Lessons of international and African perspectives on public service reform: examples from five African countries/ created by Gelase Mutahaba and Kithinji Kiragu

In the late 1980s and 1990s, the objective of public administration reforms was to contain and control the costs of running government in response to citizens' concerns that government was involved in too many activities, which were both unproductive and costly. In many countries (developed and developing), these efforts paid off, in that fiscal discipline was enhanced and deficits were elimi nated or contained. However in some countries, especially where government institutions were still in the process of formation and development, there was no fat to cut; so the reforms cut though to the bone and in some cases deformed the public administration systems, which resulted in a serious erosion of govern ment capacity and effectiveness.There is now recognition (starting in the late 1990s) of the need to reform public administration by addressing systemic issues, including capacity build ing, planning, budgeting, performance improvement, and human resources man agement. In many instances these measures are pursued through the adoption of private sector management methods and approaches. As a result what was called "public administration' is now called 'public management'.