Public Sector Reforms in Fiji: Examining Policy Implementation Setting and Administrative Culture

Abstract

For many years, public management reform has been an evolving concept. New Public Management (NPM) and Good Governance have been the two ground–breaking ideas, generating colossal discourse over the past three decades. Inspired by NPM-led policy changes in the developed world, many developing countries have lately joined the reform bandwagon but achieved limited success. Policy analysts observe that the policy planners in the developing world seem to have spent more resources in policymaking than addressing the policy implementation challenges. Also, the policy transfer effort ignored the issue of administrative culture. Focusing on Fiji, this article examines how the country's recent public sector reform initiatives have largely failed to bring about expected results. Based on the case studies of two organizations, it explains that the success and failure of policy change occurs in several ways, manifesting multiple challenges including a lack of well-prepared implementation framework and culture change.

Keywords:

• public sector reform
• new public management
• policy implementation
• administrative culture

Notes

¹Terms of trade refers to the quantity of exports that have to be sold to pay for a particular level of imports.

²See:http://www.adb.org/Documents/Books/Reforms_Pacific/chap1.pdf.

³Retrieved from http://lnweb18.worldbank.org/eap/eap.nsf/Attachments/RER+2002/$File/RER_Gray+Cover.pdf#search=’how%20successful%20have%20reforms%20been%20in%20pacific’.

⁴The Graduate Certificate in Public Sector Management is offered as an on-the-job education program aimed at improving the management capacity of Fiji civil servants. It provides an understanding of governance and public sector management concepts vis-à-vis their practical implications in Fiji and the South Pacific.

⁵ http://www.fiji.gov.fj/cgi-bin/cms/exec/view.cgi/15/1849.

⁶Fiji Government Press Release for December 22, 2005.

⁷Fiji Government Press Release for October 21, 2005.

⁸Retrieved from http://www.rnzi.com/pages/news.php?op=read&id=25335.

⁹Retrieved from http://www.rnzi.com/pages/news.php?op=read&id=25335.