasison the latter half of this period. The mainevaluation components are:

(1) A review of the literature on capacity build-ing and related topics (such as technical as-

sistance and institutional development),including studies undertaken within andoutside the Bank.

(2) Examination of the treatment of capacitybuilding in Africa Country AssistanceStrategies. This includes review of all AfricaCASs approved in FY03 and FY04 to as-sess the importance assigned to public ca-pacity building and the coherence of thesupport proposed.

(3) In-depth review of the Banks support in sixcountries, with particular attention to foursectors and themes. Case studies involvingmission visits were done in Benin, Ethiopia,Ghana, Malawi, Mali, and Mozambique.9

These countries were selected to provide across-Regional perspective and to includeevidence from countries with varying un-derlying conditions and national approachesto public sector reform and capacity build-ing. To allow for depth in the examinationof the capacity building experience in thesecountries, the evaluation concentrates onBank support in building capacity in the ed-ucation, health, and roads sectors and in thecrosscutting area of public expenditure

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C a p a c i t y B u i l d i n g R e s u l t s C h a i n a n d E v a l u a t i o n S c o p e

F i g u r e 2 . 1

Inputs/Processes Outputs Outcomes:Intermediate

Outcomes:Longer Term

Impact

Povertyreduction andsustainabledevelopment

Evaluation Scope

Assessment ofcountry capacityneeds and priorities

External support(e.g., TA, training,equipment,information)

Improvements inperformance andaccountability of keyfunctions: Long-term strategic

planning and policyformulation

Mobilization andmanagement offunds

Service delivery Legal and regulatory

enforcement

Quantitative orqualitative changes inpublic sectordeliverables: Better quality and

higher coverage ofpublic services

Stable andsustainablemacroeconomic andfiscal balances

Etc.

Increased demandfor effective publicsector performance

New or enhancedinstitutionalframeworks;organizationalstructures andprocesses; individualskills/competencies

management. These are areas of activeBank involvement in all six countries andinvolve distinct capacity building needsand challenges. These country studies askedhow effective Bank support has been andwhat accounts for variation across countriesor across sectors. Included as part of thecountry studies are:

In-depth review of all projects in thefour focal sectors of the country casestudies. This case study project set in-cluded a total of 69 investment and ad-justment operations, most of which wereapproved during FY9504, although afew started earlier and continued wellinto the review period.

In-depth review of the 13 most recentpieces of fiduciary ESW (prepared in200103) and relevant sector-specificanalytical work in the four focal sectorsof the country case studies.10

(4) Examination at the aggregate level ofinvestment and adjustment projects. Thisentailed in-depth review of 31 TALsapproved during FY9304 and a randomsample of 55 Africawide projects(excluding TALs) approved in FY9504,

to assess whether and how they achievedcapacity building objectives. In addition,project outcome and institutionaldevelopment impact ratings for all 75TALs and 54 public sector governanceprojects in Africa were compared withBankwide ratings over the periodFY9504.

(5) Examination of existing evidence fromself-assessments and/or external evalua-tions and interviews in the case studycountries of the capacity buildingsupport provided by WBI, the IDF, andthe ACBF. These reviews examine howeffective the programs have been inhelping countries build capacity and howthe support provided by these programsrelates to and reinforces capacitybuilding aims in Bank country assistanceprograms.

(6) Examination of staff views on the Bankscapacity building efforts. Two focusgroups and a survey of headquarters andcountry office staff working on Africawere conducted to learn what staffthought has worked well, and what lesswell, in their capacity building workwith clients.11


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Relevance: MakingCapacity Building a Goal

Over the past 10 years, public sector reform and capacity building havebecome a central theme of the Banks dialogue with African coun-tries. Capacity building support has become increasingly well alignedwith country needs and priorities as both the Bank and its clients have builtthe issue of improved government performance more explicitly into coun-try and sector strategies, and as the Bank has introduced new approachesto providing its support. But even with these improvements, the Bank coulddo more to make capacity building a core objective of its relations with Africa.

Aligning support with country prioritiesand needs

Capacity building figures prominently instatements of Bank corporate priorities(World Bank 1997d; 2000d; 2001a; 2001c;2003f). Virtually all of the Banks mainreports on Africa over the past 10 years haveemphasized public sector capacity as a bindingconstraint to development in the Region. Asuccession of strategies at the Regional levelhas highlighted key weaknesses in publicsector capacity and the need for wide-rangingcapacity developments (see Annex F).Recognizing the limited impact of its supportin the face of countries still-weak publicsector capacities, the Bank has progressivelybroadened the scope of its support forcapacity building and placed it in the contextof its public sector strategy. In the AfricaRegion, this evolution has resulted in particu-

lar emphasis on public expenditure manage-ment and accountability, decentralization ofpublic services, and governance.1 The Bankhas also added new diagnostic tools for assess-ing countries capacities for managing theirpublic financial resources and increased itsrange of lending instruments for delivering itscapacity building support.

These changes in capacity building inter-ventions have taken place in a context ofevolving development assistance practices(encompassed, for example,in the Poverty ReductionStrategy Process) that aimto make development sup-port country-led, built onpartnerships, and results-based. These practices couldfacilitate a shift from sup-ply- to demand-driven

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The Bank hasbroadened itssupport for capacitybuilding and placedit in the context of itspublic sector strategy.

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capacity building support and from narrowtechnical fixes to broader systemic changes.To realize this shift, countries have to take thelead in developing capacity building effortsand donors have to harmonize their supportaround the countries priorities. The changealso requires attention to four importantimplementation issues: how to encourageinternal country-led processes that set priori-ties for capacity building measures and donorsupport; how to connect measures aimed atneeded institutional, organizational, andhuman resource developments; how tostrengthen incentives (including pay, working

conditions, and professionalmotivation) for improvedperformance; and how totransform traditional tools,such as technical assistanceand training, to support thebroadened capacity buildingagenda.

