Five key lessons on effective governance reform from SPARC Nigeria
10th August 2016
Eldis editor Alan Stanley was invited to Abuja recently to attend the State Partnership for Accountability, Responsiveness and Capability (SPARC) end-of-programme learning event. Based on what he heard he highlights five key lessons from the programme on effective governance reform. Back in 2013, after some brief meetings and correspondence via email, Eldis began a content partnership with the State Partnership for Accountability, Responsiveness and Capability (SPARC). The programme, an initiative of the Nigerian and UK Governments which started back in 2008, recently drew to a close with a high-profile learning event titled “Expanding Horizons” held in Abuja. Over the few years of our engagement with SPARC what really stood out for me was their approach to documenting and sharing learning within the programme and their commitment to sharing that learning as widely as they could beyond the core group of stakeholders they work with. I was really pleased, therefore, to get an invitation to take part in the learning event, to speak to those involved and to find out more about their work.
Dr. Joe Abah, Director General, Bureau of Public Service Reforms, presenting on “Swimming Against the Tide: Lessons from Public Service Reforms in Developing Countries” at Expanding Horizons 2016.Photo Credit: SPARC 2016Margarita Aswani, the Senior Knowledge Management Advisor for the programme, summarised how and why they have emphasised learning in such an embedded way across the programme.“The objective of SPARC has been to improve governance and reduce poverty in Nigeria. The programme supported governance reforms in 10 of Nigeria's 36 states: Anambra, Enugu, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Lagos, Niger, Yobe and Zamfara. To underpin work in states, SPARC also supported a number of federal agencies that incentivise governance reform at state level. During the seven years of the programme, Nigerian partners and SPARC generated a wealth of information and knowledge, set up many processes and procedures to improve governance, and developed a range of tools for working effectively and efficiently.
But in reforming governance, the nuts and bolts of how and why reforms take place are often forgotten. From the start, SPARC recognised the value of documenting the experiences, challenges, setbacks, triumphs and lessons learned, and emphasised sharing information on how states tackle change, each in their own way, influencing wider change and inspiring a public service ‘performance culture’ in Nigeria.”The Expanding Horizons learning event was an extension of this approach and brought together influential government and development partners from state and federal levels, academics and knowledge leaders to collaborate and reshape Nigeria's future. The goal of the event was to expose participants to critical tools and resources from development partners who work to support governance reform in Nigeria, to interact with global institutions who have been successfully sharing knowledge around reforms, and to have an opportunity to network and interact with federal and state level colleagues currently pursuing reforms in their various capacities. Among the notable reforms we heard about were:
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Dr. Joe Abah, Director General, Bureau of Public Service Reforms, presenting on “Swimming Against the Tide: Lessons from Public Service Reforms in Developing Countries” at Expanding Horizons 2016.Photo Credit: SPARC 2016Margarita Aswani, the Senior Knowledge Management Advisor for the programme, summarised how and why they have emphasised learning in such an embedded way across the programme.“The objective of SPARC has been to improve governance and reduce poverty in Nigeria. The programme supported governance reforms in 10 of Nigeria's 36 states: Anambra, Enugu, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Lagos, Niger, Yobe and Zamfara. To underpin work in states, SPARC also supported a number of federal agencies that incentivise governance reform at state level. During the seven years of the programme, Nigerian partners and SPARC generated a wealth of information and knowledge, set up many processes and procedures to improve governance, and developed a range of tools for working effectively and efficiently. But in reforming governance, the nuts and bolts of how and why reforms take place are often forgotten. From the start, SPARC recognised the value of documenting the experiences, challenges, setbacks, triumphs and lessons learned, and emphasised sharing information on how states tackle change, each in their own way, influencing wider change and inspiring a public service ‘performance culture’ in Nigeria.”The Expanding Horizons learning event was an extension of this approach and brought together influential government and development partners from state and federal levels, academics and knowledge leaders to collaborate and reshape Nigeria's future. The goal of the event was to expose participants to critical tools and resources from development partners who work to support governance reform in Nigeria, to interact with global institutions who have been successfully sharing knowledge around reforms, and to have an opportunity to network and interact with federal and state level colleagues currently pursuing reforms in their various capacities. Among the notable reforms we heard about were:
- Budgets are more realistic
- State Development Plans and Medium-Term Sector Strategies better reflect policy priorities and are linked to annual budgets
- Locally devised strategies improve collection of revenues due
- Rising demand for statistics and evidence-based policies
- Government processes are more gender sensitive
- Copying models blindly from elsewhere does not work - reforms tailored to the local context have a better chance of success
- Ignoring the politics and taking a purely technocratic approach is a sure way to fail
- Even in the most difficult institutional environments, exceptional, well-performing government organisations exist
- Sudden and drastic downsizing of government institutions has not worked but gradual approaches to reducing size and cost have worked
- Monitoring public sector performance is difficult but rewarding - evaluating results helps to connect with the public