Fostering Innovations to Deepen Africa’s Public Sector Reform Agenda: Comparative Studies of Ethiopia and Nigeria

In general, three waves of public sector reforms have emerged in Africa over the past three decades. The first generation was implemented as part of the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) at the beginning of the 1980s. The aim of the reform was to provide conducive environment for private sector development; the second generation of public service reform focused on capacity building for improved service delivery. The third generation amplified service delivery, in a development prompted by the inadequacies of the first and the second wave of reforms. This study employs Ethiopia and Nigeria as case studies. Ethiopia has emerged from decades of civil war; famine and chronic poverty to embrace PSR as an essential component as the nation's economic reform agenda, with the country showing considerable improvements on governance indicators. The nation's strong economic performance, attributable to economic reforms, has continued for the tenth consecutive year, with real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth estimated at 9.7% in 2012/13. Nigeria has also embraced PSR as a cornerstone of its economic reform agenda. The nation's economic output also featured robust growth in 2013, estimated at 7.4% of GDP, up from 6.5% in 2012. The major objective of this study is to shed light on Africa's Public Sector Reform agenda, which reveals both challenges and opportunities. The paper employs empirical data in the study, revealing a robust public service reform agenda across Africa, with Ethiopia and Nigeria as case studies.