In the Africa Region,country assistance strategiesare gradually adopting amore integrated approachto addressing capacity

building needs. The most recent cohort of 15Africa CASs2 do a better job of addressing

capacity building needs than a comparatorgroup of 10 CASs from the mid-1990s.3 Bothgroups proposed analytic work to identifycapacity constraints in detail and proposedstrengthening demand for improved perform-ance (for example, through enhancedaccountability mechanisms). But while only 6of the 10 earlier CASs included operationsfocused largely on specific capacity con-straints, all 15 of the more recent CASsinclude sector and cross-sector operationswith major capacity building aims. And whilethe earlier cohort contained only a single free-standing capacity operation, eight of the morerecent cohort include multisector capacitybuilding projects, ranging in size from $10million in Cameroon to $100 million inEthiopia, that aim primarily at strengtheningfinancial management and civil service reformacross the public sector (see box 3.1). Therecent CAS cohort shows a shift away fromproject support toward sectorwide programs,particularly in health and education, andtoward budget support through PovertyReduction Support Credits (PRSCs), whichset a broad strategy framework in whichcapacity constraints can be addressed. Inter-national Development Association (IDA)credits with cross-sectoral capacity building

Four new multisector capacity building projects in Africa addressboth inter- and intra-ministerial capacity building issues in anintegrated way. The $41.2 million Tanzania Public Service Re-form credit, the $100 million Ethiopia Public Sector CapacityBuilding program, the $20 million Rwanda Multisector Capac-ity Building project, and the $26 million Mozambique PublicSector Reform project have four key elements in common: A capacity needs assessment conducted by the min-

istries/departments with stakeholder participation A strategic process that aligns the objectives and improve-

ments being sought in individual ministries/departments to

the governments overall development goals and public ex-penditure policies

A human capacity development program (training, equip-ment, and resources) within the context of a larger institu-tional civil service reform effort to ensure that the skillsacquired will be retained and applied

Development of monitoring and evaluation systems to pro-vide: (a) inter-program tracking and coordination so that theoutcomes of the capacity building program and other com-plementary reform efforts remain coherent, and (b) ministe-rial tracking and reporting on capacity development efforts.

N e w M u l t i s e c t o r P r o j e c t s I n t e g r a t eE s s e n t i a l C a p a c i t y B u i l d i n g E l e m e n t s i n t o P r o j e c t D e s i g n

B o x 3 . 1

Source: World Bank 2003d, 2004m, 2004o.

Countries have totake the lead in

developing capacitybuilding efforts and

donors have toharmonize their

support around thecountries priorities.

R E L E VA N C E : M A K I N G C A PA C I T Y B U I L D I N G A G O A L

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as a central theme increased from under $150million in 1999 to some $450 million in 2004.These new directions are intended to cus-tomize Bank support for country commitmentto change, and may enable authorities to pri-oritize capacity building activities and thesupport needed from donors.

The Bank could use these new processesmore effectively to help countries plan andimplement capacity building efforts. In themajority of country programs, support forcapacity building remains fragmenteddesigned and managed operation byoperation. Few country programs make aconnection between capacity buildingmeasures in sector-specific operations andoperations supporting crosscutting issues ofpublic expenditure management or civilservice reform, or specify how the differentsets of measures are to be sequenced. Thismakes it difficult to capture cross-sectoralissues and opportunities, and to learn lessonsacross operations. The 2003 CAS for Benin,for example, states that among the mostimportant contributions the Bank can make toBenins capacity enhancement agenda is tohelp the government reinvigorate the long-stalled civil service management reforms so asto build the enabling environment anddemand for results required for sustainableimprovements in capacity. But the programdirects most of the Banks capacity buildingsupport through a PRSC and specific sectorinterventions, without specifying how theBanks support will help Benin to developneeded sector and cross-sector capacitybuilding measures and systems for monitoringprogress. Moreover, country programsgenerally do not addresssystematically, andin an integrated waythe issue of countriesability to build capacityfor example, bystrengthening internal training institutions asa crosscutting issue, rather than by providingsupport for training on a piecemeal, project-by-project basis.

The Bank is also missing opportunities tofully utilize lending and nonlending instru-ments to support capacity building. One

important gap concerns thePoverty Reduction StrategyProcess (PRSP), which isnow central to the manage-ment of the Banks relationswith its African clients.Weak public sector capacityis widely acknowledged tobe the key impediment to the attainment ofpoverty reduction goals. The PRSP thus hasthe potential to help authorities better priori-tize capacity building activities and guidesupport from donors, but it does not appearto have been used in this way in mostcountries studied in a recent OED review. Norhas the Bank done much to help countries usetheir PRSP to inform capacity priorities andfoster the harmonization of donor capacitysupport around countries poverty reductiongoals (OED 2004c).

ESW is another process with underutilizedpotential to build capacity. Operationalguidelines identify the building of client analyt-ical capacity as one of five goals, and specifythat clients should make major analyticalcontributions and learn to produce outputsindependently (World Bank 2004r). Yet themajority of fiduciary and other ESW projects inthe six case study countries involved clientsmainly in organizational tasks and data collec-tion, and only to a limited extent in the analysisof data, the writing of reports,and the dissemination offindings. The Ethiopian authori-ties criticized this limited clientparticipation. They noted that10 years of experience withBank-supported Public Expendi-ture Reviews (PERs) hadcontributed little to capacity inthe Ministry of Finance or anyother institution to carry outsuch reviews on their own.Government counterparts sawthemselves as data providers,not as analysts. This view ofESW is echoed in the Africa Region staff survey,in which 74 respondents cited the use of formal

In the majority ofcountry programs,support for capacitybuilding remainsfragmented.

The PRSP has thepotential to helpauthorities betterprioritize capacitybuilding activitiesand guide supportfrom donors, but itdoes not appear tohave been used inthis way.

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ESW as a tool of capacitybuilding, but only halfthought it to be effective. Arevision of Country FinancialAccountability Assessment(CFAA) guidelines in FY03,which explicitly expands thescope of these assessments toinclude a capacity objectiveand development actionplan, presents an opportunityto overcome these shortcom-

ings. The actual intensity of government partic-ipation and the specificity and prioritization ofcapacity building measures in the plans areimportant in realizing this opportunity.

Finally, the Banks country programs couldmake more effective use of the capacitybuilding efforts of the distinct corporate andRegional capacity building programs. OEDs2002 evaluation of the Banks knowledgesharing programs found that knowledgesharing activities were not well integrated intocountry programs and projects (OED 2003a).Similarly, the linkage between countryprograms and either WBI learning activities orACBF-supported policy analysis and economicmanagement training programs is limited. Forexample, only one of 15 recent CASs describeshow WBI activities will be integrated into the

country program, whileanother 6 CASs make generalreference to WBI activities tosupport individual countryoperations. WBI is workingto strengthen this linkage, asdiscussed in more detail inChapter 5.

In sum, recent changes inapproach have made countryprograms more relevant toclient capacity needs, but theimpact of those changes isattenuated by fragmentedinterventions and inadequatesynergy among instruments.What about the relevance ofindividual operations? That

depends heavily on the quality of the underly-ing diagnosis of capacity needs andconstraints to change, as well as the design ofcapacity building measures that take accountof those conditions.

Designing interventions to meet needsand demands for changeTo be relevant, Bank operations need to addressclearly defined problems. This evaluationreviewed three sets of operations to determinehow well individual interventions diagnosedcapacity constraints and designed measures toovercome them. While the review encounteredgood practice examples in all setsthe sampleincluded 55 Africawide projects, 31 TALs, andthe 69 country case study projectsit alsofound inadequacies in the underlying diagnosesof the need and demand for capacity buildingthat undermined the operational design.Examples from the in-depth review of thecountry case study projects illustrate threeprevalent shortcomings.

