POLICY AND INSTITUTIONAL REFORMS IN FIVE AFRICAN COUNTRIES: REVIEW OF REFORM EXPERIENCES

Mulugeta Abebe
Addis Ababa University

ABSTRACT

This study reviews policy and institutional reforms (PIRs) experiences of five-African
countries: Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, South Africa and Uganda. in the Sub-Saharan Region. The
five states were trying to reform and they revitalized their public service needs and much of the
meritocratic systems in place in order to provide effective and efficient government services. This
study attempts to address the following: (1) The impetus for reform and exploratory assessment of
new public management (NPM), (2) NPM’s limitations and questions of its applicability in the
context of Africa, (3) three generations of country reform experiences, and (4) reasons for
unsuccessful implementation of the PIRs programs in the five-African countries. Finally, this
study drawn concluding remarks

Keywords: Policy and institutional reform, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, Uganda, Sub-Saharan Africa,
public management