IDB Study Charts Progress on Professionalizing and Modernizing Civil Service in Latin America and Caribbean

• Better Government for Better Lives surveys advances in 19 countries in the region between 2014 in 2024.

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) today presented Better Government for Better Lives, a comprehensive study that compiles data from the past 10 years on the professionalization and modernization of the civil service in Latin America and the Caribbean. This report provides a detailed overview of the region's challenges and proposes a roadmap for building a more efficient, inclusive and resilient civil service.

This third edition of the regional study (previous versions were published in 2004 and 2014) reveals mixed progress on building capacities to boost the performance of the civil service. Some countries showed major progress, while in others the gains have slowed over the last decade.

The study highlights improvements in planning and merit-based hiring, as well as training for public employees, an area driven by new technologies and the COVID-19 pandemic. But challenges persist, including: pay gaps that make it difficult to attract, motivate and retain talent; difficulty implementing performance evaluations, which is a common challenge in OECD countries as well; and limited use of merit-based criteria for top leadership. The study also finds significant disparities in the maturity of civil service oversight among countries in the region.

"As the fiscal environment becomes increasingly complex, trust in public institutions erodes, and technology changes at a rapid pace, civil service plays a crucial role in making governments' administrative work more efficient and effective. Professionalizing the civil service is essential to meet demands for more and better services and foster a merit-based, inclusive, efficient and transparent public administration," said Paula Acosta, Chief of the IDB Innovation for Citizens Services Division.

According to the report, Brazil and Chile are among the region's top performers in terms of professionalizing and modernizing their civil service. Both countries have managed to sustain reforms over time, even spanning administration changes. In Chile, merit-based hiring of school principals has lifted student test scores, and the same approach to hospitals has helped decrease mortality by 7%. Meanwhile, Brazil has led the way on digitally transforming the government's administrative functions, and it has solidified gains in areas like civil servant performance.

Recommendations for the region

The study lays out practical recommendations to improve civil service management in the region. These include coordinating fiscal and human resource management more closely to optimize government employment, which accounts for a third of regional public expenditure..

It also highlights the importance of modernizing the civil service with a meritocratic and inclusive approach, which is key to restoring public trust and addressing challenges such as climate change and inequality. Another crucial step toward achieving a more efficient and fairer government for the 21st century is preparing the civil service for digital transformation by attracting digital talent, training public employees and creating collaborative structures.

The publication was presented during the 29th International Conference of the Centro Latinoamericano para el Desarrollo (CLAD) on State and Public Administration Reform held in Brasília, Brazil on November 26-29.