Diagnosis of the political economy context. Onlyabout half of the assessed country studyprojects4 reviewed in the country casesadequately addressed the political and institu-tional environment for capacity building. Forexample, a Mozambique health sector projectto improve sector management and adminis-trative capacity sufficiently identified andaddressed key political and institutionalfeatures through a collaborative diagnosticexercise carried out by the Ministry of Health,the Bank, and the World Health Organization(WHO). Conversely, although better manage-ment of the budget process was a priority ofcore officials in the Ministries of Finance inBenin and Ghana, the design of publicfinancial management projects overlooked theresistance of officials in line ministries withresponsibility for implementation. As a result,plans were altered and much delayed.

Systemic treatment of capacity constraints. About athird of the projects reviewed for the casestudies adequately diagnosed the three

Only about half ofthe assessed country

study projectsadequately addressed

the political andinstitutional

environment forcapacity building.

Road sector projectswere particularly

successful becausethey included

comprehensive humanresource development

plans to accompanychanges in the sectors

institutionalframework andorganizationalstructures and

processes.

dimensions of institutional, organizational,and human resource constraints and designedinterventions that recognized the interrela-tionships among them. Road sector projectswere particularly successful because theyincluded comprehensive human resourcedevelopment plans to accompany changes inthe sectors institutional framework andorganizational structures and processes. Incontrast, despite the aim of strengthening thedelivery of health and education services,projects in these two sectors have done lesswell in integrating institutional, organiza-tional, and human resource developmentplans. For example, in Malis health sectorprojects, diagnosis and design focused onorganizational capacity weaknesses, eventhough the main capacity constraints wereinadequate incentive structures. As aconsequence, Mali has seen a steady increasein the number of well-equipped rural healthcenters, but has failed to attract and retainqualified staff, which has hampered theachievement of improved health care.

This finding is also supported by the in-depth review of 31 TALs (FY9504). Whilethe project appraisals provided analysis andbackground of economic, financial, environ-mental, institutional, sectoral, and politicalissues, there was no explicit analysis ofcapacity needs, especially human capacityneeds. The review of the 55 Africawideprojects also found that about 80 percent ofthe project appraisal documents do notprovide any information on the sequencing ofthe capacity building components.

Assessment of capacity to build capacity. Only halfthe projects reviewed in the country casesshowed evidence of an assessment of theexisting capacity to implement capacitybuilding interventions. In the other half, theabsence of such an assessment was the causeof serious delay or failure in implementing theplanned capacity building measures. Forexample, a project focused on capacitybuilding for decentralized service delivery inEthiopia did not include an upfront, compre-

hensive capacity needs assessment at variouslevels of government. It also did not incorpo-rate the lessons of two small earlier effortsthat encountered difficulties because theyoverestimated, and therefore did not address,weaknesses in existing implementationcapacity. As a result, thecapacity building projectstarted much more slowlythan anticipated and failedto pilot approaches thatwere meant to be used in amuch larger follow-upoperation. Outside thecountry cases, the review ofthe 55 Africawide projectsfound that almost half didnot address the capacityconstraints that would limitthe achievement of overallproject objectives. Anotherthird (18 projects) mentioned capacityweakness in broad terms, such as weakimplementation capacity throughout theadministration. Only nine projects (17percent) identified specific implementationcapacity constraints facing the project.5

Fiduciary ESW is not effectively used toprovide the needed comprehensive diagnosesof and remedies for the capacity gaps. Thirteenrecent pieces of fiduciary ESW for the casestudy countries did not adequately assess ordiagnose key capacity constraints and thelinkages among them.6 Constraints aredescribed in general terms without discussionof the factors leading to them, and thus thework does not provide clear indications of thecapacity building measures that are needed.For example, one CFAA found that thecapacity of the government to manage publicexpenditure is constrained by an inability toforecast and project revenues. The proposedcapacity building activity is to improverevenue forecasting, which is expected to beachieved in a year, although no analysis ismade of factors that constrain this capacityand how they should be overcome. Otherassessments and their action plans focus on

R E L E VA N C E : M A K I N G C A PA C I T Y B U I L D I N G A G O A L

1 7

The review of the 55Africawide projectsfound that almosthalf did not addressthe capacityconstraints thatwould limit theachievement ofoverall projectobjectives.

types of agencies and practices needed, but donot address how to develop the professions offinancial managers, procurement specialists,or other experts required to staff thoseagencies. In addition, diagnoses giveinadequate attention to core capacitytheminimum level of capacity that must exist to

implement proposed perform-ance improvements. Forexample, all action planspropose training, but there islittle assessment of existingtraining institutions and theircapacity to deliver thattraining. Lacking a diagnosisof core capacity, many planshave been unrealistic in bothtime frame and scope. Newlyrevised CFAA guidelines thatexpand the scope of theseassessments to include acapacity building objective anddevelopment action planpresent an opportunity to

overcome these weaknesses, particularly if theyfoster intensified government participationand adequate specificity and prioritization ofcapacity building activities as part of the actionplans.

Monitoring, evaluating, and using thelessons of experience

Finally, the relevance of Bank capacitybuilding efforts is undermined by insufficientmonitoring and evaluation of the Banksinterventions and the failure of operations todraw lessons from experience. This is particu-larly a problem with capacity building activi-ties that are embedded in operations andtherefore not tracked, monitored, and

evaluated as core objectives. The review of the55 Africawide projects conducted for thisstudy indicates that only 23 percent (12projects) included performance indicators forcapacity building components and only 26percent (14 projects) considered past lessonsin the design of the capacity buildingcomponents. The reporting on achievement ofcapacity building components is also weak:Implementation Completion Reports (ICRs)for 27 percent of the reviewed projects, largelyadjustment loans, had no clear indication ofthe achievement of the capacity buildingobjective. As noted in the case studies, there isalso little tracking and reporting on theachievements of capacity building inputs. Thisis generally the case for TA, and the informa-tion on the reporting of training achievementis based on outputs (for example, number ofprograms delivered or participants trained),not learning outcomes or performanceimprovements. The result is lack of adequateknowledge for staff on good practices, asreflected in the staff survey conducted for thisevaluation. Forty-three percent of the Africastaff survey respondents recommendedimprovements in Bank knowledge on capacitybuilding through peer-to-peer exchanges, bestpractice notes, and formal and informaltraining.

These shortcomings in the diagnosis,design, and evaluation of capacity buildinginterventions have impeded the effectivehandling of two key capacity buildingimplementation issuesscope and sequencingof programs. These issues are discussed inChapter 4 as part of the review of the achieve-ment of capacity building objectives in thefour sectors explored in this evaluations casestudy countries.

1 8


Forty-three percentof the Africa staff

survey respondentsrecommended

improvements inBank knowledge on

capacity buildingthrough peer-to-peer

exchanges, bestpractice notes, and

formal and informaltraining.

