Building State Capacity in the Caribbean: A Baseline Report of the Civil Service

The potential of public policies and the services provided by any State are closely linked to the quality of its civil service. The ways in which the civil service is managed—in other words, the human resource planning policies, recruitment and selection, professional development, and the incentives for professionalization, among other factors—are critical conditioning factors when it comes to attracting, retaining, and motivating suitable staff to carry out these tasks. This report assesses the quality of human resource management (HRM) systems in the civil service in six Caribbean countries as of 2017. The comparative analysis builds on six country diagnostic reports published as part of these series. The methodology used is based on the one used by the Inter- American Development Bank (IDB) in Latin American countries (Longo and Iacoviello, 2010) which was slightly adapted to the Caribbean context. The study analyzes trends, identifies good practices and opportunities for improvement, and finds similarities and differences with Latin American countries. It concludes with a reform agenda to enhance the capacity of the Caribbean’s civil service.