Implications for Project Design and Implementation

From microLINKS Wiki

There is no standard process for reform. There can be no “how to” manual. Different reforms involve different stakeholders and different mixes of technical, political, and institutional issues. Reform is also shaped by a country’s politics and capacity. The best we can do is to highlight common insights and lessons which emerge. These lessons begin to add up to a checklist for reformers.^[1]

Use the wide and growing array of new tools to benchmark and diagnose constraints and identify the reform priorities that will deliver.
Foster competition through trade and product market reforms to create pressure for other investment climate reforms.
Generate and leverage new information on specific policy reforms and proven good practices to expose the costs of the status quo, build support, and overcome opposition.
Seize crisis or political change to push through bold reforms.
Use pilots and sector-specific interventions as learning and demonstration tools when reforms face great uncertainty or strong opposition.
Leverage and empower supporters to help mitigate opposition using a mix of strategies and techniques, while maintaining dialogue with the private sector and other key stakeholder groups.
Do not wait for long-term public sector reform to create the right incentives and capacity for implementation. Bring in new leadership and skills from the outside, set performance targets and incentives, leverage new information technology solutions, and outsource implementation to the private sector.
Build on dedicated, empowered, and competent teams to lead and sustain the reform process while ensuring transparency and accountability.
Monitor progress closely against realistic and agreed targets and set up systems early in the process to measure results on the ground.
Pay as much attention to getting the reform process right as to the technical content of reform to achieve desirable and sustainable policies and outcomes.

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