The transitional unity government will receive a grant of 15 million U.s dollars from the World Bank aimed at strengthening institutional and human resource capabilities.
In a statement issued in Juba, the World Bank said on Friday that the grant will finance the building institutional foundations for an effective public service project (BIFEPS) over a three-year period, which will play a key role in improving state capacity over the long term.
It noted that the project aims to strengthen policies, procedures, and systems for civil service management; support institutional development to create sustainable public sector capacity, and incentivize the effective implementation of selected sector reforms.
The World Bank noted that this intervention is crucial to improve the government’s ability to effectively fulfill its service delivery functions.
“The government recognizes the central role that the public servants play in service delivery. It is therefore imperative that sectors across the public service have structures and staffing that align with their functions, and that we invest in building a pipeline of future civil servants by providing opportunities for qualified young professionals to gain work experience in, and potentially join the public service,” Dak Duop Bichiok, Minister of Public Service and Human Resource Development said.
The World Bank Group Executive Board of Directors approved International Development Association (IDA) grant financing to the government to support strengthening of institutional and human resource capabilities in the public service to better deliver basic needs and services to citizens.
Maryam Salim, World Bank Country Director for Eritrea, Ethiopia, South Sudan, and Sudan, said the project will lay the foundation for an effective and efficient public service including through enhanced institutional capacity to attract and retain qualified public servants, a competency-based human resource management framework in the civil service, and the establishment of a performance-based culture in service delivery.
She noted that such interventions will complement ongoing sectoral operations supported by the World Bank, putting in place foundational elements needed to sustain reforms in the long run and strengthen government ownership.
The World Bank said that this project aligns with the World Bank Group’s strategy in South Sudan that focuses on strengthening institutions and capacity, adding that it emphasizes the need to address foundational elements of reform and take a gradual approach to rebuild and reshape institutions.
It added that it also aligns with the priorities of the government of South Sudan as articulated in Chapter IV of the Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan (R-ARCSS) and the Revised National Development Strategy (R-NDS) 2021–2024, which underscores the need to strengthen institutions for transparent, accountable, and inclusive governance through reforming the civil service, among other strategic objectives.
It added that an effective public service requires a well-functioning pension scheme to retire civil servants and create space for new talent to join the service.
The IDA has provided so far funding to South Sudan totaling 18 million dollars.
