Abstract
The civil service institutions (CSIs) inherited by the new African states that emerged in the 1950s and the 1960s had three advantages that enabled many of them to perform satisfactorily during the immediate post-independence years. First, the CSIs operated in a context in which the goals of governments were clearly articulated: win independence and seek to improve the quality of life of the mass of the population through the provision of infrastructure and services such as roads, energy, water, education and health. Second, the political leaders who progressively took over executive powers from the departing colonial rulers from the early 1950s through to the early 1960s were nationalists who were committed to wining independence, and, in most cases, were conscious of the need for strong and well-equipped CSIs that would serve as instruments for ensuring the continuity of the state, maintaining law and order, and assuring better living standards for the people.
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© 2007 Ladipo Adamolekun
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Adamolekun, L. (2007). Africa: Rehabilitating Civil Service Institutions — Main Issues and Implementation Progress. In: Raadschelders, J.C.N., Toonen, T.A.J., Van der Meer, F.M. (eds) The Civil Service in the 21st Century. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230593084_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230593084_6
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