Developing capacity for managing public service reform: The Tanzania experience 2000–2008

Abstract Public service reform has been more effective in Tanzania than in most African countries. An important contribution to this relative success has been the growing capacity of the Government of Tanzania to design and lead complex reform programs such as the Public Service Reform Program. This article looks at how and why this capacity developed and the possible implications for other efforts at public service reform in Africa. Our specific focus is on the Public Service Management Department in the President's Office (PO‐PSM), the unit designated to manage the PSRP and the emergence of its capacity to lead and energize the change process. A variety of factors have accounted for the effectiveness of the PO‐PSM. We argue that three have been particularly important: its organizational positioning, its development of a range of required competencies and capabilities, and finally its sequencing of the reform activities of the PSRP. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.