Why we need civil service effectiveness indicators

An effective civil service can play an important role in determining a country's progress and prosperity. But what constitutes an “effective civil service” in the 21st Century?

And once a consensus has been reached on defining this, how do civil service leaders know whether their organisations areeffective, andin which areas are they performing more strongly than others?

The InCiSE Index seeks to help answerthese questions. A comprehensive set of international indicators of civil service effectiveness does not currently exist. This subject area is also well recognised in academic, international and practitioner communities as a highly complex area for analysis.

This is partly because of data limitations, different views on the definitions of “civil service” and “effectiveness”, as well asthe need to

take account of country context factors when looking at performance issues.

Ne v e rtheless, the r e a r e many existing surveys and data collections available globally that can be pulled together to provide a view on civil service effectiveness on an annual basis. The creation of a new and concise set of civil service effectiveness indicators would serveas:

An accountability tool: allowing citizens, government officials and politicians to establish in a clear and concise way how well their civil service is performing.

A performance improvement tool: enabling senior decision makers to see which countries perform best in which areas, and learn from them. www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk