OECD Public Governance Reviews: Palestinian Authority

Achieving results requires governments to steer and co-ordinate the implementation of an overall reform vision and prioritised objectives notably by ensuring effective and clear leadership, well-functioning co-ordination and implementation mechanisms, clear accountability lines and financial sustainability.

The main objectives related to public administration reform (PAR) in the PA are outlined in the National Development Plan (NDP) and in the Government Reform Agenda (GRA), with objectives from both strategic documents encompassing PAR substance areas. The existing institutional framework for PAR in the PA could benefit from a more rational setup, including clear leadership lines and co-ordination mechanisms with a stricter differentiation of responsibilities at the centre of government (CoG) to avoid overlaps in mandates and responsibilities. The PA could also benefit from enhancing the planning, implementation and monitoring of PAR strategic objectives. Robust monitoring and evaluation systems and tools are paramount to measure progress and ensure effective implementation of strategic objectives for public administration reforms.

To strengthen the strategic and institutional framework for PAR as well as the planning, implementation and monitoring of PAR strategic objectives, the Palestinian Authority could consider:

• Improving the coherence of the strategic framework for public administration reform, notably by:

  • Widening the scope of the existing PAR strategic framework by addressing important reform areas in line with the NDP and identifying clear leadership for each of them;

  • Carrying out a comprehensive evaluation of the entire PAR agenda and thematic strategic frameworks to inform the future design of reforms after the PAR strategic documents expire.

• Strengthening institutional leadership and co-ordination for public administration reform, notably by:

  • Clarifying responsibilities for steering, implementing, and monitoring PAR at the CoG;

  • Pursuing a whole-of-government approach in its wide array of PAR efforts;

  • Identifying lead institutions for the PAR areas currently not covered by the strategic framework, notably policy development, co-ordination and monitoring, and organisation and functions of public administration;

  • Establishing clear organisational and individual accountability lines among the relevant stakeholders and involved institutions;

  • Involving civil society in the PAR management bodies.

• Bolstering the evidence base and prioritisation efforts for public administration reform, notably by:

  • Strengthening existing methods for problem analysis and policy identification by including more sources of evidence such as performance information, audit reports, internal and external evaluations, and expenditure reports;

  • Building further on the existing but uneven practices for the involvement of internal and external stakeholders in problem analysis;

  • Focusing on a limited number of carefully analysed, agreed, and prioritised issues, in line with the financial circumstances and the most pressing needs in the society.

• Enhancing the operationalisation of public administration reform objectives, notably by:

  • Reviewing the current operational plans for PAR to ensure that they are aligned and consist of clear outputs, operational responsibilities, and a concrete implementation timeframe;

  • Ensuring that operational plans only describe focused actions leading to the envisaged results with the available resources.

• Strengthening the monitoring processes and tools to measure progress towards public administration reform objectives, notably by:

  • Ensuring that the Strategic Results Framework allows for measuring progress towards expected improvements, rather than the outputs of the different reform measures;

  • Ensuring alignment between the monitoring framework of the different (PAR) sector and cross-cutting strategies and the current, and future Strategic Results Framework;

  • Ensuring that regular meetings take place among all the relevant PAR institutions (both CoG and line institutions) to discuss progress towards expected improvements, current and future challenges, effectiveness of expenditures, and follow-up on findings and decisions taken;

  • Enhancing systematic circulation of monitoring information among the CoG institutions and with all the (PAR) relevant institutions;

  • Clarifying the mandate of dedicated monitoring and evaluation departments within the administrations to ensure a uniform approach across all institutions and frameworks.

• Improving costing and securing expenditure for public administration reform, notably by:

  • Including clear information about sources of financing in the strategic documents for PAR;

  • Aggregating cost estimates per strategic objective to better compare the costing of reforms with the expected improvements and assess its expenditure effectiveness;

  • Harmonising cost estimation methodologies and ensuring uniform practices for cost estimations.

• Leveraging human resources management for public administration reform, notably by:

  • Focusing on the development of transversal and future-oriented competencies;

  • Applying competencies in the recruitment and performance management processes;

  • Continuing its focus on providing opportunities for continuous learning for all civil servants.

• Improving accountability and transparency for public administration reform through stakeholder participation, notably by:

  • Moving forward with the adoption of a Law on Access to Information in line with international standards and good practices;

  • Providing for mandatory publication of reports concerning the implementation of thematic and cross-cutting strategies, especially regarding the NDP and the GRA;

  • Institutionalising stakeholder participation to improve the quality and effectiveness of public policies in general and more specifically for PAR.