Enhancing the capacity of Chile's public administration

Chile has the governance institutions in place to maximise the potential of its public administration and to deploy resources in pursuit of its economic and socio-economic aims. As it moves to modernise the state Chile should pay attention not only to structures and processes but also to planning horizons and co-ordination of actors to achieve effective and efficient policy design and implementation. To this end, it should: • Complement its short- to medium-term strategic planning mechanisms with longerterm planning, which can further increase preparedness for “discontinuous” events. • Reinforce inter-ministerial co-ordination and incentives for programme- or planningbased policy approaches to increase synergy in the use of financial and human resources, and to optimise policy outcomes. • Further enhance resource flexibility in budgeting, and consider a medium-term budget or expenditure framework to identify funding sources to implement or further build public policy programmes. • Link staffing levels not only to budget availability but also to future needs to improve flexibility and competences in human resource management. • Take a comprehensive approach to administrative simplification to facilitate growth of multiple sectors and minimise ad hoc ministerial initiatives. • Ensure adequate time, resources and mechanisms to make proper use of information arising from citizen engagement, as a demand or “citizen” driven use of funds can improve policy outcomes. • Be sensitive to the different roles of government and adapt reform approaches accordingly to improve sustainability. (For example, the government’s role in product market or pro-growth tax reform is likely to differ from its role in education or healthcare or administrative reform.)