1 9

Efficacy: AdaptingInterventions to Countryand Sector Conditions

The findings of this evaluation show that building durable capacity inAfrica is possible. But overall, the record in achieving this is poor, andthe effectiveness of Bank capacity building support has not beenstrong. While country conditionsnotably commitment and capacity forchangeare important determinants of the pace of change in public sectorimprovements, Bank effectiveness in supporting public sector capacity build-ing has varied markedly sector by sector in ways that are consistent acrosscountries.

The shift from project to programmaticlendingin support of sectorwide and cross-sector reform programshas helped to setcapacity building efforts within a country-led,long-term strategic vision and policyframework conducive to a long-termapproach to specific capacity buildingmeasures. But programmatic support hasinvolved only limited, country-driven capacitybuilding planning and implementation. This isevident in both sectorwide programs and inrecent programmatic support of countrypoverty reduction strategies.

The overall recordThis evaluation looked at several sets ofprojects (see Chapter 2, EvaluationApproach) to get an overall picture of the

effectiveness of Bank support to capacitybuilding in Africa. Because capacity buildingactivities are embedded in most projects andnot separately monitored and reportedexcept in a very general way in the projectrating of institutionaldevelopment impacttheevaluation used a combina-tion of approaches to derivefindings.

Public sector governanceprojects and TALs arewholly or substantiallyfocused on helping to buildcapacity. As shown in figure4.1, both the outcomes andthe institutional develop-ment impact (IDI) of these

44

The shift from projectto programmaticlending has helped to set capacitybuilding effortswithin a country-led,long-term strategicvision and policyframework.

projects have been about 10 percentage pointslower for projects in Africa than for compara-ble projects Bankwide. Despite their focus on

institutional change, only 35percent of all 54 Africawidepublic sector governanceprojects that closed duringFY9504 had an institu-tional development impactrating of substantial orabove, compared with aBankwide average of 47percent.1 TALs, of whichAfrica has been the largestrecipient since the inceptionof this instrument in the

1960s, have performed similarly. In the past 10years, institutional development impact ratingshave been low in both Africa and Bankwide;outcome was satisfactory for only 61 percentof all TALs in Africa, compared with 75percent satisfactory Bankwide2 (see figure 4.1).

To assess the effectiveness of capacitybuilding measures in projects where capacitybuilding was not the major project focus, weexamined a sample of 55 Africawide adjust-ment and investment projects (excludingTALs) randomly selected from a total of 280completed projects in Africa approved inFY9504. Since overall project outcomeratings do not measure the embedded capacitybuilding dimensions, an in-depth documentreview was undertaken. Some of the 55projects had capacity building activities withinproject components, but the capacity buildingobjectives tended to be ill defined, and theirachievements poorly tracked and reported.Only a dozen provided capacity buildingindicators at appraisal. Furthermore, some 40percent showed satisfactory or higher achieve-ment of their capacity building objectives, 34percent were modest or lower, while as manyas 26 percent provided no clear indication ofthe accomplishment level. Although the

2 0


P u b l i c S e c t o r a n d T e c h n i c a l A s s i s t a n c eP r o j e c t s i n A f r i c a A r e L e s s S u c c e s s f u lt h a n B a n k w i d e A v e r a g e ( p e r c e n ts u b s t a n t i a l a n d p e r c e n t s a t i s f a c t o r y ,F Y 9 5 0 4 )

F i g u r e 4 . 1

Percent

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

IDI (% sub) Outcome (% sat) IDI (% sub) Outcome (% sat)

Public sector governance projects Technical assistance loans

AfricaBankwide

Source: World Bank data as of December 1, 2004.

Although the projectappraisal documents

enumerated manyrisks to capacity

building goals, theproject designs eitherdid not address these

risks or addressedthem inadequately.

project appraisal documents enumeratedmany risks to capacity building goalssuchas weak country commitment and social-political instabilitythe project designs eitherdid not address these risks or addressed theminadequately. Finally, less than one-quarter ofthe projects incorporated lessons on capacitybuilding from past projects in their design,and at completion, lessons about capacitybuilding were few or stated in only highlygeneral terms.

These three sets of findings on capacitybuilding are validated by the low institutionaldevelopment impact rating of all Africaprojects, a significantly lower rating than forprojects Bankwide. Only 33 percent of Africaprojects that exited during FY9504,compared with 42 percent of Bankwideprojects, achieved a rating of substantial orabove. While this rating has shown a risingtrend since 1996, it remains at only 40 percentfor Africa projects exiting in 2004, still signif-icantly below the Bankwide average for thatsame year.3

The difference between Africa andBankwide ratings suggests the importance ofdesigning operations to fit underlyingcountry conditions. This requirement forsuccess is illustrated by the findings in thisevaluations six country case studiesalthough demonstrated in complex ways thatreflect the interplay of national and sectoralpolitics and institutions.

Achieving capacity building objectives indiverse country and sector conditionsThe effectiveness of the Banks capacitybuilding activities has varied both acrosscountries and, within countries, acrosssectors. The pace of public sector reform inAfrican countries reflects the strength ofcountries public sector institutions and thedegree of political competition in their politi-cal processesthe latter influences howstrongly interests within and outside govern-ment are able to press foror obstructchange. The six countries reviewed in thisevaluation fall along a spectrum within a

middle range on these twomeasures. They also differin economic and publicsector performance (seetable 4.1). Each countrytherefore presents a distinctcombination of strengthsand weaknesses that haveshaped the opportunitiesand constraints for thecapacity building efforts reviewed in thisevaluation.

As in other African countries, the Banksmost recent CAS for each of these six casestudy countries gives increased emphasis toimproving public sector performance. Basedon the scope and implementation experienceof the Banks capacity building support, thecountries can be grouped into three clusters.

In Ethiopia and Mozambique, strongcountry leadership on public capacity buildingin recent years has been matched by substan-tial and innovative Bank support. In these twocountries, while internal political competitionis more limited than in the other fourcountries, action on public sector reform andcapacity building has been spurred by post-conflict renewal and the political imperativesof decentralization. Bank support over the pastseveral years has become closely aligned withthe countries strategies.

In Ethiopia, the challenge of weak capacityhas moved to the forefront of the developmentagendas of both the government and the Bank.The government has created aMinistry of Capacity Buildingand has made capacity building acentral focus in its povertyreduction strategy (OED 2004c).Still, problems remain inimplementing capacity buildingefforts in key sectors and inmaking progress on issues ofpublic financial management.The Banks 2003 CAS supportsthe governments programsthrough six operations directedat capacity building.

E F F I C A C Y: A D A P T I N G I N T E R V E N T I O N S T O C O U N T R Y A N D S E C T O R C O N D I T I O N S

2 1

The difference betweenAfrica and Bankwideratings suggests theimportance ofdesigning operationsto fit underlyingcountry conditions.

To be effective,capacity buildingefforts will need tobe more explicitlymanaged as a coreobjective by thegovernment andthe Bank.

