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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:The successful use of consultancies in aid-financed public sector management reform: a consultant's eye view of some things which matter
Author:Bevan, PhilippaISNI
Year:2000
Periodical:Public Administration and Development
Volume:20
Issue:4
Pages:289-304
Language:English
Geographic terms:Kenya
South Africa
Swaziland - Eswatini
Subjects:consultancy services
development cooperation
administrative reform
External link:https://doi.org/10.1002/1099-162X(200010)20:4<289::AID-PAD137>3.0.CO;2-3
Abstract:Independent consultants are important players in donor attempts to trigger and guide institutional change processes in recipient government structures and practices. However, little is known about the 'success' of such consultancies. This article explores some of the issues involved. Following a discussion of the problems of defining 'success', the author presents an analytical framework which can be used in all kinds of contexts to generate information relevant to institutional change programmes, and to the design of consultancies to help carry the change process along. The author applies the framework to eight consultancies which were taken in three different change contexts: circumstances of crisis, as in the case of post-communist regimes in the early transitional period and postapartheid South Africa; aid-dependent regimes committed to 'politics-as-usual' (Swaziland); and the longer-term highjacking of donor funds by patron-clientelist structures (Kenya). The author summarizes the main lessons which emerge from the case studies in the form of criteria for judging whether and how donors and/or consultants should get involved in change projects. Bibliogr., sum.
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