5  Next steps and conclusions

5.1 Looking ahead

The overriding priority is to secure long-term funding to enable the InCiSE project to be sustained, strengthened and expanded further. The founding institutions are actively discussing funding, as well as broader management and collaboration opportunities, with potential new partners. Subject to funding availability, the main issues the project will focus on during the next phase are described below.

Expanding country coverage

InCiSE will continue to explore ways of expanding the Index’s current country coverage, especially the potential to include non-OECD and developing countries. During 2018 the partners commissioned assessments of how the InCiSE Index could be applied in Brazil and Nigeria1. These two countries were chosen as large, regionally significant states at different stages of economic development and with diverse political structures and traditions.

  • 1 These can be accessed from the main Blavatnik School of Government website.

    • The studies yielded important questions to consider as the project moves forward, such as: how well does the Index cope with countries with more distributed power and less influential executive branches of government? Are public service outcomes more important proxies for civil service effectiveness in developing countries? Does the Index assume a particular model of government, and if so, how does it capture the characteristics of systems that do not fit this model? In addition, the studies highlighted the possibility of considering the development of regional InCiSE indices, where there are data sets that cover particular regions only.

    Developing InCiSE as a practical learning and development tool InCiSE has major potential as a learning and development tool. Even in its pilot form InCiSE data has already been used by some governments for this purpose and there is much interest in how it could be further developed.

    The InCiSE Index appears to be of most use for the top leadership of the civil service, senior officials tasked with driving systemic and behavioural reforms, and relevant training and research institutes. Officials with more specific responsibilities require data that speaks more directly to their functions and interests. To help make InCiSE data more accessible and relevant for users, it needs to be tailored more closely than has been possible to date. Experience so far also suggests that users want to be able to dig more deeply into what is driving the results, and then use this analysis to support learning discussions. More broadly, experience suggests that data-based approaches will only work when combined with other insights into country specific problems and solutions.

    The project will therefore focus on two inter-related sets of activity:

    • Making InCiSE data more “customisable” for users, to allow them to dig deeper into country results and make more meaningful comparisons with others. This will be achieved by improving the interactivity of Index data on the Blavatnik School of Government website to enable users to tailor it for their needs, including generating reports. Over time, the goal is to establish a self-standing website;
    • Enabling users to have easy access to InCiSE data experts who can help them deal with initial questions and guide early discussions on performance improvements. This will be achieved initially through the delivery of facilitated workshops in target countries and regions, ideally using local suppliers. Where feasible, these workshops could be held at the same time and location as major international public administration events.

    Continuing to strengthen data collection

    Tasks will include: determining how best to collect data on the omitted indicators (staff engagement, innovation, IT, social security administration and finance); exploring how data collection for existing indicators can be further strengthened, including filling thematic gaps; reviewing the balance between quantitative and qualitative indicators; further expanding data sources; reducing instances of public sector performance being used as a proxy for civil service performance; and minimising cross-country applicability issues.

    Refining the InCiSE framework

    Framework tasks will include ensuring each indicator in the framework is a unique concept, to avoid duplication or overlap between the themes being measured. There is still a need to consider whether the InCiSE framework is sufficiently able to measure and compare core functions within federal government systems where some aspects could be the constitutional responsibilities of sub-national entities (e.g. a state or provincial government).

    Changes to the InCiSE framework will be determined mainly through user feedback and discussions with data owners to learn lessons from their own experiences. The International Advisory Panel will also be consulted.

    5.2 Conclusion

    This second version of the InCiSE Index has again brought together a rich volume of data and insights. It should also continue to stimulate wide-ranging discussions at country level and globally about civil service effectiveness issues.

    Producing a comprehensive and robust set of comparative civil service performance indicators remains a work in progress. The InCiSE project team will continue to coordinate with others who are engaged in similar efforts to assess civil service effectiveness. The team will also continue to collaborate with the many organisations who have made a vital contribution to InCiSE so far by permitting the use of their research or survey data, as well as encourage further data collection in areas where it is lacking. Continued collaboration is essential to help strengthen InCiSE.

    Feedback remains vitally important to help improve the Index. The project team would welcome feedback from country governments, policy and learning networks, think tanks and academia.