In Mozambique, recent sectorwide strate-gies in roads, health, and public financialmanagement have paid increasing attention tocapacity constraints and coordination of donorsupport. But Mozambique is only beginning tobring the needed coherence to its public sectorcapacity building efforts through recentimplementation of its public sector reformprogram that targets both cross-sectoral andsectoral capacity constraints. The Banks moveto multisector capacity building programs(described in box 3.1) is a distinguishingfeature of its support to the public sectorprograms in both countries. Limited corecapacity is, however, a cause of slowimplementation, and the Bank needs to betterhelp countries appropriately design and paceefforts to cope with this constraint.

In Benin, Ghana, and Mali, country leader-ship on public sector reform has been weak. InBenin and Ghana, both government actionsand Bank support have been intermittent,while in Mali, government and Bank effortshave been consistently modest. All threecountries have moved to democratic forms of

government, registered reasonable economicgrowth, and improved social indicators. Butpublic sector reform and capacity buildingefforts have stalled or moved only slowly insuch key areas as public financial managementand civil service reform.

In Ghana, two comprehensive Bankprojects (in public financial management andpublic sector reform) failed, due to a mismatchbetween country ownership of the programsand their ambitiousness. A sectorwideprogram in health, by contrast, has been moresuccessful.4 The Bank is now working, largelyunder the rubric of the PRSC, to encouragethe government to rejuvenate a public sectorreform and capacity building effort.

In Benin, the Bank has provided substantialcapacity building support, relying heavily onprogrammatic lending, but implementationhas been poor. Both the government and theBank acknowledge the limited impact of theBanks capacity building support. To beeffective, capacity building efforts, which arenow a focus of the countrys PRSC, will needto be more explicitly managed as a core

2 2


Measure Benin Ethiopia Ghana Malawi Mali Mozambique

Economic performancea

GDP per capita growth rate (%) 2.8 0.8 2.8 -0.8 3.8 5.3

Population below national poverty line (%) 33 44 40 65 64 69

Public sector performanceb

Political stability 63 26 48 56 48 61

Government effectiveness 38 32 50 36 33 42

Control of corruption 38 43 42 32 44 30

CPIAc, economic managementc (quintile) Medium Medium Medium Medium Highest Medium

High

CPIAc, public sector management (quintile) Medium Medium Highest Highest Medium Medium

High Higha. Economic performance data: GDP per capita growth rate is averaged for 200003. Population below national poverty line is the most recent estimate available between 1995 and 2003

World Development Indicators. This includes two years of drought in Ethiopia.

b. Public sector performance: Higher scores correspond to better outcomes. Scores were rescaled based on data from World Bank Institute, Worldwide Governance Research Indicators

Dataset (19962002).

c. CPIA ratings: World Bank Country Policy and Institutional Assessment (2003).

E c o n o m i c a n d P u b l i c S e c t o r P e r f o r m a n c e :T h e S i x C a s e S t u d y C o u n t r i e s

T a b l e 4 . 1

objective by the government and the Bank, butthe supportive enabling environment is not yetapparent.

Similarly, in Mali, the Bank has financed anumber of operations, but public sectorreform and capacity building have progressedslowly, reflecting the governments unambi-tious aims. The Bank has linked its 2003 CAStriggers to progress in key areas, but it isunclear how the Bank intends to help thecountry prioritize and develop its capacitybuilding activities.

In Malawi, shifting political forces in thecountry have stalled structural adjustment andpublic sector reform. An ambitious Bankpublic sector program in the 1990s failed toachieve its objectives because the Bank overes-timated the strength of the governmentscommitment to change. The Bank now focusesits main capacity building effort on strength-ening public financial management. Whilesignificant progress has been made instrengthening the capacity of auditing andaccounting units and local training institu-tions, the project has stalled and is beingrestructured. In the health sector, the Bankhad more modest objectives with a singleproject designed to test the feasibility ofcommunity-based population and familyplanning services. During project planning,lack of human resource capacity wasrecognized as a key constraint. Effectivetraining and an organizational developmentcomponent designed to cover health servicefacilities from the community level up to thenational level were incorporated. In this case,capacity building was narrow in scope, and itwas notably successful.

Bank support for capacity building in thesesix countries has worked well where it hasbeen designed to fit underlying conditions.The record is not simply one of more successin the countries with the stronger economicand public sector management indicators,however. Rather, Bank programs have beeneffective under two conditions. The firstsuccess factor is to match the scope of individ-ual interventions to countries capacities and

commitments to change. Two examples notedabove of the comprehensive and largelyunsuccessful projects inGhana, and the narrow andapparently effective effortin the health sector inMalawi, are stark illustra-tions of this point.

Second, success has beendependent on how well thedesign of programs hasfactored in sectoral charac-teristics and the particularchallenges they pose tostrengthening governmentperformance. Figure 4.2differentiates sectoral activities along twodimensions. Specificity measures how readilyoutput performance can be monitored and,therefore, improvement measures identifiedand tracked. Transaction intensity describeshow complex/conflictual the decision processis to get from inputs to outputs, including thenumber and strength of relevant interestgroups and steps5 (identified in the figure arethe sectors reviewed as part of this evalua-tions country studies, discussed below).

The higher the transaction intensity and thelower the specificity, the more difficult it is toassess and prioritize capacity needs and designand sequence capacity building measures. It isalso more difficult to track the effectiveness ofthose measures, since this will require monitor-ing and feedback mechanisms that capture theviews of large numbers of beneficiaries (orbeneficiary groups). In contrast, low transac-tion/high specificity activities are likely to facili-tate not only the design and monitoring ofcapacity building measures, but also thestructuring of incentives insupport of change. Theeffectiveness of Bank effortsto improve public sectorperformance reflects, in largepart, these sectoral differ-ences. Indeed, the record ofthe Banks capacity buildingsupport in all six countries


2 3

Bank support forcapacity building hasworked well where itfit underlying countryconditions andfactored in specificsectoral challenges tostronger governmentperformance.

Support for capacitybuilding in the roadssector has been moreeffective than supportto the other threesectors reviewed.

shows similar variation, sector by sector, asdescribed in the following sections.

A proven approach in the roads sectorSupport for capacity building in the roadssector has been more effective, in all respects,than support to the other three sectorsreviewed. It is the only sector in which theoverall effectiveness was found to be satisfac-tory in all six case study countries. In Malawi,

the weakest of the six countries, it was theonly sector with substantial and sustainablecapacity improvements. This result is largelyattributable to strong stakeholder pressure,the applicability of a proven approach, soliddiagnosis of capacity constraints, and effectiveuse of both TA and training.

