Singapore’s civil service has been deemed the best in the world in the inaugural Blavatnik Index of Public Administration, a study done by the Blavatnik School of Government – Oxford University’s school of public policy.
As per the report, released earlier this week, public administrations of 120 countries were ranked and the city-state topped the list.
“The top 5 countries in the Index are Singapore (1st); Norway (2nd); Canada and Denmark (joint 3rd); and Finland (5th). All five of these countries tend to perform strongly across all four domains of the Index – Singapore comes first/joint first in two of the Index’s four domains (Public Policy and National Delivery); Denmark, Finland and Norway come first/joint first in one domain each (Strategy and Leadership, Public Policy, and People and Processes respectively); while Canada consistently comes fourth/joint fourth in each of the four domains. After these five countries there are seven countries that rank sixth to ninth: the UK and New Zealand (joint 6th); Australia (8th); and Estonia, France, Spain and the United States (joint 9th),” the official report stated.
The new index builds upon the school’s previous International Civil Service Effectiveness (InCiSE) Index.
“Through the Blavatnik Index of Public Administration we aim to help countries better understand how their public administrations and central civil services compare with others. We have seen how such comparisons help leaders set a pathway to an ever stronger, functioning, and capable bureaucracy,” said Professor Ngaire Woods, Dean of the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford.
“The Blavatnik Index builds on the School’s previous collaboration on the International Civil Service Effectiveness (InCiSE) Index from 2016-2020. Five years on from the 2019 InCiSE Index report much has changed, not least due to the COVID-19 pandemic but also increases in armed conflict around the world, ever more extreme impacts of climate change, and the rising adoption of AI in many different fields. These changes present both challenges and opportunities, so it is imperative that the public administrations that support governments in achieving both their long-term and day-to-day objectives are the best they can be,” Professor Woods added.
The measurement framework of the Index is structured around four domains that represent broad areas of public administration activity: 1. Strategy and Leadership – the setting of strategic direction, institutional stewardship, the core public service values and behaviours. 2. Public Policy – core public administration functions and activities that are fundamental for any national government. 3. National Delivery – direct public service delivery at the national level, and oversight of the wider range of public services delivered by others. 4. People and Processes – the realities of working in or for the public administration.
Humbled, says Singapore Civil Service head
After the release of the new index, Leo Yip, Head, Civil Service in Singapore expressed his joy.
“I am humbled that Singapore’s public administration has been well rated in this inaugural Index. Singapore is a small city state with no natural resources, so it is absolutely critical that we seek to have an effective governance system that optimises the development of our people, and create the best conditions possible for nation building and for growing a competitive economy,” Yip said.
“But ultimately the effectiveness of public administration is judged by not how we compare with one another, but how well we serve our own citizens, deal with challenges and opportunities facing our countries not just of today, but also tomorrow,” he added.
The Civil Service head also congratulated the Blavatnik School of Government for rolling out the index. “This is an important contribution to civil services who, unlike businesses, do not have the benefit of regular market signals that tell them whether their policies and services are adequately meeting demands and expectations, and where they fall short. This Index therefore focuses attention and sets out a useful framework on the qualities, capabilities and functions that civil services should seek to build,” Yip said.
While seven European countries featured in the top 10, the South Korea, in 15th position, was the second best Asian country after Singapore.
Methodology
As per the official document, a total of 36 sources were reviewed in-depth for inclusion in the Index, of which 17 were used to calculate the 2024 Index results.
The data used were collected from multilateral institutions, academic projects, and non-government researchers.
The source data was categorised into three different types:
Statistical data – either official statistics or administrative data from governments.
Assessment data – assessments of government policies and practices, either compiled by external experts or responses by government officials to surveys.
Opinion data – responses to rating exercises or opinion surveys by professional experts, or general perception surveys of business and the public at large.
In addition to these criteria, sources were also reviewed for their country coverage. In contrast to the previous InCiSE Index which covered 38 OECD/EU countries in its 2019 edition, the Blavatnik Index of Public Administration has sought from the outset to develop a more global coverage.
From these 17 sources, 82 metrics were identified for inclusion in the Index. After selection each metric was allocated to one of the 20 themes defined in the Index’s conceptual framework.
