From Implementation-focused to Results-based Public Management:: the Zimbabwean Transition

Results-Based Management is one of the emerging frontiers of Public Administration pushing and prodding governments to demonstrate results of their actions. The success story of the system in developed countries, coupled by pressure from stakeholders and the everpresent need for donor support has persuaded governments in developing countries to adopt it. Zimbabwe is amongst some of the African countries who adopted the system in 2003 with its intoduction coming as a ray of hope for the general populace. The author questions the ability of public sector institutions in developing countries to cope with the demands of the complicated but highly rewarding RBM system. It goes without saying that the system is an indispensable tool for effective public sector management. The challenge however is that the transition from traditional implementation-focused practices to results-Based management systems is like a bumpy road which calls for tinkerers, scrongers and masters of the extemporaneous.