Capacity development for civil service reform in Croatia

When it comes to reform to “New Public Management” (NPM), Croatia‟s need to deal with inherent challenges (Antwi and Analoui, 2010) is not unique. The major challenge for public administration has been to create the supporting mechanisms to cope with cultural and economic changes, and to implement public policies (Wilson, 1887; Taylor, 1911; Stoker, 2006). Prior to ascension to the European Union Croatia‟s need to strengthen the capacity of its civil service in order to support the creation of a politically neutral, professional and honest civil service to ensure the premises for real transformation in the public sector has been on the table (Analoui, 2009). Public sector reform is invariably related to the establishment of human resource departments and the capacity building (CB) of staff and management through human resource development programmes (Antwi and Analoui, 2010; O‟Flynn, 2007; Analoui, 2007).