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Seqencing and Coordination Across Themes
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The evidence does not support either of two positions taken by some observers— that PSR is too difficult to be worth trying or that public sector issues are so interlinked that only comprehensive solutions will work. Many PSR projects have succeeded, although usually not immediately. To realize the full benefits of improving public service delivery and accountability, PSR must eventually lead to substantial improvement across the board, including the civil service, but modest and selected entry points can have partial success and can lay the basis for later progress.
Starting with AAA has been a successful way for the Bank to develop a trusting relationship with governments to work on sensitive areas of PSR. In Egypt a reformist government requested Bank support for anticorruption after an Investment Climate Assessment in 2006 identified corruption as a major barrier for business. Often a Public Expenditure Review with financial management emphasis was a good starting place, as in Ethiopia, Tanzania, Uganda, and several Indian states.
The Bank has improved the integration of AAA and lending on the various aspects of public financial management, but not across the full range of PSR themes. Results are better where arrangements are institutionalized to coordinate staff in diverse sectors within the country program (as in the Latin America and Caribbean Region, with the sector leaders in close proximity to country directors). Otherwise, coordination occurs less regularly, when there happens to be alignment of personalities, skills, and schedules.
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