Priorities for a more effective State

An effective State requires capacities to design, implement, and learn policies. With the 2015 Economy and Development Report, CAF, Development Bank of Latin America, seeks to make a contribution to the study and understanding of the capacities of the State to improve the effectiveness of public interventions to promote development in the region.  

The study presented today in Peru, "Un Estado más efectivo. Capacidades para el diseño, la implementación y el aprendizaje de políticas públicas" (A more effective State. Capacities to design, implement, and learn public policies), highlights that the quality of the bureaucracy depends on the characteristics of public officials, the norms, and the procedures that guide, promote, or limit their actions.  

In the countries of the region, on average, 46 percent of public sector employees have complete secondary education, more than twice the percentage of the formal private sector, according to a survey carried out by CAF for the preparation of the 2015 RED. However, 16 percent of public employees with secondary education are not satisfied with their salaries, compared with 12 percent in the private sector. This could lead to a low level of effort, a defficient working environment, or even lead to corruption. 

In this respect, to improve the quality of the public administration it is necessary to have compensation schemes that attract the best employees and promote effort, as well as adapt salary structures to link to remuneration and the development of careers with competencies, skills, and the level of effort of bureaucrats. 

The study also highlights that citizen participation is an important external control factor that helps improve the State's performance. In the region, there is room to increase citizen participation, especially through non-electoral means, as well as to increase the quantity and quality of the information that the State shares with citizens, so that participation may be more effective.   

Another finding of the 2015 RED is that new information and communications technologies are tools to increase the power that citizens have to improve the design and implementation of public policies. 

The inauguration of the 2015 RED presentation ceremony was in charge of Eleonora Silva, CAF's Director Representative in Peru, and José Luis Bonifaz, Director of the School of Public Management at the Universidad del Pacífico. At the same time, the presentation of the report was in charge of Pablo Sanguinetti, Chief Economist and Corporate Director of Socio-Economic Research at CAF. Other participants in the event were Juan Carlos Cortés, Executive President of SERVIR, Carlos Oliva, former Finance Vice-Minister, and Lorena Alcázar, Principal Researcher at GRADE.                   

Thus, CAF seeks to contribute to generate a constructive debate that favors strengthening the capacities of the State, and continues to promote its institutional strengthening agenda and dissemination of knowledge in shareholder countries. 

The complete 2015 RED report may be consulted at:  http://scioteca.caf.com/bitstream/handle/123456789/755/reporte_economia_desarrollo_caf_2015_estado_politicas_publicas.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y