Among the factors determining the success or failure in Civil Service Reform (CSR) are high level political administrative commitment; and the motivation and involvement of civil servants themselves in a bureaucratic system that is too weak to impose central top-down reform. The article evaluates Ghana's Civil Service Reform Programme (CSRP), which was intended to make the civil service a "value for money" institution. It is argued that this objective was not achieved because of the absence of the factors mentioned above that ensure success. Hence the Civil Service Performance Improvement Programme (CSPIP) in March 1995 which was intended to make the civil service and all its constituent institutions more efficient. The article then relates the Ghanaian experience so far to recent developments atthe level of theory, and their implications for other CSR programmes in Africa.
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