The Bank has long provided substantialsupport in the roads sector. In all countries, themain focus was on the trunk road system, apriority agreed to by the government and thedonors, including the World Bank. Thistargeted focus set priorities for resource alloca-tions and enabled important infrastructure tobe built and maintained using relatively sophis-ticated technical solutions, while requiring alimited number of staff. These staff (not justmanagers and engineers, but also lower-gradestaff) received higher pay in some countries andenhanced working environments and profes-sional development opportunities in allcountries. The Banks support has contributedto strengthened capacity in the roads sector inall countries, as summarized in box 4.1.

These efforts to improve sector perform-ance involved the standard instruments:

2 4


Development of a private sector construction industry, includingsupport for the training of contractors

Greater stability and transparency of funding for the sector Strengthening of key sector organizations, including the relevant

ministry, highway authority, and related departments, to plan, exe-cute, monitor, and account for national roads programs

Development of technical skills in modern road design, construction,and repair.

F o u r C a p a c i t y B u i l d i n g A c h i e v e m e n t s i n t h e R o a d s S e c t o r

B o x 4 . 1

C h a l l e n g e s t o I m p r o v i n g G o v e r n m e n tP e r f o r m a n c e V a r y a c r o s s S e c t o r s

F i g u r e 4 . 2

HighPublic financial management

(Accounting)

Public financial management(Performance budgeting)

Primary educationLow

Low High

Roads

Transaction Intensity(steps between inputs and outputs)

Spec

ifici

ty(o

utpu

t mea

sura

bilit

y)

Basic health

formal education, on-the-job training,international and local TA, studies, andequipment. TA and training were successfulin this area because they were applied withinan approach that integrated institutional,organizational, and human capacity develop-ment. For example, TA in Malawi wastargeted for two specific purposes: to preparestudies for particular policy decisions andnew legislation and to assist in the establish-ment of two new entities (the National RoadsAdministration and the National Construc-tion Industry Council). In Ethiopia, staffskills were upgraded through a package ofoverseas graduate education and on-the-jobtraining that appears to have improvedperformance in a wide range of units in theEthiopia Roads Authority. While manytrainees left during the early and mid-1990s,the situation changed markedly in the late1990s because of improved work conditions,pay, and career prospects and increasingopportunities in the country in the privatesector as the government moved to privatizeconstruction.

Clear goals, strong interests, a knowntechnique transferable across countries, andreadily measurable results have characterizedwork in the road sector. These factors facili-tated the design of a coherent capacitybuilding strategy and made it possible tocreate enclaves of effectiveness, even inenvironments of inefficiency, although thereare risks to sustainability of the enclavedgains. The experience is not easily replicable,as review of the other three sectors shows.

The challenge of human resource managementin health and educationBank support for capacity building in both thehealth and the education sectors has been lesssuccessful than in roads. These two sectorsface greater challenges in human resourcedevelopment because they have large bureau-cracies, numerous frontline service providers,more diffuse and weaker pressures for change,and greater difficulty in measuring, managing,and monitoring for results.

Health. Countries have madeimprovements in healthoutcomesnotably in childand maternal health and inlife expectancy (except as thisprogress has been reversed bythe impact of HIV/AIDS)since instituting reforms in the1980s and 1990s. But thegains have been modest andthe countries still facechallenges of uneven access,low-quality services, andinefficient use of resources.Efforts to improve theperformance of health caresystems have typically focusedon three sets of issues: (1)institutional strengthening to enhance centralgovernment policy, planning, and resourcemanagement; decentralize service delivery;and increase the voice of intended beneficiar-ies; (2) organizational strengthening of healthministries and other management structures;and (3) training for sector staff at all levels ofthe health system.

Overall, Bank support has not done well inproviding support for institutional and organi-zational development in this sector.6 Thegreatest achievement at the institutional levelhas been the introduction of health sectordevelopment programs and the improved policyand planning processes around them in all fiveof the six case study countries with substantialBank support in the sector (the one exception isMalawi, where lending hasbeen limited to one smallproject for the period underreview). Some progress hasbeen made in all five countriesin decentralizing health servicedelivery as part of these sectorprograms, although more hasbeen achieved in Ghana, Benin,and Mali, where this processhas been under way for asubstantial period of time, than in Ethiopia,where a recent, rapid decentralization push


2 5

In roads, clear goals,strong interests, aknown techniquetransferable acrosscountries, andreadily measurableresults facilitated thedesign of a coherentcapacity buildingstrategy and made itpossible to createenclaves ofeffectiveness.

In both the healthand the educationsectors, effectivenessis undermined bylarge, unresolvedhuman resourceconstraints.

aimed at learning by doing has encounteredlow initial management capacity at all levels. (Apromising approach to decentralized capacitybuilding in another case, Burkina Faso, isdescribed in box 4.2).

When it comes to organizational strengthen-ing, Bank support has been modest in all thecase study countries. In Benin, Ghana, andMali, the Banks support has helped restructurethe ministries of health. And it has helpedGhana to create the Ghana Health Service as anautonomous agency for managing the sector,

although mandates and divisionof responsibilities between theGhana Ministry of Health andthe service remain unclear afterseveral years because of a lack ofleadership and resistance tochange within affected parts ofthe government. In Benin andMali, the Bank has also financedefforts to build capacity outsidecentral government structures

by subcontracting key functions toautonomous agencies.7 In addition, in all fivecountries, support has been provided forstrengthening health information systems. Butin each country, this organizational strengthen-ing has been piecemeal. Moreover, its effective-ness is undermined by large, unresolved humanresource constraints.

A distinguishing feature of human resourcedevelopment in Africas health sector is thecontinuous outflow of trained public healthmanagers and medical staff (World Bank2004p). The Bank has addressed this problem,primarily by financing training and strength-ening training institutions in the five casestudy countries. To enhance its effectiveness,training is increasingly being decentralized toreduce costs, increase retention, and make thetraining more relevant to the work people do.But this evaluation was able to find evidenceonly on the training outputs (for example,numbers of personnel trained and coursecurriculum modified), not on impact.

But training can be only part of the humancapacity building solution, because lowsalaries, poor working conditions, andalternative employment options underminethe retention of trained staff. One case studycountry, Mozambique, has implemented abroad health manpower developmentprogram, including a comprehensiveapproach to training and deliberate steps toretain staff. Still, the scarcity of skilled healthworkers remains an acute problem inMozambique, as well as in the othercountries. A recent study in Ghana proposes arange of actions to improve human resourcemanagement in the sector, as summarized inbox 4.3.8

2 6


The redesigned Burkina Faso Health and Nutrition Project(P000287) illustrates a potentially promising approach toward ca-pacity building at decentralized levels of government. The proj-ect financed work programs of provincial health directorates.With some variations among districts, the project succeeded in: Developing a participatory planning and budgeting process

that involved communities and other stakeholders in set-ting priorities and providing oversight

Providing direct central government funding to local dis-tricts, along with adequate autonomy and flexibility in the useof resources

Enhancing accountability at decentralized levels throughthe use of management agreements, whose terms (on fundsallocation, payment modalities, obligations of recipients, fi-nancial management and auditing, and termination) weremade transparent.

