Public Sector Reform: A Comparative Perspective on Selected Countries in Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

The interest in public sector reform is crucial because public sector reformers are the actors who make governmental transformation possible with the aim of reforming the internal and external political and administrative structures and policies. There is a growing need to reconsider the role of the state and to foster a new awareness for public sector reform with a view to promoting optimal public service delivery. The question could be asked whether the success of public sector reform efforts in transitional countries is tied to the quality of better public service delivery. Based on an evaluation of three selected transitional countries in Sub- Saharan Africa, this article examines public sector reforms in Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa. The author claims that public sector reform and effective service delivery are closely related to one another. One of the lessons of public sector reform is that reformers need to realise that each country's reform must be viewed in the light of its own conditions. However, the countries under discussion have evolved through a relatively uniform process of reform each within its own contextual nature. Because the public sector reform programmes in these three transitional countries are basically similar to the evolution of reform programmes elsewhere it is possible that general points of discussion can be developed.