How to improve ministerial effectiveness?

There are few studies on how ministers and other senior officials organize their daily work around the roles and duties that are part of their position. The challenges faced by these public leaders in Latin America are identified and based on data from a UNDP project focused on strengthening senior official capacities, interviews with ministers and members of their private cabinets and a thorough review of the academic literature on the subject. The paper argues that the distinctive quality of a minister and his/her effectiveness is associated with his/her ability to set the sectoral policy agenda and achieve outcomes through working with stakeholders. It concludes that transforming political priorities into operational mechanisms guiding their daily schedule and interaction with stakeholders is a key element. Without such alignment, both the daily agenda and all ministerial actions lose focus and are captured by several interests. In response to this, a methodological approach is suggested in order to integrate the strategic and operational dimensions in the first 100 days in office and to aim at avoiding falling into the trap of reactive management without focus.