Foreign advisors and capacity building: The case of Kenya

Abstract Approximately 100, 000 foreign advisors work in the public sectors of Sub‐Saharan African countries at an annual cost of more than 4 billion. The numbers, range of services, and costs of such advisors increased during the 1980s while at the same time donors launched new efforts to build professional capacity in the African civil service. Based on a study of advisors and their counterpart economists in Kenya's Ministry of Planning and National Development, this article addresses three important questions: what are the functions carried out by advisors in the development ministries? ; why is it so difficult to retain skilled professionals in the civil service? ; and how does the provision of advisors affect the retention of skilled government officers?