B u i l d i n g C a p a c i t y t o F a c i l i t a t eD e c e n t r a l i z a t i o n : T h e C a s e o f B u r k i n aF a s o s H e a l t h a n d N u t r i t i o n P r o j e c t

B o x 4 . 2

Source: Internal Bank and OED documentation.

A distinguishingfeature in Africas

health sector is thecontinuous outflow

of trained publichealth managers

and medical staff.

In principle, the sectorwide programs infive of the case study countries provide aframework for identifying systemic capacityconstraints. In practice, however, the majorshortcoming in human resource managementand modest institutional and organizationalstrengthening suggests that sectorwideapproaches (SWAps) have been more useful inenhancing capacities to set policy and strate-gic direction than in building capacities tomanage the sector and achieve improvedservice delivery results.

Education. Capacity building support ineducation has been less effective than inhealth, and more varied among the six casestudy countries. The differences reflect thelarger size of the education sector, greaterdifficulty in setting clear education goals andmonitoring progress, and techniques that areless easily transferable across cultures. Whilethe Bank has funded a few projects in tertiaryand vocational educational (for example, inGhana, Mali, and Mozambique), the bulk ofits support in all six countries has beendirected to primary education, which iscovered in this review.

Countries have improved in the past decadein increasing allocations to the sector and inboosting primary school enrollment rates. Yetthey still face major structural issues, notablyunequal access to primary education; uneven

and inefficient allocation of resources;shortages of qualified teachers in a context ofrapidly increasing numbers of students;management and implementation gaps,especially at district levels; and lack ofincentives for improved staff performance.

In all six countries, the need to improveprimary education outcomes and strengthensector management has been a recurring themein the Bank CASs and projects over the 10-yearreview period, indicating the difficulty ofmaking progress. The Bank has supported avariety of efforts to build capacity at the institu-tional level, with varying degrees of success. Forexample, in Mozambique, where education hasbeen a strong priority of thegovernment, significantprogress has been achievedin developing policies andstrategies for different partsof the education system andin introducing new fundingarrangements at the primarylevel. But in Ethiopia,despite strong commitmentto a sector developmentprogram, the governmenthas not yet fully identifiedthe institutional capacityconstraints and developmentneeds to underpin itsdecentralization drive. In


2 7

More effective human resource management should involvegoing beyond the narrow issues of salary and training to con-sider broader incentives and systems for encouraging and man-aging good performance. A set of complementary actions thattake a broad labor market perspective are recommended, in-cluding: Increasing the supply of health professionals, with attention

to the interplay of outflow from the country and retention

New measures to attract and retain trained health workers Managed exchange and return of migrants Development and integration of new, mid-level cadres into

the health workforce (less likely to be hired abroad), bychanging educational systems and curricula and developingefficient HR management and administration, among othermeasures.

H u m a n R e s o u r c e M a n a g e m e n t i n H e a l t h :T h e N e e d f o r a C o m p r e h e n s i v e A p p r o a c h i n G h a n a

B o x 4 . 3

Source: Nyonator, Dovlo, and Sagoe (n.d.).

In both educationand health, theBanks efforts havefocused on differentstructures across the six countries, but the efforts havebeen piecemeal, andthe resultingorganizationalstrengthening hasbeen modest.

Mali, decentralization has not progressed asintended, and the regional development plansenvisaged are still in preparation. In Ghana,much as in the health sector, clear mandateshave not been established as planned betweenthe Education Ministry and Education Service,which has impeded progress toward othercapacity building objectives in the sector. TheGhana authorities recently launched aneducation sector strategy that proposes asequenced approach to this long-standingproblem (OED 2004d) (see box 4.4).

At the organizational level,the Banks efforts havefocused on different structuresacross the six countries, but inall cases, they have beenpiecemeal, and the resultingorganizational strengtheninghas been modest. Forexample, in Ethiopia, theBanks attempts to strengthenthe Ministry of Educationsresearch and policy develop-ment and statistical capacitywere not fully achieved. InBenin, the Bank succeeded inenhancing financial manage-ment capacity in severaldepartments within theMinistry of Education, butother departments in the

ministry, especially human resource manage-ment, remain weak.

Further, in Malawi and Mozambique, theorganizational development agenda wasshortchanged because of the Banks use ofProgram Implementation Units (PIUs). Inboth Malawi and Mozambique, while Banksupport built PIU capacity, particularly infinancial management and procurement,improvements were not built into the perma-nent government structures. Mozambiqueseducation sector program is now seeking tostrengthen organizational capacity in theMinistry of Education in the units forresearch, financial management, and monitor-ing and evaluation.

The sectors major challenge in humancapacity development has been handled bysubstantial support for training. But, as in theother sectors, hard evidence is lacking on theutilization of the skills of the large numberstrained. Detailed study suggests seriousweaknesses, such as turnover of trainedteachers, low teacher morale, and inadequatein-service training (OED 2004b). Also,evidence from interviews suggests that theimpact of the training for ministry staff hasbeen low, especially in areas of sector planningand personnel management, because trainingwas out of sync with staff redeploymentrelated to decentralization, and civil serviceand pay reform have progressed slowly.

2 8


The government of Ghana and its donors have agreed on a newsectorwide program in education. Included in the program is adetailed plan for building institutional, organizational, and humancapacity in the sector, which will be addressed in three phases: Analysis of organizations mandates, roles, functions, and di-

visions of labor

Assessment of existing capacity and capacity gaps, and de-velopment of capacity building action plans for key compo-nents of the sector

The translation of those plans into individual organizationscapacity building programs, involving activities such as re-deployment of staff, training, systems development, and theprovision of physical resources.

A W e l l - S e q u e n c e d A p p r o a c h t o C a p a c i t yB u i l d i n g i n t h e E d u c a t i o n S e c t o r i n G h a n a

B o x 4 . 4

Source: World Bank 2004g.

There have beensuccesses in public

financialmanagement, but

difficulties havebeen created bylimited country

ownership of thechange agenda

and the lack of atime-tested approach

for adaptinginternational

practices to the localcontext.

Limited country ownership of capacity buildingapproaches in public financial managementWhile there have been successes, Bank supportfor capacity building has encountered consid-erable difficulty in the area of public financialmanagement (PFM). This is largely because oflimited country ownership of the changeagenda and the absence of a time-testedapproach for adapting international practicesto the local context. The Bank emphasizedcapacity building as the core objective of itspublic financial management work in FY03,and its agenda is still evolving.

