Many governments in developing economies are unable to meet citizens’ expectations in the quality of public services. In spite of heavy investments in public service delivery, the citizens’ expectation gap continues to widen over time, with the explanation from the public officers always being a vague ‘lack of capacity and resources’, something that is never properly substantiated. In response governments in the context of Public Sector Reform (PSR) are adopting systemic changes to ensure that the institutional capacity for public service delivery is enhanced and sustained to deliver improved services for citizens. At the core of this approach is Capability Reviews (CRs) where Ministries, Departments and independent Agencies (MDAs) undertake a self-assessment to identify the service delivery constraints and capacity gaps that hinder them from delivering quality services. This brief is based on the experience of DAS advisors in undertaking CRs across several MDAs.