Strengthening public financial manage-ment, which is key to improving a countrysability to use its development resourcesefficiently and effectively, has been a center-piece of national economic reform agendasthroughout Africa. Institutions, systems, andprocesses that deal with the aspects of publicfinancial management have tended to beweak, nontransparent, and often incapable ofdeveloping adequate budgets, monitoringpublic expenditures, using funds and invest-ment efficiently, and providing reliable data.In all six countries reviewed, the Bank hasplayed a major role in designing and support-ing capacity building efforts. It has supportedextensive diagnostic work and has played asignificant financing role, along with otherdonors. The scope of the Banks capacitybuilding support in this area has ranged fromcomprehensive (in Ghana) to incremental (inMalawi). Efforts have typically addressedreform of tax administration, improvedbudget processes, introduction of medium-term expenditure frameworks and integratedfinancial management systems, procurementreform, and strengthening of accounting andauditing systems.

At an institutional level, the greatest successhas been in technical areas or areas thatreceive political support, such as tax adminis-tration (which promises increased governmentrevenue, at least in the short term), and in theestablishment of new institutions with techni-cal mandates. Improvements in basic budget-ing, accounting, and reporting systems have

also made steady progressfor example, inMozambique and Ethiopia. But capacitybuilding efforts have progressed slowly inother areas of deeply rooted institutionalconstraints related to governance issues,where governments have not implementedagreed improvements. Forexample, in Benin newprocurement procedureshave been approved but notimplemented. In Malawi,support has not led to theestablishment of an effectiveinternal audit system. Andin Mali, progress has beenmade in improving budgetformulation processes, butnot in strengthening parlia-mentary budget controls.

The Banks capacitybuilding support has alsobeen less successful in areas of institutionalstrengthening that involve leading-edgeapproaches brought in from outside and heav-ily dependent on consultants (referred to byMalawi officials as areas of donor ideol-ogy). Efforts to help countries strengthentheir capacities to design and use medium-term expenditure frameworks and perform-ance budgeting have been stymied by a lack ofclient awareness of the potential benefits(World Bank 2002a). The introduction ofintegrated financial information managementsystems, requiring advanced technology man-aged by highly skilled and costly staff, hasbeen more cumbersome and time consumingthan foreseen (World Bank 2002b). For exam-ple, the Ghana public financial managementproject, which involved eight componentsdesigned to be implemented simultaneously,encountered significant difficulties in theintroduction of the computerized system forbudget and expenditure management, whichin turn derailed other components. As onesenior manager of the information technologyeffort reported, we have spent $30 millionand eight years and still cant produce basicbudget reports, and this has considerably


2 9

Introduction ofintegrated financialmanagement systems,requiring advancedtechnology managedby highly skilled andcostly staff, has beenmore cumbersomeand time consumingthan foreseen.

slowed other dimensions of the public finan-cial management capacity building agenda.Even in Malawiwhere a more staged

approach was adopted afterfailure to implement ambi-tious reformscommittedsenior officials have faced dif-ficulty in building the neces-sary support for changewithin and across ministries,and the technologies usedhave been too complex for thecountrys capacity and needs.

The effectiveness of organi-zational and human resourcedevelopment efforts has alsobeen limited. Bank operationshave helped specific parts ofministries of finance and othergovernment structures andoversight mechanisms. Butthese are usually discreteinterventions, and the Bank is

often not the major donor at this level. The Bank and other donors have funded

training programs to build skills in economicmanagement and targeted areas of public fi-nancial management. Where the training hasbeen demand driven and closely linked to on-

going institutional or organizational changes, ithas proved effective. For example, in Malawi aBank project provides funding that the govern-ment allocates on a competitive basis to au-tonomous training institutes that respond togovernment demands for specific training.9 Theeffectiveness of training programs more gener-ally appears to be hampered by lack of well-de-veloped training strategies, poor sequencing oftraining with organizational and institutional de-velopments that would utilize the skills acquired,and low retention of staff trained in such areasas economics, accounting, auditing, and infor-mation technology, who increasingly face at-tractive opportunities in the private sector andwith international development agencies. More-over, in the view of some government officials,the introduction of complex public financialmanagement programs has created capacitygaps that are being inadequately addressed bypoorly designed training and limited transferof knowledge and skills from consultants.

The experience in the six case studycountries suggests the need for five improve-ments in efforts to build capacity in publicfinancial management, summarized in box4.5.10

Recognizing the need for improvements, theBank has initiated a broadening of the publicfinancial management agenda from a strictlyfiduciary perspective to include public sectorcapacity building. A key feature of that changehas been the introduction of public financialmanagement performance indicators thatserve to identify country capacity needs andprioritize donor capacity support. Notably, theHighly Indebted Poor Country Initiativeexpenditure-tracking exercise provides amechanism to benchmark a countrys budgetprocess and reporting system, develop plans tostrengthen those systems, and reviewprogress.11 Building on this exercise, amultidonor Public Expenditure and FinancialAccountability (PEFA) Initiative is finalizingan expanded performance managementframework that aims to broaden the monitor-ing of country public financial managementperformance and promote donor harmoniza-tion of public financial management capacity

3 0


Deepen the diagnosis of underlying political and institutional so-lutions

Reduce reliance on ambitious technical solutions Better identify and address core capacity needs upfront, including

the change management capacity of units responsible for imple-menting improvements

Address financial management capacity constraints in phases, byfocusing initially on a few high-priority functions and well-definedobjectives

Establish outcome indicators and process for monitoring and eval-uating capacity building activities.

F i v e W a y s t o I m p r o v eC a p a c i t y B u i l d i n g i nP u b l i c F i n a n c i a lM a n a g e m e n t

B o x 4 . 5

To improve capacity building in

public financialmanagement, five

measures aresuggested, including

deepening thediagnosis of

underlying politicaland institutional

solutions andreducing reliance onambitious technical

solutions.

building support.12

The quality of the inputsIn all sectors, the quality of capacity buildinginputsnotably technical assistance andtraininghas had a significant bearing on theeffectiveness of Bank support. While TA andtraining were both used in the great majorityof case study projects, they were found to beof only limited effectivenessa result consis-tent with many past assessments.13 The limita-tions stem less from inherent weaknesses inthe tools themselves than from their use in theabsence of explicit capacity building plans andassociated TA or training strategies.

Technical assistance has been used for twodistinct purposes: (a) to fill gaps in technicalskills needed for managing Bank-fundedprojects and (b) to transfer knowledgesupportive of projects capacity buildingobjectives. Substitute or gap-filling TA hashad little impact on strengthening clientcapacity and was criticized by governmentauthorities for failing to build enduringcapacity in the six case study countries. Anotable exception was Mozambique, wheretechnical assistance was used well to fill-in foruniversity teaching staff while they were sentoverseas for training.

The use of TA in support of capacitydevelopment objectives has produced mixedresults. The country studies show that TA hasbeen effective under two conditions: first,

when it has been used for a discrete and well-defined technical task and the client agencyhas sufficient core capacity to both overseeand benefit from the contribution and, second,when it has been used in the context of a clearTA strategy with a plan for phasing out theassistance without loss of policy or programmomentum. Of the four sectors reviewed, it isi

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